As teachers, we witness daily the struggle for our students to acquire new information. We see the various strategies of diving in headfirst to new concepts, crying with helplessness, or avoidance at all costs. In turn we provide guidelines, scaffolds, and prodding where needed, looking for various ways to ease the process of learning. For the most part, we feel that we have already acquired what we need to know, and are now focused on imparting it to others.
Being a part of this Master’s program, I have had ample opportunity to witness the stages of learning among my peers and myself - and it is very enlightening! We sometimes feel as teachers that it is only children who display the characteristics of avoidance or fear in the face of learning, but this is most definitely not the case. My Master’s colleagues and I are currently taking a course on Technology Tools and Information Literacy. Yes...technology. The challenge of many middle-aged teachers (myself included!). This course, more than any other we’ve taken, has highlighted our various approaches to learning difficult new material. Some members, of course, are very comfortable with technology. Some (like myself) are slowly gaining in confidence and enthusiasm. Some, by their own admission, would - if they could - run far, far away to avoid it! This was made
particularly clear in our class today, as the great February Snowmageddon of the Fraser Valley prevented us from meeting in our usual spot. Instead, our tech savvy instructor (the amazing Deanna Pelusso) taught the class through Google Hangouts. You can imagine that for some teachers just becoming aware of the existence of Google Drive, this was a major learning curve! The class was all about using a particular tool for research (the previously mentioned Mendeley) in the quest to develop our research questions for our culminating thesis project. Sitting there and looking at the wee videos of my colleagues as we listened, commented, and questioned, I found myself
thinking about the similarities to a class of our own students: some intrigued, some sleepy, some a bit stunned! It made me realize how much I value the face to face element of teaching. I see now how much I gauge my tone of voice, pace of the lesson, and levels of scaffolding based on students’ expressions and reactions. In this Hangouts format, it must have been incredibly challenging for Deanna to try to evaluate our various levels of need based on tiny and somewhat obscured facial expressions. Rather than Deanna being able to read our faces, we needed to be the ones to speak up and ask for help; something our students may be reluctant to do. However, the material was presented in an orderly way, with many visuals, and every question was answered. Even in a new and scary environment, learning can take place with great teaching. I can safely say that all members of the group felt that new skills had been acquired, though just as with any class, what each person gained was different from the others. And now each of us is ready for the next stage of learning!
Altogether, it was a great lesson - not only in the technology which was its primary focus, but also in the way we as teachers approach and master the learning process. This blog is in itself evidence of my increased confidence and ability; as a technology student, I have passed through the phase of feeling overwhelmed, and am now intrigued to see what I will conquer next!
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