I am really fortunate in that I do not need to anticipate a new opportunity arising in my teaching in the near future because I am living that new opportunity. After a number of years feeling like I was very much trying to push my practice on my own, I have been welcomed onto a team that is doing wonderful things pedagogically and I am so excited to be exploring new technology-rich frontiers with like-minded educators.
When people look at our program probably the first thing that they see that sets it apart is the fact that each student uses an iPad. However, the innovation of this program goes far beyond the obvious. But the one on one use of a device is an enticing prospect for me. As somebody who has worked as a teacher librarian and humanities teacher, I am excited by the expanded opportunities afforded my students by the use of the iPad: It is versatile and allows for tremendous creativity. While it is capable of traditional tools like word processing and Internet searches, there is so much more possibility, including communication beyond the walls of the school, creative work such as movies, animation, podcasts, and blogs, as well as adaptive options such as voice to text and text reader, promoting more opportunity for success among more students. Furthermore, becoming comfortable using the iPad helps develop problem-solving skills in students as well as encouraging collaboration as they both help each other and work together on their projects. And the iPad is gloriously portable, meaning learning can occur anywhere– as it so often does in real life.
Beyond just the use of technology, the program is also project-based learning which is new to me and very exciting. While I am feeling a definite learning curve in my planning process, I realize the opportunity for more real world, meaningful work by my students. I am also encouraged by my teammates to include real, authentic resources in the planning. So we will not just be learning within the walls of our school but are encouraged to move beyond and seek opportunity and expertise elsewhere. Hopefully this real-world exposure brings authenticity their work that in turn increases engagement in the learning.
Finally the third aspect of my new role that excites me the most is the fact that I am working as part of a team. In my experience as a teacher, the most powerful things I have done have come out of collaborative experiences. By its very nature, our program is designed for us to function as a team. For example, students don’t have one teacher for humanities for a year or even for a semester, but will have several teachers working with them throughout the year. This shifting not only exposes students to more educators and teaching styles, but allows us to work together as we get to know all of our learners and discus ways to support them as a team. Furthermore, as teachers we know the value of good feedback to our students, and so we follow this mindset ourselves, and work at developing projects, openly seeking feedback from the team as we go. This helps make us all better as well as exposes us to what the other team members are doing and allows us to build off of this to benefit of our students. And this is invaluable to me as the noob on the team!
As we strive to educate independent learners, one of the things that I am most focussed on is helping my students be smart and curious seekers of information. Information is ubiquitous nowadays; however, what our students need from us is the capacity to determine how to find information that is relevant, reliable, and useful. I also hope to build students’ capacities to synthesize information from different sources and increase their ability to connect things and ultimately engage in “big picture” thinking. In helping students become more discerning consumers of media, it is exciting to know that I am working in an environment that encourages engagement with these media and that allows students the opportunity to do so on a regular basis and not just intermittently as is so often the case in schools. A text book does not represent an authentic flow of information. Information comes from websites, blogs, social media, films, TV shows and conversations with other human beings. If that’s how people really learn, that’s how students ought to learn. The more we give students opportunities for learning that mirrors how people function outside the school, the better positioned they are for taking on challenges after graduation.
Areas of interest:
- Digital workflow
- Information literacy: database searches, media literacy
- Collaborative teaching
- Curation of information
- Real-world learning
- Technology in PBL
