Once upon a time, there was a brave and noble educator (ha – that’s me!) who set out on the adventure of a lifetime: developing two enchanting online modules for her English Language Arts class. This teacher worked tirelessly – climbing beanstalks, granting wishes, kissing frogs – all in an effort to create both an ADDIE template and basic course overview to please all of her fellow queens and kings of technology (that’s you all!).

Charming Characters:

These blending learning modules feature a group of 22 hardworking princes and princesses. This royal family greatly varies in their English reading and writing abilities, but all share a love of ELA and an overall enthusiasm to learn. 

Spectacular Setting:

These modules will be blended, featuring both in-castle addresses and lessons pre-recorded in a land far far away. Students will have access to the pre-recorded instruction to view at their own pace, as many times as they need. Learning activities and assessments will also be blended, taking place both in-castle and far far away, using a variety of teaching strategies and online programs, including: Seesaw, Kahoot and Storyboard That. 

This magical unit duration is four to six weeks, and for the purposes of this project, I will be creating and sharing with you two online learning modules (out of the larger course context) featuring two main, magnificent learning goals of reading and writing.

Exciting Events: 

MODULE ONE will focus on reading ability and reading comprehension. Students will review their knowledge of fictional story elements and, more specifically, focus on characteristics of fairy tale. They will demonstrate their abilities through an incredible Seesaw quest (Seesaw activity).

MODULE TWO will focus on English writing, with an art component. After workshopping an original fairy tale, students will ‘publish’ their story, for the entire village to see, using a program called Storyboard That. This allows for them to read their creative tale aloud and design pictures (storyboard format) that go with the events in their work.

I welcome all interested to take a peak at my course profile and/or my ADDIE model to see more about my gallant quests!

…and they all learned happily ever after.

THE END

Hear ye, hear ye, calling all tech queens and kings. I kindly request any fantastic feedback you may have on my module ideas and development so far. Thanks!

After much deliberation, I finally settled on creating a blended course for grade 7 math, focusing on fractions, decimals and percent. As someone who loved the traditional direct instruction, drill and practice math growing up, it is difficult for me to venture to the more abstract, problem-based methods of math learning, but I figure this is as good an opportunity as any to broaden my horizons. Oh, and I’m gonna give Canvas a whirl while I’m at it, too.

ADDIE Model Template

Course Overview

Background information

Radiation therapy is a common cancer treatment that uses high-energy x-rays to kill cancer cells or stop them from growing and dividing. It’s a localized treatment, meaning it targets specific areas of the body where cancer cells are present while minimizing damage to healthy surrounding tissue. The treatments are individually designed for each person’s anatomy and treatment target area; thus precision is required to deliver the planned dose. There are many factors that contribute to differences between the planned dose and the delivered dose. One such factor is reproducibility in patient position on the treatment unit. Patient positioning is crucial  in radiation therapy because it ensures accurate delivery of radiation to the targeted area while minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissues.

To ensure accurate patient positioning, image matching happens prior to each treatment and is performed while the patient is laying on the treatment couch waiting for the radiation beam to start. This is called Image Guided Radiation Therapy, or IGRT. Image matching in short, is looking at the image from the original “planned” treatment and matching it to the daily image of the patient on the treatment couch, the discrepancies are noted, bed movements are entered into the software which results in the patient moving to a position that matches the planned treatment image. Cross-sectional anatomy is included in the foundation of successfulimage matching. Acquiring and improving this skill is important to the success of the patient’s treatment as it is imperative that image matching is done in a time sensitive manner, to avoid any further patient movements. This course presents the function and application of Computed Tomography (CT) in the context of IGRT. The overarching goal is to provide students with a solid understanding of cross-sectional anatomy and its significance as it applies to IGRT.

The target audience for this course is adult learners who have chosen to work in health care. They have a minimum of two years undergraduate prerequisite courses as well as some radiation therapy course prerequisites. Information in these pre-requisite courses include how CTscanners and Linear Accelerators work, 2D- radiographic anatomy and how knowledge of the lymphatic system is applied in radiation therapy.

