Technology in Public Education During COVID-19
I have to say that I am enjoying this method of reflection. As I mentioned in my first post, I initially struggled for something to reflect on. As I write, I am finding additional questions I want to answer and I hope to include in future posts. I will mention them as they come to mind.
This post will come in stark contrast to my first. My first post, written from the perspective of an employee of a forward-thinking private post-secondary institution, proudly outlined the readiness of the institution and its students for the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020. This second post is from the point-of-view of a public school parent of a grade 6 student and a grade 4 student with ASD.
While my children are at the same school, their online learning experiences have been very different. Speaking only about the teaching aspect (I may want to consider innovations in learning, particularly for students on the Autism spectrum in a future post), I have noticed a lot of variation. Some educators moved to digital learning fairly quickly, as they already had an arsenal of technology-enabled teaching tools they were using, and knew what to use when. Others had been reluctant to incorporate technology in the classroom pre-pandemic, and struggled to keep up when online learning became a reality. I have noticed this latter group has come a long way in a year. I would be interested to hear from longtime educators in this class who have taught through decades, and who could speak to innovation over the years.
I would take this opportunity to thank the public school educators out
there who have been able to keep the educational "lights on" during this
pandemic, any way you've been able to make it work - especially those with their own learners at home. Cheers. I am very
thankful for you all.
Seen
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteTo start, I LOVE the background you chose for your blog. Super fun!
I completely agree, there are some teachers that were already technologically savvy with their classroom resources and some that were not pre-pandemic. I spoke about a similar issue in my blog- but focusing more on technologically savvy students vs. those who did not have consistent access to the internet.
Thanks for the insightful post!
MaryGrace
Hi Tiffany. Well done with your blog. I find it very interesting to be in a course with an educator that works at Queen's. Thank you for providing insight into the institutional commitment to innovation. Abbotsford School District, where I work, has "Innovation" imbedded into the culture as one of its core values. How this plays out in the classroom and workplace is that the staff benefit from (and at times struggle with) the District's significant investment in technology. I appreciated how you took your own experiences with innovative tech in education and reflected on, the personal experience with your kids accessing education via tech during COVID. Looking forward following your posts. Tanya
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany. Well done with your blog. I find it very interesting to be in a course with an educator that works at Queen's. Thank you for providing insight into the institutional commitment to innovation. Abbotsford School District, where I work, has "Innovation" imbedded into the culture as one of its core values. How this plays out in the classroom and workplace is that the staff benefit from (and at times struggle with) the District's significant investment in technology. I appreciated how you took your own experiences with innovative tech in education and reflected on, the personal experience with your kids accessing education via tech during COVID. Looking forward following your posts. Tanya
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany, thank you for sharing this post. While I am not involved in elementary or secondary education, I have had conversations with instructors who have observed the same reluctance that you are mentioning. I believe that when we return to in-person teaching, there will be artifacts of educational technologies that come with us and will lead to a more enriching educational experience for all.
ReplyDeleteKyle