It blew my mind when I started to reflect on all of the technology I use and rely on every single day. From the moment I wake up, thanks to my alarm on my Iphone, I am pretty much connected to one device or another. As a vice-principal one of my roles is to manage supervision; so before I even start getting ready for the day, I check my texts and Atrieve (an online portal for staff) to see if anyone is away and what roles/supervisions need to be covered.
Once I have my three kids up and off to daycare/school I am off to work. Prior to the school day starting I check my email, EDSBY and our school’s shared google calendar. In my current role as a vice-principal and learning resource teacher I primarily do small group interventions, generally literacy based, so I don’t use a lot of technology within my everyday teaching. That being said, I always have my phone on me. Gone are the days of buzzing the office if you need admin. I am always a text away. I also communicate with parents daily using technology. This year Regina Public Schools moved to EDSBY (an online platform for families). I use EDSBY daily to send communication to families, broadcast school events and news, monitor student’s attendance and log any phone calls with families.
As a mom of three my phone is app city! I have a sports folder of apps, which I check multiple times a day to plan our evenings and who’s going where. To keep things interesting it seems all of the kids’ sports use different apps. TeamLinkt, Sports Engine & WhatsApp to name a few. I also have a folder dedicated to Education apps which I check daily. All three of my kiddos teachers use Seesaw daily to send pictures, homework, and reminders. I check these apps daily….you don’t want to be the mom who forgets show and tell or a “theme” day (been there – done that).
In my free time, which is limited, I am checking out my social media accounts…Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. I am definitely more of a follower than a contributor. I am also checking in on U of R courses and always seem to have a few google docs on the go. On the rare nights we are not at sports, someone is watching Netflix, Disney Plus, or Prime. I am sure I am forgetting many of the ways we use technology but its Sunday afternoon and I need to check my apps and make sure I am ready for the week!
Until Next Time!
Tracy
Tracy Krenbrink 
I agree Tracy – my mind was also blown, or at least bothered, after reflecting on my technology use. The interconnectedness between our lives and technology is in many ways beyond my comprehension. I appreciated your point around technology eating up much of your downtime. While there may not be as much that can be done to avoid some of the tech pieces at work and school, I believe that I can and should reevaluate how it impacts my free time, and look to cut back on the use of tech there.
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Good point. Your right our downtime is the one time we have more control over our technology use. During one of my previous tech classes we looked at how addictive social media is and I did make some changes to my own social media use. I put all of my social media apps into a folder & turned off notifications and found my screen time went way down.
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Hello Tracy, thank you for sharing your thoughtful blog. You are so right about how much we are dependable on technologies to connect with the world. I also have made a lot of folders on my mobile of different applications.
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Hi Tracey! I completely agree with you and share lots of your sentiments. I’m a Learning Support Teacher, and have also found that it’s simply easier to be ‘just a text away’ for my parents and teachers that I work with.
On a separate note, how do you find communication through Edsby? Right now we seem to be in a bit of transition period, using a combination of Edsby/Teams/Email/Phone to connect with parents and students. I have hope that Edsby will continue to improve, and be our primary platform in the next year or so.
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I think EDSBY has a lot of potential but certainly has come with some growing pains. Prior to Christmas we seemed to be in a transition period too and had very little family engagement on EDSBY. In Feb/March we did One Book One School and posted all of our links/videos/prizes using EDSBY and we found an unintentional “win” was the uptake in family engagement on EDSBY. I think as our staff are getting more familiar with EDSBY it is being used a lot more.
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Hi Tracy,
Creating folders for your different app is worthy of emulation(phone app city). Technology has not just propel our reality into another and advanced level, however it associates our reality in a way people never thought conceivable. Thank you for sharing your blog post.
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It sounds like our mornings are quite similar in some ways, especially when it comes to our before work begins routine. With the current Regina Public situation, I have appreciated the downtime of not rushing to my email, Edsby, updating Clevr, Atrieve and more. Even though I appreciate all of those systems and how they have made documentation and so much more digital and easier to use (personally), I have to say I really like not rushing from one thing to the other and trying to get everything done in a day. Have you felt the same, or are you really ready for things to be back to ‘normal’?
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Honestly I have enjoyed not constantly checking my emails but I’m ready for Atrieve to be back up and running. I feel like the school greeter each am waiting (not so) patiently to see if we have guest teachers/EAs.
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Debate #2- technology has lead to a more equitable society- I disagree
Article One: A social media weapon for good. The attacks highlighted in this article and the students speaking out on social media is evident that there are greater problems for youth. They are speaking out on social media. This reflects a strong voice for the youth involved in this attack. It also speaks to the injustice of people in the world, from terror attacks, mental health terrorist attacks. This article also highlights the gaping holes and missing solutions to effectively address these fundamental issues.
These articles were an interesting view of Technology and the need for restructuring, greater vision and solutions to create an equitable situation for all.
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