Personal Technology Reflection

Personal Technology Reflection

I use technology almost constantly in my home life as well as my educational life.  I have always been someone who takes to new software and advancements in technology quite quickly.  I credit my father for always buying an Apple computer every time the version was released.  He was always excited to see what the new computer could do that for the lay person was not possible before, even if those advancements had no practical value.  I think that may be the difference between teachers who integrate technology into their classroom easily and those who are resistant to change.  It’s the difference in mindset from ‘If I’m going to use this technology, it better make my life way easier.’ and ‘Wow, let’s see what this piece of science can do!’

As far as using technology in my educational setting goes, I don’t really have a choice.  Using technology is the facet of my educational setting that I fill.  I am the Educational Technology Integration Specialist at my school.  This is a role that didn’t exist ten years ago, anywhere, and didn’t exist at my school two years ago until I accepted the opportunity.  Yes, there were IT directors that handled the network and hardware, but they had little or nothing to do with how teachers used technology let alone the impact on student learning would be.  I really enjoy this job.  It affords the time to research new software, hardware, apps, and approaches to teaching that I can then sift through and implement within our particular school setting, taking into account the individuals who will be using the technology, to best enrich teaching and learning.

I my job I use technology to do three main things; collect information, communicate, and organize.  In doing these three things I also aim to demonstrate to others how they can use the tools that I use to become more organized, efficient, and effective in their own practice.  I do the trialing of products, then recommend them to the teachers as, whether they want to be innovative or not, they generally don’t have the time to really look into how they can get there.

One of my biggest focusses right now is creating my own and showing others how to create their own personal learning resources and plans.  Technology has made self-learning extremely accessible for anyone that has an internet connection.  The most important aspect of building your own learning is the collection and organisation of information.  I use several applications and websites that are tailored to collect and organize the information I find for me.  The first service that I use in collecting information is Evernote.  Initially I had thought of using Evernote to collect my own personal notes, thoughts, shopping lists and found that it wasn’t that powerful.  Then when I found the Google Chrome extension Evernote Clearly, it changed how I use Evernote.  Evernote Clearly is a tool that is used while you are reading an article online and, as is often the case, there are a multitude of advertisements on the page, some flashing, some scrolling video.  When you click on the Clearly button the extension clears everything from the screen except the text and the pictures that are related to the article.  This is very helpful to someone like me who is easily distracted while reading.  Clearly also allows you to highlight important passages of text and annotate the reading.  How I then collect and organize this information is seamless.  Since Clearly is an Evernote product, I click on the save to Evernote button and choose which folder I want to categorize it into or simply tag the article with keywords so that it is easily searchable later.  The article is then saved including all of the highlights and annotations I had made.  

YouTube is a goldmine of personal learning information with tutorials on anything and everything.  I have used people’s posted videos to learn how to do everything from adding subtitles in iMovie to playing ‘Let It Go’ on the guitar for my four year-old daughter.  In collecting this information I create playlists within YouTube, organized under headings like Guitar How-To’s, Google Classroom Tips, and Inspiration.  I have found creating YouTube playlists incredibly beneficial in teaching my Design class.  I can create my own videos that I use in a flipped classroom model and more so I can collect videos on design that are not necessarily related to the content that has been presented in class, but extend the students learning, sparking further inquiry and intrigue into the subject.      

I use technology to communicate with specific individuals as well as to convey my ideas to a broader range of anyone who may be interested.  For personal communication I use email, both Gmail and Yahoo mail (although I find the capabilities of Gmail to be far superior), messaging through a number outlets (Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Apple Messages, and Skype), and video calls through Skype, Google Hangouts, and Facetime.  These forms of communication very much lessen the difficulties of living abroad.  I can call my dad and virtually sit across the table from him, drink coffee together and chat about what benign things our day might bring as if we weren’t in different hemispheres.

I also frequently use technology to put out to the masses who I am through relaying my thoughts and sharing any knowledge I may have on a number of topics through the two blogs I write on Blogger.  Even though my writing will in all likelihood not be read by thousands or even hundreds of people, the possibility that anyone could read it gives that much more meaning and purpose.  I leverage this idea with my students as well.  When they write on their blogs, as opposed to writing for their teacher alone, they are motivated write more, because they want to be seen and to write better, as they might actually been seen.  

I have lived in China and Brasil and travelled to sixteen other countries.  Technology has played an essential role in how I am able to communicate in different languages throughout the world.  If I know I am going to be in a country for a substantial amount of time I try to learn some of the language beforehand as well as during my stay.  I have used language learning programs like Rosetta Stone and, my current favorite, DuoLingo.  When I just need a little help with translation or if I’m not going to take the time to learn the language, I use an incredibly helpful app called Say Hi!  I can write in text or speak directly into the microphone in a whole slew of different languages and receive a translation quite quickly.  This app has been a lifesaver on multiple occasions.  

Organization has always been my achilles heel.  I would start the school year as a student and as a teacher with the best of intentions.  I would go out and by the folders and notebooks, pencils and daily planners.  I would be very consistent for about two weeks, writing down assignments in the diary, filling papers into their correct folder, before I lost interest or physically lost the planner.  With the advent of software specified for increasing productivity I have been able to pretty much automate the organization of life, professionally and personally.  I owe a lot of this to the vast integration of Google Apps.  Not only are the individual apps effective at organization, the power of how the apps work together makes organization so seamless.  

Google calendar reminds me of all appointments and it knows when dates come up on anything that I am working on that it might be an important date and asks if I want to include it in my calendar.  Anything that I do in Google Classroom is linked to my students calendars as well as documents and assignments are automatically organized into their Google Drive.  The big thing here though is that, no matter where I am or what computer I am on, all of my information is there for me to refer to.  

All-in-all I am very comfortable with technology and have benefitted from the many uses of it.  I, however, need to be aware of the habits that I have formed by using technology for everything.  I have a tendency to pick up the iPad, with no specific purpose, and end up spending an hour doing nothing where I could have been having breakfast with my kids.  I have to be very conscious of what message I am sending to my kids about what is important to me.  I grew being a kid who always wanted to be outside and I want to demonstrate that mentality to my own kids by stepping away from the screens and engaging with them as much as possible.