Category: Uncategorized

Teaching Technology

My two main questions when thinking about technology in schools are:

How is technology integrated into the classroom?

Where are we teaching students to be aware of technology?

As school is partially online and in person students are learning different skill about how to communicate with each other. Without knowing it, students are becoming more aware of how to write emails, how to talk “professionally” to a teacher or staff member and have to be motivated to show up to school each day. As time continues I believe we will see students who are extremely self-motivated but lack social abilities due to their time with online learning. Online learning can be amazing for some students but others have a hard time focusing and being able to learn online. 

Technology can be an amazing resource for teachers and students. If a child is non-verbal they are able to share their thoughts and feelings through a device, which in turn creates a stronger social bond with other students. Teachers are able to find and share different resources and activities with fellow teachers. Different activities and programs can help keep students engaged and interact with their learning. 

My biggest fear with technology being integrated into the classroom is it replacing actual teaching. As we discussed in class there are times when it is easier to teach with online websites and resources rather than having to create in person learning. 

The internet is not always a safe place and I believe students need to be aware of this but how is it going to be taught to students all over the province. 

  • What is being taken out of the curriculum to fit more digital awareness?
  • Is a new class being added?
  • Are PAA courses being adapted?
  • When are we going to start teaching digital understanding?

I think that all students should have access to technology at school to help strengthen their education but technology should not be used as a band-aid for issues within the teaching and school culture. Good teaching will always shine through, as well as poor teaching that uses technology to replace poor lessons.

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Intro into EDTC 400

Hi my name Sarah Wright and I am in my final semester of my middle year’s education degree. This is not exactly how I pictured my last semester, moving home to Estevan and taking my classes online but that is the world we are living in. 

I completed my internship at Oxbow Prairie Horizon School in Oxbow, Saskatchewan. I taught 2 sections of grade 8 ELA, math and science. 

Because of the shortage of teachers, I will be subbing within South East Cornerstone throughout this semester. Learn more about Saskatchewan teacher shortage. 

My goal going into this course is mainly centred around the online teaching and in person teaching with technology. 

My goals are…

  • Learning more about online teaching (including engaging resources and different platforms)
  • Create or become aware of resources that can easily move from in person to online learning
  • Become more informed on the latest trends in educational technology

Modern Newsletter

I started to fill my Feedly content by following a variety of sources linked to #edtech, including TED Ed and Free Technology for Teachers. I widen my search by only searching education, in which I found a variation of blogs and news articles for diverse views. When looking at the sources I was following, many were based in the US, so I strengthened my search to focus on Canadian education.Screen Shot 2019-05-16 at 5.33.27 PM

The first source that I have chosen to follow, in reference to education in general, is the Canadian Education Association (CEA). I choose to follow this magazine specifically because of its focus on Canadian education. Many of the articles I found were based in the United States, which is helpful, but there are different rules and regulations within the USA so I prefer to read Canadian content. A down side to this site is that the posts are roughly once a month unlike many others that post a few within one week. Within this source the article that caught my eye was “Stop Asking Them to Turn Off Their Devices!” The point of the article was to allow students to use their devices in a safe and responsible manner. I found this to be very relevant to this EDTC class.  Though there are not many articles, the website link is pack with many more resources.

My second source is Educational Technology, a website full of teaching and learning resources, especially apps.Screen Shot 2019-05-16 at 1.22.09 PM

Recently the music program at my elementary school was cut meaning student from kindergarten to grade 3 do not have a traditional music teacher. The article “Another Important Guide for Music Teachers and Students” 
got me thinking that maybe the homeroom teachers could use iPads or smart board apps to teach music within their own classroom. This resource publishes roughly 14 artilces a week ranging from science to music to video making. The other article I found was “3 Handy Apple Guides to Help Teachers Integrate Coding in Teaching“. Ever since I supervised a coding program for children at the public library, I have been terrified that one day I will be asked to teach my students how to code. Though this article only gives a few tips about learning and teaching code, I am sure there will be more to come.

 

About Me

Hi, my name is Sarah Wright. I am in my third year of the education program at the University of Regina.  I am originally from Estevan, Saskatchewan, a small city at in southeast corner of the province.

Over the past 5 years I have worked at my local library, which is a place that encourages everyone in the community to become digital. Through technology we are able to give our patrons more access to books and media, including a service called Hoopla that allows users to have access to books and movies on their tablets. Technology can open many doors for people, especially in education where both the student and teacher can benefit.

Through my time at the University of Regina, I have been asked to blog within most of my education classes. It allows students to connect with each other, their instructors and other people within their professions. I will be using the blog primarily to reflect on the content I am learning within my classes. There are many teachers within Canada that have amazing blogs to connect teachers to others and give helpful tips to be the best educator you can be. Blogs are not the only network that teachers use, as there are many teachers on Instagram and twitter that can help brighten a teacher’s day with their positivity and stories. One of my personal favorites is Joe Dombrowski, or most commonly known as mrdtimes3 online. I look forward to learning more about blogging and its use in the classroom.Close up on the Woman's Hands Working on the Laptop

Photo Credit: wuestenigel Flickr via Compfight cc

The Beginning of My Photography Journey!

For my learning project I will be learning about photography, focusing on taking a strong picture and not having to edit it afterwards. I took a photography class in grade 10, where I learned the basics of how to take pictures in the manual setting and basic editing techniques, but my knowledge stopped there. I have forgot much of the information, especially within the setting and lighting sections so I would like to learn this again and expand my knowledge. This weekend it was raining on and off so the lighting was not ideal, so this is when I found an article title “How to Take Great Pictures in Bad Lighting”.   I then went back to my teacher’s class website, that has small explanations and exemplars of our assignments. Along with a few other websites I was able to understand the terminology again and how to change the setting in the camera.

I have created two Pinterest boards, one for the technical side photography and the other as an inspiration board of different pictures I would like to recreate.  These boards will be my starting point each week and then I will be able to use the suggestion area to solicit more information.

My goal is to learn more about shooting pictures at night, taking portraits and taking wide focus pictures. When looking at the pictures I took without any theme in mind, I was drawn to still motion close ups rather than a wide variety of pictures.  My end goal is to practice my photography skills so I can take pictures for my sister’s high school graduation.

These are just a few of the pictures I took this weekend.