I made quite a shopping list at the beginning of 565A. My enthusiasm was definitely bubbling-over on my ‘Flight Path’ page as I outlined my goals, like becoming effective at evaluating learning management systems, web tools and media. I wanted to investigate a range of digital tools, particularly for assessment. I wanted to gain confidence connecting theory, learning outcomes and tech choices to ultimately become a resource person in my school and district. I wanted to be able to to rationalize those choices to decision-makers in term of affordances, sustainability, adaptability and cost. I wanted to use authentic tools like geographic information systems (GIS). I hoped for an opportunity to use mobile medial learning (MML). My biggest and most pressing goal was to create a fully functional and operational online course that would be ready to go for September 2015.
Not all of those goals are achievable in the span of a 16 week MET course, but I am really pleased and satisfied with what I have learned. The biggest one is that I did create that game-ready online Geography 12 course. I now have a course outline for the year, an introductory unit and the first content unit. In fact, I am planned right up to the end of the first term. I am satisfied that it stands-up to the theory and pedagogy that informs it. I am proud of how all the digital tools and media in my Moodle connect to the course objectives. I am also satisfied to have applied what I have learned about Constructivism during my MET program into the site.
I am especially pleased – and to be honest, relieved – to have found the opportunity to include game-based learning (GBL). I went to the University of Wisconsin during this course to present my ARIS game and participate in the Games+Learning+Society Conference (GLS11). It was a really valuable experience for me and validated my interests to leverage all types of games in my teaching practice. At first I had planned to use MML in term three but as I developed the first content unit, I saw a better fit for it as a means for students to create and refine their geographic questioning skills by first playing, then creating their own games. I was also very satisfied to introduce students to GIS, databases and visualizations all in the first term.
The only goal that did not work-out for me was to become more savvy with social media, which along with programming, are the challenges that I have yet to practice. I was hoping to do some more in-depth specific investigations into SM applications, both in term of theory and practice. I would have to say that I am probably even more distanced from using it in my classes now, after completing this course. I am comfortable in that place, but was hoping for more opportunities to become familiar and fluent with social media, perhaps through course activities.
It is interesting to read through my home page blog posts as the weeks progressed. Early on I had two posts on Backwards Design. It was really a revelation for me to re-learn the planning process in a manner where everything, including tools and media, are connected and filtered through learning objectives. I can see my focus and intensity deepen in the next two posts as I wrestle with Moodle as a first time user. Now that I have created two units, many of my initial frustrations are no longer relevant. That is not to say that I have any mastery at this point, I just have a rudimentary skill set and a willingness to push myself on an ongoing basis.
I posted daily from the conference in Madison about what I was learning and experiencing while being immersed in the GBL mindset. Those reflections served as a journal to me that week. They allowed me to review, reiterate and re-frame my understandings of the presentations. This is where I recognized the impact that game theory could have on learning, which I employed in my content unit as the Family Geo Journey game on ARIS, my digital storytelling tool. I was exposed to an overwhelming number of games for playful learning at the conference. It was also here that I saw the fieldwork App, Siftr, which turned-out to be a perfect tool for students to learn data collection in my unit.
I am glad that I chose Moodle as an LMS. I really wanted to use Eliademy but my mission to be able to have an operational resource ready to go for September made that decision impossible because of British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA) laws which limit student data storage to servers in Canada. I am also impressed with the sheer volume of help forums and tutorial videos for Moodle on the Internet. I really like both Moodle and Eliademy’s Constructivist connections and design considerations. Blackboard Connect was never an option for me. My experiences during my MET program and its locked-down, proprietary practices have jaded me towards it.
Moodle was not an easy ride at first.. After using the new, slick, HTML 5 web page editor in the Wix website platform for an ETEC 530 project, I was surprised at how clunky Moodle seemed at times. The user interface and tool setting practices just seem a little unnecessarily dated to me. For example, I am surprised that I have to link my internal pages and elements through their URL’s. Similarly, the embed video button just does not work at all on the visual editor, which necessitates the embedding of code into the HTML. My take on that is that designers and users have normalized those practices over time and consider them part of the Moodle ‘way.’ For new users, it hints of obsolescence in a digital world where old stand-bys like iTunes can have a sudden and quiet death. I also got frustrated with the UBC Moodle server slowing down to a crawl the weekend before Assignment 3 was due.
