The end of the semester draws nigh, and it’s time to summarize what I learned about using educational technology to support student learning throughout our EDUC 431 course. As much as I try to think holistically these days, the fact remains that some part of me insists on atomizing and categorizing, so I’ve broken my learning down into five levels of application.
professional development
This course has made me aware of new avenues for furthering my own pedagogical and subject knowledge. In common, I am sure, with most educators I have used technology to further my own learning using the internet. I hadn’t made use of any profession-specific podcasts up to this point, so it was nice to learn what was out there in that regard. I came into the course with an understanding that twitter simplified and cheapened interpersonal exchanges, and that it was best left to people with eccentric and sometimes undesirable worldviews. I maintain that this initial impression is still partly correct, but can now see further opportunities. The layout of the twitter format is still not agreeable to me, but it does harbour a lot of valuable resources in the form of fellow educators willing to share. On a more metacognitive level, the computational thinking workshop presents a useful framework for understanding and structuring my own learning as well as that of my future students.
delivery
It was no revelation to hear that technology can help reach students who would not otherwise thrive; speech-to-text (and vice versa) software, voice transmitting / amplifying technology for hard of hearing learners, and other innovations are fairly familiar concepts at this point. As far as accessibility goes, online courses are far from a rarity and I took a couple myself this summer. For all my doubts about multi-access modality, however, Valerie Irvine’s presentation was a conceptual game-changer for me. The opportunities afforded by distance technologies to impoverished, isolated, or otherwise mobility limited learners represent a potential revolution in access to education, and this is a very good thing. I suspect it will be some years yet before the education profession settles into something resembling best practices for integrating such changes at the secondary classroom level, but the possibilities are exciting and bear thorough exploration. Used wisely, education technology can help craft learning experiences that are relevant to real life.
Computational thinking also falls under this heading. Far and away the most exciting new set of ideas I am bringing away from this course emerged from the presentation on computational thinking and coding across the curriculum. Algorithmic thinking and abstraction, among the other elements of computational thinking, are a great way of approaching problems of both the puzzle and trouble varieties. I plan to work on integrating this style of thinking into my practice and personal development.
content consumption
A distinction emerged in the course of the class between consuming and creating content, with favour typically falling more on the latter. Rightfully so, as true learning emerges from active doing rather than passive observation. That said, most learning in our school system requires the intake of some form of prerequisite knowledge, and a great many students are rather more invested in social media than in textbooks and educational videos. Given these circumstances, content created by students using technology and shared over the same medium presents an opportunity to get students consuming at least some edifying content. By enabling students to generate content using a wide selection of apps and other programs with which they may already be familiar, educational technology can make it more palatable for students to engage with and learn from the work of their peers. It’s a learning community, no reason all the teaching has to be done by the professional educator in the room.
content creation
Our presenters this term introduced us to a wide variety of apps, programs, platforms, and media that can be used for the creation of content by students. There would be little purpose from a reflective standpoint in simply reciting them all here, and I will confine myself to a few important highlights on the theme of content creation.
First, don’t overdo it. “Technology” is an extremely broad and diverse category with many beneficial applications in the classroom. That said, it’s not for everything and students still need some access to tactile experiences. Trying to integrate too much technology can also be a stressor for the teacher.
Second, feedback is key. One of the major benefits of technology in the classroom is the ease with which it can enable students to share their work with peers and teachers, and the ability to receive quick feedback from same. Feeback (aka formative assessment) is always an important part of learning, and technology makes it easier to give.
Third, there can be presentations without PowerPoint! I’m sure everyone knows this, but it was nice to get some taste of the many different alternatives from Sway to podcasts. This is an area I intend to explore as a possible vehicle for final summative tasks in my long practicum next year.
Fourth, what’s good for teachers is good for students. E-portfolios and product suites such as Office365 are a good way for professional educators and students alike to organize and reflect on their learning. A good way to form lifelong habits.
administration
I’ve used an online grading and record-keeping product in the past, and the product lines we learned about in EDUC 431 (FreshGrade, Spinndle, et cetera) were far superior to what I have experience with, and had the added benefit of building in grade sharing with students/guardians. There’s a lot out there that can improve class organization and sharing on the teacher’s end, and this too benefits students.
In conclusion
As I continue my journey to the expert end of the Dunning-Kruger spectrum, I find myself ending this course with an increased sense of just how much learning I still have to do with regard to the intersection of technology and education. In this, my awareness of educational technology is pretty much on par with my level of expertise in most other areas of teaching. Like everything else we teacher candidates learn in university, this course has been a start, an entryway, from which to explore further. There are more avenues to explore down than I previously knew.