I interviewed a colleague who has taught for seven years in several elementary grades. She currently teaches a Grade 3-4 split and, in recent years, has been an Inquiry-Based Learning\u00a0teacher. We had sat down for a 20 minute conversation, which I transcribed after. The three words I would use to represent the themes of our conversation would be value, caution and support.<\/p>\n
Value<\/u><\/p>\n
Much of the conversation focused on the interviewees belief in the benefits of technology with regards to learning. For example, she mentions that technology \u201cprovides a chance for kids to show their learning in a lot of ways. Without having to be great at fine motor, technology kind of provides a way to lift barriers and allows a lot more kids in, who may have challenges.\u201d Overall, she appreciates the value that technology can add to learning, and the way it can facilitate a variety of meaningful experiences.<\/p>\n
Caution<\/u><\/p>\n
Although the interviewee is convinced of the benefits of technology, she integrates it with critical reflection and caution. She is highly aware of her own context and the young age of her students. She has developed opinions regarding the style of integration she seeks in her class in Math and Science. With her students, she defines the good use of technology to be \u201cany technology that allows them to actively engage with learning. I think it\u2019s best, especially in the early years, when learning has a physical and digital element. Effective technology use allows them to still have hands-on experiences and there is a danger going towards just using technology to show learning.\u201d She continually reflects on the benefit of adding technology to an experience.<\/p>\n
Support<\/u><\/p>\n
She communicates a desire to integrate a variety of new technologies in math and science but does not typically rely on institutional support to help her. She stated that it \u201cmostly feels up to me. Most of what I have done was because of my interest in trying the technology. I\u2019ve heard about it somewhere and just want to try it myself. I think we\u2019re supported in that we get the freedom to try things in class, but I do not find the type of PD offered useful for me.\u201d She has a developed notion of what she would need to help her achieve her goals; \u201cI would say that peer driven PD, that is mixed group, that takes place alongside kids in an actual classroom would be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, her conception of good technology use with children connected with this quote from Clements (2002),\u00a0“the computer offers unique opportunities for learning through exploration, creative problem solving, and self-guided instruction.” (p. 341) She looks for these unique opportunities and critically reflects on her experiences to inform her practice.<\/p>\n
Clements, D., & Sarama, J. (2002). The Role of Technology in Early Childhood Learning.\u00a0Teaching Children Mathematics,<\/em>\u00a08<\/em>(6), 340-343. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca\/stable\/41197828<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I interviewed a colleague who has taught for seven years in several elementary grades. She currently teaches a Grade 3-4 split and, in recent years, has been an Inquiry-Based Learning\u00a0teacher. We had sat down for a 20 minute conversation, which I transcribed after. The three words I would use to represent the themes of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40965,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1669387],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40965"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2661"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2703,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions\/2703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}