Ed in ETEC

As an educator for 11 years (10 years as a science/biology teacher, and 1 year as a secondary counsellor) working in an inner-city school in Vancouver, I have seen the challenges faced by underprivileged students and students with special needs. While I do not believe education is a political arena where students’ welfare should be used as a bargaining chip, I do feel strongly that our public school system is in need of less bureaucracy and more direct funding that would benefit the students. This is especially true when it comes to the area of technology.

Whenever I have a chance to speak to others about the technology needs, I would not hesitate to tell people that, for a school that has a population of over 1000, it is inconceivable to keep up with the ever-increasing technology needs if the school is only given $5000 from the school board for technology. Feeling pessimistic of the long-term resources individual schools can receive, my colleagues and I have subsequently turned to private sectors for assistance. While deep down, this seems to be a violation of the spirit of public education, I strongly believe that this is the lesser of the two evil – students need technology, and corporations can provide technology with something as little as us recognizing their contributions. I have worked in teams to secure these grants in the past; what I look forward to be able to do is to best utilize the very limited resources we can receive to provide the technology needs for our students.

When I took ETEC 510 last term, I’ve learned some ideas of the design of implementing technology in a classroom. Together with my fellow students, we have designed a mobile computer lab that would utilize wireless internet-ready laptop computers to be moved from room to room to provide the technology needs for our students. We also did some research to identify free/inexpensive resources that can be used by educators to supplement such a lab. From freewares such as Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) that can be used as a basic sound mixer, to a free forum hosting site such as MakephBB (http://www.makephpbb.com/) that can be used as a forum for students to post discussion questions and answers, there are resources available for educators to use that would enhance the technology experience of our learners without putting any strains on the ever-tightening budget.

The challenge for educators is that these resources are not widely known by teachers, and teachers who may want to utilize them may also feel threatened to learn them. As someone who has supported my colleagues in various technology-based softwares, I want to use my MET experience to become more familiar with the implementation, the delivery, and the assessment of classes that are enhanced technologically. As I do not consider myself as a technology wizard, I feel that I can convey to my fellow staff member that you do not need to be a “techie” to deliver education that is technology-based.