#UWinDig

After looking through the Technologist Module that is offered through Ontario Extend, I am now reflecting on my own time as a student in elementary and secondary school. I do not remember too many classes which involved technology integration, mainly because there was very little access to technology (~10 years ago) and I feel like the teachers back then were afraid of integrating technology into the classroom because they themselves have not been exposed enough or possibly trained to effectively use it in the classroom yet. The older I grew, I noticed that more teachers were using technology in more classes. I believe that since technology has become more prominent in everyday life, this has also transitioned into the school setting.

Knowing that there are ways to inform educators on ways that they can use and integrate technology into the classroom while taking into consideration the challenges and struggles that some students are faced with, will help educators learn to better use the different technology platforms in effective ways to minimize the learning curve for all. The Technologist Module was a very easy to follow and simple walk-through of interactive ways to inform teachers how technology can be used to help students achieve and overcome challenges. I really liked how the module was divided into sections as it made all of the information very organized and was not overwhelming to take in. Each of the sections go into detail about the design thinking process which was effective to learn with the six steps that were provided: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, connect and test. In each of these sections, there were step-by-step guidelines as to how this can be implemented to improve technology use in the classroom. For this reason, I enjoyed the layout of the module as it included some examples for each section and allowed me to think for myself how I can see this being implemented into a classroom of my own. For example, PhET is an online lab simulation website that can allow students to explore labs that may not be feasible to conduct in the classroom. This would reduce the amount of challenges within a class since if a student for example misses class, they are able to catch up with an online simulation of the lab to gain their experience. I believe that the use of this module in educators will shift the technology in the classroom gap that still lingers, as teachers will be able to see how there can be more differentiated learning within the class, while there are times where non-technological teaching styles do not allow this. I hope that as a future educator I can continue to become more aware of the different technologies available to be used within the classroom and broaden the spectrum of ways that students can succeed.

For this multimedia reflection. I decided to do a Twitter essay which was different than the platforms I used for the previous two reflections (sketchnote and Piktochart). I found that the sketchnote gave me the more freedom in terms of creativity because I was able to crate anything that came to mind, while the Piktochart did have some limits in terms of designing, though it was nice because it carried a technological aspect which was easy to use and had images and templates available for use. I believe that the Twitter essay combines both a traditional, yet technological method of communicating my thoughts. I was able to create my Twitter essay using short tweets, the same way I would write my thoughts out in a notebook with a pencil, however the Twitter essay incorporated the technology aspect by allowing GIFs and other images to be added. The Twitter essay could also be bound together in a Twitter thread so that those who were not able to see my tweets being posted live can retrace the “essay” with ease. The essay is also available for anyone to view, repost, and comment on, which allows for a many-to-many communication to take place. Including the hashtag #OntarioExtend and #UWinDig also allows users who are looking for specifically related tweets to search and find my tweets upon the return search. One thing that I struggled with was that Twitter has a character count which restricted what I wanted to say. Due to this, I was either forced to break my tweet into two parts or shorten my tweet to fit the character count.

Have a look at it! Hope you enjoy!!

The technologist module outlines a very strategic way for educators to present technology within the classroom in useful ways to encourage students to learn and present their work in unique ways! #OntarioExtend #UWinDig pic.twitter.com/WCwnINWZa2

— Ms. Tieu (@_Ms_Tieu) February 21, 2019

Hi Everyone! For this multimedia reflection, I have decided to base it on the article “Teaching in a Participatory Digital World” by Michele Jacobsen. The article discusses educators having the duty to incorporate technology within their classrooms, which I think is a big change from traditional education. Teachers are so used to the “pen and paper” teaching method that some are afraid of branching out and learning more about the technological world.  Jacobsen’s article mentions that teachers are often hesitant to branch out and learn technology as it can seem intimidating as there is so much out there to learn, though because of the variety, the possibilities are endless. Once educators are comfortable with navigating through the digital world, they will be able to see the benefits that simply the pen and paper method cannot provide. It is important that teachers gain the knowledge and confidence to incorporate technology into the classroom so that students are able to build upon this. Though technology is definitely an asset to teaching and learning, it must be done effectively to become useful.

Students generally learn their knowledge from their teachers, so the more professional learning and engagement that teachers make to enhance their skills in the digital world, the more the students will benefit. When discovering new methods and tools to make learning of technology less confusing and stressful, teachers should always remember that their job is to guide the students to utilize technology in a beneficial way, rather then for the sake of including it. Both the educator and teacher should be responsible for helping each other out in gathering new knowledge and applying it to real-world applications. This process takes time, but the results are defining.

When reading Jacobsen’s article, I strongly agreed when the point regarding how participatory learning is interactive and requires the support from administration. I do think that this is a valid point as the use of technology only goes as far as the help and resources are available. Personally, I found that in my grade school, technology was almost non-existent. My school was equipped with the technology, but as most of my teachers were afraid to try out something new, or that it would “ruin” a way of teaching they were so used to for years, this lead to the students not being able to have the experiences handing technology in the classroom. Many teachers also found that they did not want to ask for help because it made them feel embarrassed that they were nowhere near experts at handling technology. When Jacobsen mentions administration support, I do think that this is where the participatory learning stems from. The more tools and resources that teachers are provided with, the smaller the learning curve is for them. The support for teachers to be encouraged to educate themselves and use technology in the classroom will only help students greatly in the future.

