My name is Sylvain Menard, and I am a high school teacher in a small rural town of British-Columbia. I took a very indirect route to the world of education. After completing a college diploma in visual arts, I worked in the photo industry for a while before I returned to school to complete a undergrad degree in sociology. Somehow my studies led me to start up a forestry contracting business, which I ran for about ten years before going back to school. I obtained my degree in primary education in 2005, and I have been teaching high school for the last nine years. I always enjoyed learning, but I never liked school, so my motivation to become a teacher is pretty much fueled by my desire to reform the way we educate our kids. I am inspired by authors such as John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Jerome Brunner, Paulo Freire, Ivan Illich, and Ken Robinson. My goal is to make education more relevant to the needs and interests of our students, and idea that is aligned with the Connected Learning movement.
I have the fortune to work in a school where innovation is encouraged and promoted. In order to overcome the challenges that small rural schools are facing, we often have to come up with new ideas. In terms of technology integration at my school, I have been responsible for:
- the reorganization our library into a learning commons.
- setting up a blended learning environment where students can enroll in a variety of courses which are project based and offer a mix of online and face-to-face instructions.
- training and supporting all teaching staff in creating and maintaining their own website to support their instructions and facilitate communication between teachers, students, and parents.
- obtaining funding and organize the acquisition and the management of digital devices (Chromebooks, I-pad, and video recording equipment) to implement our school digital literacy goals.
My project for next year is to implement a new format to teach information technologies and digital literacy. The info tech, and digital literacy education will be embedded in the humanities classes. My role will be to bounce around between the English and social studies classes to ensure that all our junior students have the necessary skills and knowledge to select and use digital tools.
Since it will allow me to learn and experiment with a variety of tools in a variety of contexts, the ETEC 565 course is very much relevant to my practice. I am self-reliant with the use of many digital applications, and I am not looking to start using any particular technologies, but I am open to discoveries, I am also looking forward to exchange some ideas.
Sylvain
Salut Sylvain. Your planned project for next year, the integration and embedding of tech knowledge, skills and attitudes into the humanities class sounds fantastic. I imagine it will be a very busy and rewarding initiative. Are the specific skills and expectations for each year/course already laid out, or will teachers be working together to determine the best way to encompass the new objectives as they move through different units of study?
-Pam
Hi Pam,
One of our main goals is to provide an optimal learning context for the tech skills. The traditional format of a fixed course with a fixed cohort and a fixed block of time led me to create some “phony” assignments, just so students could practice their skills. By embedding it into the humanities classes, the projects will be genuine and will lead to deeper and more relevant learning. The infotech course itself is not set other than having a checklist of the skills students need to master. My job is to work with students as they are completing assignments for other classes. This will allow me to assess and assist them as they are using digital tools. Some students may be able to complete the requirements of the course in half a semester while others may take up to a couple of years. The other advantages of embedding tech into other classes is that it will allow the “not-so-techie” teachers to get assistance from the tech teacher in developing projects as well as developing their own tech skills.
I am excited indeed.
Thanks for sharing the process. I think it will also be very interesting and rewarding to gain an appreciation of the actual level of skill in the use of technology as they use ‘it’ for authentic learning. -Pam
Hi Sylvain:
I’m curious about how you approach your blended classes. I have that challenge for the coming year. I have to admit to being envious that you are able to train your staff on website creation, instruction and communication tech. It sounds like you have solid traction here. Your school sounds like they’ve got an effective, integrative plan on the go.
Where did you do your visual arts training? Are you a film loyalist or have you gone to the dark side? (digital).
Craig
Hi Craig, I just saw your post yesterday. I would have been happy to talk about blended learning over the week-end.
I started experimenting with BL out of necessity. The goal was to offer more choice for electives, so I have set up a block where kids can sign up for a bunch of options centering around digital media, art, and technology. It is more like a space (my base based for these courses is the learning commons) where a people are engaged in a variety of projects. I have a bunch of technical and core content online, and students go back and forth between learning specific skills and completing projects. I am more like a project manager than a teacher. I actually find that in many cases, my students learn better from each other than from me. That is likely due to the fact that my students know more than I do about most recent tools and applications. I focus more on the basics (also known as 21st Century skills).
I did my original Visual Arts training in a Quebec CEGEP. I worked in the photo industry for about five years, and always kept creating images. I had no problem switching over to digital so much cheaper and convenient. Funny you talk about going to the dark side, I think it is the complete opposite. I spent too many sunny days in darkrooms to ever consider going back to the dark ages.