Every time I dust this blog off for a new class I usually get the opportunity to flex that I’m younger than everyone, but as this program drags on (in a good way) this is starting to be less of the case. However, I can safely say I am one of the newer teachers, only being in my 4th year of teaching. I graduated with my undergrad in 2021 and have been teaching since. As a result, I have been teaching entirely in the technology age. I went to school in the technology age, albeit a little more, dare I say, dated than what it was before.
(what my home monitor looked like in 2001)
I teach in the high school setting and, based on the definitions, I would definitely fall under the category of a teacher that uses blended learning. In my courses we are very regularly using different forms of technologies to aid and enhance our learnings. At my current school we have laptops that we can book out. When we do inquiry projects the students use them for resources and to make different multimedia projects to showcases what they have learned. I use visual aids to reinforce what we are learning, as well as different videos to help further our ideas or to provide practical examples.
(what my students use on the regular)
Just do do my own jobs behind the scenes I have to utilize technology to get things done. I have to track attendance in my EDSBY. I have to utilize EDSBY as platform where I post key information, resources, students missed, assignments, etc for students to be able to access at anytime and from anywhere, as long as they have an electronic device with WIFI. We mainly communicate as a staff via email too. Lastly, we don’t really have many in-print resources anymore. I typically have to make mine digitally or find them digitally. I then print them off from one of our fancy printers. Without technology, many of the different facets of my job become extremely difficult and painful.
(Edsby has grown on me)
This example has probably been used a lot during recent classes, but I sometimes find it more difficult to do my job the “old-fashioned way”. When Regina public schools experienced a hack 3 years ago many of us had to move away from technology and figure out how to do things the old school way. I was certainly uncomfortable with this because all I had ever known was technology. It lead me to think of what is really more creative- using technology or not? I had to come up with ideas for things that I never would have considered before. Both of course have their pros and cons, but the selfishness in me wants me to stay in my comfortable technology bubble. Of course knowing how to navigate without technology is vital for all of life and my VAP (Vocational Academic Program) kids I teach get mad at me when I make them do all our math without a calculator. I definitely feel that same way without technology, so maybe I need to start looking at my own practicality.
My use of technology does change depending on the subject matter I teach. I normally teach Physical Education. When I’m in the gymnasium setting I might use music, but besides that there really isn’t many forms of technology for the students to interact with, minus more primitive technology like implements. When we went online for a bit a did have to teach Phys Ed remotely and that was certainly not as fun for me or the students. I had to design workout plans/trackers for the students to fill out and submit. I provided videos for students to see skills and then they had to try and emulate them on their own. Some sent me videos back so I could see how they were progressing. Some didn’t have basic equipment, like a ball, so many things became about learning to move and control their own bodies. Like I said, it wasn’t the most fun of times, but this version of blended learning did allow for my students to have some form of physical education in a locked down world.
Lastly, during my university years I took full advantage of technology and so did my professors. From the various online classes to using URcourses. As mentioned earlier, I pretty much grew up entirely with technology and experienced school with technology. This makes me very comfortable with utilizing it in my current role, but I can’t help but wonder what the future of technology will look like as I get older. How many different things am I not going to understand and what things will I be too stubborn to give up?