Flight Path
I have been an elementary school teacher for the past 14 years. I have worked within the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, teaching grades 5 through 7, with a two-year stint as a teacher-librarian for the Peel School District in Mississauga. During my tenure as an educator I have always been exceptionally curious about incorporating as many forms of information technology as I could within my educational program. I have always been invigorated and pleased at using technology to further illuminate the content that I sought to learn and/or teach. It took me by surprise the amount of information technology that I was able to infuse in my short time as a teacher-librarian. I didn’t realize that a library full of print resources could be complimented so thoroughly by a vast array of digital media. It is the extent to which this infusion of technology across an entire school can occur, that I find myself enrolled within the MET program.
I have always been able to master a variety of digital applications across various computer platforms during my teaching career. I have always been able to advocate for the purchasing of the latest and greatest of technology tools for the schools that I’ve been a part of as a teacher. I have always felt passionately that these tools would benefit student learning, as I diligently work-shopped these tools with teachers, to help bring them this knowledge. Nagging at me over the past few years has been the knowledge, that at times, the use of pen and paper would have served as an equally effective learning strategy as compared to using a digital tool. I have finally come to the point where I must ask myself the question; is the use of targeted digital media always the best choice when selecting instructional strategies to help support students learn? To further define this goal I would like to be able to develop a framework or matrix, that I can apply to a variety of digital tools, that will provide me with crucial information as to whether this media will be effective in supporting student learning. Chickering and Zelda (1987) stated that learners bring a wide variety of talents and styles to their educational environment. I would like to examine how the various layers of an LMS can support the goal of being able to identify student learning strengths and weaknesses, and then target students with the appropriate digital tools that will help them construct knowledge effectively.
Through the collaboration process within my previous MET courses, I have always been engaged in collectively developing a rich discourse that ultimately evolved into meaning knowledge creation on my part. I, therefore, believe that these threads of discourse will assist me in being able to thoughtfully master the many technologies imbedded within this course.
Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7. Accessed online 11 Mar 2009 http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm