Pickle Education: Exploring Educational Technology

 In my classroom, education doesn’t just live behind a screen or sit quietly in a textbook. It’s in the personal logos created with geometric transformations , the 3D models crafted from recyclable materials , and the moment a student says, “Wait… this actually makes sense now.” At the heart of my teaching philosophy is student-centered constructivism —the belief that students learn best when they actively build understanding through experience, exploration, and reflection. That means my classroom is a space where learning is not only digital or analog—it’s both. And educational technology? It’s not the star of the show. It’s part of the toolkit. I use tech with intention. Tools like Formative help me create interactive assignments and assessments that give immediate feedback and spark reflection. Google Classroom is my go-to for organizing resources and keeping communication flowing. Kami allows me to create and share digital notes that students can access anytime, anywhere—b...

For my first assignment in my Digital Learning Environments course, we were asked to perform a digital search on a term related to the course. I chose cognitive learning theory —a topic that shows up in a later module and immediately stood out to me as the most engaging. It explores how we process information, store knowledge, and apply learning—all of which are central to both effective teaching and the design of digital learning tools. I began my search using the campus library’s online system, which returned an overwhelming 144,556 results . Hoping for a more manageable number, I tried the ERIC database (15,508 results) and then Google Scholar, which gave me a staggering 4.52 million results . It quickly became clear that refining a search is just as important as starting one. By experimenting with filters, I discovered how dramatically I could narrow the results. Selecting “full text,” switching to natural language, and adding keywords helped cut through the noise. In my case, I a...