The learners in this type of program are usually young adults with a wide variety of lived experiences. Academically speaking, some come directly from completing the required 2 years of undergrad courses, and others with a variety of type and number of degrees. In other ways, some have not yet left the family home, some have children, some have done extensive travelling, some are changing careers. Some have worked in hospitals; some have never been inside a hospital.

Design

This course is a blended design scheduled in weekly modules. It follows a flipped classroom model, as the benefits of this strategy align with this topic. The course includes asynchronous didactic material, weekly discussion boards and one synchronous online class meeting. Every other week there is a face-to-face lab session scheduled for hands on learning and skill practice. The tools used to deliver this course and their application are as follows:

Canvas provides the learning management system (LMS) to host content such as didactic modules that may contain documents, videos, quizzes, discussion forums, collaborations, and student progress/grades.

Zoom provides the platform for the weekly synchronous class meetings. Screen sharing and the whiteboard are key functions for this activity.

ARIA software suite provides the image matching software for hands-on practice. This is only accessible within the CancerCare system.

IMAIOS provides high-quality cross-sectional anatomy and imaging content for daily practice and training of health professionals. This software offers a choice of regular, practice or quiz viewing mode to the learners.

The specific course objectives are listed here.

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• List and explain the three cardinal viewing planes of CT imaging.
• Using directional terms, describe the position of one anatomical structure as it relates to the position of another.
• Explain the orientation of a CT cross-sectional image.
• Compare the location of various structures between a cross sectional image and radiographic anatomy.
• Describe the boundaries of and the anatomic structures contained within the: thorax, abdomen, and pelvis
• Complete image matching on a variety of anatomical sites.
• Explain how the Choose Wisely and Image Gently campaigns apply to Image Guided Radiation Therapy.

These learning objectives are met by providing didactic course modules for learning and virtual tools for practicing cross-sectional anatomy identification and image matching. To see the course layout in more detail, view the course ADDIE Template here. The formative and summative assessments of learning address the three learning domains, Cognitive, Psychomotor and Affective.

Formative assessment opportunities include assignments, multiple choice review questions/polls, discussions and exit slips during synchronous class meeting, discussion boards, module quizzes, and clinical reviews.

Two Summative assessment strategies are used. A final exam and a final clinical assessment where the students are required to complete an Image Matching task.

Risk Assessment

Any online delivery is susceptible to certain risks and barriers. Addressing these risks and barriers requires proactive strategies and support from both educators and institutions.

Mitigation strategies need to address risks and barriers around technical issues, mental health, academic integrity and motivation.

Technical issue strategies involve providing access to technology and resources. The University of Winnipeg as well as the School of Radiation Therapy both provide resources such as space and technology to students who: do not have access to necessary devices such as a computer or tablet, struggle with reliable internet access, or struggle with finding appropriate spaces within their home for working.

Mental health strategies include surveying students about how they feel regarding online learning. This is followed by addressing any concerns that are self-perceived or suspected by the instructor, according to school policies. Online learning can be an isolating environment that leads to disconnection between students and/or instructor. The bi-weekly face-to-face Clinical Development Activities should help mitigate any concerns.

Maintaining academic integrity risk strategies recognize that online assessments can be vulnerable to cheating and plagiarism. Online quizzes do use such strategies as randomizing not only the quiz questions, but the order of the multiple-choice answers. In addition, the lock down browser can be used at the instructor’s discretion. However, relying on individual integrity has been the approach of the School of Radiation Therapy. Guiding the students to understand the links between academic integrity and their future as ethical professionals can mitigate integrity breaches. This strategic approach involves communicating this message early and throughout their training.

Online learning has shown to affect a learner’s motivation. However, most adult learners are intrinsically motivated to succeed. In this case, their goal is to become the professional that they have chosen as their career.

“Adults are motivated to learn to the extent that they perceive that learning will help them perform tasks or deal with problems that they confront in their life situations. Furthermore, they learn new knowledge, understandings, skills, values and attitudes most effectively when they are presented in the context of application to real-life situations.”

Malcom Knowles

However, these young adult learners may still have under-developed self-discipline and time management skills. Therefore, a small amount of the final grade is given towards class participation.

