Local educators explored various ways to incorporate technology into their classrooms, as part of a School District 46 (SD46) professional development day held at Chatelech Secondary School, Friday, Feb.19.

“I think all teachers recognize that we’re in a new place in terms of the skill levels the kids have around technology, the capability of technology to reach kids, the need for kids to learn in different ways,” said Paddy McCallum, professional development chair for the Sunshine Coast Teachers’ Association, and a fine arts teacher at Chatelech.

“We now recognize that there’s a diversity of learners and learning styles. We have all the research on multiple intelligences, we have all the research on learning styles and learning preferences. So what we’re trying to do is look at the ways in which the new technology can assist teachers in reaching out to kids, what we call ‘taking the curriculum to the child’, instead of bringing the child to the curriculum.”

Keynote speaker Anita Strang launched the day’s events with a presentation called Using Digital Technology to Differentiate Instruction.

Strang spoke about a teaching approach called Universal Design for Learning (UDL), adapted from an architectural concept geared at making buildings accessible to all, which uses different technologies to make curricula accessible to students with learning disabilities.

The UDL approach, Strang said, encourages teachers to assess their curriculum for “the disabling piece” and devise ways to work around it. In a social studies class, for example, students with reading difficulties could be provided with text readers — computer programs that read text aloud — so they can fully participate.

“It used to be [that student would] get a simpler version of the text, but that’s further disabling that child because then he’s also intellectually working way down at that level,” she said. “We want him working way up there where all the rest of the kids are. We want students to be working at their thinking level.”

Following Strang’s presentation, educators participated in a series of workshops, many pertaining to computer and technology use in the classroom. McCallum said the workshops about Smart Boards — a new, interactive presentation device — were a highlight this year. But he also stressed that new technologies won’t necessarily be appropriate across all subject areas.

“In my drama class, we’re very alive in the moment, we don’t use much technology. We’re onstage, we’re doing physical games, we’re making plays, we’re doing improv,” he said. “It’s just that in certain curricular areas and certain classrooms, when you have kids who perhaps have had bad experiences with writing and reading, who are reluctant readers, reluctant writers, the technology can help engage them and they can be successful where they weren’t able to be successful before. So that’s huge.”