Category: Weekly Reflections

Today we discussed “digital literacy” and how it can be integrated into education. It is described to be the “ability of individuals to appropriately use digital technology and communication tools to access and manage information to construct new knowledge and communicate with others.”

To begin, there are 6 components of digital literacy:

• research and info literacy
• critical thinking problem solving
• creativity and innovation
• digital citizenship
• communication and collaboration
• technology operations and concepts

We then began to discuss Artificial Intelligence (AI) which is a “collection of computer technologies that embody human intelligence.” We watched a really great video that outlines the ways we use AI in our daily lives. Some examples are: alexa, google search, face recognition, google translate, and zoom.

Some of the abilities of AI include: create art, learn to walk, write music, learn video games, read lips, diagnose medical issues, and write stories. One interesting thing we looked at was the “merge cube” which is a strand of virtual tech and is already being implemented into classrooms. One teacher used the merge cube and iPads to look at the volume of different shapes with their students.

The whole topic of AI and virtual reality is really interesting to me and something I need to be educated on if I want to be a elementary school teacher because most of my students will already be involved with these topics. I enjoyed our discussion this week and learned a lot from it.

Today’s class was centered around “Technology and Inclusion” with guest speaker Chantelle Morvay-Adams from the “BCEdAccess Society.”

BcEdAccess is a volunteer run organization supporting families of students with disabilities and complex learners across BC. Chantelle discussed some of the arguments parents will pose when it comes to using technology in the classroom for children with designations, like “there are no resources to educate parents.” She focused on “ableism” which is the discrimination of peoples with disabilities due to the belief that your abilities are superior. Some examples of ableism when it comes to the accessibility and inclusivity of technology are: questions if someone is “too disabled” to use the technology, holding students with learning disabilities back from using technology because other students may feel jealous, envious.

For a breakout question I talked with some of my peers about “removing the stigma and fostering inclusion using technology in the classroom.” We discussed how it is equally as important to inform the student with the disability why they are using the tech, and also to inform the class why this student is using the tech. Kids are smarter than we often assume and it is important that we are honest and up-front with them about these resources being used in the classroom. For the student with the disability, it is important that teacher’s: read the IEP (can give you an idea of what has work/what doesn’t), engage with the family (send things home, email, arrange a meeting), engage with the student, and navigate the resources that are available to you (ie. who to connect with in your school/district). Some specific apps and programs that are useful for those with disabilities: Google Read&Write, Google Lens, Google Text to Speech.

Chantelle states that technology is a “toy not a tool” and I think this is a great way to explain the importance of technology usage for disabled students (as well as other students). Some other summative points: “tech is not one size fits all,” “build relationships with students and families,” normalize accessible tech in the classroom,” “connect with people who can help you,” and “continue learning about ableism and how it appears in our daily lives.”

I thought this was a fantastic presentation overall and I really appreciated hearing from Chantelle. Especially as a future educator, I know that this information will definitely benefit me in my career. Inclusivity is so important, but learning how to add technology into this equation is a huge step towards success for those students with disabilities. Chantelle provided a link to an article (which I have included accessliving.org/newsroom/blog/ableism-101/ ) about ableism and the efforts we can make to fix it. This article was really helpful to me and I hope it can be helpful for many others too.

This week in class we reviewed what we have learned so far (because we’re halfway done which is crazy!) and further discussed “technology integration models” such as SAMR and TPACK. It was a really insightful class and brought up topics that I hadn’t heard of before.

SAMR is a model showing the levels of tech usage for integration in education. The question that describes this model is “how does tech expand what is possible in teaching and learning?” I found a really great image on “Creative Commons” that demonstrates what SAMR stands for. I really like this table because it gives examples of how each category of tech integration plays into a realistic classroom task.

TPACK stands for “The Integration of Technological, Pedological, and Content Knowledge.” The question that describes this question is “how do you combine knowledge of content and pedagogy in a meaningful way with educational knowledge?” This model is also important to us as future teacher because it demonstrates how to incorporate these different areas of knowledge into each other, something that will be required of us in the curriculum.

Some of the other things we discussed in today’s class were:

• Content knowledge (the what) vs Pedagogical (the how) knowledge
• Curriculum content in different provinces and countries and how they all differ
• Different beliefs of education in societies (specifically egalitarianism)
• How teaching styles change depending on the students you have in your class (this can also determine what types of technology you use and how you use them)
• Assessment and evaluation and the ways in which they are changing, specifically in BC
• How to use your time throughout the school year wisely, “don’t teach what you don’t have to teach

I really enjoyed our discussions today and the opportunity we had to think about the future of education using technology!

Today we took a look to the future and discussed the generation of learners that us teachers will be expecting in our classroom: Gen Alpha.

Researchers has determined that some of the traits of these learners expected to have include:

• Never use cash
• Never take a written exam
• Impressionable during the pandemic
• Life is extremely involved with social media
• Perceive reality in video game context
• Desire immediate feedback

These students will be bringing all of these things into the classroom with them and this is something teachers need to be aware of. Teachers should also consider how they can prepare these students for the world they will need to navigate in terms of demographics, climate, life-expectancy, travel, economy, and technology. All of these things are very significant and contribute to the success these students will find in their futures.

We also discussed how the progression of the 20th century school system and how it has impacted the teaching world of today. Along with that, we looked at multiple project ideas for students that involve technology (graphics) as a method of a “flipped classroom.”

We were shown the graphic editing app “Canva” and how we can use it for classroom purposes. I decided to create a potential book club poster that I could hang up in the school. There are so many templates on Canva and I will definitely be using it when I become a teacher. Here’s the poster I created: