The transformative power of technology has touched all aspects of teaching, learning, and curriculum. Social media allows teachers to communicate with students in ways that would have seemed like science fiction 20 years ago.
I wouldn’t know. I have been hiding with my head under a metaphorical and literal blanket for the last 15 years.
That is of course an exaggeration, but within the lie there is a grain of truth. My day starts the same way it always has, fumbling to stop the screeching alarm emanating from an old Sony alarm clock my grandmother got me when I was 14 years old (hey, it still works so why get a new one?). This sets in motion a routine that has remained relatively stable for as long as I remember: get up (curse my sore joints), exercise (curse my sore joints), and get to school (curse my sore joints).
And so begins my technologically rich teaching day with checking emails: the advanced features of Microsoft Outlook still elude me, but I managed to set up a digital signature a few months back so I am feeling pretty good about myself. Small victories such as these sustain me through the dark times. This is promptly followed by my first interactions with EDSBY, a “cloud-based software application that combines social networking with class and student management features” (according to Wikipedia). It is not quite the arch nemesis of my teaching day, instead it is more like a mid level boss. It’s design apes Facebook circa 2010 with the an incredible feature set that includes hiding useful functions like printing a class list behind 6 submenus and adding students to attendance rosters a full 24 hours after they first arrive in my room. It could be worse, at least I don’t have to send students messages via carrier pigeon.
As students arrive in the room I attempt to engage them in conversation. For most part they stare blankly into their smartphones, their faces illuminated by an eerie blue glow. I have made some headway recently and most respond with rudimentary grunts. My next interaction with technology is with my tablet computer. This is where I start to drag myself out of the early 20th century and firmly into the late 20th century. I have converted most of my notes to Microsoft Word documents which I project onto the whiteboard and edit using a stylus. The students love it because I draw too many cartoons when I should be teaching them how to solve quadratic equations, but the freedom it affords has been game changing allowing me to share notes with absent students and post them to a google classroom. My Google classroom is a repository of COVID era video lessons, notes, and YouTube links that served as my last bastion of teaching during the Pandemic. It is now relegated to helping students get caught up when they miss classes.
Speaking of YouTube it plays an integral role in explaining how mathematics gets used in the real world. Like all good teachers when I panic and can’t explain something myself I turn to smarter people who have done a better job of it.
My electronic interactions with students, parents and teachers is still mostly through the old fashioned medium of email. I don’t tweet, snap or use Instagram. Until I started this course I thought Discord was something that was sown amongst enemies in Arthurian legends. The instant messaging functions available through EDSBY have become increasingly popular amongst my students. They now have new electronic ways of asking me the same question that I answered 4 times during class. It’s neat.
Matthew, you have a way with words! Thank you for your very relatable (and humourous) description of your relationship with technology. I too turn to YouTube when my explanations seem to fall short, as I’m certain even the most capable and knowledgeable of educators do from time to time.
What strikes me from reading your post is that despite your remarks about perhaps not being savvy with the most recent platforms or devices, it is still evident how technology is, in some form, substantially interwoven into your day and your teaching.
I’m curious–do you consider your more “old-fashioned” mediums of communication and digital integration to be that much of a hindrance to the overall quality of education you provide to your students?
Christina I often find that the medium isn’t necessarily the most important thing when communicating with my students. What really matters to them is sincerity. When you reach out whether it be through social media, in person, or by any other means (Morse code? Signal Flares?) you are showing that you care. I think the time is rapidly coming where I will be forced to use more up to date tools simply because it will be the only way to meet them on their level where they are comfortable.
Thanks for the read. It definitely made me chuckle! Your comment about “students entering the classroom staring blankly into their smartphones, their faces illuminated by an eerie blue glow” sounds like something out of a science-fiction novel! But, judging by the way the last 2-3 years have been going, that assertion might not be so far off…
I like your blog post because I think it’s honest — we talk a lot in education about the sort of “holy grail” of technology but I think it’s also fair to admit that tech has come with its fair share of issues. What has unsettled me the most within my 5 years of teaching is just how attached students are to their phones. There have been many times when students are released for their break and the classroom is dead silent because every child — every single one of them — has picked up their phone and is scrolling through their social media feed. Students’ devices have now become a self-regulation tool. Social media has also constructed a very targeted and intricate web of addiction (have you ever watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix?) and is changing students’ literal brain functioning. I don’t want to sound like a crusty old person bemoaning the state of the future generation, but it is disconcerting to see some students’ dependency on their devices.
I am in that cross over generation (born in 1980), I remember living in a world without the internet and computers in every house, but was young enough when it started to emerge that I integrated more quickly.
My old sears alarm was replaced by an iphone in my twenties. I also still struggle at times and agree that Edsby could be so much better. I was assigned as a Edsby lead at the beginning of the year and always have that fear when someone comes to me for help (will I actually know the answer?).
I’m glad to see you were able to find a second use for your online lessons. While I have not re-uploaded my lessons, I have found that the techniques I used came in to play earlier in the year when I had a few students quarantined. A quick video conference lesson at the end of the day kept my students on track.
I find it interesting that we’re now at a point where you can call emails old fashioned. My students and parents also use the messaging function of Edsby, although it has created some issues when they treat it like usual email and send links to slideshows that I can’t open. Have you had any similar issues?