If a learner requires extra time to gain the required proficiency prior to clinical placement, this will be arranged on a as needed basis.

Course design and rationale

I believe that no professional healthcare program can be taught exclusively online; nor does it have to be taught exclusively face-to-face. My assertion comes from two variables: the type of work they are learning to do and the uniqueness of the adult learner. The hybrid model is a great way to meet the needs of this group of adult learners; which is important to reaching my goal of developing empathetic, competent healthcare workers.

This course is designed within a hybrid learning environment. Rationale for each approach is described below.

Asynchronous Didactic Learning – Adult learning is less abstract and more goal oriented. They are more autonomous. They are responsible for their learning, which means being prepared for synchronous sessions, especially in a flipped classroom model. They have a full life outside of the program. These learners have family obligations, work obligations and hopefully a social life to keep them balanced. Time management is key to success in this group.

As image matching is completed on computers using special software, this approach to learning is ideal. The students will see the images

Synchronous Class Meetings – Adult learners are ready to learn, which can help with engagement, and their lived experiences can lead to deeper, more meaningful class discussions. Although I have experienced that this is very dependent on the group dynamic. Some classes are quite dynamic and others are not.

Face-to-Face Clinical Development Activities – Adult learners do well with practical applications where the didactic knowledge can be applied and transferred to practice. This course leverages this fact as it is necessary for labs to happen prior to any clinical placement so the learners can practice using the matching software (this cannot be done online as this software cannot be accessed outside of the institution). Here they will practice the specific task that will be required of them when they enter the clinical environment. Initially, the focusin on accuracy. Subsequently, the students’ goal is to to increase their skills to complete the task more quickly by the end of the semester.

While facilitating these sessions, the facilitators can vocalize their decision process, role modelling the importance of each step with the patients’ outcome in mind. As well, simulating the interaction between caregiver and patient, the instructors can role model the care and attention given to psychosocial needs within a certain clinical environment or situation.

Patients need to be the centre of all that is taught and learned. Not only does patient care need to be comprehensive, and delivered by skilled staff, it also must address the psychosocial needs of the patients. Empathy and compassion also contribute to patient outcomes. Online environments cannot transfer these lessons adequately. Of course, instructors provide real life examples that can convey the messages, but it is the real-life clinical environment where this learning occurs. In addition to the formal learning, there exists a hidden curriculum that cannot be ignored. Hidden curriculum can be explained as how unwritten rules are transmitted to the learners. A few examples are workplace cultures, norms, authority structures, gender roles, implicit biases, and attitudes. Over the years the term ‘hidden curriculum’ has been used to describe how negative behaviours, stereotypes, and biases are passed along within the profession. However, it is important to be aware of the hidden curriculum and teach positive lessons through everyday interactions while the learner is still developing their own perception of what it means to them to work as such a PHC provider. This is the instructor’s opportunity to teach honesty, transparency, and integrity to the learners through role modelling.

All three learning domains will be addressed as each plays their own role and are important in this task and career.

The cognitive domain is addressed within the didactic portion of this course through lessons, assignments and quizzes. These should be completed by the learners by the time the synchronous activities are scheduled.

Clinical Development Activities, or labs, cover the psychomotor domain. Students will be scheduled in small groups on the RT machines, either on weekends or after hours (as operational requirements permit). Here they will practice the specific task that will be required of them when they enter the clinical environment. Initially, the focus in on accuracy. Subsequently, the students’ goal to increase their skills to complete the task more quickly by the end of the semester. Some learners may require more time to gain the required proficiency than can be provided due to limitations in the availability of both clinical space and staff facilitators.

Discussion groups and clinical development activities will cover the Affective domain. Students will demonstrate the patient centred approach to IGRT through discussion and they will learn from their clinical role models in the Clinical Development Activities.

For my online course, I chose to focus on English Language Arts 8. The reason for this being, I found it to be one of the more difficult subject areas to catch students up on when they are consistently absent. Novel studies are specifically difficult in this area. Not consistently attending school, varying reading levels and abilities are some of the challenges I faced when teaching ELA 8. Click the links below to see the ADDIE model and course overview.

ADDIE Model Google Doc

Course Overview Google Doc

This course was designed with my colleague, Arkin Kauf! Click here to check out his blog.

Teaching middle school drama is tough. A quarter LOVE it, a quarter REALLY dislike it, and the rest are going through the motions and counting the days until we are back to painting or drawing. It is not unusual for performing and presenting to cause anxiety, so we decided to design our course around meeting the needs of our students in a subject that can be difficult to teach and hopefully help them have fun and fall in love with the content along the way.

WHAT

In our blended and synchronous course, our grade 7 students will learn about the elements of radio plays, how to create soundscapes, how to use Foley sounds to create sound effects, and record, edit, and produce their own radio plays in small groups. The focus is not on writing skills so they will use pre-written stories; however, they will edit and adapt the stories to use soundscapes, effects, and voice acting wherever possible.

Our course will touch on each outcome of the grade 7 drama unit:

CP7.5

• Use drama elements, strategies, negotiation, and collaboration to help shape the direction of the drama and/or collective creation.

CP7.6

• Express ideas about the importance of place (e.g., relationships to the land, local geology, region, urban/rural environments) in drama and/or collective creation.

CP7.7

• Investigate improvisation using the voice, instruments, and a wide variety of sound sources from the natural and constructed environment.

WHO

Our course will be used in a grade 7 Connected Classroom which has a high percentage of EAL students. In our experience teaching middle years, we frequently see student anxiety around presenting and performing. We have seen an uptick in absences on presentation days, a willingness to ‘take a 0’ on a presentation mark, issues with collaboration, and requests for alternate presentation times, like at recess or after school. Our goal is to meet students where they are and help build presentation and communication skills without increasing anxiety.

Our students are also very ‘techy’ – the vast majority have access to tech at home, and the novelty of tech at school has yet to wear off! We are hoping this meaningful integration of technology can help build excitement and the new platforms can keep things fresh and exciting.

HOW

Our LMS is primarily Microsoft Teams and Seesaw. Both these platforms allow for student/teacher communication, allow for feedback and assessment, can host resources and links, and parents can be involved in progress through Seesaw, which is a big plus! Both Teams and Seesaw are licensed by our division for all teaching staff. Other tools we will use are:

WeVideo – while there is the ability to edit and mix for free, as Connected Educators we are able to access licenses so we can use each feature of this platform. Here, students can share their projects with their group, edit on their own devices (much like a shared document in Google Docs or Word!), record,upload recordings, and share with the teacher. Licenses are usually granted for 30 days, but these can be extended based on need. Another benefit of using WeVideo for collaborative projects is that students do not need to be present to record. If a student is absent for an extended period of time, they can record their parts before leaving OR when they return, and their contributions can be spliced, layered, and reorganized in to fit the script!

BBC Sound Effects – a great little website filled with free-to-use soundscapes and sound effects! Students are able to layer sounds and create their own mixes for free. They can download their mixes straight from the website and upload them into WeVideo.

SEQUENCE

First, students will learn about soundscapes, and spend some time identifying different sounds in different environments. They will practice making their own soundscapes using BBC Sound Effects.

Then, students will spend some time learning about Foley sounds. For those unfamiliar, check out this video to see Foley engineers in action:

They’ll make their own sound effects with Foley in mind!

Lastly, students will put these elements together with the introduction of radio plays. They’ll learn about radio plays, listen to examples, identify elements, and then plan and produce their own radio plays in small groups.

CONSIDERATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS

We are heavily influenced by ITSE Student Standards, particularly the empowered learner focus (Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences). We will try to dismantle as many road blocks as possible so students can still be challenged, but ultimately find success. Because of our high EAL percentage and performance anxiety in our class, there will be no story writing or ‘live’ performances. Students can take stories and make them their own, practice their parts, rerecord if they need, and share their final products in safe settings.

Attendance and hard deadlines are an inevitable aspect of our course. However, a benefit of our chosen platforms is that students can record all their parts individually (whether that be voice acting or creating sound effects) and these files can be edited in the order and sequence required. They do not have to record their play in its entirety at once, hoping for no errors! Students can also share audio files through Teams and access the platforms at home, if they have access to technology.

