Pedagogy

This post is a reflection on the Leading Edge Digital Educator unit on Pedagogy.

Portfolio assignment for module 2:  Weather Engineering

I’ve been teaching for 7 years and thus I started teaching right when the educational system was beginning to embrace technology (or the concept of it) in the classroom. Before my very first teaching assignment, I bought a paper planbook and gradebook because that is what I had seen all of my previous teachers use. However, maintaining the paper books and carrying them between classrooms (I had to rove) left my books as incomplete and ineffective teaching aides. I soon decided to ditch them both completely and to use whatever tools that were available to me on the computer, which I’d consider makes me a native digital technology teacher.

I still went through various iterations and tested out a variety of programs and work flow systems before finally settling on Google Apps for Education. The ability to access my files and resources from anywhere rather than relying on a local hard drive or filing cabinet has been a transition I hope never to go back to. Being at Santa Rosa with 1-1 Chromebooks has made me determine that I don’t want to work at a school that doesn’t have those resources. This is not because I’ve been spoiled by them, but because the educational process is so much more meaningful when students are able to use the power of the internet whenever necessary. I am optimistic that the educational system is headed in the direction of supporting devices and high-speed internet for all students, but fear that the change may not transpire soon enough for the students currently in school.

With Google Apps, the development has been very well supported so things that weren’t possible before now are. I previously tried giving tests and feedback using forms but had no way to easily return the results to my students from my spreadsheet. The add-on Autocrat completely changed my life and work flow so that I now can return student form submissions very easily and students can now reflect on their work. If you are using Google Apps but are getting stuck on how to use it to perform tasks that might have been easy using paper before, I would definitely recommend exploring the add-ons that are now available.