Flight Path for Joyce Kim

A bit about myself and my experience:
I’ve been teaching English language and literature for the last 18 years; I’ve worked in a secondary school setting since 2006. What I enjoy the most about secondary school teaching is the chance to support a student in their growth over a long period of time. There really is never a dull moment as I see a student learn and change from grades 8 through 12. I also love discussing and teaching literature; I love helping the students develop the ability to critically analyze and then communicate the issues and values they learn from the texts we study together.

My goals for MET and this course:
I began my journey with MET because I wanted to explore two ideas. The first was how to research and implement best practices in using educational technology for inclusive and a universal design for learning. Universal design for learning means accessible learning for all students in my classes:

A UDL curriculum is designed from the outset to be accessible to the widest possible range of students. Teachers who have adopted a UDL mindset expect that students will vary widely in learning styles, abilities, and interests… UDL is not a one-size-fits-all approach; neither does it promote a classroom environment in which each student has an individual educational plan. The ultimate goal is to create a flexible instructional environment that works for all students. (Special Education Technology BC [SETBC], Ministry of Education, 2010, p.4)

The other reason was also to understand how the critical thinking and analysis skills I try to teach in my literature classes might also be used in media and digital literacy. My goals for this course are the same. I want to see how digital learning platforms can be a foundation for universal design for learning. The document to which I referred above is from 2010, which might seem like ages ago in tech-development time, and I noted the reference to technology:

Many teachers involved in the BC UDL Project reported that using technology greatly increased their ability to engage students, provide flexible and up-to-date materials, and support diverse learning needs. However, a teacher can certainly differentiate many aspects of the curriculum without technology, and real experience is often preferable to the virtual. (SETBC, Ministry of Education, 2010, p.5)

Since my time in this program and noting the changes in available software and hardware,  I wonder about this differentiation between “real” and “virtual”. Throughout this program, I’ve come to see that there are significant learning affordances through virtual learning environment, including increased student interest (always a plus in the classroom!) and greater opportunities for experiential learning (Dalgarno and Lee, 2010). Just yesterday I asked my students to contrast the urban landscape of downtown Montreal, Quebec to the suburb of Joliette, Quebec in order to understand how these two places may have affected the character who lives in both those places in a fictional novel we are reading together. I don’t want to sound too much as if I am landing on the side of virtual environments because one particular point of interest to me is the relation of place and experiential learning in the First Nations Education Steering Committee and BC Ministry of Education collaborative statement, the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL):

Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place). (FNESC, 2007)

What I want to learn about Learning Management Systems (LMS):
As noted above, I would like to explore how Learning Management Systems (LMS) might be a virtual learning environment that is “experiential, and relational… focused on connectedness, reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place” (FNESC, 2007). In my current understanding of the importance of place, indigenous ways of knowing are not only tied to single points of location but over large geographical areas and territories. Do learning management systems share any qualities with this understanding of space? If so, what are those qualities? If not, how can we implement LMS to best demonstrate these principles?

How ETEC 565A can help you become a digital-age teaching professional?
I’ve already addressed examples in which I have felt competent and proud of meeting the ISTE Standards for Educators of Citizen and Analyst in my discussion post. Here I wanted to address where I think I might be able to extend my professional development, and to really learn from and apply the learning from ETEC565A to my educational context. Two years ago, the school at which I work switched back to Schoology after having spent several years on another LMS. Because it was a return to Schoology rather than a whole new LMS, the students and faculty were up to speed and using the system with relative ease and little need for professional development. However, there were many questions of why we had moved away from Schoology in the first place, and why we returned to it then. I would like to have known some of the frameworks in choosing to return to Schoology and to hear this communicated more clearly. My hope is that ETEC 565A will specifically help me become a Leader as defined by the ISTE Standards for Educators. In particular, I would like to focus on 2a where educators “shape, advance and accelerate a shared vision for empowered learning with technology by engaging with education stakeholders”. My continued commitment to UDL will aid in the advocacy for “equitable access” (2b) and my ultimate goal would be to act as defined in 2c where I might “model for colleagues the identification, exploration, evaluation, curation and adoption of new digital resources and tools for learning (ISTE Standards, 2017).

Thanks for reading!

Joyce

References:

British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2010). Universal Design for Learning in BC. Retrieved from the Special Education Technology  British Columbia website: https://www.setbc.org/Download/LearningCentre/Access/bcudl_review6_small.pdf

Dalgarno, B. and Lee, M. J. W. (2010). What are the learning affordances of 3-D virtual environments?. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41: 10–32. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.01038.x

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2017). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators