Digital Technology Reflection 

There were so many exciting things that we have learned this semester. My top 3 activities were the podcast, creating comic strips, and the blog readers. Getting to work with Lakursha was the highlight of this class for me. This is one reason the podcast was one of my favorite assignments. The comic strip creators were so fun to use and I could immediately see how I would implement it into the library as well as provide so new learning for my teachers. The blog readers were eye-opening. I always love reading blogs but keeping up with all the different ones proved overwhelming. Now I have an easy way to organize all the blogs that I enjoy and can also easily see what I have read. 

The two modules that were the most difficult for me were the infographic and YouTube, Animoto, and QR Codes.  The infographic was something that I had never done before. It also took me a while to figure out the best way to represent the information I had gleaned from the article. I could see if I collected the information myself I might better know how I would like to present it through an infographic. The Animoto module was difficult for me because I had a hard time editing some of the pages. The way it was formatted made it difficult to edit the text the way I wanted. I think that if I spent more time with the program I might be able to find ways around the challenges. 

The module I think that will benefit my students the most was the learning we did on Universal Design for Learning. The more students that are able to access the curriculum we are providing in the library the more learning that can occur. It also made me more aware of where I need to put more thought and intentionality into my planning. I had an experience today with a student where I could not help them find the book they were looking for because of a speech communication disorder. If I would have had more access to assistive technology I might have had the tools I needed to better help the student. 

In the article that Dr. Gross shared the thing that spoke to me the most was the part about shunning the technology afraid. I have seen that done in PD with teachers. Everyone knows the teacher that will need lots of help or have lots of questions and everyone avoids them or just does it for them. This does not make them less afraid of using technology. When we are providing PD on technology as a librarian we will do well to remember this and try to help bridge the gap.