There's something powerful that occurs when people shift from being content consumers to content creators in the public sphere. Suddenly you're the creator of intellectual property, you're a digital citizen, and you have a responsibility and an accountability.

I recently had a discussion with a classmate regarding the requirement to upload Creative Commons content to WikiMedia spaces. He expressed frustration over the perception that any media uploaded to the public space of the internet is in public domain and should be freely usable. I realized that this general misconception prevails when people are primarily content-consumers rather than content-producers; that is they don't yet understand the issues and foibles of web-presence.

I pointed out that in order to be a digital citizen and professional, I'm required and expected to post representations of my work (particularly as a designer) online. I post them on my own website that I pay for and manage myself. Search engines index the contents of my website (automated without explicit knowledge or permission) and then 'served up' the material to the world. We have no control over this process (logically material can't be seen if its not indexed) however, that doesn't mean I've given anyone permission to use my work as their own, to modify it, or heavens forbid to make money off of it through add supported revenue (yes, I've been a victim of this, forced to submit DMCA take-down notices as my only recourse). I've also installed several scripts to 'tell' search engines not to index certain directories and file types (jpeg, png, gif) but not all search engines pay heed to this. What about people that aren't aware of how to do this or who don't know any better? I decided to turn the tables and brought up the idea that in future he would be required to post papers, images/presentations, graphics even perhaps photos taken online, and that once one is a content-creator, he/she may feel very differently when this material shows up in some other person's portfolio, or for sale somewhere (this happens more often than one would think). While I freely contribute creative commons photography, line-art and other materials, my designs are mine (or my clients). The way the web is currently structured, it's up to citizens not to infringe upon people's work. I don't think this is a lot to ask, and corporations sue over this very thing every day. It's individuals and self-starters who are most at risk.

Having students participate in blogs and other public means of online communication is particularly useful to help them make this shift from being content-consumers to content-producers. It also brings with it a better understanding of the many issues that surround digital participation, literacy and citizenship.

I was fairly amazed at the mature types of responses given by students with regards to the usefulness of educational blogging:

Alternate URL link here

Since part of my flightpath deals with exploring, pushing and manipulating LMS frameworks to do things that aren't necessarily a 'typical' use scenario, I spent a lot of time hijacking the normal course layout (after deciding on the aims, goals, needs and appropriate interactivities and materials that is).

Once I had thought about and composed the items listed above, I decided to create a sitemap to figure out what my layout would look like. I used a free service called Smaps for this.

In my graduating project at ECU I did a few general student surveys regarding students' feelings towards using Moodle and their impressions of usability (part of the ethnographic research process). This was actually the reason that I took this approach.

One of problems frequently identified was the 'endless scroll' format and bread-crumb navigation. Many of the students expressed their wish that it behave more like a website or blog, so I wanted to play with this idea.

I used a short youtube video on making Moodle behave like a webpage to inform my approach and also brushed up on my inline CSS styling and HTML skills at Code Academy.

I realized that the top section or course "summary" always stays at the top of the page, so it's a good place to put a static site banner and navigation images/button that display on all pages.

The other thing that I realized is that I can create and link my "pages" to these buttons, then force Moodle to display only one page at a time.

[caption id="attachment_333" align="alignnone" width="384"] Administration > Edit Settings > Course Format:[/caption]

This essentially 'hides' the long list of pages, showing them only when they are clicked on in the navigation. (I had to work with them all showing first, then switch to this when I was done to make it behave this way). Overall I had a lot of fun. I'm glad I attended to the important stuff first, then dove into the design/HTML code last. I was able to make the layout look nice by using inline CSS styles, and by creating content columns using divs. This saved me a lot of time since I tend to dive into design first. The overall verdict is that Moodle isn't half as bad as I thought, it does perhaps have some flexibility in terms of course design that other LMS's might not offer. It does require a lot of work though :\

If you're interested, you can read my reflection post and access my non-UBC Moodle site on this page: https://blogs.ubc.ca/bobbik565a/intro-module/

Okay, I'll admit that my initial experience with the Moodle back-end creating a Moodle install and setting up a course from scratch was a bit frustrating. I did this on my own hosting provider/server with the idea that I'd transfer stuff over to the 565 setup later. I'm a believer in exploring the interface to see if it's intuitive before resorting to the traditional RTfM approach (that's usually step 2). [Please forgive my informal conscious-stream-of-thought style narrative here].

