Learning to Use Technology

Q.How have you/do you develop your technology skills?

“I attend workshops. I play around and I work with colleagues.”

Implementation and Tools

Q. How has technology changed your teaching methods?

“Profoundly. Specifically, I am able to let the students cover the learning outcomes using material that they are interested in, with presentation styles that suit them . . .the classroom is less teacher centred  . . . it has allowed me to expand my portfolio of acceptable demonstrations of student knowledge. It’s also provided me with more up to date background knowledge . . .made me let go of feeling like I have to know everything that is being learned . .  .”

Q. How is technology used in your classroom?

 “It is used for presentations and for demonstrating thinking. It is used as a research tool. Laptops, phones, ipads have been used for searching for information. It (technology) is used for relaxation. Kids are allowed to listen to music while working. Lots of students are faster at typing. They don’t use notebooks and binders much anymore.

I have created a wiki for parents and students so that parents have a window into the classroom.

Q. How is technology used in your Science Classroom?

“Research.  They write up summaries of information. They use it to find science fair type projects to do and they use the smartboard to prepare science demonstrations for younger grades.”

Q. How is technology used in your math classroom?

“That is part of what the wiki is going to do. It will be a help to parents as I can put demonstrations on the wiki that can help parents see how I would like it (math) done and then parents might be more comfortable talking to their kids about math. We have used videos to understand patterning.

Calculators are always allowed.”

You seem to use technology differently in the two classrooms. Why?

Because the software for working with numbers is not very good – try and write a fraction it is not as friendly – also I want them to diagram and express their reasoning – when we have epaper?

Q. How might your district and/or your learning coordinator better support you and the use of technology in your classroom?

Continued and more workshops organized by colleagues.

The district gives me release time to work on my skills.

To be coordinated to work with others in my district who have skills that I need.

Personal tutorials.

JB is self-motivated to learn to use technology and to purposefully incorporate technology into her classroom. She has always devoted a great deal of personal time to professional development, including attending workshops/conferences (in and out of district) and journal reading. She also seeks opportunities to coordinate with colleagues who posses skills that she needs or who need the skills that she has.

JB spoke quickly and excitedly when answering this question. She was very animated.

The teacher is fortunate to have classroom access to laptops (1 to 2 laptop to student ratio) and to have a classroom smartboard. JB believes that students must be encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning and she prefers facilitating learning rather than delivering knowledge. Her personality and teaching beliefs do make her a good fit with technology. Her pedagogical strengths and knowledge of learning would have her a strong teacher using rocks and sticks or laptops and social media.

What impresses me with this teacher is that the technology is not just being used by the teacher. Technology is truly a tool for both teacher and students. Viewing technology as a tool means that this teacher and her students will likely continue to evolve in their use of technology?

Of interest is that this teacher is turning her thoughts to parents and how classroom technology use might affect them.

I was curious to discover differences that may exist between technology use in the science and math classroom.

Technology in the math classroom is of great interest to me. How might students better use technology to construct and demonstrate their mathematical knowledge?

Math is different than science? I believe that many teachers have weaker conceptual understanding in math and this must surely affect how technology is used in the math classroom. Might technology be used to improve teacher math understanding?

This teacher would make an excellent mentor for other teachers who wish to purposefully use technology. She is just a classroom teacher, she is not young (sorry JB), and she has no technology background or studies.