My experience is limited to teaching grade 10 Information Technology for five years at a Chinese-Canadian school in Shenzhen, China. The school caters to students who do not plan on taking the GAO KAO (Chinese university entrance exam), but who do plan on attending university abroad. Our access to technology is limited by the Great Firewall of China and a reliance on traditional Chinese teaching methods (teacher lectures, students do homework). I have access to forty desktop computers running basic software packages, and students receive approximately forty minutes of in-class instruction and forty minutes of hands-on practice each week. I teach three units each year: Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Digital Citizenship.
I’m brand new to the MET program. My motivation for applying was an overwhelming feeling that my IT course was stale and not meeting the needs of my students. I thought the most effective way to make improvements would be to educate myself. I know I made the right decision. My goals for 565A are: be open to and try different things and to collaborate and learn from others. My first goal fits well under ISTE standard 3: Model digital age work and learning (ISTE, 2008). It’s not enough for me to say, “Oh, we can’t use that here.” If I expect to make changes to my IT program, I need to try different things. Principle 3 of Chickering and Ehrmann’s seven principles states, “Good Practice Uses Active Learning Techniques” and that is something that resonated with me (1996). I cannot be passive if I want to make a change in my IT course—I need to create change, whether it’s a change in approach, technology, content, or something I haven’t even considered yet. Even if the technology or approaches I learn in 565A won’t work for me here in Shenzhen, I can transfer the skills I did learn to something that will work.
Looking to my goal to collaborate, I was not making any headway on my own, so I recognize the need to collaborate with others. This is difficult for me because I’m shy and I’m not confident in my IT program. When looking at the ISTE standards for teachers, I found it interesting that standard 5: Engage in professional growth and leadership puts “participate in local and global learning communities…” before “contribute to the effectiveness, vitality and self-renewal of the teaching profession…” (ISTE, 2008). I believed that making a change was up to me, and me alone. However, this standard and its layout grabbed my attention and helped me refocus—I need to learn from others, then teach others.
There are many things I would like to learn during this course, but I’m most looking forward to learning about Learning Management Systems. When evaluating myself using the ISTE standards for teachers, Chickering and Ehrmann’s seven principles, and Bates’ SECTIONS framework, I realized that I am falling short in providing opportunities for my students to interact and provide feedback to one another. David Niguidula, in his view of digital portfolios, summarizes research on authentic assessment and feedback, stating, “when a student has a stake in the process of assessment, and when teachers and others provide useful and meaningful feedback, student performance improves” (Niguidula, 2010, p.158) While an LMS is not exactly a digital portfolio, I think Niguidula’s statement still applies. I want to explore using an LMS to encourage more interaction (both teacher-student and student-student), to add elements where students can gain more feedback. Additionally, I had great results using Edmodo to allow students to take more control of their learning (before it was blocked), so I imagine using an LMS and creating a course that is tailored specifically to my needs has the potential to be even more successful.
I am a little hesitant about the social software/social media aspect of the course. I personally find Twitter a little chaotic and I was initially dismayed to learn that we would be using it, but I am willing to give it another go. I predict that approaching it as a professional rather than as a purely social user will change my perspective. I know that social software/media can drive interaction and with interaction being an area I identified as being weak in, I hope to use my experiences during this course to help me add additional elements of interactivity within my own context.
When I consider the skills and resources I need to develop and refine in order to master these technologies, the first item that needs attention will be my HTML skills. It seems that LMS rely heavily on HTML and my HTML skills are rusty and do not reflect different styles of HTML use (markdown, for example). I know that the LMS will have information and help files, but I think looking for additional tutorials will help me with the learning curve. Another area that I need work on is the digital story. I honestly have no idea what that is nor what it entails, so I need to read up on the topic and look at examples. I get the impression that a lot of the resources I will need are examples—which makes sense because I like to model what I teach, so it make sense that this is how I prefer to learn.
My flight path seems narrow and my goals are few. However, I think starting with smaller goals will be most beneficial for me. I’m new to the MET program and I’m taking this course rather early in my journey. This means I don’t have as much of the background learning, but, I do see the value of learning the application first—I won’t get bogged down in theory and perhaps that means I’ll take more risks, and perhaps explore some tangents. I’m not sure what the end result will be, but I’m optimistic and willing to work hard, so I’m sure it won’t be a total disaster.
References
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
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/aticles/sevenprinciples.htm
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers
Niguidula, D. (2010). Digital Portfolios and Curriculum Maps: Linking Teacher and Student Work. In H. H. Jacobs (Ed.), Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World (pp. 153-167). Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.