I found that as I got into high school, the reverse effect occurred. There was a lot of teachers who were digital literate and seemed to be very confident in learning more about how to integrate technology into the classroom, and they were able to openly help other teachers who were still experiencing a learning curve. This reminds me of the article stating that there needs to be a push in school administration to encourage the teachers to access resources and tools, though looking back at my high school experiences, it was the teachers themselves who used the resources and tools to enhance their skills for the classroom and they were very aware that there was a gap between teachers that were digital literate and those who were still learning. I think this aspect really allowed the teachers to benefit from feeding ideas and skills off of each other, therefore creating an environment where the majority of the school was on the same page in terms of technology integration.

Before engaging in the article, I did not ever think to look back about what my experiences were like in grade school or high school in regards to the integration of technology in the classroom. now that I have been able to reflect upon this, I think I have a better understanding of how important it is to have a strong foundation from the school administration and the availability of resources and tools for teachers to use. My high school environment I would say is an ideal environment to describe how technology should be integrated. The teachers are very motivated and willing to learn, and as the article mentions that this aspect does not occur overnight, the results are overall positive in the end. On the other hand, I can understand why some of the teachers in my past have chosen not to integrate technology, either because they were not used to it, were afraid of learning it, etc. but it does not have to be this way. Now that we are aware of the technologies available, we as educators can help each other out.

After reading the article, I feel that I now have a better understanding of how much it means for a school’s feedback and encouragement makes for teachers in general. The more emphasis that the school and administrators give on technology integrating is what allows teachers to become more educated about what they are getting themselves into, and being able to play around and see what they like most and what aspects they still would like help in. I think that teachers would value more days where they are introduced with all the available technology and have opportunities to explore them with their colleagues. It would be a nice idea to allow teachers to try things out and hear feedback from each other on ways they can see themselves integrating something into their classroom.

For this multimedia reflection, I have decided to use Piktochart to create my infographic. I found that it was easier for me to use a blank sheet rather than choosing an existing template as those did not offer much leeway in terms of altering the layout. I had in mind a school style setting to display my thoughts. Using the chalkboards, I decided to put the key points of the article which I found were most important inside these chalkboards. As the article discusses digital technology in the 21st century, I found that including a question in the “search bar” would represent how teachers are curious of the ways in which they can learn about technology and integrate it into their classroom. Often times, teachers may turn to the Internet as resources if the school’s administration lacks this component. Due to this, I decided to create a chain link to display how the school’s jurisdiction is related to the students. If one of the key components (either school jurisdiction, principals, or teachers) are lacking, this will break the chain and students will not have the full potential of technology learning in the classroom. I also think that it is important for teachers themselves to have some guidance in learning how to integrate technology, starting off slow by getting used to having technology in the classroom is an easy start, but having ample resources and tools readily available all around will make this transition easier. The bus and globe represent a change in the education. As the content of education may not be changing, the ways in which they are presented will. As educators, we must not “fall behind” on the bus because others around us will be getting ahead with integration of technology which is changing as we speak. In terms of the digital world’s needs today, I made an acronym to easily remember the key aspects that are involved: SALT (school, assessment, learning, teaching).

Overall, I enjoyed creating the Piktochart and thought that it gave me some hands on experience with using a different technological medium that I have never been exposed to before. From this, I think I am now more comfortable and open to trying other mediums in the future. The only thing that I found hard to use about this program was resizing. I found that the program is not very user-friendly when trying to resize a text box or graphic as it would change to the desired size, and then revert to the original.

Based on the article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Ashley Hinck, I have decided to create a sketchnote to portray my thoughts. In the sketchnote, I focused on the human brain being the center and key image of the sketchnote. This is to display that our minds have a lot going on and sometimes it is difficult for students to take in so much information at once and try to filter out the important stuff. As educators, there should be no “standardized” practice, therefore students should be able to be provided with more opportunities where they are able to be “creators, makers, and speakers” through the process of trying something new and failing. This will allow the students to become more confident and think outside the box, rather than being afraid and experiencing the “not-yetness” feelings of not being ready. Students are faced with a lot of pressure to create pieces of work that are what they deem to be “correct” or what is advised by the teacher. In my sketchnote, the brain is in the center of the page and embraces a bright outlook of being a maker, creator and speaker, yet there are a lot of other things going on along the sides of the page and this is to represent all of the other distractions that students are sidetracked with, since they are aware of what is “correct” or would be approved, but need to also realize that individuality in one’s work is essential. I have decided to use emojis in my sketchnote as well because I thought of them as an analogy to students being robots. The quotes that are written along with the girl emoji are common phrases that students would be likely to express, which depicts uniformity and lack of an open-mind. Every student should be able to express their own creativity in the medium of their choice. Students should be able to explore technologies without having the teachers or their own level of comfort hold them back from trying out something new. Without doing this, students will always have the fear of not being right or constantly be searching for only the “correct” answers or ways of approaching something, rather than exploring another approach. It is important to let students know that doing something different is okay, and that limiting one’s self takes away the beauty in individuality which is what I tried to depict in my sketchnote. As an educator, in my own practice, I will try to explore this aspect of allowing students to be creators and explore new pathways of learning and creation, and I think that an effective way to do this is by practice. Showing students myself, different ways of approaching how to learn something in several ways will potentially allow students themselves to break out of their comfort zones and know that it is okay to try. I will also emphasize the process of trying and failing being apart of the learning process by demonstrating this in the classroom as well. In technology, not everything works the first time, and showing students that there are alternatives to a solution will show them that problem solving and not giving up is the key to finding a solution. Overall, using digital media should be a learning process for the students as well as the educators, and it should be a continual process that would benefit both parties in the long run. Don’t be afraid to try something new!

I am noticing that my sketchnote is also blurry as I try to resize it bigger, so click here for a link to the larger version. Enjoy!