I’ve attempted to embark on this journey of embedding technology into my work for the past several years.  I have failed miserably.  My first attempt at blogging had no focus and was just random postings that were rather silly.  My second attempt was more recent and has focused on my teaching and research.  I’m averaging one post per month…  For me, the challenges that keep me from being where I would like to be with respect to technology are two fold:  prioritization and skills.

Prioritization

As with anything, in order to make something happen it must become a priority.  For me, this means that I need a very specific and detailed plan that I can stick to or it just doesn’t happen.  Having the time to learn the technology so that you can create the content that will in turn free up your time to do other things takes time.  Because of this, it never seems to make my short list.  As I mentioned, I have tried to start blogging.  The challenge for me with the blogging is content.  I am feeling pretty familiar with the technology at this point.  My real challenge is creating content regularly.  How much time do I really need to commit?  Where do I find that time?  It seems a little daunting at the onset – I’m hoping it gets easier.

Skills

I’m slowly improving my technology skills.  To be honest, I consider myself to be pretty proficient.  In all actuality, I’m probably just proficient enough to be dangerous.  I’d really like to create an academic workshop series that we can post online as I believe we’ll get more students to engage with the content this way.  Unfortunately, I just don’t know how to go about making them in a way that will be engaging.  Content for the workshops is already created.  Now I have to figure out how to get it in front of the students.  Do I create a course in our LMS with different modules?  If I choose this medium, are there ways I can present the material that will be engaging for them?  How do I best include “application” so that they are immediately applying what they are learning so that they see the relevance?  Should I try to create something that could reside in our smartphone app that is perhaps easier to access?  What would that look like?  As you can see, I have more questions about this particular challenge than with the prioritization.  I think that if I already knew how to do this stuff, it would be easier to prioritize and in turn execute.

Purpose

For me, there are so many reasons to learn more about technology.  I know that it will eventually save me time and that it allows for better collaboration – both of which are crucial in my day-to-day work life.  Ultimately, I think that the biggest reason I need to learn more about technology is because it will help my students become more independent learners which is the true key to academic success in college.  I need to be able to present material to students that is engaging and relevant.  Further, I want my students to be able to use mediums they are comfortable and proficient with to demonstrate their understanding.  I have so little time with my students (2.5 hours per week) that I need to ensure that the time we spend together is valuable and meaningful.  I know that when I am able to utilize technology to a greater degree, our face-to-face time will benefit.

Blogging in the Classroom

After completing this first module, I am going to map out a plan for moving my personal blog forward.  I may also start a student run class blog (can you embed these in Canvas LMS?) as I really like the idea.  I clearly need to do some more digging as it relates to blogging best practices to figure out how often I should be posting, what types of posts I should be creating, etc.