If we agree or not, let’s face it technology is becoming the new era of our classrooms and schools.  Technology definitely has it perks and is a wonderful tool for educators to use, but how can we teach our students to use it purposely in our classrooms?

In Ohler’s article he questions if technology should completely taken out of our classrooms and become an out of school thing only.  I do not agree with this-if we take it ban it completely the “want” to be on technology will take over children’s lives when they aren’t in school.  I do think that this needs to be a collective understanding between school, student and families-we all have a responsibility when it comes to technology.  Education and rules cannot only be set at school, parents need to do their part also to reinforce expectations.  Open and honest communication is key, doing so will help students realize that they also need to be honest in what they are doing on technology instead of hiding their online activity.

I think there are many strategies we can use in relation to the nine elements of digital citizenship in our classrooms.  I believe that every student should have the same opportunity to have technology in the classroom, as long as they can handle it.   Some students really struggle with getting off of their iPad when “tech time” is over, this can then create undesired behaviours.  I think that this when I would use a plan in my classroom so that both the student and staff know what the expectation of tech time is and what will happen if it continues.  It is important to have both parties a part of this plan so that both students and teachers can have a say in the plan and agree on it together.

I really agree with Jurgenson when he talks how people are too connected to the “computer” in their pocket.  I have been trying really hard to get better at not feeling like I need to be on my phone the minute there isn’t something going on, an example waiting at a Dr.’s office or standing in line at the grocery store.  This has proven to be a difficult task as I have been so accustomed to having the world at my fingertips.  If you look around a restaurant the next time you go out, how many people do you see on their phone?  If you see me there I can guarantee that I am on mine-guilty as charged.  We are losing the act of conversation with our family and friends.  How does this relate to our classroom?  We need to set the example in our classrooms, we need to stay off our devices during our school day-our students are watching us and they will follow along if we are proactive and monitor our own tech use.

Technology can be extremely useful in our classrooms to share resources and mixed work.  We can set up safe and proper programs online  to share missed assignments and notes for our students, such as Microsoft teams or google classrooms.  Parents can also be added to these platforms and we can all work together to ensure we use these programs effectively and properly.

My biggest concern with an excess of tech time is the psychological effects that it has on both us as educators and students.  Personally my son turns into a nightmare if he spends too much time on his devices, his listening skills lessen and he seems to be completely dazed.  I feel like there are many other children like that out there and this can lead to other academic and social concerns in our classrooms.   I think there can be a happy medium if we educate students on safe technology use.

I look forward to using all the wonderful apps and online platforms within my classroom.  My hope is to create a digital citizenship agreement that would be signed by all involved parties: parents, students and staff to create an open technology relationship.  I also hope that I am able to properly educate students so that they learn how to have an effective “combined technology world, not two separate worlds”.  Technology isn’t going anywhere-in fact its blowing up in this new era and we need to jump on the train and help our children be safe and responsible citizens.

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Embrace it-technology isn’t going anywhere! I remember when the internet was first being released and the excitement that the dial tone of dial up internet caused.  It was opening a whole new world to me, we could search things up and what’s this new email thing? You mean I can send letters and messages to friends without handwriting them and mailing them?!?  I remember when we got our first bag cell phone for our car, to only be used in emergency situations and how excited I was when the big Nokia handheld phone came out.  The next big excitement was getting a flip phone and with that came this new thing called text messaging? No more having to make phone calls, right on, I got really fast at T9 texting.  Then my 7 year old daughter came home from school and at the top of her Christmas list was an “ear pod” because all of the kids on the bus had them and she could listen to music and be like them.  I thought what else can come along and low and behold out came Hi5, Facebook, the Blackberry and now the iPhone.  I never thought I would have all the information of the world in the palm of my hand, but the iPhone brought just that.

I honestly don’t remember the Numa Numa dance craze, but I do remember some that have happened later.  I remember the Gangman Style, and in more recent years Fancy Like. I do love seeing these crazes and how it brings people together on social media.  Social media has become such a giant in our world.  I was hit pretty hard in class when Katia said that sharing your ultraspound picture in a baby announcement means your child has a digital footprint before they are even born…I did just that with my son.  I have continued to share our life on social media as a means of our family being able to keep up with us.  But I am beginning to see how much time I spend on facebook and Instagram and how much time it has taken out of my everyday life.  I have not entered the Tik Tok craze as I know that it will be a dark hole for me so I have decided to stay off.

I see so many benefits of technology in the classroom.  I like that students can have iPads and laptops to look up information, watch how to videos and do their schoolwork on, my fear is that the more that we use these things we begin to lessen our developmental skills like reading and printing/writing.  I do think its wonderful to use these devices for communication devices for non verbal students and the read back option and talk to text so students who struggle in these areas can continue to be successful in the classroom.  At home my son turns into a different child when he has spent too much time on technology so we limit his time often, I feel like this isn’t just a problem in my home, I think this is part of the behavioral issues that we see.  This is one of the fears I have for technology in the classroom, I think that it has to be monitored and in small doses.  At work I often see that the end of iPad activity time leads to more behaviors as they do not want to get off.

With COVID we saw how technology really pulled us through in the education world.  It was a huge learning curve for teachers and parents as online options became the education platform for all students.  Online school is a huge positive for me, with the creation of more online classes it made the reality of me finishing my degree finally more attainable.  I think this has been huge for many people besides myself.  I look forward to what’s to come in this department.

