About three and half months ago, I started on a journey – \u00a0my last guided tour of online learning in the MET program.\u00a0 I was asked to create a flight plan to help guide my travels and, after much thought about how challenging a journey I wanted this last trip to be, decided that it should include expanding my skill set with Moodle tools, trying gain a better understanding of how social software and collaboration tools can be used in education, and a possible venture into the world of multimedia or web publishing.\u00a0 As I make my final approach, I pause to reflect.<\/p>\n
First stop<\/strong>: Sevens and SECTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n The Seven Principles and Bates SECTIONS would turn out to be a recurring theme to this journey, both in our weekly case studies, and in our own selection and use of technological tools. \u00a0It was good to run into an old friend (Bates, 2003) and both see and apply his SECTIONS in a different way.<\/p>\n Case Studies: Taking my own advice<\/em><\/p>\n The questions we had to consider in the case studies were questions I started asking myself as I moved through the course.\u00a0 The advice I had given, upon reflection, was not necessarily what I was practicing in my own educational use of technological tools. \u00a0But, as time went by, I became more aware of my time and skill management, as well as the accessibility and educational value and educational value of the tools I was using and found myself repeatedly clock watching and curbing my urge to futz about too much with perfect renderings.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how much the advice I had given in the case studies would change as a result of my travels, but my own practice certainly has through the knowledge and experience I have gained.<\/p>\n Next Stop: WordPress<\/strong><\/p>\n This was not my first visit to blogging or to WordPress, but just as Richardson in Downes (2004) rather disappointedly had found, I \u201cdrop(ped) blogging like wet cement\u201d after my last visit (course) ended.\u00a0 So, one might ask: what was the value of that blogging exercise?\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure that the intent was explicitly to demonstrate how blogging could be used as an educational tool, but rather a tool the instructor used to help us frame our learning.\u00a0 And, in that regard, I believe it worked.\u00a0 Revisiting blogging in this course not only allowed me a different learning experience with the tool, but an opportunity to explore it as a Web 2.0 tool, a social media tool, and potentially an educational tool.<\/p>\n Understanding the tool<\/em><\/p>\n I write: in notebooks.\u00a0 I write \u2018because [I] can\u2019t not write.\u2019\u00a0 That said, I do not write for an audience so I was quite surprised to find that that quote is from \u201cThe Weblog Manifesto\u201d.\u00a0 Blogging is a very popular online activity and very accessible.\u00a0 understanding the draw of the audience became clearer to me after reading an article in New York Magazine<\/a> (a side trip) which I refer to in my blog post \u2018Don\u2019t run with scissors<\/a>\u2019 :<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first started out with my Livejournal, I was very honest,\u201d she remembers. \u201cI basically wrote as if there was no one reading it. And if people wanted to read it, then great.\u201d But as more people linked to her, she became correspondingly self-aware. By tenth grade, she was part of a group of about 100 mostly older kids who knew one another through \u201cthis web of MySpacing or Livejournal or music shows.\u201d They called themselves \u201cThe Family\u201d and centered their attentions around a local band called Spoont. When a Family member commented on Xiyin\u2019s entries, it was a compliment; when someone \u201cFriended\u201d her, it was a bigger compliment. \u201cSo I would try to write things that would not put them off,\u201d she remembers. \u201cThings that were not silly. I tried to make my posts highly stylized and short, about things I would imagine people would want to read or comment on.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Educational value<\/em><\/p>\n Blogging is the Web 2.0 version of the journal.\u00a0 Using it as a reflection tool seems to be the key component to it being a useful learning tool.\u00a0 Used in this manner, it gives students the opportunity to explore, question and critique their learning experiences.\u00a0 The value add is that it gives them an opportunity to improve their writing skills, particularly because it is likely to be read by others.\u00a0 That someone is reading and might respond to their blog, seems to be a great motivator for one to continue blogging.<\/p>\n Julie: And when this year’s over, and I cannot wait until it is,<\/p>\n Eric:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 your readers will somehow get on with their lives.<\/p>\n Julie:\u00a0\u00a0 And I won’t, is that what you’re saying?<\/p>\n Eric: \u00a0\u00a0 I don’t know. I have no idea.\u00a0 I mean, what’s gonna happen when you’re no longer the center of the universe?<\/p>\n Julie: That’s just great.\u00a0 I am finally totally engaged in something.