My name is Kennedy Glascock. I’m from a small town in the southwest corner of Saskatchewan called Maple Creek. Although I live in Regina while I’m going to school, I’ll always consider Maple Creek to be my home. Growing up my life revolved around the many sports and community events I was involved in. My winters were largely spent at the rink playing hockey, springs on the baseball diamond, and fall on the volleyball court. During the summer though, I was left to run free in Cypress Hills, a provincial park twenty minutes away from Maple Creek. I now work in Cypress Hills as a lifeguard during the summer months. Being a lifeguard was one of the main things that drove me to want to become a teacher, as teaching lessons is undoubtedly my favourite part of the job.

Upon graduating high school my love of science and the outdoors (fun fact: I’m a nerd) led me to taking the Environmental Reclamation program at Medicine Hat College, where I received my diploma as an Environmental Reclamation Technician. I loved the field, finding the information I learned about the oil and gas field and the biota of the prairie landscape fascinating. The lifestyle of the job however, turned out not to be for me. My love of children and science led me to believe education would be the perfect fit for me, and I began to pursue a new career as a secondary general science teacher.
During my time at Medicine Hat College it was drilled into us that the future of the environmental field largely laid in technology. I believe this to be a growing aspect as well for the field of education.

During my high school career, I was fortunate enough to take a handful of my classes online, marking the beginning of my experience with educational technology. My high school was small and often classes not mandatory for graduation or pre-requisites for post secondary weren’t offered. Luckily though we were still able to take many classes of our choice online. I was able to complete three years of French online, and a Math and Native Studies course as well. My initial feelings toward online classes where ones of anxiety. Would I be able to properly communicate with my teacher? Would I be able to understand the information even though my teacher was miles away?

Despite my anxieties it turned out I loved my classes. Teachers were always available via email or a quick video conference when I required extra help, and my marks were consistently stronger in my online classes. Through my online classes I was able to take classes I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to at my rural school. They were more interactive then I expected, and I was able to achieve higher grades than I expected. My positive experience with educational technology in high school is leading me into thinking about a possible career as a cyber school teacher for a rural school division such as Chinook.

My experience with educational technology at a university level yielded the same positive outcome. I was able to tale an ECS 110 class online, and loved the class and my experience. This class was also my first introduction to blogging.

I felt reluctant to blogging at first. This reluctantness came from many of the reasons Katia Hildebrandt discussed in her post (Digital) Identity in a World that No Longer Forgets, including public judgement of my posts If I accidently wrote something that could be perceived as insensitive. It has been drilled into me since middle school that what you put online is forever, thus my online presence is minuscule and calculated. Through the early weeks of EDTC 300 however, I’ve come to realize that a positive online presence can be helpful in an education career as a powerful networking tool. I’ve began the process of utilizing this tool through the addition of new twitter account (@GlascockKennedy)  and putting some additional effort into my present blog.

Through my ECS 110 class I was able to grow more comfortable with blogging. I enjoyed the interactions I was able to have with my peers in the class about the similarities or differences of their experiences or opinions. It was also rewarding to see comments and pingbacks about posts appear. I look forward to growing my blog and social media accounts this semester and learning about educational technology.

A picture of me and our dog at my favourite place, Cypress Hills.