By far one most the best experiences that I had in the instructional technology

was getting the online teaching endorsement. The most productive learning
experience was the ITEC 7482 Components of Online Teaching Portfolio that was to
be done with one of my classes. In this portfolio, I created several artifacts (almost
30) that were to be put on a online learning tool such as Weebly, wiki, or Edmodo. I
chose Edmodo since the students were already familiar with that. This lesson was a
blended unit that had the students doing several assignments at home and online.
These assignments included online discussions, online peer editing and feedback,
online projects, online caf that allowed for questions and answers, lastly the
students turned in assignments in this lesson. The portfolio had the lesson plans,
the discussion posts, online quizzes, alerts, a parent teacher communication tool,
syllabus and more a lot more. I was getting to experience what my professors had
to do for their online classes.
Online learning is not for everyone. In most cases, its a choice. However, my
6 grade (gifted) students all participated in an online learning experience when the
online teaching portfolio became live on my Edmodo and my classroom now was a
blended classroom. The students work became more challenging when higher
order thinking skills, processes, and mental habits of mind were being used
in a new atmosphere. How? It was being challenged because they had to use tools
that were knew that allowed the students to use higher level blooms taxonomy with
analyzing literature online and creating artifacts using text support. In 6 th grade this
is higher level thinking based on Blooms. The assignments were more challenging
yes, but also the responsibility of completing assignments online at such as young
age was also higher mental habits that were being built. I modeled and
facilitated by creating screencasts on how everything worked on Edmodo and soon
the students were on their own and learning independently but that the same time
together when it was time to discuss the work.
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The most important take away from this portfolio and online teaching
experience was that I really enjoyed it. I think I could see myself doing an online
class part time since I still enjoy the face to face classes right now in my career. I
learned that in an online class there is so, so much pre planning. Almost everything
needs to be created prior to the students started and organization and a calendar is
a most! I think next time, I would be less wordy on my calendar of assignments.
Just basic information there and explain details as they are being developed by the
students.
I think this lesson improved both school improvement and student learning.
School improvement- Its innovating to have a traditional middle school (6 th grade
to be exact) to have a blended unit where the students are doing a majority of the
lessons online. The Student learned was evident through the quality work that they
turned in and the collaboration that took place while they are working on
discussions post or answers each others questions about the assignment. The more
the students interacted with one another online, the more they got into the

assignment and I became a facilitator that just monitored their progress and
answered questions that the other students could not answer. It was very higher
level learning for 6th grade.