This Leg of My Journey

Précis of Flight Path

When this leg of my journey into educational technology began, I had completed my beginning foray into edtech, having finished two core courses in ETEC (510 and 512). This was a great place to launch from, as these courses gave me the direction and foundation I would need to know which path to follow when choosing technology for my class. ETEC 565 has allowed me to experiment with an LMS, a digital story and the eportfolio. I was able to put what I had learned into practice by considering choosing technology from a constructivist perspective, with specific learning goals in mind. Although I had thought I liked the Chickering  and Gamson 7 principles to help guide my choices, I ended up using Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model in practice, as the acronym is quick and easy and covers the most practical and significant aspects of selecting and using technology. Thinking about the changing nature of assessment, with more emphasis on peer and self-assessment, the use of rubrics and blogs as also helped me guide my decisions in which tools to use and how to use them.  I had originally had many questions about using an LMS, such as which age group to use them with, whether they would be compatible with the new government resource to replace BCESIS and how to use an LMS successfully. By the time I had answered the first question about age groups, I realized that an LMS would be like shooting a mosquito with a cannon. I soon realized that I would not use one with my class. I don’t have enough access to technology, I don’t work with a population that needs that kind of support, and I really want to focus on student achievement, not the delivery method. Using an LMS would be fun, but at this time not that useful for me personally.

I had many questions about social software,  such as how to use it with my students at the elementary level, how to manage safety concerns and cyber bullying, and how to use social media without appropriating a rite of passage that adolescents don’t necessarily want adults interfering with. I wondered what multimedia tools existed other than my go-to list such as PowerPoint and Prezi.  I surmised that time would be my most limited resource, along with technical support, which I knew I would need. Although the MET course was recommended for those without a great deal of technical skills, I knew that I was getting a little out of my comfort zone with the some of the applications, such as anything involving code. I was going to have to feel comfortable asking for help.

 

Reflection about eLearning Toolkit

Learning Management Systems:

• I had used Moodle briefly a few years ago for teaching French. At that time I added a simple course with a few activities and I felt pretty comfortable with it. When creating a course with specific parameters, I had an entirely different experience. First I didn’t realize that I didn’t have to install Moodle. I spent many hours trying to fix technical problems with the installation before giving up and asking for help from my husband, who is a computer guy, then the ETEC community. I was very relieved to find out the course page would be organized for me. I also had many issues trying to create the splash page. I simply could not find out how to do it, and as we had been encouraged to work out technical issues and were being partially graded on them, this was a very frustrating experience and it really turned me off using this resource. I estimate it took me fifteen or twenty hours of watching videos, trying different methods, sending emails to instructor and colleagues, etc. I did not find the toolkit helpful. It wasn’t so much a toolkit as it was a wiki page of information about how to choose and compare them. My overall reaction was that there wasn’t enough scaffolding for me to complete this task, nor were there avenues to find the answers, other than pestering my instructor or peers repeatedly. Even my confidence in continuing in the program wavered with this experience, I am very sorry to say. There was some value in going through the activities and resources and creating the quiz, but I am unlikely to use this with my class as it is overkill for them and as I said before, I have a different focus. I wish I could be more positive about the time spent on the LMS, but for me it was the most difficult time of my ETEC experience, and ended with tears.

 

Web Design and HTML authoring:

• Being kind of a codeaphobe, I was pleased to read about being able to design webpages without having to know code. I had done a minor amount of coding in ETEC 510 on the wiki, and while I was proud for having figured it all out, it was quite time consuming and it didn’t really develop my ability to use technology. I really appreciated reading about the history of HTML. I am glad I am around now when the programs solve this issue for me.
• The suggestions about whitespace were well taken. The first webpages I had developed were  swarming with images, all style and no substance. I was reminded once again to focus my efforts on the content of what I was trying to teach. All of the suggestions in this section were helpful, like the image captions for example. I was glad I spent the time to credit my images on my Moodle; it took a while but if I am going to tell my students to credit every source, I have to model that behaviour.
• The web design tutorials were good (e.g. “How to Build a Storyboard”) but the one I needed wasn’t linked correctly so I couldn’t get to the information (“How to embed audio and video files”).  I tried Dreamweaver when a colleague helpfully made a video showing how to use it, but I lost an entire day at home following the directions step by step, it didn’t work and I lost the day. Getting in over my head is not really a good use of my time, and it is my own fault. I enjoyed the Web Pages that Suck, sometimes it is great to see what not to do first. I think the Storyboarding is a great idea, and I wish I had done that for all of my past forays into web design.
• I was still foggy on exactly what CSS meant and whether or not it was important to me. Unfortunately the link on what they are why I should use them was broken. You may ask why I did not report these issues. I get tired of seeing my own name asking all the questions. It feels as though I am the “weakest link” some days in this program and I just can’t put another question out there.
• The accessibility section had some good suggestions, such as using high contrast colour combinations for text, using ALT text, and breaking up information into chunks.

