Technology made my professional life possible, and I have scrambled to keep up with the ways I’ve needed to use it every step of the way.
- As a journalist covering the Northwest Territories and Nunavut for one of Canada’s few remaining independent news agencies, technology was vital to connecting with communities with no road access and intermittent (and expensive) air travel. But what if their internet was spotty or they couldn’t send a large enough photo file for print? How do I build trust with my sources? And how do you handle subscriptions while supporting sharing between online readers?
- When I returned to school for an early childhood education certification while living in a small Saskatchewan town, educational technology was the difference between a 4-hour commute and a certificate recognized in one province and a 0-minute commute and a certificate recognized across the country. But how could I connect with instructors and colleagues whom I’d never see? How do I demonstrate I can work with children when my instructors would never physically be in the same room with me and a child? As an ECE professional, I also had to consider how to make learning visible to preschoolers and connect with parents while ensuring privacy, spontaneity, and two-way engagement.
I’m pretty proud of my self-taught skills, but they’re lacking finesse and my aim is to get out ahead of the tech current that has swept through my work time and time again. I found I’ve really enjoyed these “but how?” questions (and I think mobile technology has a lot of answers), which led me to the world of educational technology, instructional design, and this course. This is my first semester in the MET program, so forgive my (ever-present) greenness. I now live in BC (surrounded by greenness).
Hi Lyndsay, Nice to virtually see you again. Look forward to hearing your insights during the course. Having spent many years in small towns as a reporter in radio and tv, I particularly liked your bio’s brief description outlining the challenges of the industry in the North.
Hi Lyndsay, my partner is also an ECE professional, he works in a daycare and has found the pandemic extremely difficult. He wears masks and goggles to work now, and wears a pin with his face, just so the little ones know what he looks like. I am curious to hear more about your solution for teaching preschoolers virtually, I know so many teachers have been having difficulties, but teaching preschoolers presents its own specific challenges.
Hi Emma,
It is such a difficult year to work with that age group (or any really). I wish I had some advice but I actually stepped back from teaching and focused on writing/editing work this year to protect some high-risk people in my family. Your partner pining a picture of his face to his clothing is such a good idea! I did work in a program in August, when BC’s numbers were lower, and the mask was a significant barrier to connecting with them. They are learning so much about communication, emotion, self-regulation, and speech at that age. Not being able to see a person’s face has a big impact!
The only experience I have with teaching young children virtually is through participating in my own son’s virtual playgroups/music classes. I have yet to see a great solution but the ones that are already familiar (songs and stories learned pre-Covid) and are mostly physical do well. I think we end up butting up against the difficulty the younger children have in this age group have in wrapping their heads around the reality/fiction of information on screens.
Hi Lindsay – you’re going to love MET! Don’t hesitate to ask questions and seek out students who’ve taken the courses you’re in. You’ll get a lot from working with people who are farther along in their MET program, but also just by participating in discussions with everyone. Looking forward to working with you.
Lori
Hi, Lori! Thanks for the supportive words. Connection does seem to be important – and not as difficult as I’d anticipated! Looking forward to working with you as well.
Hi Lyndsay! I love your “but how?” questions – so important for us to keep asking questions and trying to find the best answers. I’m also just starting out on my MET journey, and hoping to find some of the answers, and probably a whole lot more questions! Looking forward to working with you!
Questions, on questions, on questions! That’s kind of the fun part of such a relatively young field. Looking foward to working with you as well.