1. What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting?

Let me first explain that I am not a classroom teacher. I work in a school as a reading teacher for grade 2 and 3 students who are struggling with reading. I work in the school to teach but I am not hired by the school district. I work for a non profit organization that provides educational services to the community in the Victoria area. Yes, this is very unique! We are partnered with the school district. The district provides the space in the school and the principals and teachers select the students. As a teacher I have found myself in an interesting little niche. I am in the school working with the teachers but I am also on the side and removed from the district. With all this being said, I absolutely love doing it. I have to admit that I was not aware of the ICT policies in the district and had not gone looking before reading this question.After looking for it on the district webpage I am surprised that I can’t find any policies. It is a growing district and technology is definitely here to stay in the classroom so they better get a move on creating a policy, or letting the public know about it.

2. What digital technological resources do you have available for teaching and learning in your school setting?

The school has computer lab for student use and one computer in each classroom. A laptop is available to use in the classroom if a student or E.A. needs it for assistance. The school also got three smart boards this past year. I have one computer to use that is in my room.

3. Please provide an example of an exemplary use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

I am not sure if it was exemplary but digital storytelling is one of the better examples I can think of that can be very effective- I have not done this myself but a teacher that I work with uses it a lot. Everyone has a story to tell and share with the world. A collection of pictures can tell a fascinating and detailed story. Some students hold back from sharing their stories because they are not confident about writing. Of course everyone has to be able to write, but students also need to be exposed to other forms of expressing themselves. I witnessed many students blossom after being introduced to digital storytelling.

4. Please provide an example of a problematic use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

Students have access to all the information  online but have not been properly taught how to use all the information. Students want to learn about a topic but they believe everything they find on-line. Not all teachers have knowledge about on-line research skills, or teaching  research skills is not a priority in some classrooms.

It can also be problematic when teachers include technology into the lesson but they are not comfortable using it themselves. Valuable time is wasted when they add technology even though the lesson activity could be completed just fine with out the use of technology. Teachers certainly don’t need to be experts but they need to at least have working knowledge of the technology and be able to give assistance when problems arise!! Its is a problem when technology is added just for the sake of saying “I used technology.” When this happens I still have to give credit to them for trying, because there are many teachers who would not even try to add technology.

5. Please provide a brief history of how you learned to use digital technologies (personally and professionally).

I try to take time to explore technologies that I am not aware of. If I hear about a digital learning tool, than I like to actively engage with it myself as quickly as possible. If I wait to long or write it down on a “to do” list, I lose my enthusiasm and patience for learning it.

This year I was introduced to new technologies because they were introduced in an on-line course. I was truly inspired to know that I have all these wonderful tools at my fingertips to support the learning!

6. How would you rate your digital technological proficiency? 0 = low level of proficiency -> 10 = high level of proficiency? Why did you give yourself this rating?

4-The digital technologies that I know about, I use. I am comfortable figuring out new computer programs, and I am curious. Sometimes I feel that there is so much out there that I  know very little about all the digital technologies out in the world. Once I am introduced to them, or a teacher suggests one, I am curious to explore it further and I enjoy taking the time to learn it, as long as it would benefit my students. I only gave myself a 4 because I don’t feel that I know about enough useful technologies to use in the classroom.

7. What do you hope to accomplish in this course?

I want to feel comfortable teaching with technology. I want  to embrace it in order to enhance my students learning. I want to have a good selection of digital technologies to select from. I would love to become more of an example to other teachers who are hesitant about ICT, so they can successfully begin to integrate technology into the learning.

Since I was not aware of the policies my school district has to govern ICT, I would like to know more about what type of policies should be in place.