This course and the class members in it have provided me with a feast of new web tools with which to experiment. The new ones that I can see myself incorporating into my practice were mostly presented in our forum on digital storytelling tools. Pam’s introduction of Touchcast interactive screen capture allows users to watch a video while touchable vApps like websites, polls and pdf’s appear in pop-ups or tabs. My sense is that students will really appreciate its dashboard-like functionality. Storify, Emaze and Haiku are all presentation tools that I would will introduce to my students. I recognize that this genre of tools has a short shelf life, but their ability to provide more interaction makes them a better choice than older linear ones like Powerpoint or even Prezi.
My current professional and academic interest is in the direction of mobile media and game-based learning. The challenge of creating my Moodle unit, our course discussions on tools and multimedia, and the ARIS/GLS11 conference all converged my desire to include playful learning as a regular part of my course design in the future. Having students create games that demonstrate and stimulate learning is a whole other level of knowledge and metacognitive learning that I intend to pursue.
The concept of cognitive load has resonated with me this term from a design perspective. My aesthetic preferences have always been clean and uncluttered, but creating an online course put me in the position of making it an important consideration when designing units on an LMS. Chris Quarrie really tweaked my interest with his App buttons in Moodle prototype. I used a similar minimalist button appearance and one-touch interface to access the other elements of my Moodle. Through our readings and discussions I have come to realize that students need clarity and focus of attention on an LMS. They are bringing their own distractions to the computer in the form of headphones and smartphones, but the actual space where they are interacting with course elements needs to be inviting, sustaining and above all, reduce unnecessary cognitive load. Simple, clean, current and inviting sites designed for easy navigation and focus will provide a welcoming online space that will improve students learning and provide a predictably welcoming home base.
I am very satisfied with my learning experience in ETEC 565A. I came into the course with high authentic expectations to create an online course that converged all of my learning in the MET program so far. I was really hoping to be exposed to all the considerations from theory, to assessment, to digital tools. I was also hoping to be pleasantly surprised with the unknown, which ended-up taking the form of copyright and licensing, multimedia and digital story making tools. The readings were all valuable. I appreciated that they were all interesting, applicable and manageable in length. I was particularly impressed with Bates’s (2014) beautifully designed online book, Methods of teaching with an online focus. Teaching in a Digital Age. The hyperlinked sections, summary questions and iPad interface really created a nice user experience, not to mention his sage and informative ideas. McTighe and Wiggins’s (2004) Understanding By Design: Professional Development Workbook was transformative for me. There were also a few optional resources that I found particularly valuable, such Talbert’s (2014) Making Screencasts: The Pedagogical Framework, and Mayer’s (2014) and the Principles for Multimedia Learning With Richard E. Mayer (2014).
I have been consistently impressed with the participation and commitment of my MET classmates in class forums and look forward to the readings and discussions topics every week. The range of occupations, experiences, focus and skill sets among the group really provides an enriching environment in which to learn. I credit the course designers and instructors, who make us ‘walk-the-walk’ with activities and assignments that situate our knowledge with into the learning process. The success of the discussions can also be attributed to engaging topics. I also think that Tatiana’s regular participation and obvious authentic interest really added to the dialogue.
I really appreciate the WordPress companion site and highly recommend it in the future in all MET classes. The ability to access the content elements of the course from a tablet or phone without having to login has been much appreciated. There have been numerous times that I have read on the bus or quickly checked-in from my work computer between classes. I also like the simple navigation with dropdown menus from the units and suggested resources on the site. The clean aesthetic is another draw for me – so much so that I used the same template for my blog. There still needs to be a ‘mothership’ site to have secured discussions, upload assignments and to receive UBC information. Connect and WordPress are complementary in the way that our 565A class has been designed.
My experience in this course has been overwhelmingly positive. I met almost all the goals that I set-out for myself and I gained a huge amount of knowledge on evaluating LMS’s, digital tools and multimedia. I had the opportunity to interact with a group of intelligent, curious and gracious classmates and an instructor who was equally engaged and involved. It was enjoyable, rigorous and very practical. It was a home run.
Bates, T. (2014). Chapter 4: Methods of teaching with an online focus. Teaching in a Digital Age. (online book)
McTighe, J., and Wiggins, G. (2004). Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Principles for Multimedia Learning With Richard E. Mayer (2014). Retrieved from: http://hilt.harvard.edu/blog/principles-multimedia-learning-richard-e-mayer
Talbert, R. (2014). Making Screencasts: The pedagogical framework. Retrieved from: http://vimeo.com/110373539
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