My name is Kristjana Young and I am from North Vancouver, British Columbia. I am currently teaching in Port Moody and teach a variety of courses including Foods, Physical and Health Education, Student Services, and Athletic Training. I have a long history in sport and devoted a huge amount of my life to basketball. I played for UBC and overseas in Germany as well. In my down time I love to spend time with friends, cooking, and hiking with my dog. My goal and what led me to complete the MET program was to continue learning in an area I felt was only increasing in relevance and importance in education, but an area I felt I had insufficient knowledge in. The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education [ISTE], 2017) standards encourage continuous growth (learner), collaboration (collaborator), and high expectations for students (leader). I think this is super important as both an educator and student in this program and it aligns with my reasoning behind pursuing my Masters Degree. I have goals to improve my knowledge around digital tools and to learn how to implement them in an effective way for all students. This is because my view of teaching and learning in the 21st century includes collaboration, flexibility, and utilizing technology.
I think ETEC 524 will provide both the theoretical background and practical experience I need to develop into a digital-age teaching professional. It offers opportunities to use and evaluate tools through the lens of active learning, collaboration, and equity which are noted in the ISTE (2017) standards and the Seven Principles (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). By designing my own unit of learning, I can directly apply what I learn and hopefully use it within my practice. I think there are a lot of digital skills I will need that I do not currently have. I hope learning these will allow me to navigate and select tools more efficiently and effectively. Currently I feel I spend more time learning the tool than really utilizing it in my teaching.
After looking at the course schedule and the range of topics we’ll be exploring, I think the areas most important to my own goals in becoming a digital-age teaching professional are multimodalities, social media, and assessment. I want to learn how to design engaging learning experiences that support learning differentiation. I also know that social media is so prevalent that learning how to use it responsibly and creatively in education is essential. This aligns with ISTE (2017) Standards 3 (Citizen) and 6 (Facilitator) as it involves helping students to engage thoughtfully as a digital citizen and facilitating collaboration and creativity in students. Finally, assessment is an area that can be enhanced with technology however I want to ensure I learn effective ways to implement it so assessment is meaningful. This connects to ISTE Standard 7: Analyst, and I hope to use Week 6’s content to better design assessments that inform instruction and support actionable feedback. The resources I might need to master these technologies as a novice professional might include readings for theoretical background and research along with tutorials so I can navigate new tools and help me take less time to learn how to use them. I will also need real life examples that make the learning applicable to my teaching context.
In conclusion, I am excited to begin ETEC 524 as I believe it will better equip me with the skills and knowledge needed to teach in the digital age. By focusing on multimodalities, social media, and assessment, along with the other areas of course learning, I hope to create engaging and inclusive learning experiences.
References
Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S., C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples.htm
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2017). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators