Masters Summative Journal - Educational technology Context

Summative course for Masters of  Education Portfolio 

Educational technology 

In order to better focus on what I have learned in the last years during my thematic educational Masters journey at university,  I have decided to answer 3 main topic questions: 1. What are the main points I have learned in my readings from various books, articles and from both informal and formal experiential,social, and online learning ? (  see later posting on Education Writ Large ); 2. How has my learning path shaped by perceptions as an educator? 3. How have my pedagogical practices been affected by this knowledge and experience?

First I must provide some context for my learning experience over the last 25 years that preceded my entry in the Masters programme at Brandon University.
My lifelong educational pursuits have been around effective use of ICT in education. This originated with my ‘Computers in the Classroom’ course at Lakehead University in the 1980s and my first use of computers on the First Nations reserve of Pic Mobert where the students had pen overseas pals and my own kids used cd versions of Winnie the Pooh story books ion our AST Advantage PC with the awesome 8 MB of RAM and a 264 MB HDD.

With 3 jobs at First Nations schools  ( 2 in Northern Ontario, 1 in Northern Saskatchewan ) and a year in Spence Bay NWT ( now Taloyak, Nunavut), and after many attempts at procuring jobs in education in New Brunswick, I finally went to IT school in Moncton NB. The very expensive Information Technology Institute taught me programming and networking as well as exposed me to the real world salaries and extensive work commitments in the IT field. Three years as a programmer with McCain Foods at their Global Data Centre in Florenceville, New Brunswick, solidified for me that there are those in the IT field who make the exorbitant salaries and those who are the work-a-day salaried employee chasing the illusive fame or fortune promised by the IT recruiters. Since jobs in the US or in Canada did  not pay nearly as well as the teaching profession, I decided to parlay my applied IT credentials, my Science  and education degrees and my systems/programmer experience with McCain into a reboot of my teaching career. With all this education and experience I thought sure I would land a position somewhere on the east coast. I truthfully did not get but one response to the 40+ resumes and cover letters I sent across Canada. The job prospect , which I accepted hastily, was in Brandon MB. As soon as my job as a technology teacher at Neelin started I was interested in promoting technological realism and pragmatism in my students. Whether it was in the area of computer science web design, desktop publishing or information technology in  business, I tried to instill critical thinking in my students. my classes diminished in size over the years, because I tried to imbue my classes with academic rigour and not allow them to be hollow of content and form. This was not a recipe for sustainability of my school initiated courses. Thus I fell out if favour with the powers that promoted technology in education and my services were demoted. In fact, others would curry favour in other high schools and get far more technology that I ever received to make their IT promises  ( which demanded less rigour ) a reality in our division. On the way I did manage to keep up my research into educational technologies through a series of professional development sessions from the  Manitoba Association of Distance Learning and Technology (MADLat 2005 to 2010)  and a  post graduate studies at the University of Manitoba in  Emerging Technologies ( See other postings in this blog). I also received my Vocational Education certification in microcomputers from studies at Red River College. This background information coupled with the reading and research I have done will lay the foundation for my perceptions and the realities of pedagogy utilizing educational technologies and it's antithesis, authentic learning in which technology plays a minor role to human interaction and socially constructed sense-making for learning.
NB. Emerging technologies courses I have done have postings  from previous years. I will not repeat in what I learined or how it affected my pedagogy