Hello!

Please feel free to explore my ETEC 565 e-portfolio and my Synthesis Reflection.

I would like to thank my classmates and instructors for a great semester! The discussions have been rich and I have enjoyed following all of your weblogs.

The past 13 weeks have been instrumental in my development in the field of Educational Technology. Other courses that I have taken have done an excellent job exploring theory and I feel that this course has allowed me to put theory into practice. ETEC 565 has been my third course in the MET program and I now feel that I have developed a strong foundation in terms of technical competencies. I feel excited and confident for the next seven courses! In short, this course has far exceeded my expectations. I have learned immensely and appreciate how my learning was scaffolded, resulting in success!

~Camille

E- learning Toolkit – Accessibility

Instructions:

Take a look at your LMS (Vista or Moodle) site, including images, multimedia, links, tables and frame. Check the “Quick Tips” on WAI and check your work at Markup Validation Service.  See updated Web Accessibility Quick Tips based on WCAG 2 at a glance. What did you find? How accessible is your site? What sorts of things might you need to do to ensure it is accessible to all of your students?

Reflection:

This toolkit activity has been very eye opening.  I took a look at my moodle site and used the Web Accessibility Quick Tips to reflect on the overall accessibility of my site.

Here is a summary of the points that I took into consideration:

1.    Images & animations:

I used the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.

2.    Multimedia:

This is an area where I could improve.  The checklist recommends providing captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.  The next time I embed a video, I would also include a written text of the audio and a short description of the video.  That being said, I was able to include audio files using Audacity to support students with the reading components of the course.  For more information about multimedia used in my course site, please visit my Multimedia Inventory.

3.    Hypertext links:

Throughout my course, I endeavored to use text that makes sense when read out of context.  I avoided “click here” and generally used text that described the activity.  For example, on my splash page, instead of saying “astronaut”, I say “Start Here”.

4.    Page organization:

I have used headings, lists, and consistent structure.  My course is organized around three (3) modules, A, B and C.

5.    Check your work:

I validated my site at the Markup Validation Service and it found 4 errors.  All 4 of them were a XML Parsing Error where I had an opening and ending tag mismatch.  The report tells you where the error has occurred; however, I am not sure how to find the specific lines and columns.  More learning is required in this area!

Overall, because my site is to be used with teacher support and the SMART Board, I believe that my site is accessible.  At my school, we are very focused on Universal Design for Learning; therefore accessibility and differentiation are forefront in my mind when planning lessons to meet learning outcomes.

Please view my Moodle Final Reflection page for my final reflections on building my LMS course site in moodle.

Think about an example of how multimedia has been used effectively to enhance your learning. Feel free to reflect on your MET experiences, or any other.

Over my first year and three courses in the MET program, the multimedia which I feel has been used effectively to enhance my learning has been screen casting.  A screen cast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration.

It wasn’t until my third course, ETEC 565A, that I was introduced to this technology.  Now that I have been exposed to it, I believe that I would have benefitted from other professors using this multimedia to convey some of the course materials.  Here is an example of a screen cast that my instructor in 565A put together towards the beginning of our LMS projects.  Thanks John!  🙂  This was an effective method of showing ETEC 565A participants how to set up their course shell and, as was mentioned in the screen cast by John, saved him about a day and a half of work time!

There are many screen casts available on the web, such as this one on YouTube, which explains how to export and resize a photo using Picasa.  This particular screen cast helped me to be able to resize a photo quickly, without having to spend time fiddling around with the program.  In the end, this gave me time to focus on other aspects of the E-learning toolkit.

Having been exposed to screen casting, I have created a screen cast with ScreenToaster for my moodle course.  My main goal in creating this screen cast is to identify the different components we are being assessed on and to highlight some interesting features of my course.

Screen casting is a multimedia tool that I will continue to use in my teaching practice, with students and colleagues.  I often do short educational technology presentations at staff meetings, and presenting a screen cast, which can be archived for reviewing, will be very beneficial and appreciated.

Enjoy!

Social Software

E-learning Toolkit Reflection

For this E-learning Toolkit Activity, I have decided to focus on four Social Software sites that I use personally.  The main sites that I use most frequently are Delicious and Twitter, and I have explored Digg and Flickr.

1.  Who “owns” materials posted by members?

Delicious

By posting content, you are granting permission to Delicious and others to access and use it in connection with Delicious and otherwise in connections with its affiliates’ businesses.

Digg

By creating and posting Content to Digg, you warrant that you own all rights to the Content, agree that the Content will be dedicated to the public domain under the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication, available at http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and that you will not object to the use of the Content by Digg in any context.

Twitter

Twitter claims no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Twitter service.  Your profile and materials uploaded remain yours.  You can remove your profile at any time by deleting your account.  This will also remove any text and images you have stored in the system.

