My synthesis reflection is available on the Synthesis Reflection Page.
LMS Multimedia Inventory
Okay, I’ll strike out and see. Not sure if this is supposed to go in Group 3 or not so I’ll post it in both places. I’m off for a quad trip into the northern rockies on Friday so any feedback is appreciated before Thursday night.
Multimedia Object Inventory:
Item #1 Various Documents
Filenames:
/Data_and_Graphing/Cart_Rolling_Downhill.pdf
/Data_and_Graphing/Cart_And_Slope
/Data_and_Graphing/Graphing_Techniques_M.pdf
/Data_and_Graphing/Height_of_Projectile.pdf
/Data_and_Graphing/Horizontal_Projectile.pdf
/Data_and_Graphing/Position_of_skier.pdf
/Data_and_Graphing/Position_of_toy_car_vs_time.pdf
/Vectors/VectorNotes.pdf
Filetype: PDF
Purpose: Notes, Explanations, Solution sets
Source: Personally Created
Copyright: Creative Commons, attribution, non-commercial, share alike
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software: Open/MS Office, PDF Pringer
Estimated Time to Create: varied
Associated Costs: None
Item #2 Images
Filename: large variety of files
Filetype: png, jpg
Purpose: Illustrations and diagrams
Source: largely British Columbia Provincial Exams, some Creative Commons images
Copyright: Educational Use for Provincial Exam diagrams, Creative Commons for others
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software: Operating System Image Capture and GIMP
Estimated Time to Create: 5-10minutes per image
Associated Costs: None
Item #3 Elluminate Live Files
Filename: alpha-numeric file names created by Elluminate Live
Filetype: VCR (proprietary)
Purpose: Whiteboard/Audio/Video/Text class recording software
Source: Elluminate Live
Copyright: None
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software: General Operating System Win/Mac/Linux, Wacom Tablet screen, Bluetooth headset for audio, webcam for video
Estimated Time to Create: 20 minutes to 1 hour each
Associated Costs: Donated Tablet from Gerry Paille (TRU) ~$500, Donated Computer from Gerry Paille (TRU) ~$1500, $110 for Bluetooth headset, Donated webcam from students.
Item #4 Youtube Videos
Filename: Variety
Filetype: Web
Purpose: Demonstration and explanations of concepts
Source: Youtube
Copyright: No Information Available
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software: None
Estimated Time to Create: None
Associated Costs: None
Item #5 Flash Animations
Filename: Various (link to Copyrighted, incorporate CC with attribution where appropriate)
Filetype: flv, swf
Purpose: Simulations
Source: Variety of University and School sites
Copyright: Variety from full Copyright to CC
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software: None
Estimated Time to Create: None
Associated Costs: None
Item #6 MOV videos
Filename: Variety
Filetype: MOV
Purpose: Videos of student projects/work/labs/explanations
Source: Local
Copyright: Creative Commons, non-commercial, share and share alike, attribution
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software: Video Camera ($1000), Mac OS X 10.5+ computer ($2000), Podcast capture (included), Mac OS X 10.5+ Server ($8000), Podcast Producer (included)
Estimated Time to Create: Variable Time to create video and upload to server.
Associated Costs: Total of $11,000
Item #7 Excel Spreadsheets
Filename: Variable
Filetype: XLS
Purpose: Datasheets and graphing examples/solutions
Source: Local
Copyright:
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software:
Estimated Time to Create:
Associated Costs:
Item #8 MP3 Audio recordings
Filename: Variable
Filetype: MP3
Purpose: Audio answers to student questions in forums where audio is a more appropriate or expedient medium to respond
Source: Local
Copyright: Creative Commons, non-commercial, share and share alike, attribution
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software: Computer and Audacity audio recording software (free)
Estimated Time to Create: 5 minutes to 30 minutes
Associated Costs: None (computer already purchased)
Item #9 ???
Filename:
Filetype:
Purpose:
Source:
Copyright:
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software:
Estimated Time to Create:
Associated Costs:
Item #10 ???
Filename:
Filetype:
Purpose:
Source:
Copyright:
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software:
Estimated Time to Create:
Associated Costs:
Item #11 ???
Filename:
Filetype:
Purpose:
Source:
Copyright:
Technology required to prepare for LMS including hardware and software:
Estimated Time to Create:
Associated Costs:
Have I missed anything? I decided to drop out explicit filenames as my Ph12 course has hundreds of PDF files that I would likely include into a tutorial course.
Thanks!
JB
LMS Reflection
I’ve enjoyed creating this moodle course http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=62 as it has been a change in mode for me. I’ve taught at a distance before but my resources have primarily been for a face-to-face crowd. I’ve thought a little more about how I would change things for a primarily distributed learning course supported with a little face-to-face instead.