Here is our our ADDIE template – we look forward to hearing your feedback and learning more about the courses you designed!

At least for me, tech or no tech remains an ongoing, internal debate in my professional context. Even in my seventh year as an educator, I continually flip between feeling either excited or obligated to incorporate technology into my practice. Although my comfort levels vary, I believe technology has a crucial place in today’s classroom and I know I need to find my comfortability with that. READY OR NOT – technology in the classroom is here to stay and forms of blended learning options naturally follow.

I often blame my tech uncertainty on my current position – a grade three French Immersion teacher – as students of this age are still mastering the skills of reading, writing and, well, being a functioning member of a classroom. Independence levels are (understandably) low, emotions are (always) high, and the addition of anything, beyond the already long list of requirements of me as their teacher (ie. teach SK outcomes, communicate with families, administer division assessments, attend assemblies, provide MANY brain breaks…I could go on), that I need to add into that mix feels unmanageable, or at least hard.

I do realize that technology integration, done right, could mean making my life, or at least my job, easier (in the long run anyway) and would enhance the teaching and learning already taking place. I am aware that the use of computers should be for meaningful, purposeful, educational technology use, not just a free period of Math games on Mathletics or free period of reading on RazKids – as lovely as that can be during the last hour of the day. Come on, everyone knows what I am talking about. I do acknowledge and appreciate the benefits of tech integration and I continue to find ways, manageable for me, to do this with my students. Technology is important. Digital literacy is important. Flexibility in learning is important. Engaging and relevant teaching methods are important. In 2024, students need to teachers to help introduce and educate them about the world of tech as it will, if not already does, dominate their life. 

For me, tech integration in my classroom has always come down to time. Do I have time to research, learn, figure out logistics, and prep content for online learning, or not? Do we have time to review the basics of logging on, adding photos, signing into a program, and the list continues. If not, I will be cancelling the my laptop cart booking and rushing down to the photocopy room. If I have the time, and really, the energy and the patience, I do feel excited try out something new with my class involving an aspect of tech. The technology is available, the digital learning tools are endless, the students are already engaged by technology – it seems like an easy decision. Educators know it’s more complicated than that. In an ideal world, I would LOVE to facilitate a blended classroom. Perhaps this course will help me see that as a reality.

Teachers should be learners too and finding the space in my profession to explore the world of tech and blending learning is always fun, just not always manageable. It’s easy to resort to my traditional instructional methods, but am I doing students a disservice by shying away from tech? Yes. I am. Balancing work and life, a tale as old as time one might say – especially for educators – rings true for me as I often prioritize this balance to spending extra hours investigating exciting new blended learning options. Can you blame me?

One program that I DO use frequently is Seesaw. Seesaw is essentially an online portfolio but has many other features and has allowed me to use technology in an authentic and seamless way with my younger kiddos. Extremely easy to navigate, I utilize this program primarily to connect with parents and share student work, but it also lets me dip my toes into the world of blended learning. I am able to create content, whether that be recorded lessons, links to online resources or assessment activities for the class, and Seesaw can be accessed at school or at home.

I often rely on Seesaw to help my students who are absent for periods of time (I am easily able to push work home for them and provide quick instruction notes or feedback) or I will sometimes assign supplementary activities for students to complete as homework, complementary to class instruction. As well, the activity tool, allows me to create activities for students to engage in, whether it be a writing task, Math review questions, recording their reading, etc. It is a primary friendly platform with a lot of potential in the realm of blending learning opportunities. Have you used Seesaw? It’s a nice and, dare I say, EASY way to begin in blended learning and create an online classroom environment. In fact, I, almost solely, relied on Seesaw during my brief stint as an impromptu blended learning teacher from 2020-2021.

