My sensations as the beginning of the MSc course approaches are those of both arrival and departure. I have arrived at the point I have been aiming towards and keenly anticipating for almost two years, and the same time I am departing from the previous stage of my professional career and (hopefully) in the direction of a new one. This is one of my core expectations for undertaking this programme of study; that it marks a turning point in my career at which it becomes more driven by my genuine interests and goals than drifting on the tides of circumstance, characterised by limited options, dubious contracts and stifled ambition.

In the past two years I have undergone a significant transition in my attitude towards technology in the broad sense and specifically its application in the educational sphere: from indifferent to intrigued. This new-found interest has motivated me to channel the majority of my professional development energy into edtech-related activities, including online courses, webinars, conference sessions, and a fair amount of blog-reading. But I feel that the sharpened technological and pedagogical awareness and skills I have gained as a result have had limited applicability in my professional context. This is not to say that I have been unable to use what I’ve learned in my teaching practice, but rather that my professional context has not allowed me the scope to harness my new knowledge in the way that I would find most worthwhile.

I think the fundamental sticking point is that most of my teaching career to date has involved helping privileged people to reinforce and enhance their social position by improving their language skills and consequently their job prospects. This is no longer able to fulfil me professionally and so my greatest hope in doing this course is to gain a deep enough insight in the fascinatingly vast field of digital education to give me fresh professional avenues to explore and the opportunity to help people who I can more easily empathise with and relate to. Whether they be fellow further education students studying by distance or via blended learning, or English language students in deprived communities taught via a remote teaching model, it is my strong conviction that digital education has the potential to boost people’s life chances in ways which were not previously possible. And it is in this trajectory for positive change that I would like to ultimately position myself.

This article inspired some of my thinking:

Carrier, M. (2017). ‘English for the underserved: Alternative technologies to bridge the digital divide’. Available at: https://eltjam.com/english-underserved-alternative-technologies-bridge-digital-divide/ 

Orientation week: a point of arrival and departure / Jemima Collins/An introduction to digital environments for learning (2018/2019)[SEM2] by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0