When pondering what possible obstacles, barriers and resistance I will most certainly encounter in the near future, I can’t help but include myself in the mix. The moments of frustration I experience with technology are frequent and evident as one can note in many a post on this blog. Sometimes I do want to throw in the towel and just rely on what I know will work: a white board, markers, textbooks, pens, pencils, paper. You get the point. It’s comfortable, it’s what I know and it’s reliable. Using good old paper and pen is not a bad thing. It will happen and that is ok. Variety is the spice of life. I can’t imagine living in “The Brave New World” of the Steve Jobs schools. But what I also can’t imagine is not embracing what is and making the most sincere efforts to meet people where they are at.

The “people” I am referring to for my future vision project are my students. Although I occasionally envision myself as my own barrier to digital technology, I do know that I have an openness and willingness to learn and advance in digital territories. It is my students’ reality to turn to the online world to locate and access the information they need so it only makes sense to me that I include a digital platform in my teaching practice. Hence the birth of my class website/blog. It is a real thing that now exists, will be tended to, will evolve and will be well used (at least by me and my students). I am also looking forward to my website/blog taking lots and lots of baby steps during the school year and morph into something more collaborative and interactive.

I will not be the only obstacle I encounter along my travels. In my role as a teacher-librarian I am often reminded of the fact that the more than 100 classroom teachers in my school are all situated at varying levels of “embrace” when it comes to digital technology. There are many colleagues who still resist using BCESIS to input their marks. They prefer to remain with formats that are familiar to them whether that means using the old system, Integrade, or hard copy mark books and then entering final marks into BCESIS because they have no other choice. Suggesting to these teachers that they might want to consider using Padlet, Twitter or you name it for a project would be way beyond what they can imagine right now. So I again reiterate that I need to meet my colleagues where they are at. I don’t interpret their unwillingness to venture into new, digital territory as resistance. I see it as feeling very unprepared for it. Many a successful collaboration with the TL in my school has opened up the reluctant teacher’s eye to using digital technology simply because they have had a support system in place and some additional time to absorb the new knowledge. For these teachers, I can actually be that technological support and help them advance even if ever so slightly.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have colleagues who are far more advanced in their comfort level and daily usage of digital technology in both their professional and personal lives. Thankfully, they are more than willing to meet me where I am at and are therefore my support system probably more often than they would like!

All this to say that I recognize that I have my own blind spots and blindsight but I hope that I will be able to make conscious decisions to not be my own digital technology barrier and that I will be able to modify my behaviours as I uncover and remain aware of the hidden biases that I am holding onto.