1. What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting?

 In doing a basic search of my District’s website and related technology blog and wiki I wasn’t able to find any clear policies regarding ICT.  I do think that there is some policy regarding proper usage of ICT because students have to sign a code of conduct at the beginning of each year, but I am now wondering if this might be more of a provincial law that we are abiding by rather than being something that was developed by the District with student learning in mind.

My District does have the following resources/sites but they don’t cover any policy:

communicateit.sd62.bc.ca and www.sd62tech.com

2. What digital technological resources do you have available for teaching and learning in your school setting?

-Smartboard

-Projector

-Document Camera

-Digital Camera’s

-Scanner

 3. Please provide an example of an exemplary use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

There is a teacher at my school who is really good at integrating technology into her lessons. She teaches Math and always bases her lessons in a Smartboard format. She weaves her smartboard tools in with her hands on lesson activities.  She includes a document camera and videos as well.

4. Please provide an example of a problematic use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

– One of the most frustrating things that I have participated in has been a workshop where the presenter was trying a new app without exploring it on their own first. After troubleshooting the projector hook up she proceeded to use up all of the workshop time trying to figure out how to run the app.

-I also think that it is problematic that there are some classrooms that have technology that simply isn’t being used at all.  Though I know that there are lots of reasons for why it isn’t being used, it isn’t logical to spend the money on the technology if it isn’t being used.

5. Please provide a brief history of how you learned to use digital technologies (personally and professionally).

 I first used a computer in elementary school, and then as a teenager my parents purchased one as well.  I tended to use the computer at home to search the internet for school projects. From there I learned to search the internet in High School courses and more in-depth again in University.  My computer skills have been mostly self-taught through trial and error and small workshops offered during Professional Development days.

6. How would you rate your digital technological proficiency? 0 = low level of proficiency -> 10 = high level of proficiency? Why did you give yourself this rating?

I rate my skills at about a 6. I am fairly confident at troubleshoot problems and looking up possible solutions.  I feel that I am fairly aware of the fact that social media and web 2.0 tools exist but know that I need to learn better how to incorporate them into my practice and the ins and outs of how they function.

7. What do you hope to accomplish in this course?

I hope to learn more about different applications and programs that I can incorporate into my teaching practice.  I would also appreciate learning about teacher tools for organization and assessment.