In my flight path, I described how I would like to use a Learning Management System (LMS), like Moodle, to complement my French Immersion classes. This complement would serve to help my students with their studies, but also allow students to keep up with their coursework when they are away on sports trips, vacations, and other outings. The numerous absences of my students has become a source of frustration for me as I feel that too much of my time is spent trying to get my students caught up when that time could be better spent assisting my struggling students. My original vision for how to use Moodle would have alleviated some of this frustration, providing that I could set it up to cover all of my course content.
During this course, and since I wrote my flight path, my eyes have been opened to a larger set of possibilities for how to use Moodle. In fact, looking back on my flight path now, I am amazed that I intended to use Moodle for such a limited purpose. As I continued in this course and started building my Moodle site, I quickly realized that what I was building would not be very effective and I started to tinker with ways to use the space more fruitfully. I am looking now at incorporating more discussion forums (in French, of course) as a means for my students to practice using the language in a more authentic way. I would really like to incorporate the Nanogong app so that I can have students post verbally and allow me to evaluate their oral French more frequently than I currently do.
My experience with the eLearning toolkit was unfortunately limited to only posting about my experience with Moodle and Wikis. Though I played with some of the other resources listed, I simply wasn’t able to find the time to commit to fully exploring the other tools This is the second consecutive semester in which I have taken two MET courses concurrently, and time is scarce because of this. That being said, I have bookmarked the eLearning page and fully intend to come back and explore the resources more thoroughly.
My overall experience in 565 was quite positive and I really appreciate the thought and energy that went into the preparation of this course. To me, this course seemed to be more like what I think the MET program should be than the other three courses that I have taken thus far. Reflecting on my journey to this point, I can see that I have moved from a fairly cynical and pessimistic view to how some technologies can be incorporated into the classroom to a more accepting and inquisitive standpoint. I see far more ways that technology can be used to enhance student learning than I could see before and, with time, I hope to incorporate some of these technologies into my own classroom. There were some frustrating points for me in this course, but I see those now as necessary evils and a part of the process. For example, some of the case studies were frustratingly vague and difficult to respond to. Clearly, however, these were examples of ‘ill-defined’ problems that the literature of problem-based learning so often describes. The vague nature of these scenarios forced us to think deeper about the situations and come up with multiple solutions to the problem. In themselves, the case studies were great models not only for how technology can be use and some of the problems that it can present to teachers, but also how to use case studies as constructivist learning exercises. On the whole, I was very impressed with these scenarios.
What’s next for me? Not totally sure yet because I need some time to fully digest what I’ve learned. I do see using Moodle in all four of the immersion courses that I currently teach, but I will set realistic expectations for myself as to when these will actually be made and incorporated. I do plan to show my students some of the neat technologies that are out there that they can use to help them in their learning, like various blogging tools and presentation software, which go beyond the usual Word and Excel instruction that we give. More than this though, I plan to show them the technology but then give some criteria and expect them to learn how to use the programs and dazzle me with what they can do. I can also see using Moodle on my staff. I am currently (and, I am sure, forevermore) my school’s professional development committee head (and the committee itself) and I want to investigate different ways of doing teacher inservices. While all the literature that I have read so far in the Met program has been critical of the didactic teaching that happens in traditional public schools and how it does not work with this generation of students, I have read nothing about how ineffective the same method is when applied to teachers. Much of the professional development is done the same way that we teach, and the results are fairly depressing. Teachers don’t want to listen to ‘experts’ tell them how to teach, and the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ is largely ignored. This is a missed opportunity, and I intend to look at how to realize the potential that exists with my staff.
The challenge that I face as a teacher who uses technology is to make sure that my skills are current. This is exceedingly difficult when dealing with technology because it changes so quickly. Rather than stress about trying to keep up with the latest version of Moodle or other changes, I think that I will try to remind myself that it the pedagogical underpinnings of how technology is or can be used in the classroom that is most important. This course has given me a better understanding of why it is worth using technology and has shown me a range of possibilities as to how is can be used. With this, I have the confidence use technology in a meaningful manner and I relish opportunities to upgrade my own skills.