The first thing I did (after setting up the course) was to try to create the "general" or "summary" information page that appears at the top of a course...so I went to the toolkit provided and began to follow some of the instructions there. I ended up with a page link inside of the top listing. Hmm, that's not quite what I was after. I'm pretty sure you can have an image at the top of the course as well as some content.

So then I tried: "Edit Course Settings" > "Description" and added my content there. Check it...huh, this ends up somewhere else too, probably at the top-level of the course listings perhaps.

So off to the Moodle support site and Google search to find my solution. But how does one refer to this section exactly? There's no label, button or indication.

A bit of fumbling around lead me to finally watch a Youtube video (for a related topic) which gave it away. Ohhh, it's the tiny little grey gear icon floating randomly above the first week that I should have intuitively known to click (sarcasm here). Okay, fine. Time to delete all that other stuff I created in the wrong spots and get serious now.

So I upload a nice but compressed banner image (because I feel like there should be something to greet the student and let him/her know they are indeed in the right place). I save the page and try shrinking the window to see what happens to my image on smaller screen devices. D'oh! It's not responsive. Okay, no worries, in a web page or Wordpress you can simply go into the HTML editor and delete the image dimension assigned to it by the image uploader, then it will adhere to 100% of the page width, and will re-size itself when the page is shrunk.

No dice. Hmm, okay. Fine. I'll wrap it in a DIV with a style of 100% width, make sure there's no size dimension for the image, and it should re-size both as the page shrinks .. but wait, how the heck do I use HTML elements and CSS styling in Moodle?

Back to Google Search & Moodle Docs re:HTML/CSS formatting and styling. This was fairly useless, advice was: create your own theme. What about inline styles? It's a messy and a pain, but it should work. Maybe, but the editor doesn't support code hinting or indenting; so am I going to go blind working with it? Hmm, it allows for new lines without inserting a line break...

Try adding some custom HTML/CSS and we have a winner! Okay, its unintuitive to get started, but I can have more control over the layout using HTML instead of the standard editor (sort of) maybe this is cool!?!

Phew, for a while there I was feeling a lot like the screaming goat.

I've realized that I'm a visual representations kind of girl... more specifically I'm a big believer in visual organizers.

Why? We've been provided a number of key and important frameworks in this class that I want to be able to return to (on an ongoing basis) to inform my decision-making processes. I realized that while I might remember how one aspect of a key framework can benefit my thinking, I can't possibly remember everything. It's neither accessible nor efficient to have to continually re-scan texts in order to identify which aspects fit or don't, or why one framework might be of more use than another. Basically I feel like these frameworks and their specifics get marooned in a text somewhere, so I'm trying a new approach this term. I started a Google spreadsheet with each framework in a tab/table and summarized the specifics beside it. This allows me to organize, to (hopefully) retain something in the process, and to create a quick reference that I can pick at and draw from. Each sheet/tab links to a copy of the full text so that I can re-read when I need to dive in deeper. This seems infinitely easier to keep myself organized and is working admirably for my ETEC 510 class. This week's activity allowed me to test it, so my approach with it was a bit of a science experiment!
Here's a peek at what I've got so far:

The logistics of group work can sometimes be a challenge, but more often than not, it is incredibly stimulating! I tend to think of it as building a mosaic; each member brings with them a unique set of skills and new ways of thinking. When you figure out how to make these different facets of skill and experience fit together, the results can be mind-expanding and the final picture can become much richer for it. : )

This very much describes how I felt about our rubric project. We were fortunate to agree on a base framework early on, then we each came up with a number of questions and aspects of importance to research. We started quite wide in scope, then we narrowed it... then we widened it again. It was a great experience. We decided that it was important to keep a systems-based framework that addressed important overall goals, reworking this where needed, and adding/tailoring important facets that directly applied to our context. We were hoping for a balanced approach that considered both the micro/macro levels. We also decided to make the sheet into a worksheet that can be printed and actually used to evaluate and compare LMS's (each LMS gets a page to evaluate it, then these pages can be compared to weigh out the decision).  Since we were identified as members of the YesNet's LTAC (Learning Technologies Advisory Committee) our rubric is geared towards the LTAC team.The sheet provides an opportunity to give an overall numerical score and observational notes regarding how each LMS addresses each specific criteria. Some minor inspiration was also taken from other systems/software/usability rating scales like the SUS scale and SSM.

