kamloops77

My Precis of my Flight Path

Wow this course has been a blast. I have really been exposed to lots of different types of technology and how it can be used in education. I have found myself being very reflective of my current technology practices in the classroom and even began to make changes to the way I use technology in the classroom. Before taking this course my experiences with Moodle were not very positive and I really didn’t like it. I found it clunky and confusing and difficult to use. Now, I was forced to learn it and to explore various features in Moodle. So now I am much more confident in my ability to use Moodle and therefore I now like it a little more than starting this course. I am now more open to take a chance and try new tools and technology with my class. I already have many ideas that I will begin.

eLearning Toolkit

My experiences of using and learning from the eLearning toolkit were positive. I really enjoyed creating a presentation in Prezi that I used for a Pro-D at our school.  This was a nice way to present info instead of using PowerPoint. I also enjoyed experimenting with the CogDogRoo list of web2.0 resources. Particularly, I really enjoyed using the Vuvox presentation tool to create a really neat multimedia presentation with sound, video, pictures and text. It was easy to do and turned out great. One tool that I plan to use soon is Pixton cartoon creation, it’s top on my list to play around with and perhaps have my students play around with it.

Unfortunately, many of these tools are quite time consuming and eat away hours and hours of time.

SECTIONS Model

The SECTIONS model is a great academic and prescribed way to decide what kind of technology to implement into the classroom. I will now try to use the sections model to look at my portfolio. I am going to consider this model also for many of the Web2.0 tools that I have used throughout this course also.

S – Students. Well all of the tools that I have used form Vovux to Moodle to Webblogs have all really been appropriate for the age and technical ability of students I teach. (I teach high school)

E – Ease of use. Ease of use is relative and depends on the amount of time you have to put into learning some of the technologies. I was definitely challenged the most using Moodle, but it wasn’t really all that difficult…just time consuming.

C – Costs. Pretty much every tool used in the course has been free. We pretty much setup most of the software and learned it our self.

T – Teaching and Learning. I think this is a very important part of the SECTIONS model to consider. All of the tools that I talked about above in the eLearning Toolkit can meet all kinds of learning outcomes and would be a great extension for presenting information that students learned. Most of the web2.0 tools took little to learn and start creating content.

I – Interactivity. Well Moodle is very interactive particularly the blogs and glossary parts that I setup.

O – Organizational issues. Don’t think this one would apply for me.

N – Novelty. Well many Web2.0 tools are quite new and the future of the services could be uncertain. For instance cogdogroo lists a number of tools that are now out of business. While I don’t think you should use web tools just because they are really cool; I think there are good educational reasons to use tools that catch the attention of a learner.

S – Speed. Most web2.0 tools are quite fast and easy to use, those that are not don’t stay around for long. Of course Moodle is really quick to make changes for instant implementation.

Next Steps

Well, I have really enjoyed this course. There have been some times when I was frustrated with using some of the technology. At times it takes a bit of a learning curve and alot of time to figure out how to do things. Our course discussion board is full of such stories; I found that reading others problems they had to be very enlightening for myself. I often went there first to try solving my woes. But once I had some confusion cleared up, then I got excited for the uses of the technology.

So my next steps are to take my 3^rd course in the MET program: ETEC 500. Slow and steady is my plan, probably to finish my degree in 3 years.

As for technology next steps, I plan to try all kinds of new technology in my classrooms. This course has changed my practice and caused me to re-think some things I do in education. I want to try and expose students to many different forms of technology. I think that this will increase the level of engagement of students and also provide new challenges for me. I am definitely a big believer and leader in technology in the classroom.

Here is my digital story that I created with vuvox.com

http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/0232882cc1

I really liked the ease of use of this tool that allows for full multimedia mashup content. I was able to incorporate text, video, images and sound for a easy to use and view horizontal interface.

After spending several hours reviewing the different media tools to create a web based story, I found one that I would begin working with. (by the way, what a great resource is http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools )

I decided to create a storyline of a lesson/assignment introduction for my social studies class. I used http://www.vuvox.com/ to create a linear horizontal media creation. It incorporated still images, video, text and sound. I “used my visual voice” (websites slogan) to create an intro to Louis Riel and the 1885 Rebellion that occurred in Saskatchewan.

The ease of use was great with this tool. I could see using vuvox to have students tell a story about really anything historical. I think that students would be engaged to use this tool and they could easily create media content in a short time.
My main beef with the vuvox is that I could not find a way to embed youtube or other online video links…not sure if I just couldn’t find it or maybe its not available yet because vuvox is still in beta.
I found a way around this by downloading from youtube and then inserting a video file.
Vuvox was also easy to setup an account, had one up and running in a minute.
I would recommend this media tool and think I would get students to use it in the future.

You have to see it to believe it. Let me know what you think.

Social Media and Learning

(not too sure where to post this on my blog?)

I enjoyed creating a wiki as a class. The advantages are that you can all collaboratively work on a document or explore a topic. It is great to hear from everyone and to be exposed to a variery of experience and ideas. As a class we put together a great resource on social media and learning.

However, I do think that a wiki has some challenges. The most important challenge of the wiki is that it does not seem to have a cohesive flow to it. Each student makes their addition and the wiki gets bloated. This keeps going on and on. What it needs to be better organized is some editing. I find that wiki’s rarely have someone editing because no one wants to delete another persons work.

I am finally getting the hang of Moodle. I guess it just takes a bit of time to get farmiliar with the interface and where to find everything. Trial and error also always helps.

You can view my moodle site at:

http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=134

Exploring Communications tools.

I decided to incorporate the use of lots of different tools into my moodle class. I have modeled this moodle class after a Social Studies 8 Medieval Manor unit. I choose this because I am familiar with this content that I have taught before, and I find it really interesting.

So, the tools that I used in moodle are a News Forus, Blog, Chat, Wiki, Assignment (text entry), Glossary, and a Survey/Feedback.

Develop an Activity

I have developed some drafts of activities for each of these moodle CMS tools. They are:

News Forum. I used a KWL chart to find out about students prior knowledge. This is also used to assess the learning at the end of the course. K stands for what do you know, W stands for what do you want to learn, and L stands for what did you learn. The L get completed at the end of the course. The News forum allows all of the students to post their answers and to be able to read other students.

Blog. I used a blog in CMS mostly just as a coffee shop gathering place to express oneself and get to know the students. I have posted a few general questions about events happening outside of the course to get some social interaction and talk going. This will help the students and teacher to get to know each other better.

Chat. This allows students to answer a question that I posted and chat with other students about their post. This question is designed to be an extension of learning that has occurred already in a classroom. The key terms that students enter here will automatically hyperlink to the Glossary.

Wiki. Here students are to update the wiki with information on the Serf. I choose a wiki format as an experiment to see what kind of document could be created with each student adding and improving the work.

Assignment. Here students enter what a typical day of a Medieval Monk was like. This is an assignment posting that is done in text. I felt that this was the best way to get an idea of whether or not students understood the role of a Monk.

Glossary. I love this activity. The glossary is a great summative activity for the class to complete. Each one adding vocabulary to create a full glossary. Students can rate other glossary entries to ensure accuracy. Of course the teacher will be involved and will moderate and check for accuracy.

Survey/Feedback. This is basically for the instructor to get feedback on the whole CMS for future improvements. It is valuable to find out what the students liked and didn’t like about the whole experience.

Rationale

My rationale for the individual activities are posted above. However, I wanted to comment on the potential problems with some of the activities. This is a first draft of a CMS that is designed to supplement a regular classroom. I have some concerns with the wiki, if some students don’t take it seriously they could destroy the work of some others. This is why I may frequently check this and periodically save the wiki in case this happens. To ensure full participation from each person in the class I would assign a mark for using the CMS.

So please visit my moodle site. It is improving, and I welcome your participation in any activities there.

http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=134

My Thoughts on Boris and his Chemistry 11 Delima

I sounds like to me that Boris is on the right track in having setup and used  Moodle. However, he should expand his use of Moodle from notes, handouts and student questions to some Computer Aided Assessment(CAA). Boris could easily setup some assessment in Moodle using the tools built into Moodle. Alternatively he could also setup and integrate some assessment using Questionmark. I really like Questionmark because of its ability to create web 2.0 material for online assessment allowing better interactivity from the student. This would enable students to have more practice before they have summative assessment in class. Although this may take some time to setup, once the work is done, then Boris would only have to maintain it.

This CCA has the following advantages:

• repeatability
• immediate response/feeback
• reliable
• diverse assessment
• student interest and motivation
• encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning

So Boris, I recommend that you setup these “mock exams” right away.

I do also think Boris should assign some marks for students completing and taking the time to use Moodle. I think this is important because it will propel a greater percentage of students to use it.

Source:

Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005).  “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Accessed online 11 March 2009 http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf

Jenkins, M. (2004).  “Unfulfilled Promise: formative assessment using computer-aided assessment.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education , i, 67-80. Accessed online 17 March 2009 http://www.glos.ac.uk/shareddata/dms/2B72C8E5BCD42A03907A9E170D68CE25.pdf.

