I would like to start this post by thanking the anonymous person who finally allowed me to access Blackboard Collaborate while on my school’s network so that  I was able to attend the session today. Thank you whoever you are at PVSD head office!!

Alec asked some questions as prompts for blog posts on Connected learning and some of them are questions that I struggle with everyday.

Is it possible for our classrooms and institutions to support this kind of learning? If so, how?

Speaking from the perspective of my current school, this is not possible. We struggle to ensure that our students have access to computers for the simple things like typing their assignment or doing basic research and, on any given day, many of our desktops, laptops and netbooks are “out of order”. Add the fact that a YouTube video takes a minimum of 5 minutes to load and has a 50-50 chance of freezing in one spot for the rest of the day with no progress to be seen, using technology is sometimes extremely frustrating here.

I have thought about doing a flipped classroom, trying it out anyways, but again I am thwarted by living in rural Saskatchewan where the internet offered to residents will go down for days or even weeks with no warning or explanation.

And so I am stuck, and done ranting. I hope that one day (in the near future preferably) our classrooms and the technology that they are equipped with will allow for a connected learning network to be developed for all my students as I have seen first-hand how it engages and helps students understand. Last year I was fortunate enough to travel to Europe with some of my students to participate in the 95th Anniversary of Vimy Ridge celebration as well as “The Great Escape” tour offered through EF Tours. As part of the prep-work the students read a book by a holocaust survivor and were able to ask her questions and talk to her over Skype, making the visit to Theresienstadt more meaningful as they had a connection to Vera and her experiences while she was there.