My name is Kirklan Lum and I am currently teaching at a high school in Nanaimo. I teach science, math, and physical education, and I have always enjoyed bringing technology into the classroom, which is one of the main reasons that I decided on the MET program. My experience in the program so far has been an extremely positive one, and it has opened my eyes in many ways that I had not expected. Initially I thought that the program would mostly provide working experience with a number of new technologies, but I’ve quickly learned that simple exposure to a number of tools is not in itself useful… you must have a way of evaluating the tools to find the most effective one!
Through participation in this class I hope to refine some of my skills in reviewing and selecting technology, so that I do not fall into the trap of constantly learning new programs, etc. and wasting much of my time that could be spent elsewhere (Bates & Poole, 2003). At the same time, I would still like to continue to grow and develop my skills in areas that have been proven to be effective for other educators, such as in learning management systems (LMS).
My school is currently in the initial stages of a 1:1 computing program, so I expect knowledge of learning management systems to be very valuable in the coming years. More specifically, I would like to learn about giving prompt feedback through an LMS, as Chickering and Gamson (1987) suggest that this is a good practice for improving education. I believe that and LMS may be capable of providing automated feedback that can reach a wide range of students and can be provided instantaneously once a task is completed. On top of this automated feedback, I would still be able to provide additional, more personalized feedback face to face, as students are working through various activities.
Through my experience so far, I have discovered that hardware reliability issues have been a problem in our 1:1 computing program. The positive side of this, is that we now have a more robust network than we did before, and a lot of our materials are shared. As our network capabilities increase, I would like explore the potential of bringing social media into the classroom in order to increase student engagement and communication. At the same time, I am also a little bit wary that this may result in more of a distraction than a benefit (Wurster, 2006), so I would also like to spend some time learning about teaching the concept of digital citizenship.
I look forward to making myself a more efficient and more effective teacher through participation in this class. I also look forward to learning new concepts and ideas that had never occurred to me, which I’m sure that I will also experience during this class.
References
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success. New York, NY: Wiley, John & Sons, Inc.
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.
Wurster, P., (2006). Helpful hints for successful 1:1 computing. Learning & Leading with Technology, 34, 12-17. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ779818.pdf