I have been teaching for 3 years now, mostly as a resource teacher at the elementary level. However, in the upcoming 2017/2018 school year, I will have the opportunity to expand my breadth of knowledge and work at Alpha Secondary’s access program. I will be able to explore using technologies to adapt curricular content for my students who need an alternative outlet to display what their learning. My interest to learn more about technology peaked when my students this year taught me how to code using Scratch. Here I am today pursuing a Master in Educational Technology, where I will learn about many platforms that will (hopefully) benefit both my students and myself in a meaningful way.

I consider myself a lifelong learner, as I am always seeking more education to become a more diverse teacher. Most of my post-bachelor’s coursework has revolved around children’s with disabilities. After seeking out my certificate in special education, I wanted to pursue a degree in technology because this is something that has always peeked my interest, yet my knowledge is very limited. I would love to learn more about creating webpages and film editing, and using this technology in a meaningful way. I NEVER want to be that teacher that uses technology just for the sake of using it – there needs to be an educational purpose that is relevant for both teachers and students.

My goal for ETEC 565A is to expand my knowledge on a variety of learning management systems in order to capture and track student achievement in an innovative and fresh way. I have mixed feelings towards Learning Management Systems because the amount of time put into creating this documentation needs to be justified. In addition, I have never felt like an expert at using LMS, which contributes to my fear of using it with my students. I feel that creating a WordPress in this course will give me the confidence to use it in my classroom one day.

I think this would be a beneficial thing to do with our students because it can be like an ongoing “yearbook” for when they start elementary school and continue it all throughout highschool. Although online portfolios only display a snapshot of what someone is learning/doing, it fails to capture the human connections and emotions that they go through on their educational journey. I think weekly links to a video blog would definitely add that human connection. I believe that if WordPress was introduced to the students early in the year and used over a lengthy amount of time, the student’s growth and progression over time will definitely be evident.

Fresh Grade and Weebly are the only two Learning Management Systems that I’m familiar to using. I began using Fresh Grade with my students this past January, for them to display snapshots of captured moments from the year. This program allows students to have their own personalized page. This program is an excellent way to communicate student learning with parents. (NOTE: this platform doesn’t allow students to attach certain file types that the Burnaby School District use). Recently in my first MET course (ETEC-510), I became familiar with using Weebly as the platform that showcased my group assignments. I found that this platform was easy to use, where: any member of the group had access to edit/revise any sections, easy to input media (pictures and videos), and the platform allows users to attach files directly on the page. The only downfalls that I’ve found while using this platform is that it doesn’t save automatically and only one user can edit/access a certain page at once.

Ultimately, I want to become confident enough to explore new ways of creating opportunities for my students to display their learning authentically, in a relevant and engaging way. Since I only have worked with a couple LMS platforms, I’m open to learning more about WordPress and Moodle and what benefits these platforms have to offer. Since these platforms have a “blog” like feel to them, I’m hoping that communication (student-teacher, student-student) on our websites throughout the course will be evident.

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