Hi there! My name is Hailie Pennington and I am a second-year Education student at the University of Regina. I am currently enrolled in Secondary Education with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Chemistry. I am a very excitable person who loves to learn new things and very often gets hyperfocused on things that I find fun and engaging, for example, in certain video games I will spend many hours learning and trying to master the concepts of what is offered in-game, until a point where I burn out from it and have to take a very long break from it. While this may seem like a bad thing, I think it’s got some good to it, as I can truly know what I like and am interested in if I come back to certain things or don’t suffer from burnout from them. I just get really excited about new and interesting things! I am a relatively introverted person, who likes to read, play games, have fun, and spend time with my family and dog (his name is Cooper, the amount of pictures I take of him is ABSURD).

I grew up in a very technologically advanced household and so technology is not something foreign to me, however, the topic of educational technology is new. I really only knew about it when my mom would talk about how she was going to teach her class with some new and upcoming app/game (Minecraft being the specific example here). I only learned that it was something that could help teach students all sorts of things in their classes, math being one that I was intrigued by. I think the concept of using blogging or ePortfolios as a new way to apply for a job or as a resume is a very intriguing concept as well. While I am skeptical, I am open to the idea because, with the way technology and society are advancing, it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility. I don’t think anything is really ‘out of the realm of possibility at this point, just how long it will take to get there is really what I want to know. I think being able to open up the options to having an ePortfolio or looking at a professional Twitter will open up more opportunities to people who lack knowledge on resumes or specific professional ways of having connections in person. This will open up the opportunities to have connections via online discussions or opportunities for field experience based on someone’s full ePortfolio/Twitter. I am not good at keeping on track with blogging and blog posts, but I do think that it will be necessary for future endeavors so I will do my absolute best in learning now so that I can be at least a little bit ahead of the curve when the time does come. I will post more insightful opinions and foster discussions here and on my Twitter, so be sure to check both out!

I hope you have a great day/night wherever you are!