Auto e-ography
by Jasmeet Virk ~ January 7th, 2012. Filed under: Module A. Framing Issues.Growing up in a remote town in India, my education was never touched by technology. When I finally saw a computer in my late teens, it was treated as an office machine that was to make life easy for the secretaries and the accountants. I went ahead and learned dBase IV [a data management system] and Excel and worked in an office creating payrolls in Excel and sales reports in dBase IV!
As a teacher, my initial use of computer with students was to teach them to make slide shows and create desktop publishing using the word processors. I really enjoyed this as these activities would be content related and the students would have to make posters on science and socials topics. Otherwise I used edutainment software like the Reader Rabbit and the Math Blasters to enhance student learning. There were piles of CD’s to choose from in the computer labs for different grade levels. Then another teacher showed me some websites which provided similar learning experience and were free! Thus began the online activities!
The turning point in my relation to technology was when my Learning Assistant teacher showed me a few remedial programs she was using with some of my student. When I saw the level of student engagement and its effect, I was impressed. This changed my way of thinking. Why cannot my entire class reap the benefit of such technology? That is how my laptop ended in my classroom then got connected to an overhead projector and a white board, and then to a smart board almost two years later!
In all honesty, initially the issue of pedagogical sanctions got lost in the preliminary success of student engagement and rigor. Then it was like planning the lessons backward to check if the activities planned fit well with sound pedagogy. I have come a long way now and do not do that anymore! MET has been a great help in consolidating my understanding and practice. My main goal now in every lesson I plan is to ensure multimodalities for teaching and learning. It is such a challenge to reach every child in the classroom!