May 15 2011
Synthesis
Précis of Flight Path
I have always been interested in exploring different methods to teach math and technology affords me many different avenues, which I did not have in the past. I am in a fortunate situation where I have access to many different technologies so I am able to try many different ideas. I have used many technologies in my classroom with a focus last year on Classroom Response Systems (CRS). I am interested in learning more about Learning Management Systems and am curious about interactive pdfs. I have intentions of implementing the Moodle site into my grade eight class in September.
Reflection
The e-learning toolkit was a great springboard for knowledge. I found myself beginning with the toolkit and then going off to YouTube and other resources to learn specifics about a topic. I am primarily a visual learner and I find that I learn better watching videos than reading a wiki. One of the interesting things that I noticed in my exploration is that most people who posted were males and there were a fair number who looked and sounded like they were around 12-14 years old. I have often said that if I am stuck with functioning in a program, I should “think like a 12 year old boy.” Keep pressing buttons and exploring. My classes are made up of 70% boys and this makes me reflect on what I do as a teacher: they could easily be making more videos in class as they apparently enjoy the process.
I had heard that ETEC565 is a true hands-on course and I was glad to see that this was indeed true. I had no idea what a Moodle even looked like before I began and now I am fairly comfortable with navigating my way around. Accumulating and organizing teaching materials is not the same as it was even 10 years ago when a lot of the material was in the form of black line masters. It was easy to keep everything in a binder and work your way through. I remember one teacher in particular bragging that he kept the same pace every year and would keep his old agenda out so that he assigned the same questions on the same day.
With the advent of the internet and the greater number and quality of appropriate interactive websites, videos, interactive quizzes and tutorials it has become more and more difficult to keep track of the resources. I presently use a word document in notebook format, using tabs for each topic and a Google site for all of my practice links for grade 7/8. The website helps the students keep the links organized but I still did not have a system with which all of the materials and activities are kept in a logical order. I learned about Symballo from another student in this class and I can see this as a fun and effective way for students keep track of websites.
I like the way the Moodle and other learning management systems allow many different types of activities to be stored in the same place. Although I did find this good reason to use Moodle in the end I was not sold on it for my personal use. It was interesting rereading my proposal, which I wrote before I got my feet wet in the system. I think that it would be fine if you set up a course and left it but any small changes in a web page required too many steps to change. However, it did spark my interest in learning management systems in general and I will definitely look at using one in the future.
My biggest struggle was getting my head around the digital story as I do not really consider myself to have a strong creative side when it comes to literature. It was great, however, to step out of my comfort zone and try something different. Many math students are out of their comfort zone on a daily basis so it was good to be reminded of how this feels. It is the kind of project that will probably never feel like it is complete as there are always improvements, which can be made.
Setting up and contributing the e-portfolio site was a unique learning experience giving a different perspective on creating student portfolios.
I was introduced to many different tools in this course and in time will take another look at many of them. The evaluation exercise of LMS was an important one and I will use a variation to evaluate the many different tools, which come my way. It takes time to learn and then decide if it is the correct tool for the job. As I mentioned in my flight path: I need time, patience and confidence.