<\/p>\n Okay, maybe I’m being a little narcissistic.<\/p>\n Eric: \u00a0\u00a0 A little? On a scale of 10?<\/p>\n Julie: \u00a0 Okay, a 9.3. But what do you think a blog is?\u00a0 It’s me, me, me day after day.\u00a0 (from the movie Julie & Julia<\/em>)<\/p>\n There are numerous drawbacks and dangers to educational blogging which Downes (2004) takes up in his article.\u00a0 But perhaps this \u2018educational blogging\u2019 should be considered a separate category from blogging in general.\u00a0 If students are given the opportunity to engage in a blog as an educational experience, they may be encouraged to start a blog of their own.<\/p>\n On to: Movie Making<\/strong><\/p>\n I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to load images into the movie editing program and how intuitive the tools were to edit the production. \u00a0However, editing is quite time consuming.\u00a0 Knowing that when one puts a production of this sort together the goal is for something more \u2018permanent\u2019 also added to the \u2018perfection\u2019 factor. \u00a0There are certainly more complex editing tools available and I took the opportunity to sit in on a post production session with a friend of mine who is working on a graphic novel\/video production. \u00a0My five hours of work converting and creating a 10 minute Powerpoint presentation paled in comparison to the 5 hours of work he put in to complete 90 seconds of film.<\/p>\n \n Whacky Wiki adventures<\/strong><\/p>\n I made a couple of visits here, both as a course designer\/instructor and as a student\/participant. \u00a0This was not my first visit as a participant, and my previous experiences were less than stellar, but I did my best to visit with an open mind. \u00a0While my visit here in ETEC565 was not successful, I do believe that Wikis have educational value. \u00a0I will be experimenting with them in my teaching going forward.<\/p>\n \n 50 Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n While not all useful to me, certainly a useful resource of Web 2.0 tools<\/a> with which one can create engaging objects \u2013 for educational, business, public organization and private use. \u00a0I had never tried to use any of these tools, let alone thought a digital story or storyboard activity would be of value in my teaching context. \u00a0I was quite ecstatic<\/a> about my success with the tool <\/a>I chose and the presentation I produced. \u00a0I also gained a lot from my classmates\u2019 experiences \u2013 both good and bad \u2013 with the tools they selected. \u00a0I picked up a lot of souvenirs at this stop.<\/p>\n \n A test by any other name<\/strong><\/p>\n I am still not a fan of testing.\u00a0 Part of my aversion I explain in my blogs<\/a> ,\u00a0 on this<\/a>, but the tide is turning. After completing all of the readings for this unit, I was not in a much better place regarding assessment.\u00a0 Still, some of the information about MCQs was encouraging.\u00a0 After completing the assessment assignment using the tools that Moodle offered I am now at a point where\u00a0I am actually somewhat curious about the possibility of using quizzes in my online teaching, not for grades, but more for self assessment.\u00a0 I think what turned the tide was the ease at which I was able to set up a quiz with feedback and how the feedback mimics the responses I have given to students when in f2f mode.\u00a0 I am also beginning to appreciate that external motivation (i.e assessment) in learning can be much more than a necessary evil. \u00a0I still have questions about the value of quizzing and about \u2018how\u2019 the students will respond, not only to being quizzed, but to the feedback feature.\u00a0 Overall, though, I am starting to see some interesting learning opportunities that a quiz (now and then) can add to my course design and my students’ learning experience.\u00a0 Who knew?<\/p>\n Revisiting Moodle<\/strong>: There\u2019s a right way, and a wrong way: then, there\u2019s my way\u2026..<\/p>\n I originally thought that pulling it all together into the Moodle platform was going to be a daunting task, but with new tools and a new understanding of what the possibilities might be for them, it didn\u2019t feel as daunting as I originally thought.\u00a0 Yes, it took a bit of massaging, or, in more up to date \u2018lingo\u2019, a bit of re-mixing and mashing up, but I never became overwhelmed by the task. \u00a0Perhaps I have more patience; but more than that, I think my ease was a result of having more tools in my bag and the freedom to be creative in my use of them (perhaps you can<\/em> teach an old dog a new trick, or at least trick an old dog into learning something new).\u00a0 At a very literal level, if one approach did not work, I was able to come up with and try other ways to either make something similar happen, or to shift gears and try another option.\u00a0 Case in point, my attempts at uploading a PowerPoint presentation which I mention in my Course Site<\/a> summary.\u00a0 I also refashioned a lesson that was originally a PowerPoint, so that it flowed (without the animation, mind you) like a presentation.\u00a0 Heck, I even went even visited html viewer to play with the coding a bit.<\/p>\n