#writing

Everything interacts. Always. We shape it. It shapes us. It’s all a big soup.

As a teacher-librarian, I’m constantly making decisions about which databases to subscribe to, which search tools to recommend, which encyclopedias to point students toward. These decisions often get framed as “neutral” by just providing access to information, offering students “the right resources.” But are they?

This question started nagging at me during IP 2 where I analyzed software encyclopedias through McLuhan’s tetrad and Actor-Network Theory. I decided to test something simple: I searched for two controversial topics across different encyclopedia subscriptions our division provides to students. The results weren’t just different—they were fundamentally different.

I sat there staring at two browser windows, and something clicked: this wasn’t a bug. This was a feature. Each platform was enacting a specific epistemology, a particular idea of what knowledge is. And my choice (as a librarian, and as someone who shapes student access to information) wasn’t neutral at all. I was choosing between worlds, while selling the guise of neutrality.

Why start with search?

When it came time to get to brass tacks on this assignment, I knew I needed an entry point that was practical. Not abstract. Not Barad discussing quantum entanglement — even though it’s fascinating.

Because it seems to me like if we want people to think outside of the box, we need them to realize that the tools they hardly think of as technological have been quietly organizing how knowledge appears to us for a very long time. They’re quietly working in the background; and their output exposes what’s going on behind the scenes. I think this is what makes them a great place to start unpacking the complexity of ideas behind new materialism.

How the elements came together

So I designed a professional learning activity: choose a heated topic, search it in three different tools (Google, Wikipedia, TikTok), and compare what appears. Then unpack: How does each tool assemble knowledge?

I think the session would ultimately take about two hours to work through with a group, but could probably be done in an hour and a half. I have embedded audio files into the presentation with my speakers notes, but have also linked them here if you would rather read them. My presentation slides are directly below.

If you’re an educational technology specialist, a teacher, an administrator or if you make decisions about which tools students use, which platforms teachers adopt, which systems organize learning, I’m inviting you to do something simple:

Pick a controversial topic. Search it in three different places. Compare what appears.

Then ask: What differences did this technology create?

It’s not a complicated activity. But I think it’s a critical and worthwhile one.

Because once you see how Google, Wikipedia, and TikTok assemble knowledge differently, you can’t unsee it. And that’s where the real work begins.

Not in finding the “right” tool. Not in establishing “best practices.” But in developing the literacy to read how tools shape what we can know, and the responsibility to choose—and keep questioning our choices—accordingly.

A vision for what may come out of ETEC 524

Guten tag meine Leser! 

(Or to those of you not currently obsessed with working your way through the Duolingo German course—good day my readers.) 

For those of you new to my blog, willkommen! I’m Morgan, a secondary school teacher-librarian and current student in the Masters of Educational Technology program through the University of British Columbia. I’m just starting ETEC 524, Learning Technologies: Selection, Design and Application, and this seems like the perfect excuse to dust off my poor, neglected blog. If you scroll through past posts, you’ll get a sense of my background—but here’s the Coles notes version. 

This is my fifteenth-year teaching in the public school system in Manitoba, mostly at the middle and high school levels. On paper, I think I was supposed to be a history teacher, but I’ve done a little bit of everything—core classrooms and upper-middle humanities. Seven years ago, I was asked to move into a teacher-librarian role, and I haven’t looked back since. As this blog shows, this is my second program at UBC; my first was the LIBE Diploma, which gave me excellent training in running a well-rounded library program. Librarianing is the best. I get to buy books, collaborate with teachers, curate across multimodalities, nag people about copyright (not gonna lie, my least favourite part), and help guide future-focused pedagogy. I considered a Masters in Library Studies but felt that this program better fit my interests, the needs of our space, and where I see the future of libraries heading. 

For this course, I’m interested in bridging the gap between healthy communities and the overwhelming amount of digital content at our fingertips. How do I help students not just find information, but apply it to their own lives? Moving between in-person and virtual spaces is part of daily life, but how do we make that shift feel practical for learners? Maybe it’s the creep of middle age making me critical, but many students seem increasingly disillusioned with school. How do we build learning environments where students critically engage with tech beyond academic checkboxes? And how do I ensure I’m using technology for true redefinition (Puentedura, 2009) rather than using resource-heavy tools for tasks that could just as easily be done on paper? As a librarian, I see the aftermath of a lot of poorly planned tech investments, and I don’t want what I design to add to the mess. 

What I hope to develop is a course where students choose a demonstrable skill—something they truly want to learn—and build it over a semester. They would set goals, manage their time, reflect on their progress, tackle challenges, and share their learning with others. For example, I might choose to learn how to make the perfect pancake (a worthy pursuit, in my opinion). I’d network with cooks, test recipes, reflect on my process, and document what I learn so I could share it with others. The course would wrap up with a community celebration where students showcase their skills. It’s still just the glimmer of an idea, but I’m hopeful this class will help me turn it into something practical and worth running. 

The challenge, of course, is designing something meaningful and manageable when students will pick skills I know nothing about—and that’s kind of the point. I won’t be the expert, but I can build structures to help them find reliable sources, network and connect with experts, and reflect on their learning. That’s where I hope this course will help me grow—giving me the tools to better select and apply technologies that support diverse, self-directed learning without turning the course into a chaotic free-for-all. 

This course feels like the right fit to help me move that idea forward. The frameworks we’ll explore—like SAMR and SECTIONS (Bates, 2014)—can help me evaluate whether my design choices are meaningful or just adding extra steps. The focus on learning environments, interaction, and engagement will help me balance student independence with community-building. The work on assessment will push me to clarify what success looks like when every student is learning something different. Later modules on content creation, multimodal presentation, and communication will give me practical tools to support students in sharing their learning in ways that go beyond the traditional slideshow or essay. The final assignments are perfectly timed to help me produce both a structured unit and a tech integration proposal—directly aligned with my course concept. 

In short, I hope this course will help me move from intention to implementation—grounding my ideas in research-backed frameworks and best practices, and giving me peer and instructor feedback on my course design. Specifically, I hope to strengthen my ability to design learning environments that foster student agency, apply digital tools purposefully, develop process-based assessment strategies, and support students in sharing their learning in meaningful ways. 

To do this, I’ll need access to examples of blended learning structures, readings on assessment for self-directed learning, and opportunities to experiment with digital tools for documenting learning. I also hope to learn from my peers—many of whom bring different teaching contexts and insights that could help me refine my thinking. 

By the end of our time together, I know this course will help me take a meaningful step forward in becoming a digital-age teaching professional—someone who not only navigates the evolving world of educational technology but helps students do the same, critically, creatively, and ethically. 

References

Bates, A. W. (2015). Teaching in a digital age. In opentextbc.ca. Tony Bates Associates Ltd. https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage

PowerSchool. (2021, April 13). SAMR Model: A Practical Guide for K-12 Classroom Technology Integration. https://www.powerschool.com/blog/samr-model-a-practical-guide-for-k-12-classroom-technology-integration