Introduction – Lisa Nevoral

Hello All,

My name is Lisa and I am from Kelowna, BC.  I am a middle school math/science teacher and this is my 9^th MET course.

The first image I was going to post wouldn’t let me grab the HTML code, but I would like to elaborate on the picture right now.  It was an image of 10 book covers and many of the book titles indicated to me how much has changed in the 9 years I have been teaching.  Tagging made me think of Facebook.  I joined Facebook in 2007, and now I not only get FB on my smartphone, but I can take a picture, tag people in it, and share the picture with others within a few minutes.  There is no need to download images from my camera to my computer and then upload into Facebook to share with others.  The book title Born Digital reminds me that I need to understand that my students are digital natives and may learn differently than the way I did when in school.  I must bridge the gap between my teaching styles and the way students may learn now.  Cultural Convergence is a book on how old and new media collides.  I wonder if we can sustain this pace of changing technology and what are the implications not only for my teaching, but also for our society.  Open Source is an idea or movement in which I agree with as I think that we should share computer software with others.  And finally, the title Web 2.0 made me think of all the educational technology tools I now use in my classroom, opposed to 9 years ago.

I was drawn to the image I did post because I thought of how many things we need to be proficient in, many which are interrelated and intertwining.  This is a good thing to remember when teaching my students, who are faced with many different ways to learn, respond, and succeed in this digital era.  As well, I have also had to learn many new literacies in my lifetime and I am sure there will be many more to conquer in the future.  For example, when in high school, I took a type writing course on an actual typewriter and can now use a touchscreen with no problem.  I went through college writing out my science labs and papers by hand, and now I wouldn’t even think twice about creating something in Word.  There are many more examples and this is one of the reasons I took this course.  To understand how text and technology has changed and how I am changing with it.

Looking forwards to learning with everyone in this course,

Lisa