Simon Says

Over the past year I have spent a great deal of time thinking about technology integration in the classroom. Around this time last year I enrolled in Computers in the Classroom Part One. It is the first part of a three part specialist course on the integration of computer technology in the classroom offered through most faculties of education in Ontario. I enrolled in the online course offered by the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. At around the same time a teacher from my school arranged an exchange with a teacher from Australia. I remember the day he arrived. Somebody said, “the guy from Australia is here.” I looked out of the window in my office which overlooks the gymnasium and I saw him walking across the gym floor. It turned out that he would be setting up in my workroom as one of the teachers in the room only teaches first semester. How fortunate I was. You see this teacher is a technophile of the highest calibre. And he arrived at just the right time. He introduced me to various things that teachers can do with technology (wikis, podcasting, blogging-in fact it is partly because of him that I started and am maintaining this blog) and was of much help when it came time for me to complete an assignment. People who know a lot about technology, I imagine, are often being pestered by those of us who know comparatively little. If I were in their shoes I know I would probably get tired of the constant questions being bombarded at me. This was not the case with him. In fact he always seemed eager to help or to introduce you to something new. I can’t count how many times he would come in in the morning with Macbook in hand and say to me “Have you seen this?” And there would be some new discovery for me to think about. I completed the third part of Computers in the Classroom last week, and now have the designation of Specialist to add to my credentials. I owe a lot of my success in the course to this man from Down Under. So I am making this post a dedication to my Techno-Guru, Chris Betcher. Cheers Mate I am going to miss you.

technology integration
Chris Betcher
Turbo Tagger