Flickr

You understand that all materials, including without limitation, information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, and email messages or other kinds of messages (“Content“), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person from which such Content originated. This means that you, and not Yahoo!, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available via the Service. Yahoo! does not control the Content posted via the Service and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. You understand that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable. Under no circumstances will Yahoo! be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, for any

errors or omissions in any Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of or reliance upon any Content posted, emailed, transmitted, or otherwise made available via the Service.

2.  For what purposes can these materials be used?

Delicious

Delicious is explicitly not responsible for the manner or circumstances by which third parties access or use public content and is under no obligation to disable or otherwise restrict this access. Delicious provides you with the ability to retrieve and remove your posted content and your personal information from Delicious. This ability does not extend to copies that others may have made or to copies that Delicious may have made for backup purposes.

Digg

Social sharing of data: Digg allows other users to browse stories that you have Dugg, submitted or commented on. This information is made available publicly via your User Profile, on Digg Labs (labs.digg.com), via the public API (services.digg.com), or within the permalink URL of the story on which you performed the action. Digg may choose to post this data on other site features.

Twitter

The Twitter service makes it possible to post images and text hosted on Twitter to outside websites. This use is accepted (and even encouraged!). However, pages on other websites which display data hosted on Twitter.com must provide a link back to Twitter.

Flickr

Yahoo! does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant Yahoo! the following worldwide, royalty free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:

• With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform, and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted or made available. This licence exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Service.

• With respect to photos, graphics, audio, or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other than Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This licence exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Service.

• With respect to Content other than photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other than Yahoo! Groups, the perpetual, irrevocable and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

3.  Would using each site be appropriate with your students?

My students are grade one students, and therefore, many social software sites are not accessible to them because of their age.  Digg and Twitter require that users are at least 13 years of age.  Reading through the respective Terms of Service of each site, I could not locate age requirements for Delicious or Flickr.  That being said, I would not have students sign up themselves.  I would create classroom accounts on both services.  I would not have students bookmark sites to Delicious, rather I would direct them to the site to visit sites that I would like them to visit.  A Flickr account could be created to house photo collections of classroom projects.  I would not post photos of students on Flickr, unless I had parental permission.

4.  In your opinion, how well are the privacy interests of members represented?

Locating the Terms of Service for each site was very accessible.  That being said, some are easier and more straightforward to read and find the necessary information.  It is up to users to inform themselves before signing up to a service as Social Software sites are very clear with their expectations.   I would argue that if you are going to use a Social Software site, you are basically giving up your right to privacy.

References:

Delicious.  Terms of Service.  Accessed on-line July 18, 2009 from: http://delicious.com/help/terms

Digg.  Terms of Service.  Accessed on-line July 18, 2009 from: http://digg.com/tou

Flickr.  Terms of Service.  Accessed on-line July 18, 2009 from:  http://digg.com/tou

Twitter.  Terms of Service.  Accessed on-line July 18, 2009 from:  http://twitter.com/tos

Please view my Digital Stories and my reflection on my social media creations on my Digital Story page.

Enjoy!

E-learning Toolkit:  Audio

For this E-learning toolkit activity, I used Audacity to record 10 .mp3 files that I have uploaded to my moodle course.  The purpose of these voice recordings is to have audio support for the reading component of the course; the descriptions of the Milky Way, the Sun and the planets.  In each module, there is a resource titled “Centres de littéracie / Literacy Centers”.  When you click on the name of each planet, you will notice an image of an ear holding a megaphone with the words “Cliquez sur l’oreille!” in red beside the image.  Looks like this:

Cliquez sur l’oreille!

When the student clicks on the ear, a new window opens up and they will hear my voice recording reading out the text.  After the recording has been listened to, the students must close the window to return to the course.  From there, they can click on the word “Description” to see the text that was just read out for that topic.

I have used Audacity before in ETEC 510 for my Group Design Project.  My group created a technology enhanced language project designed to assist educators in enhancing the Spanish oral proficiency skills of their students. Students used Audacity to record conversations in Spanish which were then posted to their oral portfolio.

When I first started using Audacity, I remember struggling and struggling with exporting to an .mp3 file.  Once I realized that I had to download the LAME plug-in for my operating system, I really had the ball rolling!  This was the biggest challenge in using Audacity.  For the toolkit activity, I followed the instructions and made my recordings without any difficulty.  From there, I uploaded the files to the appropriate folder in moodle and was easily able to link the files to the “ear” image.  Once I had my system in place, it was just a matter of clicking here and there!

In the past I have also used GarageBand with iTunes to create .mp3 audio files.  However, these programs are specific to Mac computers and Audacity is open source and cross-platform making it possibly more accessible to more users.  When deciding on a process for students to follow in our ETEC 510 group project, we chose to design it around the use of Audacity for this reason.

