Module 1, Unit 1’s Reflections
May 10th, 2009 by Ed Leung
Unit 1 Reflections
After reading NETS, it’s easy to see that B.C.’s public education system is not really on board for education technology, and a product of the system like myself inevitably faces a difficult up-hill battle to change things around. Specifically:
1) Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments
The learning experience of most public school students, unfortunately, is not strongly tied to technology. At least, this is the experience I see teaching at an inner-city school in East Vancouver. Unless a student is enrolled in a course that is technology-based (e.g. info tech, media arts), the only contact they would have with technology is the use of a computer as a word processor and a resource provider. During my days as a science teacher, I tried to incorporate technology into the classroom – I worked with department members and other teaching staff on projects on robotics; I use Google Docs to post my assignments and notes online; I captured You-tube videos to show students when it is not safe to perform a demonstration in the classroom… As much as I try, I know my students are lagging far behind their peers in, say, a private school.
2) model digital-age work and learning
Similar to the last point, it is an uphill battle for a public school educator with very limited resources at hand. I have worked with the drama and film program to allow students to do their projects as videos. These students learn to edit their video clips, add sounds and other effects to the videos, and generally have a very enjoyable time while also learning science. However, for the most part, the only students who get such experience are students who are already involved with the media arts program and courses.
3) promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
As a counsellor now, this actually is a job that I am required to do on a very regular basis. Cyber-bullying has become a very common phenomenon in schools, and I regularly have to deal with students who are targets of this new form of bullying. To teach and to foster digital citizenship and responsibility is no different from teaching students not to physically or verbally abuse another student – the digital world is but a new venue to which educators need to be aware of. A similar but very different concern surrounds the notion of privacy. Students who are involved in personal friendship websites (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.) sometimes are not aware of who may be lurking around looking at their personal information. As educators who may not know as much as the students do about these channels of communication (I still do not have a Twitter account), it is a challenge to advise students of the dangers associated with these site.
4) engage in professional growth and leadership
I actually have been quite heavily involved in my school’s technology development. For the last few years, when our school moves from one mark-entry program into another, I have been on the advisory and peer-helper team. These last two years, when our school becomes one of the first in Vancouver to enrol in the new student information system called BCeSIS, I serve as a scheduler as well as one of the hub leaders to teach our school’s staff on how to use this system. It is a challenge that is sometimes very frustrating, as some teachers are far less receptive to the use of technology than the students, but it is also rewarding to know that I am preparing my staff to face a new age of technology in education.
Step 2.
As a counsellor, I see a lot of students who struggle in our regular school system because of their learning disabilities. Technology has helped some students in the past (e.g. having a word processor greatly assists students who have difficulties in hand-written output), but there are still many students who are struggling. A great interest and passion of min is to help develop and/or implement technology-based curriculum/teaching environment that would assist students with special needs.
From the course syllabus, I see that Module 3 would particularly interests me in terms of the strategies that I look forward to gain in the delivery and the assessment methods using technology. Of course, this doesn’t mean I won’t be actively engaged and involved in the other parts of the course… but strictly from a professional prospective, Module 3 seems to intrigue me the most at this point.