Synchronous Communication Tools:

• The design questions in this section I found to be important and I will use them when deciding when I will use these tools. The questions I am concerned about most are whether or not the tool is pedagogically congruent with the course goals. This is a sea change in how I use technology and what I am most grateful for in this program. The depth and purpose of the technology should be considered first.
• The tools I will likely try are Ichat, and Wimba (Blackboard Collaborate). Once I figured out these were one and the same, I realized I had used Wimba twice in this course. I met with a colleague to discuss our rubric for evaluating LMS tools and I quite liked using it. I also attended the Collaborate session on using Moodle. I liked being able to see the other users and being able to chat while the session was underway. I wouldn’t likely use it in my context as we are all together in one room when we are using computers. I used Skype this year in my classroom and it was very effective for my purposes. I had a student with a brain tumor who could not attend school as he was too ill. Whenever possible I set up Skype and had him either join one of the groups as a member or “sit” at the front of the class to watch the lesson. It allowed him to stay connected visually to the class, which was really important for him to feel less isolated. I got fed up with MSN messenger in the past because it took so long to load and popped up whenever I went to use my computer, and at the time I didn’t want to be bothered with it. I haven’t tried it since, as I tend to hold a grudge against difficult to use programs or programs that require a lot of technical prowess, like Moodle.

 

Social Software:

• Social software is the area that I am most familiar with and use most often in the toolkit. I have used Flickr and Picasa for saving, sharing and finding photos and images, Scoopit for collecting online articles about educational technology, Facebook for keeping in touch with friends and family and following political and cultural trends, twitter for creeping on my children to see what face they present to the world, Google for finding articles for professional and personal purposes, downloading images and answering technical questions, among others. I have used Facebook with my class but only for viewing photos of myself or relevant, appropriate videos that are uplifting or educational. Even then I have to zoom in so that only the image is displayed, as the ads or comments by others can be inappropriate. When I investigated Twitter, Facebook, My Second Life and Flickr I found that I own my information but that they have a license to share it. So basically they can use it but if there is a problem, it’s my problem. Facebook and Twitter require users to be over 13, and Flickr and My Second Life require users to be over 18, so I would not use them as I teach 9 and 10 year olds. But I have and will continue use them as resources and in my professional search for resources and tools most definitely. I have found Scoopit to be particularly valuable for exposing me to educational technology.

Weblogs:

• Weblogs are my second most-used internet tool. I have started about a half dozen of them, mostly personal at first and then in the last couple of years as a way to stay connected to students and parents at home. Homework completion at the grade 4/5 level is important in terms of parents knowing what is expected and helping their child to learn to follow through, manage time and show motivation to learn.  Blogs are a good way to share what we have been doing in class and keep the parents up to date with work completed. It is easier than email because you only have to write it in once, and everyone can access it if they so choose. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be many who remember to check the blog, as most parents seem to be tuned into email, so thought I started a blog and tried it for two years, there simply wasn’t enough buy in to warrant the thirty minutes or so at the end of the day. Also I learned that parents want to be sent personal emails if their child is falling behind, and blanket homework statements are not that helpful as students can be cagey about whether or not they have completed work. I did have students begin their own blogs this year using kidblogs and the kids loved it. My plan for next year is to connect my educational goals with the blogging, as students were discussing video games for the most part. However, when I allowed them to do an inquiry project on a subject of their choice, they loved talking about their projects. So my intent next year is to connect their project to the blog. I started a few personal blogs in the past about life in the Okanagan, political stuff, being a teacher etc. I used WordPress for my personal blogs. Eventually they all petered out as I discovered that I really wanted to spend time looking into educational technology and watching Ted talks and I found the whole blogging about my life to be self-indulgent. I prefer reading them to writing them, and I will need to remember that when I ask students to share their thoughts in a blog.

