I am a secondary science and chemistry teacher teaching at an international school in Hong Kong. I have taught different curricula (BC, Canada; IGCSE, IBMYP, and IBDP), subjects (science, chemistry, physics, biology, math, PE), and in different learning environments (face-to-face, online, and hybrid). I began my MET journey in the years of covid when I had a teaching role in fully online courses and hybrid courses, which allowed me to see how efficient and effective online and hybrid education can be and how there is so much potential if there were more flexibility in educational systems. My vision when I began MET involved creating or contributing to a learning system where motivated students could learn at their own pace and explore the topics that interested them using technology, while simultaneously allowing more resources to support students who are less motivated and needed more support.

I want to learn about how to seamlessly integrate an online learning environment with one that is face-to-face. I recall creating a class website for grade 11s when I began my teaching practicum over 10 years ago, only for my supervisor to tell me that only the highly motivated students will visit the site. Four years ago, when I taught my hybrid classes, most of the full-time teenage athletes I taught had limited proficiency on the computer, even though they use their phones nonstop. I would love to learn how to create assessments that can be self-administered while enhancing validity and assessment of skills and higher-level thinking through technology.

My learning goals in this course are to understand how to efficiently evaluate learning technologies and can be measured by my own ability to contribute to school collaboration meetings on learning technologies, participation in focus groups centered around technology, providing professional development for others, and taking on more responsibility related to learning technologies.

ETEC 524 can help me become a digital-age teaching professional by exposing me to current research on the benefits of learning technologies, pushing me to experiment with a variety of new technologies to design and build resources that I can use in my own teaching.

To meet my learning goals, the skills I need include time-management, communication with my peers and instructor, and a mindset focused on growth and reflection.

The areas that are most important to my own goals are assessment. In my teaching context in Hong Kong, the learning environment is extremely competitive, and the primary goal of students or parents might not focus on learning, but on scoring the highest grades to have the best chances of going to a university of the student’s dreams. Ideally, I want to learn how to design better assignments that provide a meaningful metric while also encouraging learning. Realistically, I want to provide internal assessments that encourage understanding of content, even though they have to prepare for an external standardized exam.

To master anything, I believe time and effort are the most valuable resources. Guidance from peers and instructors can also save a significant amount of time.