My only professional experience with (a form of) blended learning, was during the pandemic. I remember those years with mixed sentiments as I thoroughly enjoyed some aspects of my, very new, role as an online educator, but also faced many unanticipated challenges. A primary challenge was navigating the delivery of recorded content (vs. the in person experience I was used to). It just was not the same teaching to a screen. That being said, if “[t]he main advantage of lecture capture is increased access”, I wonder why I would not continue with recorded lessons to continue offering this increased access. The chapter – Old wine in new bottles: classroom-type online learning– helps me envision a starting place for blended learning. Instead of recreating the wheel, I can first focus on the same content and delivery (wine) but offer it in a new mode (bottle).

I could create an extremely vast pros and cons list re: my time as a blended learning teacher, but for now I will just share a few highlights. I always say to start with the bad news first, so here are some of the challenges I experienced: a lack of engagement from my eight year old audience, frequent technology issues (on both my end and from students and caregivers) which took up ample work time to navigate, feelings of self doubt and constant indecisiveness in this new teaching space, and hours of (extra) work to prepare content for online delivery and/or at home work completion. Now that’s just to name a few – I imagine I could triple or quadruple that list but that’s enough negative for now. Positive opportunities within my time in blending learning include: realizing student potential that otherwise went unnoticed (some students excelled in this new mode!), ability to be a learner myself by engaging in ongoing PD, valuable (and fun) collaboration with colleagues, creating content I was proud of and that I can continue using with my classes, and the natural partnership that immerged with caregivers supporting their learners at home. Again, I could go on.

I would love to hear about your positive and negative experiences with blending learning, especially in the time of COVID, as many educators experienced the same quick and unexpected transition as me. Did you thrive with this change? What aspects of blended learning did you enjoy or detest? Have you been able to maintain any of the tech integration used during blended learning in your current face-to-face environment?

In conclusion, blending learning, hybrid learning, tech integration, or whatever other terms you prefer, remains an ongoing journey in my professional life. I appreciated my confusion with these different terms and types of tech learning being validated in Valerie Irvine’s work The Landscape of Merging Modalities: “[w]hat used to be a simple binary of face-to-face or online has now become so extremely complex that our ability to understand each other is impaired.” I appreciated this article’s ongoing explanation, or rather attempt to clearly explain the various terms, along with the author’s direct acceptance that blended, hybrid, flex, etc. are terms that will remain muddled in the world of tech-integrated education. 

Thanks for reading!

Teagan

Completing the readings after making my first two blog posts makes me realize that I am thinking differently already. It’s interesting to me that I did not think about the LMS I use (Desire2Learn/BrightSpace) as part of blended learning. Thinking about it though, I do post discussion topics, quizzes are done through the LMS, assignments are handed in and delivered back through the LMS, I post practice activities, reminders and other prompts through the LMS.

During the pandemic, like most of the world, I had to quickly move to remote learning (aka emergency remote learning). The course I teach is quite formula heavy with a lot of new concepts, which I demonstrate visually usually on the board. Without time to adapt my teaching modality, I had to quickly borrow hardware (Wacom monitor) and learn how to use Zoom functions such as the white board etc. Once my desk was set up, the rest was fairly easy. Additional challenges were almost exclusively on the students side, such as finding a space in a crowded home, sharing computer time with siblings, and bandwidth issues.

I enjoyed the article Old wine in new Bottles, and what really landed with me was that course design needs to adapt to the different environment, the new online environment. As it state, online learning puts the students in a space that is different than the face-to-face classroom. I find in the classroom it is the collaboration and ‘work together’ time that not only solidifies certain concepts, but it is here that gaps in knowledge are recognized and can be addressed and discussed as a group. New ways of achieving this need to be adopted if using an online model.

A question is posed in 10.5 The future of the campus – Teaching in a Digital Age – Second Edition (bccampus.ca). The authors say state that what we need to be asking is “what is the academic or pedagogical justification for the campus, when students can learn most things online?”. They go on to assert that on-campus activities must be meaningful.

Perhaps part of my answer to this question lies in my constructivist view and thoughts on collaboration.

What are your experiences and perceptions related to your own use of blended learning and/or technology integration in your professional context? What challenges and opportunities have you experienced?

After last weeks class discussions, I realized that I integrate a blended learning experience into my classroom practices more often than I knew. When thinking about blended learning, I previously thought that it was just a mix between doing things asynchronously, face to face and synchronously. I thought about it more in the context of an online university, not in an elementary school classroom. I found the Bates chapter titled The continuum of technology-based learning very helpful. Specifically the diagram that shows the continuum.

