Being an online student, as well as a Gen Z person, the amount of technological tools I use seems, at least to me, oddly limited. I am in a way very old-fashioned in my organization. I prefer to handwrite to-do lists and have a physical paper copy of textbooks I can highlight in, as well as just overall despise having to sit at my computer, or god forbid, use my printer (the devil). I use social media as a tool in a lot of ways. Working with so many children and families across Saskatchewan, sometimes social media stalking has been a lifesaver in putting faces to names or just overall snooping, this was especially handy when I worked in Social Services. Evidently, I use Google Docs email and URCourses, but I feel as though my toolbox is very empty.
Being ADHD, productivity is a word that sends shivers down my spine and is also something I, as a rule, avoid. Apps that help me to be more productive, involve me being productive enough to 1.) have researched, signed up, and downloaded the app, and 2.) use it afterward. Needless to say, I rarely make it even halfway through step one, mostly knowing that It will in the end be pointless as I will never use the app. The ones I do use that I find to be very handy are mainly websites I can access whenever the need arises, not ones that I have to input data into or listen to giving me alerts that my screen time is double what my goal was.
The websites I frequent are things like Reddit, Canva, Teachers Pay Teachers, Chat GBT, and Zoom, among others. Reddit I probably use the most just for building my knowledge base. People joke that Reddit is the best place for information, as one person may not be an expert on the best leather belt, how to stain an old oak coffee table, or what easter eggs are hiding in whatever random movie that you watched, but on Reddit, there is always at least one person who knows absolutely everything about it, sometimes there are way more than one, and they are all arguing in the comments. Then all of a sudden you are also an expert on leather belts and staining old coffee tables and have an array of knowledge that would have originally taken you years of research of experience to know. Reddit also provides communities for a great variety of people. To educators specifically, there are three large communities r/Teachers, r/teaching, and r/CanadianTeachers. You are able to connect with a variety of other people and have access to hundreds of thousands of other people of similar interest for advice, resource recommendations, as well as support.
Distractions are everywhere in my life it seems. My dogs are barking, there are dirty dishes in the sink, I forgot to switch the laundry, I need to pee, I need a drink, I need a snack, I need my room clean this very moment, I got a phone call, I got a text, I want to shower, I want my slippers. Using technology to be productive is such an oxymoron in my mind. My phone and computer are used for distractions, how could I use them for productivity? Productivity SUCKS. I don’t want to be productive. The only time my mindset changes is when I get away from technology. Again, I am ADHD, so the tools I use are probably drastic compared to a neurotypical person’s toolbox, but the best options for myself are to disconnect. So, I have many tools for varying purposes online, but productivity for me only happens offline.