Sarah Wood’s e-portfolio etec 565

Précis of your flight path

I enrolled in this course as I wanted the opportunity to explore various technologies being used in the classroom.  I was particularity interested in learning to use Moodle.  I had outlined three goals for this course:

First, the 2008 NETS for teachers suggests that teachers “provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching”.  I believe that I did accomplish this goal as I learned to create an online quiz in Moodle.  I also feel I broadened my definition of feedback to include more peer feedback that is possible by using discussion forums and wikis.

Second, Chickering and Gamson also suggest that technology can be used to foster communication between students and teachers.  I certainly feel as though I have accomplished this goal as I created a wiki within my Moodle site for students and parents to communicate.

Lastly, I love this opportunity to see what others are doing and take what I can and incorporate it into my teaching to make lessons exciting and enriching for me and my students.  This course was great in that it allowed us to create projects that were meaningful to our lines of work.  But at the same time we were able to view and critique what each other were doing.  The digital stories were a great showcase of the tools readily available.

Reflection on eLearning toolkit experience

Please note – I recently created a post that summarized my toolkit experience.  I have moved the post here and deleted it from the main page as not to be repetitive.

Toolkit Overview

I thought the toolkit was a fantastic resource for MET students.  Each of us brings a different skill set and we were able to customize our learning to best suit our needs.  It was also a great resource to have a discussion thread for each activity.  I posted questions for the class and I was even able to answer a few questions for classmates as well! 

For each activity, I will comment on “what I learned and enjoyed” and “what I need to work on”.

Learning Management System

What I learned and enjoyed: Excellent snapshot of LMS’s.  I did the complete Moodle tutorial and found it a great starting point for Moodle.  I was a Moodle newbie and this gave me the confidence to start building my site.

What I need to work on: Moodle is a vast tool and as I built my site I frequently used Moodle docs.

Web Design and HTML Authoring

What I learned and enjoyed:  Once again, an excellent resource.  I know some HTML and I have used Dreamweaver, so I skimmed through this toolkit and took advice as I built my Moodle site.  Some of the most important points I taught my students and I tried to implement are: white space, sans serif fonts, and keep page length to a min.  Also, I was very pleased to see the emphasis put on story boarding.  It is crucial to plan before jumping in.

What I need to work on:  I really don’t know too much about CSS.  I need to spend the day sitting at my computer and doing the complete tutorials listed…maybe I will get to this before the course ends!

Synchronous Communication Tools

What I learned and enjoyed: I have used various synchronous communication tools for my MET courses, but never for my personal or work use.  Often group members and I have used “chat” to work together while we collaborated on group projects.  I find that collaboration works best when there is both asynchronous and synchronous communication.  One of the things I enjoy most about synchronous communication is building connections with people.  I find I work best, when I can relate to others.  As part of the toolkit, I set up Skype for communication between my husband and myself. 

What I need to work on:  I would love to learn more about Elluminate.  I have been a participant and I would love to host a workshop.

Social Software

What I learned and enjoyed:

What I need to work on:  I did not do this toolkit exercise, but I do know there is a lot of discussion over ownership and rights and it will be interesting to follow how the progression of these tools goes.

Weblogs

What I learned and enjoyed:  My first blog experience was taking MET 522 last year.  As a class platform, I did not like it.  It was hard to follow what was new and I found the discussions were not as deep or meaningful between classmates.  This new experience (creating a blog for ETEC 565) has been great.  I really like how UBC supports the blog and that we are all using the same application.  It does level the playing field and makes it easy for us to jump around and tour other people’s blogs.  I also appreciated the blogrole that was created.  In terms of creating the blog, I found it an easy process.

What I need to work on:  I think I just need to get more comfortable with blogging.  I find it hard to share my thoughts and ideas and I am not too sure I like others reading about them!

Wikis

What I learned and enjoyed:  I created a wiki pbworks and did a blog post earlier in the course.  In this MET course, many of my collegues have used wikis in their class and have loved them, so I plan to use the one I created in the Fall.  It seems like a great tool to allow students and parents to collaborate.

What I need to work on:  I just need to start using it!  I have it set up and in the Fall I have to add it to my course agenda.

Multimedia and Authoring Tools

What I learned and enjoyed:  I have Photoshop, so I love playing around with pictures.  I also love MovieMaker and Ulead, so I have made movies in the past for both personal and work.  This is an area that I am interested in and take the time to explore technologies.

What I need to work on:  I have not tried Picasa, so I will give that a try.