Using Audacity has made my course more accessible to my students.  In Grade One, students range from emergent readers to students who are already decoding words and reading them with comprehension.  By adding in an audio file, students who are emerging as readers have the opportunity to listen to the text instead of struggling through it.  Furthermore, students who are already reading can listen to the audio and can practice reading with fluency.  This is very important, especially when learning a second language.

By adding audio files to a course, the principles of Universal Design for Learning are considered.  The paradigm of UDL, which was first developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), is a means of respecting a variety of diverse individual learning styles without requiring adaptation. This theoretical framework promotes the success for all learners by inherently having the flexibility to support each individual’s needs. UDL applies to all learners, not exclusively to individuals with disabilities, but aims to provide everyone with equal access to learning.

Audacity is a very powerful tool that I will be using to enhance my teaching.

E-learning Toolkit: Using Picasa

For this E-learning toolkit activity, I chose a photo of a lily that I took at Grotto Canyon, close to Canmore, Alberta.  I followed the instructions in the activity pretty much step-by-step and as such, found the usability of Picasa to be intuitive.  On the left is my original photo, in the middle is the cropped photo, and on the right is the re-sized image (500 pixels wide).  Click on each image to view it separately.

The image above (left side) is a photo that I took of graffiti at the Hastings Skateboard Park in Vancouver while visiting my brother a few years ago.  At the time, I used Picasa and the “saturation” effect to enhance this photo.  I was so pleased with the final product that I have enlarged it and framed it.  I have also printed 4 x 6 prints of this photo and have created greeting cards with it.   The photo in the center is a photo that I cropped using Picasa a few years ago, and the last photo, of the Totem, is a photo I took in Seattle that I am just really proud of!  In fact, I have used all of the images above among others in my digital story and in the creation of greeting cards.

For amateur photographers such as myself, Picasa is a great tool to dabble in the editing of photos.  For the most part, I use iPhoto and have found it to be very intuitive and user friendly.  I am more keen to use iPhoto, as my school uses Mac computers, however, since Picasa is open source and cross-platform, I would recommend it to schools that utilize different platforms.  Furthermore, I noticed that you can upload directly to Blogger from Picasa, which would be very handy for teachers and/or students using Blogger as their blogging platform.  Whether people use Picasa, or iPhoto, or any other digital image software suite, it is important to spend the time to “play around” and figure out what the software has to offer.  I find that learning by doing usually produces fantastic results!

E-learing toolkit:  Weblogs

We have been discussing Weblogs in much detail over the past week or so in ETEC 565, which has led me to this toolkit activity.  I’ve spent the greater part of this afternoon browsing through some educational blogs which has been interesting and has led me to discover many articles, video clips, views and opinions of educators worldwide.  Sampling through the different weblogs, I came to the realization that every blog starts small; they all seem to be at a different point in terms of their content, number of comments, pages, etc…  The Weblogs that are more developed are truly a work of art in a sense, rich with information, well thought out and clearly visited on a daily (hourly?) basis!

In the New Year, I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog chronicling my journey through the MET program.  I created this blog using WordPress, which turned out to be very easy and quick.  However, I did struggle with understanding the difference between categories and pages, and this confusion remained with me, until I started ETEC 565 and created my reflective weblog for the course.  Through the creation of the pages that we were asked to create, I finally understood how a WordPress blog is organized!

So far, I have enjoyed the blogging experience in ETEC 565, not only posting assignments, but also being able to choose a theme and customize the header of my blog.  There are limitations to how unique your blog looks, but I think that I’ve made a tweak or two to help it stand out.  🙂

Throughout our discussions concerning Weblogs, I picked up a great book by Will Richardson (2009) titled “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Web Tools for Classrooms” through the Professional Learning Centre of the Calgary Board of Education.  I’ve been thinking about how teachers could use blogging with students and I would like to share Richardson’s following ideas:  (p.39)

You can have your students create their own Weblogs to…

• learn how to blog.
• complete class writing assignments.
• create and ongoing portfolio of samples of their writing.
• express their opinions on topics you are studying in class.
• write comments, opinions, or questions on daily news items or issues of interest.
• discuss activities they did in class and tell what they think about them. (You, the teacher, can learn a lot this way!)
• write about class topics, using newly learned vocabulary words and idioms.
• showcase their best writing pieces.

Richardson also provides ideas for teachers wanting to create a reflective, journal-type blog and/or a class blog.  Blog safety is an important consideration when blogging with students and it is important to be aware of the policies of your school district.  There are many good arguments concerning private vs. public blogging with students and it is very important that the teacher and students understand the consequences of both types of blogging before embarking on a blog project.

I look forward to blogging in more detail and reading other Weblogs as I journey through the MET program and my teaching career.

Reference:

Richardson, W. (2009).  Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.  2nd Ed.  Corwin Press.

Came across this YouTube video today – interesting and inspirational!