Multimedia and authoring tools:

• Still images: I have used a few of these tools both at home and at school. My daughter loved using Picnik (no longer available, now part of Google+ products)  to edit and post photos of herself online, first in Facebook, then using Instagram. I post all of my photos I care about to Facebook because it is an online library that will not crash like I have experienced with my hard drive three times in the past. Losing photos of your children as they grow can be devastating. Facebook is reliable, and you can share the ones you like with friends if you so choose. I have also used Smilebox at school to share photos with students and parents. It links them into a nice presentation and is really easy to use. I don’t spend much time editing photos; I just take many photos and select only the few good ones instead. Sometimes I crop them or resize them, but that is about it. My daughter is able to do all sorts of fancy stuff, but that is play time that I prefer to use playing tennis or riding my bike. I have heard Iphoto is a great tool and would like to try it next year on the Ipad I have available. Flickr is great but usually people put every single photo they take in their files and it is death to have to look through them all for the good ones.
• Audio: being a visual learner, I am not that interested in piecing out the audio capabilities online. I think it is interesting to hear interviews on the radio, and I wonder how different it is to interview someone when you cannot see them, or more importantly, when they know you cannot see them and have to speak with images. This would actually be a pretty cool topic to explore with my class. I have listened to audio interviews in ETEC and although I enjoy them if the topic is meaty, I always want to know what they look like, and what their body language tells me. We just started using voiceovers on movies this year in my class. I am excited about investigating this further as it adds an interesting element to online viewing of photos. Recording my own voice at the beginning of ETEC565 brought back memories of taping my voice on audiocassette as a child. I was always horrified by the sound of my own voice as heard by someone else, although I am better at modulating it in a way that is acceptable to me. I enjoyed hearing the voice messages of others, though. It wasn’t too difficult to learn how to use the tool as it was so straightforward and you taped your voice on the same screen as you were on in the beginning.
• Video:  I have taken many personal videos in the past and know how to edit them, add music, add text and voiceovers etc. I really enjoy this process and taught my students how to do it this year after taping some video of school expectations for them to play with. I learned that you really need a steady hand with the camera, and to teach students how to film a scene using different screen shots edited together to make it look great. Kids love doing this and I plan to do more of it next year. We used Windows Moviemaker, although I have heard IMovie is much better. I took a class in educational technology last summer and learned how to use moviemaker, which I recommend as it is not very user friendly.
• DVD authoring: I made a DVD for my parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary, and it is pretty simple to do with the right software. Burning it is easy as well. I would like to try to make a DVD with different chapters and text but it is pretty far down my list of things to try at present. I thought the question about Anju and her diabetes DVD was interesting, but I think there is a ways to go before making a DVD with chapters and special features is accessible, easy to use, and low cost, as per the SECTIONS model.
• Wikis: I have gained much respect for the wiki thanks to ETEC 510 which required that I create a wiki page. I found the wiki library to be very useful for many aspects of the MET program, and hope to have access to it for years to come. I love the collaborative heart of the wiki. Some wikis I have seen are really top-notch (http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/). I feel that wikis respect all learners and that everyone is seen as a learner and an author. Much work can be accomplished in a short time using wikis. I just find them a very civilized way to share and contribute ideas and information. I intend to use them more often in the future for developing study guides, sharing information from field trips, and sharing what happens out side of school with the class, to start.
• Accessibility: most of the students I work with who have special needs have intellectual or processing difficulties rather than physical disabilities. If and when I am faced with a student who needs screen reading software or a screen magnifier our special ed teacher would be right on top of it.
• mLearning: I can’t see myself investing much time in this area. I myself have a smart phone which I almost never use to access the internet, as the screen is too small and I don’t like to be hooked up to technology in my free time. I only use my phone for texting my kids. My students mostly do not use cell phones at their age and most definitely cannot manage the distraction in the classroom yet.

