I have regular conversations with educators about the role of\ntechnology in their practice and was encouraged to write a series of blog posts\nto foster curiosity, provide information and suggest resources to begin\ndialogue for and with the KPU community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been an educator at KPU since 2010 in the Faculty of\nHealth as well as the Curriculum Coordinator who facilitated a number of\nsignificant program revisions and currently, in my role as the Manager of Learning\nTechnology and Educational Media. I am also pursuing doctoral studies focused\nin the distance education arena. In these roles I have had opportunity to\nobserve, inquire and learn about technology and its impact in education. The\nworld is changing and so too should our classrooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I say regularly \u201cI am not a techie\u201d, but I work hard to\nslowly learn new tools because I believe in the positive impact technology can\nhave on teaching and learning. For example, there is disagreement about\nallowing cell phones and computers in the classroom. Left unguided phones may\nbe a distraction from learning however utilized with purpose they become tools\nto engage students, build inquiry skills or work collaboratively on a variety\nof activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Depending on your affinity toward technology, you may or may\nnot have integrated technology in your teaching practice. It seems those who\nenjoy technology have sought opportunities to use it in their delivery of\neducation, while others remain skeptical of the benefit and choose to hold onto\ntheir traditional approach. I have come\nto realize that this may be due to many variables as opposed to simple\nresistance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a recent conversation with a colleague struggling to\ndetermine if and how to incorporate technology in a course I was asked to share\nhow I had come to decide this was something that would be part of the future of\neducation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traditional methods of teaching served us well for a long\ntime but some argue that it is inadequate to help us prepare for students in\nthe 21st<\/sup> century. (Davidson, 2017, Bates, 2015). The landscape of higher education is\nchanging, as a result of multiple complex drivers occurring simultaneously.\nThese drivers include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result of the latter two\nfactors the workforce needs are also shifting. Increases in technology impact\nboth the skills needed in the workplace as well as the tools inside and outside\nthe classroom. If we are preparing graduates for\nwork in this environment than we must include technology as part of their\nlearning journey. Finally, and most importantly, as information becomes readily\navailable online, students will look to our institutions to support learning\nrather than deliver content (Bates, 2015). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Technology skills are about more than the ability to use a\ncomputer, it is also the ability to find, evaluate and interpret information\n(inquiry based learning), this contributes to active learning and is quite\ndifferent that the passive learning that occurs listening to a lecture. Since\ninformation is everywhere, providing students a guiding question(s) and some\ntime to explore the information followed with discussion to help provide\ncontext and make meaning will result in deeper and likely more meaningful\nlearning. We are also building awareness of the role technology plays in the\nworld and how information is tracked, shared and accessible, often even when we\nthink it is not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Technology is not the solution for everything. It needs to be\nused purposefully to enhance learning or provide an experience that could not\nbe provided without it. This overlap or intersection between technology and\npedagogy is an important one and I encourage discussions with colleagues to\nexplore the intersection. A respected colleague of mine suggested that to build\nlife-long learning skills it is vital that we not do for students what they can\nlearn to do for themselves (Pirie-Cross, 2019). <\/p>\n\n\n\n I continue to invest time and energy in understanding the\nnuances of integrating technology into teaching, digital learning environments\nand building my expertise to support others as they navigate this paradigm\nshift in education. Over the coming\nmonths there will be a number of posts on related topic, such as Technology Based\nLearning Environments and Online Learning Pedagogy. I welcome suggestions of\ntopics that would support you or your department to engage in adopting\ntechnology in your practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bates, T. (2015). Teaching in a digital age: guidelines for\ndesigning teaching and learning. Creative commons<\/p>\n\n\n\n Davidson, C. N.\n(2017). The new education: How to revolutionize the university to prepare\nstudents for a world in flux<\/em>. Hachette UK <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pirie-Cross. M (2019) personal communication<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have regular conversations with educators about the role of technology in their practice and was encouraged to write a series of blog posts to foster curiosity, provide information and suggest resources to begin dialogue for and with the KPU community. I have been an educator at KPU since 2010 in the Faculty of Health…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[37,66,38],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-ed-tech","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Benefits of Technology<\/td><\/tr> \u2022 Develop 21st century skills
\u2022 Changing student demographics
\u2022 Serve inequities
\u2022 Prepare student for a technology filled world
\u2022 Build digital skills
\u2022 Facilitate learning
\u2022 Build student self- efficacy <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n