ETEC540: Text, Technologies – Community Weblog

What sleeps beside me

Hi everyone,

I chose to use a picture of the stack of books beside my bed. I used to read one book at a time, thoroughly, but now I usually have 3-4 on the go. Is that because my reading patterns have simply changed as I’ve gotten older? Or, is my attention span changing to accomodate for jumps between books? Does this book jumping even matter? I don’t know, but I wonder these things as I look at my bedside table. I also see traditional books in silent war with the green NOOK I now own. If my bedside table books could speak, I wonder if they would make a case for why they should be preferred over the NOOK, how lovely their pages feel and smell, or why they should be packed into my bag for reading on the tram, and not the NOOK, even if they are heavier and take up more room.  Books, ebook, iphone, laptop, the odd magazine or printed MET articles…reading experiences are, to borrow a word from Thinking about text and technology in Module 1, ‘weaving’ their ways ever deeper into experiences and bedrooms.

I’m from Vancouver, Canada originally but have been abroad for years. I work at an international school in Basel, Switzerland where I am a head of year for Grade 7, and I teach IB Psychology and English. I taught in Bahrain for 4 years before moving to Switzerland, and I taught random subjects for one year in a state school in England before that. I’ve been at my current school for 4 years, this is my 5th, and I’m embarrassed to say my German is coming along very slowly. There is a language battle that happens, too, in my mind, as I read in English, teach all day in English, get home and talk to my husband in English, watch bits of TV in English, read and listen to English news…it’s tough to fully engage with German, especially with the Swiss version spoken here. Therefore, I’ve made a decision to start reading German kids books. I’m married to a lovely, patient man who fully supports my MET journey, and that I hermit myself away for hours at a time with my computer. Our only dependent so far is two year old Boxer, Desi Crosby, who gets jealous of my laptop and lays her head right across the keys to get my attention. Battles are everywhere, it seems…:)

Ginelle

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23959858@N03/7510066628/

Hi all

My name is Julie Kendell and I am currently a teacher at an independent school in Richmond, BC. I teach grade 6/7 as well as personal planning, I.T. and French to grades 2-7. I am currently working on my fifth and sixth course in MET program this term. I am also enrolled in ETEC 511 this term.

I grew up in the Vancouver area and then spent 8 years over on Vancouver Island in Victoria where I got my Bachelor of Education and worked as a teacher for a few years. Life brought me back to Vancouver about three years ago and now I am recently married and looking forward to obtaining my masters degree and continuing to teach! In my free time I like to hang out with friends, do anything outdoors and read. Although I seem to read more textbooks and educational articles these days! Not that that’s a bad thing!

I picked the picture above because I think it speaks volumes about the choices that we need to make on a daily basis about the best and most beneficial types of technology. I find as a teacher that many teachers are scared of integrating technology because there is just such a vast amount of information that they often don’t even know where to start. I remember feeling the same way sometimes about turning the tv on with the 5 remotes that you needed to use!! (hence the picture). In my educational setting it is important to slowly introduce teachers to the amazing things that they can do with some of the technology that is available to us today!

I am looking forward to working with everyone this term and am sure that we will learn lots from each other!

~Julie

I chose this picture thanks to a friend of mine, who is a math teacher. You see, I’m an English teacher and like most who are inclined towards the humanities I hated math. Then, one day I participated in a PD session on instructional strategies. As part of the workshop we had to get up and present a lesson, and my friend did a math lesson. She opened it by explaining that math is a language and a way to communicate. Here’s what she said (I later asked her to write it down for me).

“Math is a language. A language is something that we use to tell stories, or to solve problems.

In math, numbers are the characters of the story, and operations (+/-/x/divide) tell us what happens to them. *(12 was walking down the street, and wham, it was added to three and became 15…a new man).

*One English sentence often translates directly to one Math equation. Both represent a single idea. And by translating back and forth, our story becomes richer and we can show how the elements of our story fit together in different ways. And sometimes out of that, a solution appears where we couldn’t see one before.

Languages are powerful. In fact, there is much research that says that language is necessary before we can have true thought. So being comfortable in many languages can allow us to share stories with one another, and to solve problems, and sometimes even to create sparkling new ideas. That’s why math is exciting to me.”

Since that day I have seen math, as well as literacy, in a different light. It isn’t abstract numbers, it’s a numerical alphabet. All I need to do is decode it!

I know I have written more than two paragraphs, but I will tell you a little more about myself. I work as an instructional designer and I help other instructors design their online courses. As mentioned above, I taught English Language Arts. I have always has an interest in literacy and it’s role in learning, which is why I am taking this class.

Robynejay (2010). Childhood workbook. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/learnscope/4277702748/

I chose this picture because when answering the questions from the course ‘What is a text?’ and ‘What is technology?’, I wrote in my notes that normally we tend to perceive a text as being an organized group of letters that together make up words and sentences and in turn a coherent piece of ‘written’ content. However, far from this, I think a text can come in many forms, shapes, sizes and mediums. Then, on reading the Oxford Dictionary definition “The wording of anything written or printed; the structure formed by the words in their order; the very words, phrases, and sentences as written”, I didn’t agree with the use of the term ‘wording’ or ‘written’, because the Mayan scripts did not have words, but rather symbols, and they did not ‘write’ them. Then, regarding the question ‘What is technology’? I replied that technology nowadays is perceived as anything ‘electronic’ or modern; however, a pencil in its time or even chalk and blackboard were a form of technology, too. Hence, as the course materials rightly mention, we have to place everything in its context; for the Mayans, their technology was their slab and chisel. I could go on forever, but I’ll leave him for the Forum.

Regarding me, I am from Mexico and a recently landed immigrant in Canada; however, I still come and go between both countries depending on where there is work available. I have worked in ELT (English Language Teaching) since 1984 in teacher training, coordination posts, materials design, and teaching all ages and levels. In addition to ELT, I also onced worked in a film school, and teaching English Literature to ESL students in Mexico. I have also co-authored several EFL textbooks for the Mexican school market. This past year I taught at the International Entry Program at BCIT (Vancouver), but presently I am back in Mexico giving some teacher training workshops. I have an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL, and I am on my 8th,9th and 10th MET course. My work has shown me the immense importance of language and communication, be it through image, spoken or written, which is why I am looking forward to learning and analyzing how ‘texts’ have changed over the years and how this has affected communication.