My overall reflection of the elearning toolkit is that it was helpful except where I really needed it, and that was troubleshooting Moodle. I need a more visual step by step walk through of the splash page procedures, for example. How tos should be included as resources along with the evaluations of the different LMS systems. For those of us who like to work things out for themselves, it would be great to have all of the tools to do so without having to ask people for guidance so often. I am sure all of the answers to my questions were “out there” but I could not find them, and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying.  Other than that issue, I liked the toolkit and used it both before beginning on a task, during and after. I feel that I have a good overview of many of the tools available, the history of their development and purposes, and I will print that off and refer to it in the future.

Overall reflection of ETEC565

When I go back to the beginning and consider my flight path, I see that my focus was quite narrow when I started this course. I was concerned about the new student information system, and which LMS might fit best with it. That question was actually quite premature, as the learning system called ASPEN was only announced today and will not be implemented until at least September 2014. I wondered if I would use a LMS in my classroom, and even in the last two weeks as I have written this part of my blog my mind has changed again. Now that I have invested the time in it, and knowing kids will respond to it, why not give it a try? I think my bad experiences with the installation and splash pages are beginning to fade from memory.

I wanted to explore different ways to use social media, as the term has always just meant facebook and twitter to me in the past.

These are my thoughts on what this course has done for me as a learner:

1. Through the blog I have gained great insights into my own purpose as an educator by considering carefully the student and what I truly want them to learn before I even begin to think about the technological tools for doing so. The other two courses I have taken (510, 512) both included the same theme, which I think is extremely important for educators to embrace so that they are not wandering around experimenting with technology that may or may not improve student achievement. We must know where we are going before we depart on this journey of using tech in education.

2. Using the blog was great. I really enjoyed the opportunity for reflection that was both encouraged and graded, which means it really matters that we do that. The WordPress blogs are so user friendly and just customizable enough to be an individual expression. I also really enjoyed reading the blogs of past ETEC 565 students. This really helped me to get an overview of how others approached their journeys.

3. Though I begin thinking I would use Chickering and Gamson’s 7 principles as a guide, I ended up using the SECTIONS model more. I think it is mostly because others referred to it often, and it was useful to use that lens to measure the usefulness of the tools, plus it is very user friendly, and I am a huge acronym fan. There was more depth to it than met the eye, and I found it to be a very useful framework for measuring the value of a tool I was using. I do think it is missing a few things though, like familiarity for example, but it is still a good beginning. Because it was referred to repeatedly, that served as a built-in review of the tool, making it more likely that I will use it in the future.

4. The discussions in this course were quite different from the other courses I have taken, and I think it is because my first two courses were very theoretical. There was much less debate and discourse, which I usually really enjoy. I’m not sure if that is because it is summer and everyone is super busy, or there were more practical matters discussed, or just the dynamics of the group, but I didn’t get to know people that well in this course. That’s fine, though, just an observation. I did learn about many of the tools by hearing others discuss what they did and how, and that was valuable for me. One of my colleagues (Mark Bates) was so generous with his time and tried to help me whenever I needed it, as did Natasha, the instructor. I love this aspect of distributed learning, and the sharing culture that has developed in technology. It makes me feel connected at times when I have felt quite alone.

5. Assignments: I got a great deal out of this course because of the assignment organization. I knew what the assignments were, and thankfully, did not have a great deal of group work to manage. I personally find group work challenging in an online course because of time restraints and the asynchronicity of the communication tools. I really enjoyed making the digital story, not only did I learn about how to work with the tool better (Storybird) I learned about how it feels to have to write a story. It’s not easy! I noticed that many of my colleagues wrote non-fiction pieces, so I have a feeling that they found the story part challenging as well, but it totally fit my context in elementary school. The Moodle was where I learned the most and struggled the most. I appreciate the tool but although I will use it, I don’t think it is likely that I would be investing the time to develop too many other courses with it, so it is of limited use to me. However, it was a good exercise setting up the different parts of each module, as it really made me think carefully of how to present information, encourage student collaboration and set up an appropriate quiz when I really needed one, instead of as a matter of course. It actually helped me with basic course planning, so the time was well spent in those terms. The social media module was loaded with opportunities that I just scratched the surface of. I loved seeing the contributions of others and how they used the tools they chose. It reminds me how important student choice is in designing assignments that are meaningful.

