#UWinDig

While looking at the Ontario Extend website, specifically the Technologist Module page, my initial thought and reaction was “ou, Twitter essay!” But since I have already done two, ironically, I stepped away from technology use to talk about the incorporation of tech into the classroom.

 I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do a sketchnote, although I’m no art major like our fabulous Paige Godin, I did my best! I chose to use a whiteboard because as educators, these are our canvases. Now, to get down and dirty, while looking at this module, the scenario at hand was that Terry wanted to incorporate tech in a way to benefit his learners.

Looking at the overview of the module, the objectives are to reflect on our won digital literacies for teaching, learn to address student-centered challenges with tech, find new tools for teaching and learning and to create learning activities using a design-thinking approach with tech.

 Looking at the first of the five-step approach, as an educator, you must empathize with your students and understand what the need is from your students. You can do this by gathering info through evaluations, feedback, and/or other communications. This information can be put into an empathy map.

 The second step of design-thinking approach is to define. To identify the problem of your learner(s). You’re more likely to find success if you start small rather than big. A good learner challenge frames the challenge, inspires, provides evaluation, captures the mind of users, and meets the needs of the majority of your people. You’ll never be able to 100% please everyone involved. Use the empathy map to define your learner challenge or find patterns.

Step 3 and 4 consist of ideate and prototype. Ideate where you plan and build the features and characteristics of how technology could address your learner challenge. The best way is to ask yourself “how might I?”. Try mind mapping using the Learner Challenge Mindmap Doc or Mindmeister, MindMup, Coggle, Canva, Padlet, Prezi or even use pen and paper.

Prototype involves putting small tangible creations in front of your users rather than talking about abstract ideas. Results in much richer feedback. The basic steps design, share, refine.

The last step is to connect. Connect to the curriculum and indicate how the different elements fit together and link the activity to your learning outcomes.  

After reviewing Tackling tech: How some Ontario teachers are attempting to limit students’ cellphone use by Nadine Yousif I thought back to my times as a student in the classroom at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels and saw a strong connection and correlation to my memories and this article. Matthew Acheson, a high school teacher in Kitchener, ON at St. Mary’s has seen how distracted his students are from their cellphones. In a way to fight the distraction, he used a phone pouch that blocks wifi and social media apps, and the students can’t open the pouches unless he unlocks them. Mr Acheson found positive results with these pouches. 

After reflecting about distraction in the classroom via cellphones and laptops during my time as a student, I realized that the issues I observed during university lectures are trickling down into the high school and elementary school levels.

After being in placement at both levels, I find that as the years go on and our technology makes strides forward, the age of those with cell phones at school is drastically getting younger and younger. A number of my students in grades 5 and 6 had their own cell phones… Back in my time, it was almost unheard of. I personally didn’t get my first cell phone until grade 8 graduation.

As much as these devices are a distraction, they have a multitude of benefits. Technology, when used properly can help enrich classes and learning. However, the problem stems with those who have little to no self-regulation. 

The article mentioned an alternative pouch that Marcel O’Gorman, the individual who runs the Critical Media Lab at the University of Waterloo, used and enclosed the pouches with velcro, making it impossible for the students to get their phones without making a distraction and having all eyes on them. This method at least tackles and improves the notion of self-regulation to students.

Personally, I am not against technology in the classroom. But as an educator, I’m going to ask my students to partake in the use of technology and using pen & paper, allowing them to have exposure to both worlds and get experience for their digital literacy and fine motor skils.

After partaking in a Twitter chat around #unboundeq, my fondness for this application took over. It is a great medium to express yourself, convey information & messages and interact with followers & those interested in the hashtag.

Throughout the blog there are a few screenshots from my Twitter thread, and a link to the thread can be found here: https://twitter.com/guchimane1/status/1056342532039327745

At the rate our technology seems to move forward, fighting this issue is a tough battle. Some even say “they’re fighting a losing battle” (Mr Acheson said that, it’s in the article). I think as educators, this issue could be worked around by teaching our students the ideals of right time and place for everything.

I chose to read “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Ashley Hinck and decided to use Twitter for my reflection. I thought Twitter would offer a nice template (character limit) while allowing for some freedom of creativity (the tweets themselves, GIFS, images, etc).

While going through the article it allowed me to reflect on many past projects between the faculty of education, faculty of human kinetics, high school and elementary school which were very template oriented focused mainly on the drag and drop aspect as mentioned in the article.

There are so many useful tools and resources on the world wide web. And there are many platforms which allow for open-ended learning and exploration, but the expectations and assumptions of templates linger in the classroom. These template platforms set the tone for another way that students “try to get the right answers”. But the question is, are the students learning anything from these platforms? The notion that students find trial and error as a failure is baffling to me, I think that students have such a fear of failure that they look for the simple, straight shot answer. Using shortcut template platforms resonate with today’s society of getting to the destination as quick and as easy as possible – students often use these platforms as a scapegoat to try and please their teachers by doing what they think their teacher is expecting and wants.

Below are some screenshots from my Twitter thread, and the link to my thread is right here –> https://twitter.com/guchimane1/status/1046273261972201472