I also find it frustrating when they message me something I have already answered in class, posted about and uploaded. The benefit now is I can pull up the posted message when they tell me it wasn’t there.
Hi Mike – I have found that EDSBY isn’t the best for either delivering or receiving content. If I had my way (which sounds like the title of a country song) the file size limit would be greatly expanded. I have a bunch of teaching videos that I would like to upload, but because I do Martin Scorsese like one takes their file size exceed the 500MB maximum. We also suffered from an integration error with Google drive that took several months to fix. Students don’t trust EDSBY as much as they do Google classroom in my experience as we’ve had a lot of issues with corrupted files.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just like Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud, I’m not old enough to be this jaded. I’m sure I will learn the nuances of this program with enough time.
I too really enjoyed reading your post. I was intrigued right away from the title (as Katia said – make it good!). Although I am someone who seems to be much more into technology and social media than you, I echo your thoughts around the alarm clock. I am still using the same one since I was in high school which wakes me up every morning by playing whatever old music was on the Ipod Nano that sits permanently on the dock.
Edsby has definitely been a challenge to learn. There are just SO many things you can click on. I tend to still favor the use of emails for many things and I wish I did not have to use Edsby to communicate with parents. I find that many of my parents have not signed up and therefore aren’t even getting the reminders for due dates etc. I found I had better parent involvement when I used the Remind App in previous years.
Thank you for commenting Brittney! I have to admit that despite my gnashing of teeth and shaking my fist at the sky, I do enjoy technology and appreciate the role it plays in education. I think my big issue is that it seems to be the answer for everything. It’s like when I bought my new air fryer. I was frying things that god knows shouldn’t go in there. Broccoli? Air fry it. Perogies? Air fryer. Damp laundry? You know what comes next (that didn’t happen, but you get the picture). I think the human connection is sometimes what students need, and that is best when you are in person. That said I don’t know how I could live without the convenience of search engines again. Even in this degree I think back to my bachelor’s where I once waited 4 weeks for an article to arrive from the University of Calgary. It definitely has its upsides.
Matt your post is very witty, comical and mostly honest! If you reflect back 15 years (not quite as far as when you received your first alarm clock) the education world as shifted entirely! I catch myself telling students that when I was going to school report cards were a huge surprise, as you had no idea what your mark may be. Now there is Edsby where not only you can keep track of your own marks, but you can also stay in contact with parents, teachers and students. Although Edsby is not my favorite platform it is also not the worst.
There are two ideas I took away from your blog: turn to someone smarter (it is okay to not know everything and why not utilize what we have) and secondly, the use of technology and the glow of that blue light. In my opinion, you touched on both the positives and the somewhat negatives of technology. Sure it has its place, but at some point when those smartphones are like the removed masks on students faces when is it too much? I am a huge fan of technology (besides my job depends on it) I think in a sense it has allowed people to be in charge of their own learning as well as allowing people to extend their scope of knowledge.
I am curious in how you view “old” methods of learning vs. the “new” ways of educating. Do you find that the more technology that is added or different platforms the job somehow feels busier? I sometimes find it difficult keeping up with so many different platforms at play.
Brittney I think you hit the nail on the head about seeking help from my more tech savvy peers. I feel sometimes I get so caught up in my own little teaching world that when I emerge from it I’m like a vampire being exposed to sunlight. I think we speak a lot about collaboration in education, but since we usually don’t have another adult in the room we become isolated quickly.
With regard to your question at the end of your post I find one of the downsides of tech is that it allows administration, guidance, and colleagues to pile on extra work. Every morning I have a tidal wave of emails of people asking why I haven’t filled in a Google doc, or taken a survey, or voted for my favourite whatever it is. I remember hearing that technology was going to streamline and make our jobs easier, and to be fair in some respects it has (attendance, communicating student progress), but it has also made us too available. I think when you use to have to speak to colleagues face to face we realized that maybe our requests weren’t as urgent as they initially appeared to be (Matt seems to be breaking up a fight right now, maybe this isn’t the best time to have him fill in a job satisfaction/mental health survey).
I have always loved your honesty and humour Matt Fehr, sure takes me back to when we taught together. It’s amazing how well you describe, what I believe is, a typical day in life of an Regina Public School teacher and Edsby. For all the power it is touted to afford families, teachers, and schools it often creates frustration (and carpal tunnel I may add, holy mouse clicks Batman). Interestingly, our division has almost created an Edsby divide with how the software was rolled out. A here it is, learn it approach that has left some families and teachers scrambling to figure things out. Perhaps it mirrors the attitude of if I send a device home, it will improve learning? I know this is a stretch, more of a rant really, but further support for education to slow down and put supports in at all levels of education so the intended benefits of technology use are not lost because of an individuals inability to learn it on their own.
Okay, your honesty and humour are great. We need more of this when we are blogging. We too often take things too seriously and second guess everything that we are doing. Like Stephen talks about, I too wish that we maybe would have rolled out our EDSBY program a bit differently. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of say by each division (or so I understand) about what we were to use, and how to implement it. Unfortunately, there were a lot more things to work out than maybe originally anticipated. We didn’t do a great job of getting the community involved and on board, but hey, maybe that was also because of pandemic style teaching and the limitations that were placed upon us. Food for thought anyways. I guess the question now is how do we do better in the post-pandemic teaching world?