ETEC 565 is my final course towards my MET degree. I think it is a good choice in that it will allow me to both shake the dust off many of the Educational Technology tools I have picked up along my journey in this program and potentially integrate them into a practical learning experience for myself and for my current and future students. My destination, at this point, is to a place of further development and elevation of my skill set and comfort level in ‘designing and developing digital-age learning experiences and assessments ‘ which, through ETEC 565, will take me to-
Moodle: Where I will exploit more of the many the tools (Activities and Resources) in this LMS to further enhance my students’ learning experiences. As it stands, I currently use the basics – Resources: text pages; Activities: discussion forums & assignments.
Social Software: Where I will expand my knowledge and understanding of this concept as a whole and how some of these tools might be used in education. As more of a dabbler then a user, I have a sense of the popularity and power of these tools (WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, delicious, flikr) but am unsure as to how to harness this in an educational setting.
Community & collaboration: Where I will explore these the many tools available and learn how I might be able to incorporate them into my teaching. I am somewhat fuzzy as to how to distinguish these tools from social software at this point, but am hoping it will become clearer when I touch down here.
If time permits, I would like to take a side trip to either Multimedia or Web Publishing where, while it would be great to play with CSS, html, java, C++ or develop a multimedia project, I will likely restrain myself from taking on too much and focus more on gaining insight into how these tools might be used to enhance the teaching/learning I am involved in.
Ultimately, I am hoping to walk away from ETEC565 being able to ‘walk the walk’, as opposed to where I am now which is more one who ‘’talks the talk.’ If nothing else, my journey should make me a more comfortable, confident technology traveler and give me new tools as well new uses for the tools I have in my bag that I will take on my next of, hopefully, many sojourns.
Happy Trails!