6. What I have learned about myself is that I am the same person no matter what I teach. I am dedicated to this profession, and have a deep and abiding love for teaching. Using technology doesn’t make me a better teacher, but it does let me meet my students in an environment that they both enjoy and understand. In a way when I am taking this kind of practical course, I am only just staying one step ahead of my students, and sometimes I am still not going to catch up to them. Still,  I feel that we owe our students best current practices, and I believe this must include the use of technology. While I find the technical aspects of using technology quite frustrating and out of my comfort zone, the things that we can do with technology in terms of giving students choice while they are learning far outweigh the discomfort I feel about using it at times. I ended up in tears quite a few times in this course. Most often it was because I wanted to be as good as anyone else taking it, and this is sometimes my downfall. I have learned that I cannot simply skip the developmental process of learning how to work through problems. As the term went on I became less panicked when something bad happened, like my synthesis page of my blog disappeared. I learned to walk away, and come back to it later. I also learned not to wait so long to ask for help. Getting ahead of myself and being impatient are qualities I am fully aware I own, and I am still working on them. Struggling through the Moodle was hard on me, but the rewards were tangible. I feel proud of myself. I am much, much more confident about what an LMS is for and how I can use it. I like what I have done with it. Me and Moodle, we’ve gone the distance.

7. My intentions for continuing to include educational technology are to continue in the ETEC program, taking practical courses that challenge my skills and trying one new thing for each course that I teach that would make sense and actually enhance the course. I will continue to peruse directions in educational technology through TED talks and using Scoopit to curate directions in ETEC. I will refer to the SECTIONS model often before I jump in to anything new, even if it seems really “KEWL”. Some of the specific actions I plan to take this year are as follows:

1. Select one subject area per term to amend to include appropriate and enhancing technology, using the SECTIONS model.
2. Refer to the NETS design framework for overall planning, making sure to include authentic problems, reflecting and collaboration time, using formative and summative assessments, including parents and students in our work, teaching digital citizenship and sharing my understanding with colleagues.
3. Think of what I would like the kids to learn and then decide if technology can enhance the learning environment, rather than experimenting with tools.
4. Keep on top of directions in educational technology using Scoopit and Twitter, building in 30 minutes a week to peruse these curating tools.
5. Complete and use the Moodle course I began developing to teach Social Responsibility and possibly develop one other course in an area where few resources currently exist, for example Career and Health or French.
6. Use a wiki for pro-d sharing of what staff would like to work on or to share what has been learned on pro-d days.
7. Create kidblogs for my class for teaching and sharing writing, self-expression and belonging, collaborating on activities, and sharing artifacts in a portfolio format.
8. Monthly peruse the MERLOT resource for highly rated learning materials.
9. Continue to serve on the District Technology Users Group in my district and share information about the directions for technology both in terms of hardware and online learning.
10. Familiarize myself with the new LMS (Aspen) for our district so that I can help my staff to use it.
11. Share what I know with staff about using Windows 7 as our district converts to it this fall.
12. Continue in the MET program.

Throughout this course I have been inspired and excited by the tools I have been able to use and try, and by tools used by others. Here is a list of the specific tools I am intending to work with next year, with the caveat that each tool would be chosen as the best tool available to further the learning goals I have set out, and that they would be carefully scaffolded into the the activity with clear directions for their use and purpose:

Pikiwiki: pro-d (to share goals, wish-lists, and responses to pro-d), field trip responses, study guides, book lists

Moodle: for Social Responsibility learning outcomes, using the Moodle course  I developed in ETEC 565

Social Media: Storybird for writing and social responsibility, sock puppets for concept review in Science and Socials, Animoto for beginning the year with introductions, Kerpoof for lesson plans in tall tales/fairy tales, Vuvox for photo collages, Animoto for presentations, Zooburst for introducing popups and presentation choices, goanimate for creating dialogue about a concept. Photopeach for students who go on vacations during the year, and as a way to introduce themselves to build community at the beginning of the year.

I have begun to build a calendar to prompt me to do the things I have planned above. Without it I am sure to fall into the old habit of reacting to the many pressures of being in the classroom, rather than being proactive and keeping my focus for the year:

Google Calendar for Chris Irvine

 

References:

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. Accessed online 11 Mar 2009 
http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm

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.

Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) (2013). Found at

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?keywords=learning+object

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm

 

Photo Credits 

page header image Photo © Chris Irvine/2013 – all rights reserved 

All other images found on Google public domain.