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I believe that my educational technology abilities are for the most part at a novice level. I am comfortable with many different types of technology and platforms, however, when other teachers at my school start talking about more complex technology skills such as html or coding, I am completely lost. In terms of my educational technology strengths, I would say that I am willing to try and learn new types of ed tech. As an example, with my district’s release of Microsoft Teams for this school year, I have spent numerous hours participating in professional development opportunities in order to learn how to use it more effectively with my classes. I do however, anticipate a few challenges when it comes to learning about and using ed tech. One of these challenges is learning about so many different types of ed tech in a short period of time. I find that I need to focus on one thing at a time and can be very overwhelmed with so many options available to learn and use.
There are several resources that I can use to help me increase my educational technology strengths and to address the challenges I may face in using ed tech. Some examples would include:
District IT Support
My school district has an IT teacher consultant that is available to come into our classrooms and explore new types of technology and support us in using it in our lessons. Throughout the year, they also come and make presentations to our staff.
Professional Development
I could participate in the numerous professional development opportunities that are available to teachers through my district and through provincial organizations. I have currently been attending webinars before and after school for small sessions to learn about using Microsoft teams and Moodle.
Colleagues
There are many teachers at my school that are very interested and competent in technology integration. My Vice Principal is a former district IT consultant and two teachers have a masters in technology. I could go to them with questions or to potentially co teach some classes using ed tech.
Websites
There is so much information at our fingertips these days, that I can easily learn about new things from a simple web search. Sites such as google, pinterest, and other teacher’s blogs can provide invaluable information for learning about how to use educational technology effectively.
Kira, I can relate to feeling overwhelmed sometimes with the complexities of learning new EdTech! I think you have a good attitude about it though in that you are are willing to go out of your comfort zone and try new things – taking things one step at a time is how I like to approach learning new things as well. And it helps that you have a lot of colleague support if you need it!