The main takeaways for me are that it's difficult to be narrow and comprehensive at the same time. Perhaps this balance is important in order to be flexible and transferable? Also, if two or more approaches work well perhaps they can help inform one another? A hybrid approach can be used in some cases too, although this is a bit scary to tackle. I also realized that it is difficult to take into account the needs of all stakeholders involved so I'm glad that we were a multifaceted team.

Anyway, that's my thought bubble for today. Many thanks to my group and I hope we did well!

The questions posed this week got me thinking about riddles because they were both curious and challenging. One key difference here is that riddles are usually designed to have one right answer. In the case of situational choices for the selection and implementation of technologies, I don't think that there always is one right answer. I think that different approaches can be used to achieve different instructional aims, and that the overall goals of teacher, student, institution, and environment need to be taken into consideration.

The goals communicated in this instance seemed to be very singular: How long should it take to transfer educational content from environment A to environment B; and, which technology should I choose (without adequate knowledge of either) A or B?

Perhaps I should have a bit more information before making this determination? Also teaching is not about simple transference or transmission. Learning needs to be made meaningful, useful and relevant. Teachers also need frameworks and approaches that "sensitize [them to] the key factors that need to be taken into consideration in what is usually an ongoing process of decision making during course development and design." (Bates & Poole, 2003).

"Content and pedagogy interact in complex ways [...] what is taught, after all, is at least as important as how it is taught." (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). So with this in mind I posed questions of my own that I hope better addressed the situation.

With the regards to the expected length of development, I didn't have any solid answers to the questions because there were too many unknown variables. I think that for the moment I'm okay with this,  because I'll be learning how to do this in the weeks to come.

Bates A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A framework for selecting and using technology. In A.W. Bates & G. Poole, Effective teaching with technology in higher education (pp. 75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 4.

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from 
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm

I posted my (roughed) in flightpath today. I found it really hard to map because it is really an extension of my undergrad tradjectory. In IxD/ID we pursue and develop on the same project sometimes for a few weeks, a semester, or a year or more in our final year of study. My project has turned into a bit of a mission, extending into the MET. The process is not without fear and trepidation. In my undergrad I was allowed to stretch the limits, to play,  and to explore, and I think that I can do the same here but I feel as though my path will continue to change and evolve... so I've decided to continue to amend it as the course play out.

You can check it out here, all thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

https://blogs.ubc.ca/bobbik565a/flight-path/

Sometimes I feel a little bit like an oddball in the MET. I'm not really a teacher (yet) but an active investigator, a communicator, a re-mixer, a splicer, a co-creator and an experimenter. I am in love with learning and helping others to learn, particularly with regards to new technologies and new creative endeavors. I really do struggle with questions that relate to teaching practice because I'm still learning how to teach. I imagine you never stop learning new ways to teach if you are passionate about it.

My undergrad at ECU was a unique experience. We didn't always take classes in rooms with desks but sometimes in hallways, outside, on benches, in galleries and in uniquely constructed studio spaces. Sometimes door handles had knitted cozies, walls were covered in sticky notes and studio spaces with blocks, carpets, cardboard models and plastic forms. The interactions in these spaces are strange, exciting and fruitful but our online materials boring and neglected. Laptops are mandatory and Moodle the dry morning chore. Can Moodle be exciting? Can it be visual and stimulating while catering to the needs of the caffeine-primed creative? I'd like to think so. I keep thinking back to the tools that I've seen students of design and dynamic media use the most online so I'm starting a list for inspiration.

Sitemaps, wireframes,

Visual maps - Mural.ly, Pinterest, GoVisually,

Images - CC Images Search

Critique/Collab - Marqueed, RedPen, Evernote, Bounce, Skype, Google Docs, Google Hangouts

Hello everyone, my name is Bobbi and I'm a 'creative' nerd. I recently finished my undergrad at Emily Carr University in Interaction (IxD) and Industrial Design (ID). My goal is to eventually help with the redesign of new LMS and CMS solutions and to be an instructional designer. I'm hoping to do this for creative institutions as I'm in love with the idea of facilitating design studio culture on the web.