Alix’s Exploration of Learning Technologies

One of my main motivations for signing up to take ETEC 565A was to learn how to use Moodle. I had the interest, but not the time or inclination to learn it on my own. ETEC 565A provided me with the support and incentive to delve in.

My Moodle adventure began with the Moodle tool kit activity. The tool kit activity provided the very prompts I needed to start exploring the Moodle interface and all of it’s affordances. Once I acclimatized to the Moodle environment, I felt comfortable playing around on my own.

My favorite afffordance is the yellow questions mark icon next to every option which opens to tell you more information about said option.

One of the first things I did was change the format from a weekly release schedule to a topic format. Because I would like the option to use this LMS to support and enhance a f2f course, a topic format allows for more flexibility. Adding resources such as webpages, links to other sites, or uploading documents was straightforward. However, the maximum file size restriction did prove limiting in which of my content powerpoints I could upload.

I really like the ability to add RSS feed widgets to the home page. This could serve as a conversation starter in class, “Did anyone read that article on Mollusk sex on the Science Daily feed?”.

I found the quiz option to be very time consuming. Although once a question bank is developed, self-test quizzes are an invaluable tool for pre-test self-assessment.

I started to develop the content of my modules, but was not sure how I would design navigation. Once I figured out how to link webpages within my moodle site, it was not too difficult to organize navigation within the LMS. Keeping an inventory of resources and webpage url’s proved very useful when organizing navigation.

There are still many administrative options that I have not explored (e.g grade book), and many more advanced settings that I am not even aware of in the ones I did experiment with. However, I feel that I now have the basic experience necessary to call myself a Moodler, my main goal in ETEC 565A.

When purchasing my Mac PowerBook G4 over 4 years ago as a 4th year undergraduate student, I opted not to purchase a DVD burner. At the time, the extra $?, was too much and I could not foresee needing to burn DVDs (I would never illegally copy a DVD!, and had no inclination to make my own productions). This decision has  haunted many times since. As such, while undertaking the DVD toolkit activity, I could not fully complete it. However, I do have the iDVD application on my Mac and spent some time playing around with it. Like most iApple applications, I found iDVD to be very user friendly with drag and drop ease, and aesthetically pleasing themes. I decided to make a DVD using photos from my wedding (as I have yet, 5 years later, to print these). I created a menu slideshow using some of the best photos, and then created a chapter using a slideshow of the wedding photos that I had previously made in iPhoto. Very much out of character for my trustworthy Mac, the program crashed in the middle of editing and a lot of my work was not saved.  If I do choose to author DVDs in the future, and after undertaking this activity, I realize how easy it is, I would have to upgrade my computer.

Please visit the LMS page to find my LMS proposal, or you can also download a .doc copy here LMS Proposal.

I worked through introduction to web design and html authoring in the e-learning  tool kit and completed the suggested activities. After completing the activities, which included introductory readings, exploring  suggested software, assessment checklists, story boarding, and considering design elements, I have to say that I really had not considered how much goes into designing a good webpage.

Nothing exemplifies this point more, than exploring webpages that suck. I was particularily intrigued by one webpage for a company called Brill Publications, the page relys heavily on “metaphic navigation”, where an animated elevator takes you to different pages. Although there is a novelty element to the navigation strategy, it takes FOREVER to find and get to any specific page. If I was genuinely visiting this site, I would probably leave it rather quickly due to frusteration.

Truth be told, I did not create a new webpage for the webpage design activity, instead I used my MET e-folio as a point of analysis. This is the e-folio I have been developing over the course of my MET. It is made using wordpress. As such, I used a preset CSS “theme” and I developped posts using WYSIWYG HTML editor. I will admit, I have no idea how to change the CSS only have a slight idea of how to change content by editing html. I have used a small amount of html in Vista blackbourd discussions, but only by cutting and pasting from a webpage with common chatroom html codes. I know that there will be a point where  the limitations of WYSIWYG editors become evident to me, but that has not happened yet, so for the time being, I will stick with pre-set CSS and WYSIWYG editors.

My wordpress blog uses a two column theme with mostly white background. It is evident within 4 seconds what the page is about (Alix Gray Burdett’s EduBlogFolio: An exploration of the space where education, science and technology merge). I chose not to set up page navigation, instead I organize content by categories that are displayed on the right hand side. All posts are connected to the main page and a visitor can navigate to older posts when they reach the end of the 10 posts I have displayed on the first page.If a visitor clicks on a category of interest, all posts filed under that category are compiled. I always try to include links in my posts, and clearly tell the visitor where they will be navigating to. Finally, when I used the WAVE tool to test for the accessibility of my webpage, two errors were found, but I had a difficult time finding out what they were?

Before starting this activity, I knew that I was a fan of clean, clear webpages with simple navigation. However, I did no appreciate how much intention goes into designing a clean webpage. Definitely the lesson of the day is “less is more” when it comes to webpage design.

Today I set up my first moodle course. I was given step by step instructions on how to set it up from the ETEC 565 e-learning tool kit . I learned about moodle last fall and was very excited about the prospects of potentially incorporating a moodle platform into my f2f science courses but didn’t really know where to begin. One of the main reasons I signed up for ETEC 565 was for the supported introduction to moodle. While setting up my course today, I found using the step by step instructions and activities on the tool kit very easy to follow and I appreciate the scaffolded support.  I am looking forward to more scaffolded support while gaining more confidence and competance with moodle.