Accessibility

What I learned and enjoyed: The “Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web Sites” is a useful tool and I reviewed it while I was creating my Moodle site. 

What I need to work on:  I have not yet summarized my YouTube videos as suggested and I hope to do that before the end of the course.

SECTIONS model to self-assess your portfolio

Using Bates and Poole’s (2002) SECTIONS model, I will assess my ePortfolio with specific reference to UBC’s WordPress.

S – Students – Bates and Poole ask decision makers to consider student demographics, access, and difference in how students learn when choosing technology.  I believe that for both myself and the MET community that creating an ePortfolio using UBC’s WordPress meets this criteria.  In terms of demographics we are all students who enrolled in a technology program, so we are interested in learning new technologies and more importantly applying them.  Access – the WordPress ePortfolio is hosted by UBC, so all that is required for students is Internet connectivity.  Addressing the difference in how students learn is one of the benefits of creating an ePortfolio.  I appreciated that there was structure in the assignments, but each person was free to complete the work to address their own needs and interests.  The nature of an ePortolio allows customization of the content “to support the individual needs of each unique learner” (Anderson, p.58).

E – Ease of use and reliability – Bates and Poole comment that the technology “should be well structured, intuitive for the user to use, and easy to navigate” (p. 88).  I believe that creating my ePortfolio with WordPress met this requirement.  There was some initial time invested to learn the new program, but once the initial barriers were dealt with I had little issues with the program.  Perhaps the largest barrier was my own comfort in posting my blogs as this was a new experience to me. 

C – Cost – UBC’s WordPress is hosted by UBC, so there is no direct cost to me.  Indirectly, I required a computer with Internet connection (which I had) and I postulate that some of my tuition went to UBC for server space.  There are two choices for me to use this technology within my own classroom – WordPress.com and WordPress.org.  WordPress.com is hosted free online and is suitable for low traffic sites and WordPress.org would need to be hosted on my school districts server (WordPress, 2009).

T – Teaching and Learning – “If the technology is not effective educationally, it should not be used no matter how cheap of easy to use it is” (Bates and Poole, p.95).  Creating an ePortfolio using WordPress supports my Constructivist teaching style and learning preference.  Anderson points out that this type of context is learning-centred as it takes into account what the learner brings to the experience (p.47).

I – Interaction and Interactivity – An ePortfolio meets Bates and Poole’s definition for interaction and interactivity as “the learner must respond in some way to the learning material”; in creating an ePortfolio, the learner creates the material (p.98).  Another integral part of an ePortfolio is sharing your work with your peers and I believe this helps to develop a community of practice. 

O – Organizational Issues – This is the second MET course that I have developed an ePortfolio for and I would agree that the key to success is organizational support. In the other class we were “encouraged” to create the site, but little support was given.  As well, in the other class we were not provided with a blogroll or any instructions on how to share our ePortfolio’s.  In ETEC 565 another key to success was the discussion forums that allowed students to post questions that they had.

N – Novelty – WordPress has been around for a number of years and seems commited to improving itself with help for the larger community.  At the same time the notion of an ePortfolio is supported by educational theory and design and I see its benefits for the long term.

S – Speed – Bates and Poole asks us to consider “How easy is it to make changes and how quickly can changes be made?’.  I would argue that for both an ePortolio and WordPress that changes can be made quickly with little ease.  For an ePortfolio, the user should take time beforehand to storyboard and do some initial planning before embarking on their project.

 

My practice in educational technology

The plane has safely landed and as I disembark, I have to say that it was an enjoyable ride.  This has been by far my favourite course I have taken in the MET program as we used both theory and practise to hone our knowledge base.  I loved that we were exposed to various technologies and allowed the time to explore and experiment with them.

 Moodle – I loved the process of creating my Moodle site and I plan to use it to support my inclass instruction.  By having a LMS site it will organize myself and my students when we do online activities and it provides a place where we can generate and share ideas.

Wiki – I have set up a wiki and plan to use it to communicate more with parents.

 Digital Stories – So many new tools here that I believe will excite and engage my students.

 In summary, I will continue to review the International Society for Technology in Education’s National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for my own classroom practices.  The standard that I will take with me is “Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity”. 

 Thank you for a great ride!

References:

Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In: T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Accessed online 5 June 2009 http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008_Anderson-Online_Learning.pdf

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). 

Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996).  Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin”(2), 3-6.
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples.htm

The International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National educational technology standards and performance indicators for teachers. Retrieved May 29, 2009 from://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for

WordPress. (2009) WordPress.com.  Retrieved July 30, 2009 from: http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/