My ePortfolio as a Tool for Growth

As I have been reading through my ePortfolio entries, I have been struck by my growth as an educator and my newfound awareness of different styles of teaching and learning. I now have new interests in discovery-based learning, authentic learning, and cognitive apprenticeship, among many of the other tantalizing issues that we have studied during the course. It has certainly raised my level of awareness of the different ways that teachers can teach and students can learn. I have always been a "let's do this together" kind of teacher, forgoing the lecture and teacher demonstration and preferring the "everyone get on their computers and we'll look at this together" style. Although this type of teaching can be difficult - many students still expect the teacher to be the expert and want to be told exactly what to do - I now have an appreciation for why it is important that students be exposed to this type of learning situation.

Early in the course I noted,

I feel that we should not use technology just for the sake of using it. I believe that technology is strongest when it is used as a tool to support the students in learning the theory, in that it helps motivate and engage students and speaks to different learning styles. I think that in math, especially at the higher levels, it can be hard for kinaesthetic learners because it may be hard to find manipulatives. Using technology allows them to be more "hands on". It can also support visual learners who need to look at models or diagrams rather than numbers or words (Teskey, 2005a).

Then when one of the other students wrote about using calculators with primary school students to develop the concept of pi, I wrote, "I think that technology can be used to help children develop abstract concepts" (Teskey, 2005b). I think this was the real beginning of my switch from technology supporting a transmissive type of teaching to technology supporting discovery learning.

Over the course of the last few months, I can see my growth as an instructor in incorporating a variety of learning activities into the classroom, including ones with technology. I have learned about constructivist learning and teaching, although I was not able to devote any time to pursuing it during the course. I have ordered a book from the UBC library entitled, Unschooled mind: how children think and how schools should teach by Howard Gardner, so I can pursue the interest I have in teaching in a way that really helps students learn.

Early on in this course I decided to pursue the topic of why some teachers use technology and others don't. Now at the end, I believe that the real issue is not whether or not a teacher uses technology, but how teachers use any of the variety of tools they have for promoting student learning. Some teachers may use technology a lot in their classrooms, but if it is used in a transmissive manner, students will not gain much by it. I see the potential of technology to engage and motivate students, and to provide them with authentic learning experiences that might not be available otherwise.

I don't think that just using technology in the classroom is the answer, and I never envision a future where people are taught by computers. I firmly believe that technology is just another tool in a teacher's tool belt; however, it is a multi-purpose and very powerful tool. Through ETEC 533 I have learned more about how computers can be used to support learning. It can help motivate and engage learners; assist with record keeping and mundane calculations; provide a simulated environment that allows students to investigate concepts without fear of danger or without having to travel; and it can do it over and over many times so that students can use discovery learning to understand concepts rather than getting caught up in the process of production.

Conclusion

I believe that the most important thing I've gained from this assignment is the ability to look for additional learning opportunities for my students. In our section of the Adult Education Centre, all of our materials are in modular format, as each student pursues their educational goals on an individual basis. By analysing different forms of technology and reflecting on them in terms of usefulness, I have become more aware of when it is a good time to introduce to students alternate ways of learning concepts.

Despite all my exposure to social learning, multimedia and hypertext, and although I understand and espouse the idea that people learn in different ways, I am still a very solitary, linear, text-oriented learner. Hyperlinks in documents annoy me because I find them distracting. This shows itself in the way that I've organized my ePortfolio site - in a linear, chronological way, with each link opening in a new window (none of this Back business, madly clicking through sites to try to figure out where you left off!) Because I am very aware of my learning style, I wish to push myself to learn in new ways.

Many of the students in this ETEC 533 class had already taken several of the other MET courses, and the discussions that they had about constructivist learning and teaching really piqued my interest. One of the issues that I want to explore further is how technology can aid in constructivist learning and teaching. Other interesting concepts that I will pursue include how students learn best, and constructionist learning, proposed by Papert. Overall this course, with the accompanying ePortfolio assignment, has been very valuable to me as an educator. It has allowed me to understand what interests me, how I can learn better, and how I can help my students toward a more complete comprehension and retention of their studies.

References

Teskey, C. (2005a). My assumptions about the use of technology in the math and science classroom. ePorfolio entry, ETEC 533: Technology in the Mathematics and Science Classroom.

Teskey, C. (2005b). More technology assumptions. ePorfolio entry, ETEC 533: Technology in the Mathematics and Science Classroom.