In class this week, we read the article, “20 Years of Edtech” by Martin Weller and it got me thinking about my own journey with EdTech. Certainly, over the past almost 45 years of my own education, things have changed. While Weller focused on the highlights of contributions to modern EdTech, I will be focusing on the ones that impacted me as a learner during my own journey.
1983-ish
My first interaction with a computer came in grade three or four at my elementary school in Alberta. That’s a long time ago so some of my details may be fuzzy. I don’t remember how many computers we had at the school but I do remember they were big and boxy and made a whirring sound. I remember a floppy disk- the big ones- though I don’t remember doing anything with them. What I do remember is giving the computer commands to move a small triangle that we called a Turtle around the screen. We did this by giving it degree coordinates which now boggles my mind considering our age and what my own students’ understanding of this type of command is. But within a few days, we could all proudly move the Turtle through the maze so my teachers must have been doing something right! The computer itself was not intuitive or user friendly but for us, it was exciting, though not something that was an actual tool for us to use. We were just laying the groundwork.
1987-ish
This was the year I was in grade seven and my school district went on strike. My mom, as a teacher, was allowed to bring home a computer for us to play with after our picket duty. And so began my adventures with “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” This game was an education like no other. I became proficient in geography, politics, research skills, critical thinking skills, and it likely started my fascination with criminology. The game was how we used the computer but to find the information I required, I needed to lug out my parents’ copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica and research the flags, features and such of countries around the world. Quickly I realized that creating a cheat sheet of information I’d already researched was essential to my survival in the game. Would I classify this as EdTech? Maybe? Maybe not? But it was influential.
1993-ish
Here’s where I’m gonna lose some of you who are not of the Gen X persuasion. When I graduated high school, I still had not taken a typing or computer course. It wasn’t required. We had a typewriter lab. I think we had a computer lab but it’s not somewhere I spent any real time, even on the academic path I was on. So when my parents offered to buy me a computer (desktop, that’s all we had at the time) or an electric typewriter for a graduation gift, I am sad to say I chose the electric typewriter. It could even print, which is something a desktop computer could not do without a dot matrix printer at the time. Have you heard those things? They were loud and paper was expensive! I could save my work to the memory and print it out when I was ready. It was quiet and I felt like a university student.
1995-ish
I got my first email. It was awesome. I also discovered AOL chat rooms which was less awesome. But both opened up the world a little. I could instantly send messages to family and friends when previously I had to write actual letters, which my gramma insisted upon, or make long distance phone calls, which my mom preferred. The chat rooms introduced me to people I never would have met otherwise, a red flag I was not prepared for. There was no internet safety back then so a chat room could be full of people who all like the same book, or creepy strangers who wanted to meet up. It was the university who asked for the email and warned me about chat rooms so I will file this under my emerging understanding of technology in education.
2008-ish
I got my first cell phone. That’s a lie. I borrowed my first cell phone so that when I went out of town I could stay in touch with my husband. All I had to do was buy my own minutes at the local 7-11. I got my own phone a few years later. Whereas previously I claimed I did not want to be accessible to others all the time, once I had children, I did. I was late to the game, I know that. But my husband had a cell phone through work and I was either at home or at school and easily found. A decade later, I would be using my cell phone as an integral part of my teaching practice.
2016-ish
This was a big time for me on several fronts. I started using FreshGrade in my class around this time (I could be off by a couple of years) and I started an online Natural Nutrition diploma. So EdTech was playing a large role in my thinking as a teacher and as a student. As a student, I found this system of self-paced online learning difficult. I was learning a lot, but no one was teaching me anything, if that makes sense. I probably could have saved myself $6500 and just bought the textbooks. As a professional teacher, it was hard to participate in education in this way where comprehension questions on every chapter and multiple choice/ short answer tests were the mainstay of most courses. There was no real engagement, exchange of ideas, or collaboration in any of my learning activities. I did not have to be a critical or reflective thinking until the final project and certification examination. So my first impression of online learning was not a particularly motivating one.