My Relection on using Moodle as an assessment tool for creating quizes.

Over the years I have used a number of different software programs that were for designing assessments for teachers. I think they were more like assessment managers. However, recently I have received a set of Smart Response units that work with my Smartboard. These units are a class set of remote controls, the students type in their student number and I quiz the class using some questions that I programed in earlier. Students get instant feedback and learn as we go through them, and I don’t have any marking to do later. Win win! Anyway, the reason I brought this up was not to gloat, but to compare the assessment entry interface. Well let me say that I found Moodle’s interface to be very poor indeed. Although I found little problems using it, it is over technical and has many ambiguous entry areas that are difficult to understand. It is definitely not web 2.0 material and the interface seems quite outdated. So I found creating assessment in Moodle manageable but definately not pleasureable. My displeasure of the entry interface aside, I do think that the finished product was not too bad. The interface for students in the LMS is just fine. Again it is not web 2.0 kind of technology.

Comparing the assessment entry to other commercial programs out there is a little disappointing. In the Smart product here is a picture of how you choose what kind of assessment question you want to create. And also here are more screen shots including what the assessment question entry screen looks like.

Thanks for reading.

Assignment #2 Project Proposal

John Smith

Superintendent of Technology at School District #73

This is a formal request for some technology to be setup to support students, teachers and parents.

I have been part of a committee that looked at different Learning Management Systems that teachers want to take advantage of. Our research has led us to wanting to have a Moodle server setup. In coming up with this decision we used the SECTIONS Model (Bates and Poole, 2003) to help evaluate the LMS. Our decision was based on appropriate technology for students, ease of use and reliability, cost structure, how it will support teaching, the kind of interaction the technology enables, organizational requirements, how new is the technology, and how quickly can courses be mounted with this technology. The LMS that came out on top was Moodle: it scored far above Blackboard.

Why we believe Moodle is the best choice for a LMS. Our committee concluded that Moodle is the best Open Source platform because:

• Ease of use – from both an administration and faculty point of view
• Has a variety set of resource and activity creation tools
• Many 3^rd party modules to extend the students experience
• Growing international community and contributions

As part of our committee’s work, we installed a local version of Moodle in one of the department and were amazed at how easy it was to install and get running. Our computer tech had the system up and running ready to create course content in as little as one day. It is to be noted that he had never setup Moodle before this. So the ease of use and setup can be done quite quickly on an institutional scale.

The only challenges that we see are:

• New versions and patches available almost daily
• Testing (which is why we recommend a quiet rollout)
• New technology for Learning community to learn

But we believe that we can easily handle these challenges with your support.

Because Moodle is Open Source, the costs for purchasing it are negligent. The only costs are going to be around our existing IT department.

The committee strongly urges you to support our faculty and students with a quiet rollout, let’s do it with a slow and add steady growth. This way our faculty and students can become familiar with it.

Sources:

Moodle: Why? Where? When? How? University of Minnesota, 2007. Web. 8 Feb. 2010. <http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/MWR07093.pdf>.

Jeremy’s Flight Path

I am a High School Social Studies and History teacher.  I have been teaching for 10 years now; half of that working part time and as a TOC. Since my first year teaching, I have been incorporating technology into my teaching.  Ten years ago I used an online markbook and had students use multimedia software. Today, I have a classroom that is equipped with a Smartboard (with projector & laptop), access to Clickers and set of Digital Flip Video cameras.

My goals for the MET program (and this course) are to enhance my knowledge and use of technology in the classroom and teaching. I have become a technology leader at my school and head up a professional learning community that focuses on technology and teaching.

My other goals are related to understanding the pedagogy of technology use in education.  I do believe that this course will help me to become proficient in a wide range of differing educational technologies; such as LMS, social software and multimedia. I am wanting to build on my knowledge to help my in my career as a teacher.

I also want to improve my use of technology and to find out how to get the most out of it. I want learning to be enhanced by using good practice in the classroom. I also believe that it is important to select technologies that will enhance learning and not only being used because they exist (Bates & Poole, 2003)

What resources do I need to master these technologies and to be able to meet my goals? Well, I expect that my progression through the MET program will inevitably lead to many of my goals being met. But I also believe that practice and hands on use of the technologies will be the way that competency will be met. This is called active learning and this will be achieved through engaging in groups with other students (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).

I think that this course will be very practical and help me to become very experienced in a variety of learning technologies.

I am in my 1st year as a MET student and am a high school teacher right here in Kamloops, BC, Canada.

Read more about me and  ETEC 565.

J. Reid