Earlier this month I wrote a blog post for Safer Internet Day (SID), it was a good article the best blog. Honestly, it was very good (#trumpetblowing). You can read it here. But in my haste to advocate the importance of making the internet safer, I failed to introduce myself. Poor form I know; the mistake was all mine.

Consider this blog post redemption.

Kia ora koutou, I am the new School Training Lead here at N4L and I am a technophobe.

Did I just say that out loud? It’s not an uncommon phobia but it is an awkward one – particularly when you work for a company that develops technology solutions aimed at solving educational problems. I’m surrounded by techies and am constantly looking over my shoulder as I write this piece.    

I’m also a teacher. One that knows you can’t exclude real life from the classroom and technology’s pervasiveness is real life. Between smart devices, gadgets, applications, social media, providers and all the various information channels, we’re overloaded with technical noise. There are so many options to choose from, so many decisions to make that it can be easy to lose sight of why we would want to use it in the first place; frankly it’s confusing.

I like to think of myself as a pragmatist, a problem solver and someone who prioritises educational outcomes above cool gadgets. The truth is it’s the pragmatist in me that has driven my passion for eLearning and helped me face my fear.

Starting out in my teaching career, I was confronted by the number of challenges facing teachers on a daily basis. It’s not just teaching the curriculum, we’re charged with building relationships, differentiating by learning need, developing engaging material, assessing student work, moderating student work, enabling collaboration, being an edutainer, a counsellor, a leader, a role model, a  report writer, a committee organiser, a sports coach, a mentor a…

I don’t need to tell you, teaching is a complicated gig.

In the midst of these complications (and despite my phobia), technology has increasingly solved my teaching problems. I wanted my students to spend more time demonstrating skill and spend less time listening to me. Flipping lessons allowed me to step away from the front of the room and spend more time alongside my students. I needed a better way to track (and assess) collaboration and increase visibility of student learning – G Suite enabled this for me. I wanted students to have access to content that stretched beyond the limitations of my imagination; BYOD brought the world to their fingertips. I needed my assessments to be smarter, more adaptive and to make marking more effective and efficient (and not have to cart boxes of student work wherever I went). Technology facilitated this. You get the point…

In almost every case, technology became part of the solution. It’s not because the tech exists; it’s because the problems required solutions. There is no magic bullet. No panacea. No technical quota or amount of time using technology that will improve student engagement and results. It’s not time, exposure or access. It’s you, the educator, and what you do with it.

As the Director of eLearning (Rosehill College) and the Digital Learning Manager (MIT), I have led the implementation of digital citizenship programmes, the rollout of BYOD and professional development for teachers in eLearning. Throughout these roles I’ve always been aware of the common fear that technology might replace teachers or turn students into droids. For me, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Technology has always supercharged the relationships and interactions that occurred with my students and that’s why eLearning is important to me and why it should be important to you.   

It’s also why N4L are here, and why I’m proud to have joined the team. N4L’s mission is to empower a digital future for education in Aotearoa. By providing solutions to real problems facing schools; accessing content quickly and securely (via the Managed Network), providing a platform to curate and share content (Pond) or by providing efficient access to educational applications (Tahi), N4L represents a team of people working furiously to remove the technical noise and make it easier for schools to get on with the business of learning and teaching.

My role is all about you. I like to think that I’m one of you, so reach out, tell me how we can help you and your school, or just say hello – it’d be great to hear from you.

Email: [email protected]

Disclaimer: I increasingly like cool gadgets.