My name is Mel Burgess and I like to juggle. My act includes: father, teacher, student, guitar player in a band, hockey player, and more. I am married with two children, 8 and 6 years old, who fuel me with hugs and their creativity. I started my teaching career as a TTOC (“Teacher Teaching On Call” – we don’t call them “subs” in BC anymore) before moving with my wife to Japan to teach conversational English for 2 years.When we returned, I signed my first teaching contract at a middle school in Duncan, BC, as an IBIT [Intensive Behaviour Integration Teacher]. I am currently working at the Cowichan Adult Learning Centre in Duncan and have been doing so for the past 7 years. At our centre I teach all sciences and computers – 10 courses in total – and manage the computer lab as well as develop and maintain our school’s website (www.studycowichan.ca). While I respect my colleagues at my place of work, I feel I am the only teacher at our centre that has genuine interest in developing and utilizing new methods of technology to serve our student demographic better.
ETEC 565A is my 8th course within the MET program. I am also currently enrolled in ETEC 533 (my 9th course). I began my studies in September of 2012 as a way of developing my understanding of the use of technology and how it can be used to engage students and motivate learning. I chose ETEC 565A to better understand how educators and other professionals utilize LMS, social medias, and technologies in general to foster student interest in learning as well as distribute learning content. I feel I get the most out of a course which involves constructivist learning strategies, and therefore wish to develop curricula for my students with this pedagogy at the forefront. I respect the thinking of Scardamalia and Bereiter (1994) who recognize that we as educators are mostly using technology to “recreate education as it is”. In their paper, Support for Knowledge-Building Communities, they describe how computers can and should be used to develop knowledge building practices through both real and virtual communities of learners. I also believe that philosophers such as Vygotsky are accurate in their descriptions of learning; that we need to assess student understanding, find their ‘zone of proximal development’, and help guide learning from their point of reference, drawing from student experiences and interests in a socio-cultural context (John-Steiner and Mahn, 1996).
I have two goals within this course: exploration and affirmation. First, I wish to explore technologies that perhaps I am unaware of, or possibly have only recently learned of, and experience how other professionals use these technologies to deliver curricula. Included in this list is Moodle, a platform of which I have only limited experience. I am also interested in how social media in general is used to help guide learning. I am not set on any specific software; rather I will keep an open mind and reflect on what experiences this course has to offer. To assist in this experience I hope that I can rely upon the expertise of fellow students and professors to guide me when I get stuck. I know that I will have burning questions as we begin to use new technologies. In fact, I have already been guided by students in our cohort and our teacher to include specific content in thread posts and as to how to best gather “feeds” to keep tabs on what my colleagues are writing in their respective blog sites (ie. http://feedly.com/).
Secondly, through the process of supported exploration I will reflect on my current practices in education. My hope is that experience and then reflection will affirm certain aspects of my teaching and will push me to either reform or reinvent delivery of curricula using more appropriate technologies. To echo the words of Terry Anderson (2008), “The challenge for teachers and course developers working in an online learning context, therefore, is to construct a learning environment that is simultaneously learner-centred, content-centred, community- centred, and assessment-centred.” I will reflect on my personal practice with a critical lens to determine if I am staying true to my pedagogical ideals and determine where my approaches to learning fall short of these aims.
In the end, I wish to use platforms for learning, both online and offline, which are exciting, relatively easy to use and access for my students, and cost effective. As part of this process, I recognize that time to explore new technologies and confront my own understandings and overrule any misconceptions I may have towards both learning and digital environments is paramount (Confrey, 1990). Too many technologies experienced may dilute learning, therefore, I wish to be given time to build, play, ask, and reflect in each new domain.
Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. Theory and practice of online learning. Athabasca University Press, 45-74.
Confrey, J. (1990). A review of the research on student conceptions in mathematics, science, and programming. Review of research in education, 16, 3-56.
John-Steiner, V., & Mahn, H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskian framework. Educational psychologist, 31(3-4), 191-206.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. The journal of the learning sciences, 3(3), 265-283.