In order to address this idea ~ what is the reality of education technology, in my context? ~ I find that I must first go back in time to explore how I even got here to begin with.
Based on my lived experience, “education technology” is essentially synonymous with “online education” — but I’m finding, as we begin reading and discussing, and as I am drawn into thinking about this with more depth and breadth of view — that this is really a very limiting perspective.
There is a great deal of defensible reason for this, however. It began in my seventh grade year, when I became aware of the educational alternative to be home-schooled rather than attend my usual brick-and-mortar, traditional, in-person school; this idea grew into a dream through the pervasive, perpetual and emotionally debilitating taunts and bullying behaviours of my classmates at that time.
Despite my hard-fought campaign to homeschool for grade 8, my family was not in a position to support me in that endeavour at that time. It was not until the summer after my tenth grade year that I renewed my efforts, and this time was successful in taking grade 11 as a distance education student through the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (colloquially the ADLC, and which is now defunct). Though it was called “distance education” (and not “online education”) at the time, I was provided with a PC, given access to some of the very first online courses which to be developed and rolled out by the ADLC, and encouraged to use their instance of a First Class Client email and instant messaging service to connect with both teachers and fellow ADLC students. It was providential that I had also recently convinced (badgered?) my parents into getting a second telephone line in order to have a dedicated dial-up internet connection. Though much of my course content was delivered via traditional print methods, some of my assessments were completed digitally using online quiz tools. Much of the rest of my work was submitted by fax to the school; I honestly do not recall anymore how my graded work was returned to me.
Due in large part to the utter joy I experienced as a student of the ADLC (thanks to such things as freedom to study when I deemed fit; no classroom-management-related delays; the ability to focus on one course at a time; among many others), I told myself that should I ever become a teacher, it would only be if I could teach at a distance. And, as it turns out — that’s exactly what has happened.
I began my teaching career in 2011, with a contract position with a home school board, wherein they were partnered with the ADLC (small world, right?) for course content, while we teachers were to provide three hours a week of synchronous online instruction to students in each core course. My experiences there renewed my relationship with FirstClass client for email communications; I was also introduced to the learning Management System (LMS) Desire2Learn (D2L), the video-conferencing software Blackboard Collaborate, and grades management systems ranging from user-created Excel spreadsheets to a web-hosted platform called Engrade. It was also here that I began a long-lived relationship with my most favourite technology tool: a Bamboo pen and tablet; though the OG version died a few years ago when I dropped the pen (one time too many), causing a fracture in the internal copper wiring, its replacement (a Wacom Intuos) serves my purposes just as functionally.
From there, I moved on to a contract marking and substitute teacher position for the ADLC and its sister school, Vista Virtual (VVS). This necessitated learning Genius SIS: Student Information System, renewing my relationship with D2L, shifting to the LMS Moodle, using myTeamWork for telecommunications, supervising student assessments through a COVID-19-spurred change from in-person to recorded Google Hangouts (which morphed to Meets), to using Integrity Advocate software, to finally embracing Proctorio; and generally becoming adept at navigating the internet and finding different digital tools and shortcuts to do my work efficiently. Another part of my journey in this capacity was in discovering the usefulness of live documents (such as Google Docs) to host assignment keys, so that markers could make suggestions of improvements or changes (or point out errors), and even record commonly-used feedback comments, which would then be visible and easily available to all other teachers and markers who also worked in that course and used those keys. Over my years with ADLC and VVS, I also got to be a participant in the process in which student feedback for quizzes and exams evolved. These used to be kept in individual text-based files; thanks to another teacher’s particular genius with spreadsheets, over the course of multiple years these were developed into intricate, live Google Sheets wherein student results can be imported, the data filtered and sorted, an output PDF file created, all in the matter of seconds and a few clicks of a mouse button.
A one-semester stint in the fall of 2020 consisted of my working for a school board which was physically located several hundred kilometres from my home. I was tasked with building Google Classrooms for four senior-high, asynchronous mathematics courses; I turned to the internet to find already-made resources to support student learning, since creating those resources first-hand was an impossible task given the constraints of the FTE at which I was employed. It was this experience in particular which made me appreciate the structure and resources available to VVS teachers – a well-rounded IT department, specialized staff to troubleshoot issues with their SIS and LMS systems, development days to create or improve course content… Most of all, it drove home to me just how isolated most online school teachers are, and highlighted to me a massively gaping hole of need in our educational system for collaboration of resources and skills and technology which is fitted to these online environments.
As an anomaly to my typical experience, I have also worked (sporadically) as a substitute teacher for several different school boards in my relatively local area. Being in a physical classroom means that I’ve seen how education technology is (or, more to the point, is not) utilized. Some teachers have document cameras and use them to write notes or fill in keys for students to mark their own work. Many classrooms have SMART Boards, but a pitiful few actually seem to use them in any sort of innovative way; mostly these default to being modern-day chalkboards, and nothing more.
At present, I am working as a teacher for an online school which utilizes PowerSchool SIS and hosts courses in the Canvas LMS, and for which teachers run weekly live sessions with core course students using either Google Meet or Zoom.
Since I have been immersed for so long now in the distance/online education world, and the use of technology is fundamental to that format, I feel I have a great breadth of experience in many different realms and aspects relating to educational technology. What I have come to observe, though, is that not all technologies are created equal, and often-times the technological component is actually a source of extreme inefficiency. In a day and age of extreme connectedness, it strikes me as ludicrous that educators are so very isolated in their own classroom setting (virtual or in-person). Why is it that there is not a greater focus on collaboration at higher levels (for example, provincially) to compile an excellent course curricula and content into a freely-accessed resource which could be made available to every school and teacher? How many students in remote settings or in small rural communities might benefit from this resource made available to all teachers? In a world where databases are used to store so much information, how is it that the student information systems available to schools do not make efficient use of scripts to extract necessary data in a timely, user-friendly output? How is it that the most prevalent technology I’ve observed in classrooms is in the form of students endlessly snapping or gaming or watching TikTok or YouTube on their smartphones? Why is it that each online school, seemingly, wishes to recreate the proverbial wheel for themselves? And if educational technology is a necessity for an online school, why then is it that the LMS chosen is not continually molded, shaped, edited, evaluated, changed, upgraded for the benefit of both teachers and students? Ultimately, it seems to me from my little corner of the world, that a seismic shift in approach, purpose and execution is desperately needed in all aspects relating to technology in, and for, education.
Post’s featured image 2020 Autumn Sunrise taken by me.
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