As a teacher, I was excited about the way EdTech was going. I had started using FreshGrade and was becoming quite proficient. What began as a way to share pictures with parents had become an online data management and gradebook that showcased the work my students were doing. I even had the opportunity to lead a webinar with FreshGrade and participate in a podcast and share my views. Was I an EdTech expert? No. But I’ve since realised that experts are often just people with things to say and experiences to share, so proceed accordingly.
March 2020
This title doesn’t need an “ish” qualifier because I remember the exact day things changed for us in education and how EdTech because our savior and our stressor all at the same time. We spent the first week of the “shutdown” at school, isolated in our own classrooms, because our spring break had not started yet. Then we had two weeks off, and by the time we returned, other districts had started laying the foundation for how pandemic learning was going to happen. I was actually saved from most of this angst because I already had an established online platform- FreshGrade- and could post work there for most of my kids. The ones who did not have access to stable internet were provided with paper packages, though only one parent came to pick them up and none were returned. My class was able to continue learning through FreshGrade because I was able to post video lessons and they could complete activities right in the app. The only hurdle we experienced was learning Teams so that we could connect as a group. Wanna know what’s stressful? Watching students compete for attention on camera by performing tricks on their trampolines! Though we got to reconnect, it was for community, not for an education. By June, students were able to return to class in small groups and I saw half my class again. The other half I have not seen since as they moved onto the high school when classes resumed in the fall. EdTech could not fix that.
2022-ish
In the spring of 2022, I experienced EdTech trauma. FreshGrade was being discontinued and I had no backup plan. After my initial disillusionment and panic, I started researching. It was my husband who found the solution- My Blue Print (which he used as a career coordinator) was launching an elementary platform for competency-based assessment in the form of an online portfolio. SpacesEDU. It was like FreshGrade expect better because it filled in the gaps. Standards-based assessment? Check. Provincial proficiency scale? Check. Data management? Check. Student portfolio? Check. Reflection opportunities? Check. The list went on and on. It was perfect. So we met with their people and purchased a license.
In the first year, there were only a few of us using Spaces. But my favourite thing about it? Every single time we made a request to the company, they listened. Now in our third year with them, every request we’ve made except one has been launched. And that final one is in the works. Was it us? No. Clearly other teachers were asking for the same things but it was nice to be heard and feel like our opinions mattered. My thoughts on learning and assessment have completely changed because I have a platform that allows students to diversify the ways in which they demonstrate their learning. What a gift, that should have been obvious from the start. This new way of thinking prompted me to do the one thing I said I would never do: I applied to a Masters of EdTech program.
2023-2024
So here we are. I am once again enrolled in an online learning program. This one is different though. We work as a cohort, which gives me the community I need. We have instructors and it’s not self-paced, though I do feel like I’m still given a lot of professional and personal autonomy. I am encouraged to make everything about me, or at least my pedagogy and practice. With a few exceptions, I can clearly see how everything ties into my own practice. I am also challenged to expand my thinking, sometimes kicking and screaming the whole way. I wanted this to confirm what I already knew about digital portfolios but instead, I’m looking at them in other ways and I think I like it. It hasn’t been easy, here I am studying EdTech at a time when personal device use is being limited in schools and the irony isn’t lost on me. It feels like a step backwards when I think we’re probably just in the messy in the middle part. I tend to be an “all in” person so having the space to think about EdTech in a reflective way has been good for me, though frustrating. Look at me, blogging about it!
I wonder if it’s generational. As someone who was around before some of the most significant EdTech, maybe my thinking is different. It’s a tool for me. I use my phone to text my friends to meet up. I am in an online Ed program because my life does not lend itself to moving to a university community. The online program makes it accessible to me. I love my digital portfolios for students because they provide a way for me to manage differentiated learning more easily. I only really learn the tech I want to or am required to. But I also know it could go away and I have strategies for that too. I want to look back in another ten years, as I approach retirement, and know that EdTech contributed to my career in meaningful ways but didn’t define it. I am also ridiculously excited to see what’s coming.
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