Teacher Editorial | By Tara Gauchier
Technological World
The technological world is an ever-growing organism which is in a constant state of advancement. Sometimes, when I feel like I just learned how to do something, the new and improved version gets introduced. I remember (back in the day) creating any kind of document meant saving it multiple times (just so nothing got lost) onto a computer, floppy disc, or a compact disc. Then along came the USB and things were a little easier. All files could be stored on the USB (depending on amount of memory) and easily taken to another computer to open and work on. What a wonderful advancement in technology! Just when I thought nothing could beat a USB, along came “the cloud” more specifically, cloud computing. A more wonderful way to store and share virtually anything the user wants with anyone they want. Never heard of cloud computing? Keep on reading and I will explain a few things I have learned and how cloud computing has helped me as a teacher and a learner.
In the happenstance of career pathways, I was able to interrupt my decades of teaching and leading in rural Alberta with two recent international travels, one to an Alberta accredited school in Qatar (2014) and another to a BC certified campus in South Korea (2017). Both offshore learning environments reminded me very much of my earliest years in a small Alberta school surrounded by long and seemingly empty distances – far from my colleagues and their enviable urban density. I, like these new global educators, was eager to form collaborations, to grow a bank of professional resources and proven skill-sets. The universal need was and is to feel less isolated as a novice educator (Sleppin, 2009). My own outreach became dependent on my teamwork for Alberta Education – where I could grow my contact base and resource knowledge while conducting the contracted research. For young academics in their cross-border adventures, I would also suggest designated time, segments fostered in a continuum of digital dialogues and framed by their own research design.