I see that you need to be painstakingly explicit in instructions regarding what is required. You must also use chunking so that the tasks are straight forward and uncomplicated in nature as you begin, and then allow for more complexity, more open ended assessments as you move along.
Part of the enjoyment I get in building a course around something I know well is the ability to improve upon my previous materials based on past experiences with students. I get a better understanding every time I teach something around how the students learn that subject. The storytelling role is most important in areas where analogy must be used to explain concepts (Heeok, 2004), which is very frequent in the sciences.
A challenge is how do we effectively portray our story telling in the LMS? Is Youtube/Elluminate the answer and just do vidoes of lessons? I used this in the primarily face-to-face courses and it was effective; however, I don’t think that is necessarily the end-all-be-all as we must be careful of taking the resources from a face-to-face course and simply put them into an LMS for a distributed learning environment. We need to use our past resources and adapt them for inclusion in the social learning environment that the LMS is designed to be.
While resources are “freely” available on the web we must also consider the control of those resources/learning objects. A reality that I have encountered is that a youtube video not under your control can easily disappear from the web. Also we must as educators consider the video and the attached commentary that may come with the video. Is it safe? Is it better to create my own video and post it using an open or freely available format inside the LMS rather than posting it through Youtube? Should I share my resources freely with or without attribution (yes!)?
I’m of the opinion that our courses should be open, we should share our materials to other educators including entire courses so they can be mounted elsewhere for the use, and remix by other educators. Why reinvent the wheel? I don’t personally expect that the resources I create will pay for my retirement because of some publishing deal so I share my creations whenever they belong to me. I’d like to think that something I’ve created will help someone change the world in a significantly positive way and I think that is a better contribution to the world than me selling the materials and gaining from them.
After doing this exercise I am planning on offering after school tutorial at least one day per week and online through the use of a Moodle site for sharing questions and resources. I am very glad that confronted with this task it has allowed me to take something that I put on the shelf and reignite my passion for it. Thanks for that John!
References
Heo, Heeok (2004). Inquiry on storytelling for the web-based environmental learning environment. Retrieved July 13, 2009, ERIC Document ED485140
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED485140
Story Tool: Prezi
Having a look through Alan Levine’s 50 tools http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools I found one of those things that you found cool at some point in time but never found time to go back and play. So I decided to use Prezi for my story about the Northern Environmental Action Team. http://neat.ca
I figure it would be a perfect time to build some new media objects for NEAT as we will be starting a half million dollar fundraising campaign for our new building! Signing papers tomorrow!
Just in the construction stage right now but you can check in at http://prezi.com/126760/
Working in the wiki
http://sites.wiki.ubc.ca/etec565/index.php/Talk:Section_66C
Working in the wiki space it can be easy to miss a change on the final product unless you keep track on the history of the page or add the page to a watch list, or subscribe to the RSS. So there are a couple different ways to keep up-to-date on it but if you are not used to rss etc then it takes some time to understand how to. Usually after a few hours inside an LMS you are pretty aware of how the threaded discussions work, how to keep track etc.
The Wiki for group collaboration is excellent for building towards a product. Threaded discussions are good for simply discussing how you are going to build something where I find the wiki lets you do that and build it while you discuss! While the wiki-media engine is a little cumbersome to learn the markup language when you are used to html (although that was combersome to learn too!) but a group can quickly set out sections, assign sections/topics to members and begin working. With the discussion tools and some organization it is easy to troubleshoot and share suggestions. A finished product can come about quickly and efficiently.
I think one of the challenges in a wiki space is respecting the work of others. You have free reign to delete it, not annonymously though, but we have to help each other build the final product. Collaboration is the key in this with group members discussing and debating where necessary. Another challenge is some have some different markup languages (wikimedia), while others are pretty simple to work in (wetpaint, google sites). It’s nice in a wikimedia site like the one we’re working in to have someone go first who knows what they are doing as I can quickly learn from their markup, otherwise I’m looking for the help section in toolkits!
Communication reflection
Exploring Tools
I’ve been working on a Moodle community for Wireless Writing Teachers along with my support teacher (1:1 laptop program teachers in grade 6-7-8).
Activity
Forums for discussion by Wireless Writing Teachers
You can have a look at it at http://www.district.prn.bc.ca:16080/course/view.php?id=30 as a guest, using enrolment key wwm2003
Rationale
The goal on this instructional space is to support new and veteran teachers by linking them to a community of teachers within the same program. This could also be easily done by email however that is immediately lost to future teachers where forums are searchable and do send an email to members. It can also be setup to allow rating scales on posts so if we were to ask for some writing samples for a practice everyone could rate the writing samples. We do cold writes in grade 6 and 7 and use the BC performance scales (rubrics) for writing to do the assessment.