I think schools are getting better at controlling cell phone use in the classroom, especially with the new policy in place.  My daughter is in grade 12 and told me she wasn’t going to go to school if she couldn’t have her phone-these children truly are addicted.  I am looking forward to exploring technology resources for my own classroom and finding what works for me and what doesn’t.  Technology doesn’t seem to be slowing down so I might as well jump on the train and enjoy the ride.

This is an interesting topic for me to reflect on, as this is a daily discussion in our house.  Living in a world or pre teen and teenagers there is always conversations about how much time they are on their devices…but to be honest I never relate it to how much I am on mine.  Reality is my phone is with me at all hours of the day and night, it has become my lifeline.  If I don’t have my phone at an accessible reach then I am wearing my apple watch so that I feel like you can get ahold of me whenever you need to.  I never felt that I needed to be able to be reached at all times until I got my first iPhone, oh the things I could do on here that I couldn’t do on my old flip phone or blackberry.  Since getting my first iPhone, my digital camera has long been forgotten, it is so much easier to pull my phone out and capture every moment that I want to.

When I look at my daily tech life, it’s actually astonishing how much I use it in my everyday life.  Now that I have returned to school I spend countless of hours on my laptop each week, and it has opened a whole new world of possibility for me as many classes can be done online and cut down on the amount I would have to drive to return to university.  It took a whole lot of stress off of me knowing that I could now do 95% of my degree online-it was now feasible as working mom to finally finish my degree.  If I look at how much time I spend on Facebook and Instagram, it’s embarrassing to admit how many hours I waste on both of these apps, most of the time I am irritated and annoyed by the time I’m done-this in itself should be a reason to cut back, but what do I do instead, I mute those people so there feed isn’t constantly on mine.  I do use Snapchat intermitedly, more so I can watch where my kids are on their maps, which I do admit that if I was a kid that would make me crazy!!

During COVID times and at home learning as a family we really started using more educational apps.  I worked in the school system as an EA so I had to learn how these apps all worked on the teacher side, which again I am not super techy so I had to learn the backside of these apps as well as the student side to help my kids get through this process.  We used Seesaw and  Microsoft Teams on a daily basis to complete school work and communicate with teachers and students.  I also learned how to use Boom Cards as an extra fun learning tool with students.  Right now the app that I use for my children in school is Edsby.  I find this app super useful as a parent, I like that I can pre set attendance when I know my child will miss school and I am able to keep track of their grades as often as I want.  I feel like this is one of the best educational apps that we have been given to use.

There are many apps that we use to keep our family organized.  The main one we use is Timetree, this is a calendar app, I am able to color code each of our family members and they an also be added so that everyone knows where everyone is supposed to be, it has became such a handy tool for our busy family.  We also use TeamLinkt and TeamSnap for extra curricular schedules, this can also be downloaded on multiple family devices, I do prefer Teamsnap over TeamLinkt it is far easier to navigate as a coach and parent.

I took a half time leave from my job this fall to do schoolwork in the afternoons when my kids are in school, I am finding that I often get distracted by my phone, mostly playing yatzee and randomly scrolling social media.  I then find myself opening my laptop once my kids go to bed and I am up until late everyday, which turns into a vicious circle of being tired everyday, so this is something I need to work at and get better at putting my phone down and buckling down.  One app that I have not downloaded is TikTok, I know that this app will consume massive amounts of my time and therefore I have stayed clear of it, trying to not get into the dreaded dark TikTok hole.

Technology definitely has its time and place and it has made our lives better in many ways, but I for one need to do better at putting it down and enjoying the things in life more.

Hi everyone!

My name is Angela Fahlman and I am currently in my 2nd year of the K-5 elementary program. I have always wanted to work with children and had my heart set on becoming a teacher, but another four years of school and a student loan at the end intimidated me so looked at alternate options. I still went to school right after high school, but I started off in Addictions Counselling and then I transferred into the Educational Transliterator program (sign language interpreter in classrooms).   I returned to classes in 2019 and after a full year of classes I decided that I couldn’t fully dedicate the time I needed to complete my degree as my children were all quite young still, and we live in small town Saskatchewan so I had to commute multiple days a week.  I have continued to work in the education field as an educational assistant as my children grew up.  My dream of becoming a teacher has never gone away and I often felt like it was too far out of reach.  As the time went on I decided that it was time to follow my dream and get this degree under my belt, so I have readmitted into the program and I am ready to take it on.

I decided to take EDTC because I am not very tech savvy.   I find that this course is a bit intimidating, but I am excited to learn some new tricks and get a bit more accustomed to using new programs.  Through COVID and online learning I had to learn how to use Microsoft teams and SeeSaw to stay connected with students.  This was a HUGE learning curve for me as they were both new programs to me, I had helped students post personal items on SeeSaw, but I had never worked on the backside of it before this time.  I am continually blown away by the educational apps and programs that become available for classrooms.  It is wonderful to have all these resources at the tip of our fingertips.

I am excited about blogging itself, but  I am/was very imitated by the process of setting up the blog itself.  It took me a few tries and some frustration to get things looking the way I wanted them to and to ensure that I had everything set up, but I kept going and I am happy with the way that it has turned out so far.  I look forward to checking out your guys’ blogs and maybe even learn a few things from you as well.