Reflective Blog #8

My initial philosophy was based on the experience of being a software trainer for the past 4 years. The class has broadened my concept of what my job entails.  My class projects have reflected what I do day by day in my current job. As the manager of my work group, I have the task of being forward thinking. I’m lucky to work with other technology trainers who have experience and are forward thinking also. We work in a true team environment and I have found some tools we can use to enhance our department such as blogs and wikis.  We are always striving to become more efficient and better serve our districts employees.

As a result of this and other classes I have been taking in the department, I have been improving our software classes. I think one aha moment for me was to provide examples of the kind of files and scenarios the employees are exposed to in their jobs. Historically our department has purchased prepared tutorials on Microsoft Office that were based on a business model.  Our department is in the process of replacing those examples with ones from education. Another improvement is the addition of relevant practice activities after all trainings. In the past we only had practice activities for select classes. We are also in the process of developing distance professional development training for our employees. Many of the technologies in the class will be helpful when developing those training classes. The class also reminded me to always challenge our students to use those higher level thinking skills described in Bloom’s Taxonomy.