I’m happy to say 94% of our grade 7s met expectations in writing using a complete sample size! Our fully meeting and exceeding jumped dramatically too compared to the spring! Finished report to be posted later under WWP at www.prn.bc.ca
We can track use of the tool by submissions, as well as reports in the LMS that let you know who, when, and how many times they have accessed forums.
Concerns for forums are they must be moderated. By moderated someone needs to sufficiently answer questions, or provide the occasional guide from the side to keep discussion going. Also I’ve experiences some communities that were killed by comments that one member made that would effectively shut down conversation. The conversations were considered controversial in nature by the TA, so other TA members may not have wanted to respond in the positive as they may be unduly labeled. So guiding the discussion around some of the whirlpools of politics is important as well.
Communication Tools prep
Just putting everything someplace that it is easy to get to… Tools will be moodle chat (break out rooms, synchronous, logging) and elluminate live (synch/asynch, recording, audio/text/video/whiteboard/polling, breakout rooms, powerpoint integration, media upload).
- You must select two or more synchronous or asynchronous communication tools other than email for your LMS course site (10 marks in total; 5 marks for each tool). At least one of these must be accessed from within the LMS environment. For each tool, tell us:
- Why you chose it (2)
- What this tool brings to the educational experience (1)
- What are its limitations (1)
- Does it work? If it is in your LMS site we will test it; if not, it should be linked there and you need to describe how you tested it (1)
Post your assignment on the Communication Tools page of your e-portfolio, along with a reflection about your experience selecting and implementing this tool..
LMS proposal – prep
I’m just going to pull things together in one spot so I can refer to reqs and rubrics easily.
Project Proposal: Assignment two is part of your term course project. Write a two page project proposal to a key decision maker in your institution or context, and post it in your e-portfolio. (I’m assuming this is my blog) Explain the platform you chose (moodle), your method for evaluating different options (group rubric), and what resources you would need to deliver the project (teacher, time, travel, release, including budget). Be sure to cite relevant literature to support your decision (several pieces to choose from). You will build your LMS site throughout ETEC 565A and will not be assessed on the site requirements until the end of the course.
Criteria for assessment of LMS proposal
- Comprehensiveness: does the proposal answer the sort of questions a reviewer would expect to find answered. Note: if you are creating your proposal based on a form, do not use the form: create an analogous one in Word. (2) – can do
- Integration of learning from relevant ETEC 565A activities (3) – use of various tools, frameworks for selecting
- Overall quality of work, as per the overall standards listed on the assessment page in the course intro module (3) – double check this
- Indication of having tested the platform, including what aspects or functions tested. (2) – I work in this LMS every day… okay can do
- Integration of relevant literature: required. No literature, fail the assignment. – guess so!
- Posted in the LMS page of your e-portfolio -didn’t know I had an LMS page of my e-portfolio… how about category instead?
Late nights and security
I’m struggling with a nasty cold and was looking forward to some couch time last night. Of course around lunch our mail security cratered not accepting or sending mail. 14 hours later myself and two of my staff took a few hours off to sleep and are currently back at it. Of course it happens on the weekend when I was planning to dig deep into the course material. Collaborative learning in a crisis is very interesting. We’ve solved many issues and have had to come up with some creative solutions. I reflect on the fact that the OLT can provide 480 hours towards the creation of a course and I hope I can give my guys days off rather than paying OT. Either way they are well worth it! Hopefully we can get it done by tonight.
The IT world in school districts is getting smaller (not just due to layoffs 
) but we are actually communicating more between districts (ETMA List). In cases like these though we have so many different solutions and ways to implement them that there is little help we can offer each other.
As for being able to work collaboratively to create courses province wide it is starting! There is a little light on the horizon as I have been working with Ian Thomas and the BC Learning Network to help build, share, and maintain courses. Currently it is a pay to play consortium that I am working with our distance education school on getting people interested in participating, then I can pay to join!
Ian also maintains the Moodle Course Source (http://dev.sd70.bc.ca/), which I and several teachers have gladly shared courses to. Hopefully it will help someone out in the future.
Now if only there is a moodle course out there for smtp relaying… back to google.
Skype and a dying wish
I’ve pondered posting this but it is appropriate to the course and my father thought it was appropriate.
I recently spent three days with my grandmother who is near to passing. She’s aware and accepting and I appreciated several hours we had to talk. One of the things she wanted was to see her new great-grandson who happens to be in Hobart, Tasmania. Fortunately I was around and I set up a skype video chat with my cousin, her husband, the new baby, and my visiting aunt. It was heart warming to see my 91 year old dear grandmother be able to see her newest great-grandchild. She spoke quietly but the audio and video were flawless and everyone down under heard every word quite clearly. She was able to see the baby and was thrilled with the ability to connect in such a way.
While it is something that I do now without thinking, using tools like skype, I will forever remember and cherish that day and the connections that such technologies create and foster.
Jarrod Bell