Something that sparked an aha moment was the realization that blended learning can happen within a school environment. It does not need to be done at home and using tech. Some ways that I have included blended learning into my own teaching practices are through the use of Google Classroom, YouTube tutorials, online learning games, Canva, etc.

The challenges I have experienced are:

-technology not working (internet being slow, a site being down etc.)

-taking on the role of “Chromebook Cop”

-students rushing through creating on technology

-students using AI to complete assignments

The opportunities I have experienced are:

-students learning how to use technology on their own

-students taking on leadership roles because of their knowledge of tech (ex. making school posters using Canva)

-engaging in lifelong learning because new tech is always coming out

-higher student engagement

-assessment is fast and easy (sometimes)

Before I start this course, I wanted to spend a few minutes reflecting on what digital technology meant and how it is changing. Prior to 2020, digital content in my classroom meant saving larger files on the shared drive to save paper. It meant delivering the class content via PowerPoint and demonstrating examples on the white board. This picture is not my classroom, but it is surprisingly similar. Just like the instructor of this classroom, I had a tiny space of white board available behind the podium to the left of the screen to do physics equations, draw pictures of diverging radiation beams and stick figure patients. Utilizing more whiteboard space meant rolling up the screen, then pulling it down to continue with the slides – covering up the example I just drew on the board!

It wasn’t ideal but we made it work. I am sure the instructor of this classroom and I could have a very animated conversation about the limitations of this setup Another piece of technology I incorporated into my lessons was the iClicker. There are newer tools to engage students, but it worked well, and allowed me to assess the level of knowledge transfer. The pandemic forced us all to learn quickly and change our teaching methods to deliver the same content over an online platform, Zoom in my case.  How do we deliver quizzes? How do we uphold the integrity of the test material? Eventually solutions to these challenges emerged.

Technology in the classroom is a permanent fixture. Our world is much smaller now, the global landscape is very different, and in response, the way humans interact with each other, and the world has evolved. I am old enough to remember the pre-internet days, I have been a witness to this evolution.

Subscribers to constructivism will argue that face to face learning cannot be completely replaced. However, the practical benefits of online learning cannot be denied.  Beyond the practical, there are other benefits to using technology in the classroom.

Before diving into EC&I 834, I wanted to reflect on the benefits that technology has brought into my own adult classroom. Hopefully this will provide a “before and after” overview of my level of knowledge and beliefs towards technology and the adult classroom.

Within the first week of teaching over Zoom, I noticed an increase in student engagement. My adult classroom is very small (less than 10 students each year) and every year the class has a different dynamic. The class that started in 2020 was particularly quiet, and I had a hard time engaging them individually, with the exception of the iClickers which provided anonymous responses.  Even trying to get information about what they did over the weekend was like pulling teeth!

However, once I started teaching, students were asking questions in a private chat box. I was thrilled! Having the chance to correct misunderstandings or clarify difficult concepts prior to moving on is very important when building the foundations of a new concept, a new way of thinking, and a new way of applying mathematical concepts. I use these opportunities to customize in class review questions, targeting specific learning barriers.

I found that online learning also made using the “Flipped classroom” strategy more palatable for the students. They were better prepared for our synchronous online classes, and I could use our time towards applied learning.

It was interesting having this particular, very quiet, class as the first to teach over Zoom. It seemed to me that the differences in the teaching/learning environments were amplified. Another example. During in person classes, I often broke the students into small groups to work together to solve a particular problem. Collaboration leads to richer educational experiences. This class, however, would sit in groups of 2 or 3, and quietly work on their own.  What I found was, when I used breakout rooms in Zoom, they would actually work together, which also resulted in increased engagement, developing their critical thinking skills.

These are just a few examples of the benefits to switching to Zoom for this particular classroom. Although, I still hold on to my belief that there are benefits to face-to-face learning that cannot be met by the online platform. I found it more challenging to place the lessons into a real-world context. As I instruct future healthcare providers, the social context is very important.