Our Education Technology class featuring Valerie Irvine, and ed tech professor at University of Victoria, was different from our previous guest lectures. At the beginning of the presentation via BlueJeans, Valerie posed four different questions and gave us two options to answer- either via twitter or an anonmous google document. I decided to get out of my comfort zone and respond to the questions via twitter, which was a great experience! Everyday, I’m learning that these small opportunities I take are what make me grow.
The questions posed to us were to do with classrooms via virtual means (i.e. Blue Jeans, Facetime, etc.). Valerie opened my eyes to the possibility of synchronous (running at the same time) and asynchronous (running at a different time) lessons for students. I’ve always seen this as a possiblity for adult learners, but I’ve never really considered it for younger learners. I love the idea, but I’m still trying to outweight the positives and negatives of this type of learning. Some of the positives I noted were:
-More opportunity for inclusion: learners dealing with excpetionalities such as anxiety disorders have the opportunity to join the lesson without worrying about their anxiety
-Flexibilty (location/time): a learner who may have missed a series of classes for some reason can check-in via asynchronous lessons at a different time
On the other side of the coin, some downfalls I noted were:
-Tehcnical difficulties: technical difficulties are a possibility when dealing with any type of technology. Sometimes virtual learning is interrupted by this.
-Possible absenteeism/lack of productivity: In a class based on primarily virtual meetings, how can we ensure students are attending or are actively listening via virtual means?
Relationsip building: A lot of relationships are much easier to build and foster in person. A component of relationships is lost when meeting through virtual means, especially for younger learners.
Teacher modelling: Although teachers can still model through tech-based meeting, a component of modelling is lost. For example, the teacher would not be able to walk up to each individual student to check in and model for them.
All-in-all, the most important thing I realized is that we have to check our biases. Unfortunately, biases do exist when it comes to modality. I mentioned to Valerie, that as educators, we need to remember to keep the learners’ best interests in mind. As long as we are doing this, we should be able to check biases while also providing learners with the best option for learning, even if that includes learning via virtual means rather than in person.
Personally, I have always been the type of person who prefers in-person meetings rather than tech-based meetings, however, this is not to say that I’m not open to tech-based meetings. I feel as though a lot of these tech-based meeting opportunities are catered towards older students/adults, so my next step is to explore more tech-based meeting options for younger students.
To provide an inclusive education a teacher has to be able to see the positives and negatives, fun and not so fun pieces with each lesson, as well as be aware of where a student may struggle or strive. Furthermore, checking one’s own biases when approaching a new method of teaching or a new subject matter ensures your able to teach openly and respectfully to each student. You represented these abilities effortlessly in this blog.