Delphine's e-Portfolio for ETEC 565A

My Flight Path
January 22nd, 2010 by Delphine Williams-Young
Delphine’s Reflection and Flight Path

Having been exposed to the NETS standards, I realize that there are many things to be learnt in order to cope in a digital world that is changing rapidly. I intend to embrace aspects of the five tenets to focus my growth and development as a digital-age professional.

1.  In order to “facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity,” I intend to expose my students to the digital tools that I have mastered and assessed for use in the classroom. I will also allow them to suggest alternate ways in which they could use these technologies. All students will be required to engage in discussions using the writing spaces I have invited them to use. I am optimistic that their reflections will be more meaningful and truthful as they will not be intimidated by the presence of their peers. Through collaborative work I am confident that increased levels of creativity will emerge. I am also hoping to encourage independent learning as they will be asked to suggest additional reading materials on the subject matter they have explored.

2.  I am looking forward to being empowered to “design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments.” I have begun my first project which is a wiki at http://ctcintroductiontopoetry2010.wetpaint.com/ However, I am aware that I am just beginning to scratch the surface so I am expecting further enlightenment in this course and the others I will do in order to complete the MET. I am cognisant of the diverse learning styles that students’ possess and I have written a paper on how the Web 2.0 tools have emerged to reflect an appeal to the learning styles publicised through the work of Howard Gardner and others. Therefore I am hoping to get more practice in adding sound to graphics, using more concept maps and developing ways of utilizing digital tools to do collaborative work.

3.  In an attempt to “model digital-age work and learning,” I plan to acquire competence in using the Moodle Learning Management System, which I am meeting for the first time. I hope to experiment with it in my subject area then move on to showing the stakeholders in education how to use this LMS to enhance learning. I believe that any skill worth acquiring should be used for individual and collective growth and development. I am hoping that in will help organize and structure learning in a non threatening kind of way.

4.  It is my intention to learn about the legal and ethical issues associated with the use of online materials. I want to be able to model digital etiquette when I am aware of what is expected of me. I currently penalize students for not adequately acknowledging their sources of information. I think this standard refers to much more than that. As I searched for videos for the wiki I created I realized that permission needs to be granted for them to be used. What do I do about this? I hope to hear about this in this course.

5.  I am expecting that I will be growing professionally as I become more comfortable and confident in using the digital tools. I work at a teachers’ college in Jamaica. Due to financial instability and the global recession, the government has embarked on many approaches to reduce government spending. As result the colleges will no longer have the support entities they used to rely on. They will now have to develop their own programs which will be market driven. I have already volunteered to be a part of the pioneering work to design courses that will utilize the resources acquired through the e-learning project in Jamaica which are presently under utilized.