Hi there. My name is Doug Millie. I’m in my second semester of the MET program and am taking courses number 3 and 4.
I have been teaching for about 18 years, 16 of which have been at two small, rural schools in North(ish)west Saskatchewan. I teach mostly music and band, though computers, home ec, health social studies are fun too! Currently, though, I am enjoying a deferred salary leave while I begin my MET journey. In the winter, I enjoy skiing, and volunteer with the Canadian Ski Patrol at my local hill in Cold Lake, AB. In 2017, I became an Advanced First Aid instructor within the CSP.
When I saw the first iPhone unveiled in 2007, I knew it was going to change the world. When 3G finally came to my area, I got my first iPhone and boldly predicted that everyone was going to have one eventually. I don’t get these things right very often, but I think I called that one pretty well.
The first few years that I was teaching at my current schools, I did an informal survey each year asking students how many people had a computer at home to do homework on or research for class. Around 2007, I would say about half did and that number continued to increase until around 2012, where most of my students had a computer at home. After that, it began to fall, with more people favoring new phones and tablets over traditional computers and laptops.
Personally, I think phones (and tablets) are ok for reading, ok for video, fine for gaming, and terrible for writing (even with voice recognition or attachable keyboards.) What today’s smartphones have always been good at is music, podcasts and audiobooks. I think that audio needs to play an important part of mobile learning because it can leverage time dominated by mindless tasks – folding laundry, washing dishes, driving, walking to school, etc. While audio is less than ideal for all subjects and situations, it is low bandwidth compared to video, handsfree, and relatively easy to produce. I wish more educational content was available in audio format.
Hi Douglas!
So nice to meet you and hear about your experiences as a teacher in northern Alberta and your prediction of the iPhone! I also agree with you about your audio conclusions, audio books, podcasts and even lectures have become my go to activities during my commuting time for the past 5 years. I ride a moped to school and home each day for a total of two hours and for all of that time, I am able to immerse myself in music, audio books and podcasts. I’ve even been able to listen to course content during my commute which is awesome. I had virtually given up on reading due to my young children and hectic schedule, and discovering audio books was like the holy grail for me! I also agree that mobile phones are terrible for writing and it pains me to see my university students tapping their essays away on their phones. I am a huge advocate of learning to type properly and have encountered university students that don’t know how to touch type and produce an essay away from their phones 😉
I also enjoy skiing and started teaching my older daughter to ski last winter, she was immediately taken with it and i can’t wait to being her back to Canada eventually and take her to the Rockies to ski.
Hey Doug, it’s nice to meet you! I agree with your conclusion about audio. There is so much to learn out there – it’s nice to multitask with audiobooks and podcasts while I’m driving, painting, or other hands on tasks. When it comes to education, I’ve seen a lot of verbatim voice over or high production animations – I’m curious to explore more of that middle ground, like podcasts have hit a sweet spot on. I’m curious to see where mobile education can go and how we as designers can better support more diverse learner preferences with the tools available currently.
Nice to meet you too! Aside from fiction audiobooks, I like news podcasts and my current guilty pleasure is a podcast that reads stories off of Reddit. Finding quality podcasts can be tough, though.
Hi Doug,
My name is Anna, and I am glad to meet you! Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and observations on modern technology here. Very interesting and useful. I am with you on audio format of the educational content as it is priceless for teaching English as a second language – my area of expertise.
Again, pleasure to meet you, and I look forward to our communication this semester.
Best,
Anna
Nice to meet you too!