Laila Taylor

ITEC Portfolio Artifact Reflection

Standard 6.1 Continuous Learning:

Candidates demonstrate continual growth in knowledge and skills of current and
emerging technologies and apply them to improve personal productivity and professional
practice.
1. Briefly describe the artifact and the context in which it was created. What was/were
your individual contribution(s)?
I completed an Annotated Bibliography in ITEC 7470 over five Qualitative research
articles on Classroom blogs and discussion boards effectiveness for students. This
bibliography was the first step that I took when completing my Capstone Project. I used
these articles as background research and methods to implement in my own project. As
well as completing the annotated bibliography I attended several Ed Tech conferences
this year to improve my personal growth and professional knowledge. I went to the
Georgia Educational Tech Conference in Atlanta as well as the Google Summit
Conference this spring.

2. Explain how this artifact demonstrates mastery of the standard/element under which it
is placed.
This annotated bibliography provided me the opportunity to methodically analyze all five
articles and determine their significance in terms of my capstone project. I gave a brief
description of each article and the relevance to my project. I addressed the independent
variable and dependent variable as well as how the use of Qualitative research methods
were used in each article. When analyzing each article I also focused on the limitations
for each article. This project taught me the difference between qualitative and
quantitative research and how that applies to my capstone project. Learning from others
especially those who are credible resources provides growth and broadened my view
point on the possibilities of class blogs and discussion boards.
I attended the GaETC in November for three days where I was able to go to sessions
presenting the best Tech tools and educational strategies. This was an exciting
conference where I learned a tremendous amount. The sessions were fantastic and very
informative. The session that I enjoyed the most was Chris Craft and all things Google.
This really changed my perspective of google classroom and helped me to incorporate it

Laila Taylor

ITEC Portfolio Artifact Reflection

smoothly with strategies that I learned. Although I learned a lot from GaETC that
experience caused me to pursue the chance to attend the Google Summit conference in
March. I created another tech resource with resources and tools such as google cardboard
and hangout with instructions for teachers at my school to use in their classrooms as well.
The google summit conference provided me with several practical applications to use in
the classroom immediately following the conference.

3. What did you learn from completing this artifact? What would you do differently to
improve the quality of the artifact or the process involved in creating the artifact?

A few things that I learned from the conferences are:

Students are not fascinated by technology like adults are because they take it for
granted...they have always had it.

Children are digital citizens in the first hour of life; there is no need to teach
digital citizenship...we need to encourage them to be digital leaders

If you ask a question that can be searched and answered using Google, do not be
mad if they come back with the correct answer immediately...this is not creativity.

Activities that encourage creativity-Can leave this open or on a board

o

Worst Idea Ever

Things to put in a prison cake

Draw this

Completing the annotated bibliography gave me several strategies for implementing a

blog in class such as, developing a learning community in the class, establishing a
positive atmosphere where students feel safe to post, and making sure that students
understand the expectations for the blog so that they can see the value of the assignment.

Laila Taylor

ITEC Portfolio Artifact Reflection

The only thing different that I would do with the conferences is take better notes and
distribute the presenters presentations for the faculty at my school to view.

4. How did the work that went into creating the artifact impact school improvement,
faculty development, or student learning? How can the impact be assessed?
Sharing what I learned from the conferences and the impact of my student blog for my
students impacted several teachers at my school. I am a part of the tech committee at my
school and all of the other members were very excited to see the new tools that we could
use at no cost to the system.