Posted by Ingrid Kopke Donado
A reflection on the beginnings of my use of technology for teaching and learning
A few years ago, I walked into my Friday afternoon Biology class ready to give a talk on Biochemical Evolution, only to be jumped on by one of my quietest student saying “Hey Ms. K, saw you walking to school this morning, yelled at you to see if you wanted a lift but you totally ignored me”. I was a bit startled by this accusation of “rudeness”, but then realized I had had a reason to ignore my student -I was wearing my new ipod, listening full blast to Guns N Roses.
As I explained this to him, he smiled and said “thought it would be something like that, what kind of ipod do you have?” What kind of ipod? There were KINDS of ipods? It never occurred to me that ipods, like biological species, received a taxonomic classification of their own; at the store, I had simply picked up one that attracted me.
“I don’t know”, I said in complete honesty, “It is just an ipod”.
“I bet you don’t have a nano or a mini and definitely not a shuffle”, he answered back (obviously not aware of my absolute ignorance on ipodology) “I bet you have classic”.
My face must have looked absolutely blank because then he went on to say “well, let’s get this right Ms. K, considering how much you like things to be clear and obvious I just don’t see you buying an ipod without a screen, and the screen on the nano or the mini is just too small for you –no offense to you being myopic and all, so I’m guessing you have a classic”.
I shrugged, smiled and pulled out my ipod from my pocket.
“See? I told you it was a classic.” He said.
I stared at this Knowledgeable Being holding my newly baptized ipod and smiling. This had been the most I had ever heard him say in a single lesson. A century suddenly crept between this 1991 model and myself, his outdated teacher. Where was my Scientific credibility now that it was obvious that I couldn’t even name my own ipod?
The issue however petty, bothered me for a few days, yet I wasn’t sure why. It was not the fact that I couldn’t name the little gadget, after all I have more than once in class admitted not knowing something with the promise of a research for the answer. What was really bothering me, was that I had walked into the class, convinced I had all grounds covered though absolutely unaware I was functioning at a completely different level to that of my students; I had a student who could from a hazy outline (correctly) establish the most fitting ipod for his teacher and yet in over 7 months of knowing him, his teacher had failed to find a way to engage him more in class.
My years at University and all my teacher training had prepared me to know the content of what I was supposed to deliver, but had left me in a time warp when it came to effectively delivering it to this techno-centered generation.
Sure, we used webcity at school to communicate with both students and parents and sure enough we looked at websites and research of others when it came to subject matters, but somewhere along the way I felt we were still not stepping into these teenagers’ ground.
I approached my boss at the time and expressed my concerns (and frustrations). I could see him and I were not synched in the subject, but he suggested I undertake an ECDL/ICDL course and considering “How important technology is”, as he put it, he even offered for the school to pay for it.The purpose of the ICDL course, as quoted from the ECDL website, is to “support the continuous development of ICT skills through the use of structured training and certification programmes”. I endured over 60 hours of lectures on how to maximize the use power point, excel and access (amongst others), completed a series of multiple choice answer tests (for which the answers could be memorized beforehand) and obtained a white and blue diploma stating I was “ICDL certified”. I hardly learned anything new from the course itself, but the experience led me to unlearn many things I thought about teaching and learning with ICT. I realized that the ICT skills I was looking for, had to come from elsewhere.
In the subsequent days, I walked around the school field during recess informally chattering with some of the kids. I realized that although I was only a few years older than them, in reality they were miles ahead of me. When I asked how they spent their afternoons, the name “Facebook” was unanimously expressed, together with “MSN” and “blog”. These were rated top in their activities, and if I wanted my passion for Biology to be extended to them, I had to find a way to integrate myself into this cyber-ecosystem.
The journey started with a simple forum on the webcity, Q&As I called it. My original idea was to open a space in the Friday afternoon Biology class webpage to allow for students to ask questions which they came across. I had reevaluated my Molecular Evolution course and instead of my ever prepared lecture had given my students a series of sources on the topic –some less reliable than others- to read and evaluate. It was their responsibility to analyse them and arrive to some conclusion responding to some guiding questions.
The first week a few questions were posted in the forum, factual in nature. The second week, the forum received more activity (as expected, given the deadline for submission was being approached), but now the questions were a bit more open ended. I did my best to try to keep up with everyone’s inquiries, which wasn’t easy considering the more extensive nature of these questions and my tight work schedule.
One afternoon, however, I got held up at a meeting and could not check on the forum until the next day. I was worried about the number of unanswered questions that would now be posted, and was incredibly surprised to log in and realize that my students had not waited for me to provide an answer, but had started answering –and arguing- themselves based on their own postings, research and ideas. I slowly began to change my participation in the forum (after all, this too was a learning curve for me!) and became less active in giving straight “answers” and more active in providing new questions and offering links. After 4 weeks of project activity, I was sure my students had learnt a lot more than I could have ever “taught” them, but I was even surer I myself had learned –and unlearned- a lot more than any of them.
When the time came around for teacher/parents day a few weeks later, I met up with over 100 parents. 10 of those, were the parents of my Friday afternoon Biology class. 10 of those parents, I am proud to say, were extremely grateful at how I had managed to involve their children in an activity that fascinated them: I heard parents say it was great to see that the many hours their children were spending “on the computer” had an academic purpose to it and how they felt this forum established a healthy competition into being more knowledgeable. I also heard concerns from parents, who although interested by the activity felt a bit confused and outdated in their roles as mentors and wanting –like me when face with ipod ignorance- to learn more about these forums and how they worked.
A week before the end of the school year I asked all of my students to fill in a review for the class. It is an anonymous survey done after reports are handed out which provides me an insight on the students’ perspective of the course. My Friday afternoon class reported the class that been challenging and interesting and surprisingly indicated that “many of the postings on the forum were those interesting things that would come back to memory in the middle of a test” and that “the forum allowed students to ask questions without the need to be face to face”[1].
I felt proud of myself, I had extended my passion to my students, and had heard and read proof of it. Technology now offered me a whole new range of teaching and learning skills that I needed to develop –and incorporate- into my own teaching, so that the incoming year it would not be just a class, but all of my classes, who could benefit from their inclusion in teaching and learning.
Some 6 years later, what I am aware of, is that although friendlier with technology, there is so much still for me to learn, to explore and to incorporate into my own teaching and my own learning. This IS why I'm here.
[1] I have loosely translated this from spanish, language in which these comments were originally written.
References:ECDL Foundation. (2010). About ECDL Foundation. Retrieved September 8, 2010, from ECDL Foundation: http://www.ecdl.org/index.jsp?p=93&n=94
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