Digital Divide/Digital Inequality

Below are the links to my presentation on digital divide / digital inequality.

VoiceThread
Google Doc Presentation

This weeks assignment was very beneficial to me.  I learned a variety of new technology skills such as VoiceThread and the use of Google Docs to make a slide presentation.  I have used PowerPoint in the past but Google Docs was a little different.  I find PowerPoint better as it seems to have more formatting tools from the multimedia aspect of making presentations.

In one of the readings for effective PowerPoint presentations it talks about using images sparingly.  I tried to do this but was confused as the exemplar given to us seemed to be almost all images of some sort or another.  I know that the presentation is narrated in VoiceThread but there must also be good information on the slides.  I think too much of anything - whether it be text or images or graphs - can really hinder a presentation.  I tried to use a variety slides to get my information across.

The topic of the presentation was on the technological issue of digital divide / digital inequality. Being that I am the Learning Leader of the CTS department in our school, I was well aware of the digital inequalities that affect our students and teachers.  However, I was not aware of the internet access issues in rural United States.  Since I am from Canada, I found it quite surprising of how much digital divide still exists in the US.  Of course, it is same in parts of Canada, but, nonetheless, it surprised me.

From a leader's point of view, it will be important to get teachers on board with all of the new technology that is out there today.  It is important to give teachers the confidence to use this equipment.  I will design professional development activities that are relevant to the courses and technology they use. As a teacher, I will definitely get more acquainted with VoiceThread in the future.  I will try to create better tutorial presentations with this technology.

This assignment took me a long time with the learning of the new technology and reading most of the articles.  If I had more time I would like to find more research on the digital divide issues in Canada. I would like to get concrete numbers on exactly where in Canada that the divide is still an issue.

Overall, I found this to be a good week for learning.  I am feeling more confident in the technological areas of the course and now I can concentrate on the learning of important material that affects all of us.

Elements of Educational Technology

Here is my paper on The Elements of Educational Technology.

This week I wrote a paper on the Elements of Educational Technology.  Wow, did I learn a lot.  I never realized there was so much involved with this concept.  To be honest, I actually never really thought about it before.  I do use technology and different learning strategies in my classroom but now I know there is so much more.

In preparing to write the paper, we were asked to read the preface and first chapter of the textbook Educational Technology: A Definition with Commentary by Alan Januszewski and Michael Molenda.  After reading the required parts of the text and realizing how very little I know about the concept of Educational Technology, I read the whole book.  I found it very interesting.  I was able to use the remaining chapters, especially the ones about the elements I found more important, to help in the completion of my paper.

My thoughts on Educational Technology have changed.  No longer is it just about the physical tools we integrate into the classroom.  I think every one of the 13 elements is very important and are needed for us to incorporate educational technology into our classrooms, schools and school boards.  I could have written this paper on any of the elements.  I ended up choosing creating, using and learning - specifically facilitation of learning.

WEEK ONE REFLECTION - EDTECH 501 - Summer 2014

This first week in EDTECH 501 was very trying for me.  The fact of not being in school for a long time and learning material that was completely foreign to me made for an very exciting but stressful week.  The learning curve has been steep from the technological standpoint but the satisfaction of being able to do all the assignments was very gratifying.

Skills Acquired

• the use of Moodle - creating a profile, handing in assignments
• the use of Google+ and some of its features including Google Drive, Google Documents, Blogger and Hangouts
• the sharing of Google Documents with others for editing purposes
• the use of Hangouts for video chats and private messaging including the use of the screen share feature
• the creation of a video in YouTube and the ability to embed it into my Learning Log
• the creation of a blog with tags and pages
• the posting to my blog

T'he MET program from Boise State University is my first attempt at on-line learning.  I love it so far.  The collaboration with classmates has been incredible.  Everyone I have had the privilege to meet via private messaging, Google+ or video chats have been very supportive.  I just hope that I will be able to help them as well as we move forward into this adventure.

I will be creating a reflection post each week of the learning that has occurred.  Even though they will be tagged, I will link each of the reflections to a page on my Learning Log.  Hopefully, when I look back of these reflections, I will realize how far I have come in this field.  I look forward to the rest of the course and can't wait to have enough knowledge to be a leader in this field.  

Welcome!

My name is Ryan Olynyk.  I am a high school teacher in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  I have been teaching for about 20 years and still have a passion for the profession.  I graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Education degree majoring in business education.  I am currently a learning leader (curriculum leader or department head) for CTS (Career and Technology Studies).  Our department includes foods studies - both personal and professional, fashion studies, carpentry, computer science, computer applications, legal studies, graphic design, visual communication, marketing and, my area of expertise, financial management.

I live in Calgary, AB with my beautiful wife, Darlene.  We live only 45 minutes from the Canadian Rocky Mountains.  It is amazing to wake up each morning and look outside your bedroom window and see the mountains.

When I am not teaching I am usually doing some sort of physical activity.  I love going to the gym, hiking, bike riding, snow-shoeing, and most team sports.  Hockey is my favourite but football and baseball come a close second and third.

I have always wanted to go into an upper leadership role with the Calgary Board of Education but I didn't just want to take a master's degree in the curriculum/design or an educational leadership.  I wanted something that would make me a leader but at the same time, give me some expertise in a fascinating area of education.  A colleague told me about the MET program at Boise State and I got very excited.  The program is exactly what I am looking for.

When I am finished the MET program, my plan is to apply for supervisory roles within the Calgary Board of Education.  Whether I will be an administrator in a school or a specialist within the Board, this program will give me the expertise to be a leader for my students as well as for our teachers.