1. What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting?<\/p>\n
Employees of SD61 are given a brief outline as shown here: http:\/\/www.sd61.bc.ca\/super\/polreg\/pdf\/reg4216.2.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Essentially, it outlines what is considered inappropriate use, which is fairly common sense. Some policies include that employees cannot access obscene, racist, abusive materials; IDs and passwords must be kept confidential; sensitive information must not be transmitted via or exposed to the Internet; all electronic information is property of the SD; computer use must not be used for personal use during scheduled work hours; etc.<\/p>\n In regards to students, I believe each school and teacher creates their own set of rules governing their use. I\u2019ve been in some schools that do not allow students to use youtube because there are no filters for the comments section. Other schools seem okay with sites like youtube, provided it isn\u2019t blatantly inappropriate.<\/p>\n 2. What digital technological resources do you have available for teaching and learning in your\u00a0\u00a0 school setting?<\/p>\n In the last school I was staffed, some classrooms had Smartboards and most had at least one computer for the teacher to use. While not all the classrooms had computers for student use, there were three computer labs that could be booked for classroom use, as well as projectors. The latest computer lab has a Smartboard and the school recently purchased a set of 6 ipads for French Immersion teachers. Document cameras, multiple photocopies, digital cameras were also available, but it didn\u2019t seem like there was an organized way to sign them out. Certain teachers just had the technology while others did not.<\/p>\n 3. Please provide an example of an exemplary use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.<\/p>\n One example I\u2019ve seen is the use of an iPad with an autistic student. This particular student is non-verbal and spent most of his early years in school running from his educational assistant and pulling the hair of anyone near him. The speech and language pathologist set up an iPad for him and only loaded communication software onto the device. There were no games installed on his iPad because they did not want him to associate it as a toy. It was very clear that the iPad was strictly for communication. Using the software, the student was able to touch icons to communicate what he wanted and when. For example, he would touch the \u201cI want\u201d icon followed by something such as \u201ccomputer\u201d or \u201cwashroom\u201d.<\/p>\n 4. Please provide an example of a problematic use of digital technologies for teaching and\u00a0\u00a0 learning that you have observed or experienced personally.<\/p>\n I feel that sometimes students become dependent on computers to complete their work and often become reluctant to work in class, stating that they\u2019ll finish their assignments at home on the computer because none are available at school. Students will also use the excuse that they have completed their work or left their most recent version at home and won\u2019t continue in class.<\/p>\n Another problematic use is when students and teachers use technology for the sake of using technology and choose not to use other tried and effective methods. For example, I\u2019ve had students stress adjusting borders and pictures in word documents rather than creating a poster, which would be better suited to the project.<\/p>\n Another common response from students I\u2019ve heard is after spending a few lessons learning about a new app or site is that they thought the software was cool, but would not use it again in the future.<\/p>\n 5. Please provide a brief history of how you learned to use digital technologies (personally and professionally).<\/p>\n My parents purchased our first computer in the early 90s (a 4 86 running at 60 MHz, Windows 3.1 and a 2400 baud modem \u2013 woo!) which gave my brother and I a fairly early start with computers. Most of what I\u2019ve learned as a student I gleaned from my brother and his friends, all of whom now work in the computer sciences. The rest I picked up through trial and error and occasionally reading forums. In regards to professional use, I have tried to figure things out as they come along. Since I haven\u2019t had my own classroom yet, the opportunity to learn about certain technologies in depth has been limited.<\/p>\n 6. How would you rate your digital technological proficiency? 0 = low level of proficiency –\u2010> 10 = high level of proficiency? Why did you give yourself this rating?<\/p>\n I think I\u2019m about a 7 or 8. I\u2019m comfortable using new technologies, but I am not keeping up with what\u2019s leading edge. It still takes me some time to get comfortable using technology I\u2019m not familiar with and am by no means an expert.<\/p>\n 7. What do you hope to accomplish in this course?<\/p>\n I hope to have a few more tools that I can apply to the classroom or library setting that I can teach to students rather than the other way around. I also look forward to developing and learning about practical uses of technology that will benefit collaborative learning and teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1. What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting? Employees of SD61 are given a brief outline as shown here: http:\/\/www.sd61.bc.ca\/super\/polreg\/pdf\/reg4216.2.pdf Essentially, it outlines what is considered inappropriate use, which is fairly common sense. Some policies include … Continue reading