A place to call home for etec 565

Final e-Portfolio Synthesis/Reflection for 565

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1-2 paragraph precis of my Final Flight plan

I mentioned in my original flight path that I found computer technologies, at times, quite frustrating. I have now come to realize that the path to learning new technologies is quite exciting and relevant to the courses I now teach.  As a traditional shop teacher, I am used to cutting wood, metal and plastics to within varying tolerances and needed to be very accurate with my rough and finish cuts.   In other words, if you messed up a piece of exotic hardwood, then it may not be salvageable. One had to be very careful for fear of wasting material and money.  I now have a much clearer picture that digital technologies do not ‘consume’ material, they do however consume time. In a strange enough fashion, it was hard to get the idea out of my head that creating digitally did not waste product nor material.

Chickering and Gamson say it best, “Emphasize Time On Task, ‘ Time plus energy equals Learning. There is no substitute for time on task.” (March, 1987 – section 5) My new flight plan will include finding the time required to create into the unknown. No longer will I fear the technological arena that is new to me… especially in the digital LMS environment.  Creating blogs, Wikis and Moodle environments has strengthened my faith in the digital experience.  As mentioned earlier, I have always been a hands on teacher, now I am a believer in the “other” hands on experience… the one you don’t see, but exists somewhere inside your pixelated monitor.

Reflection on my eLearning Toolkit experience

First of all, having the e-Learning Toolkit located in Course Tools, is a great idea and structurally, it allows a student to go directly to the instructors resource without any confusion.  In this digital age, there are many paths to follow and more often than not, too much time is wasted attempting to find the “right location.”   In the Discussions page, developing the ‘Toolkit queries’ allows students to ask others technical questions re: software, and from those discussions, I learned from many others.  I appreciate the way Toolkit queries & e-Learning Toolkit were linked together and engineered to work with one another.

Moodle – In 565, I was very excited to learn that we would be able to create lesson plans in Moodle.  Our district is pushing modular systems and Moodle is in the field of study.  I now understand the LMS more clearly look forward to developing units in Moodle.  Someone said Moodle is quite intuitive and the more I used Moodle, the more intuitive it became – like anything. I would personally like to thank all those who took the time to share their Moodle experiences and gave freely to the growth of the LMS environment.

WebCT/Vista – This LMS I am getting used to.   Even though every instructor has a slightly different format, I’ve used UBC Vista enough that I can moodle, sorry muddle my way through it and gleam from there.  Things in Vista have become quite familiar to me.   Again, time on task!   I never saw the need to use the ‘Enable HTML Creator’ button, but in this 565 course, I had more fun experimenting with it.

Synchronous and Asynchronous tools – In my WordPress blog, I speak of synchronous tools.  I’ve always had good luck with the Synchronous Chat located in the Vista, course tools section.  Seems to be solid and reliable… someone once said, “if it crashes there, then it’s UBC’s fault.”  The trick is contacting everyone and getting them to ‘sign on’ at a pre-determined time.  Wimba just didn’t work for me at all, fault of the OS I am using.  I used Audacity in 531 and that worked well.  Didn’t get the opportunity to use it here though. Google chat and docs is a software combination that I have used since the beginning of the MET in September of 2008.  My recommendation to new Masters students would be to learn how to effectively use Google products; chat and docs.

Word Press – in this course, like many in the MET program, it is nice to have a repository site to “keep our valuables.”   Word Press 565 is working quite fine with that respect.  I only wish we had more direction at the beginning of the MET with regards to the generic ePortfolio and how it should be organized.  I think 590 should be developed as a “slide along” course while we complete the rest of the nine MET courses.  By slide along… I mean 590 should start at the beginning of ones Masters program and slide along as the repository site when we complete individual courses.   In essence, we build our ePortfolio as we move along the Masters trail. Word Press has become my ePortfolio for the MET.

Wikis – Wikis were/are used often in the MET program.   I learned what a Wiki was in the first week of my first MET course.  The Wiki exercise we experienced here was the tip of the Wiki ice berg.  I felt there was much more potential to engage students in the Wiki exercise in module four, unit one, but that never materialized.   I guess, as we are guinea pigs to 565, things will develop as time progresses… OR maybe it was the intention of J.E. for the lesson to materialize the way it did.

SECTIONS model to self-assess my ePorfolio

Students – I liked the fact that we could study each others ePortfolios in 565. Seeing the design of another portfolio showed the accessible design power of WordPress. Reading what others are doing is always more fascinating to me than it is to them. From my Linux platform, I found WordPress to be a bit sluggish and many times did not get the design results I hoped for. As well, I tend to get a bit wordy with my entries, and rereading my blog site, “A place to call home,” I realize I could have condensed my entries somewhat. Some MET students are into their final courses and some are more technologically savvy than others, it definitely showed in their ePortfolios. Every student was more than willing to help in the design aspect with answers to questions and many thank yous for that. I thought there would have been more discussion at the UBC WordPress site, but Vista discussions held that contract. It would have been too confusing to flip flop between WordPress and Vista.

Ease of Use – Like anything, the more I used WordPress, the more familiar it became to me. The graphical icons and terminology is equal in many social softwares designs which provides more stability and confidence for the user. WordPress is no different. Having seen other WordPress sites by 565 students gave me a sense of the true nature of the design capabilities of WordPress. Of all courses in the MET program, I liked the way John kept to a regmented structure for the blog titles and we knew exactly where to build our responses.

Cost – N/A – Well… 1300 bucks per online course…

Teaching and Learning – From the blog site, I learned much of what others are doing, have done and have created. There are many ways to spin a wheel. Learning from a group of like minded individuals gives me a sense of belonging and a sense of direction. Like a Community of Practice, we certainly learned from one another. Once I have completed this course, I plan to copy and paste all the valuable URL’s and student generated information to my personal WordPress ePortfolio. 565 has given myself and the students much to search and experiment with. 50 ways to tell a story is a good example of free sites that I never knew existed.

Interactivity – within my ePortfolio was somewhat limited. I blame that on the parallel attributes of the Vista discussion site. Having two discussion zones, as previously mentioned, would have created too much confusion in trying to locate and deposit our digital student conversations. Mt blog became a good text repository, but fell short with student generated discussion. Maybe the next time 565 is offered, more emphasis can be placed on the interactivity at WordPress rather than Vista.

Organization – in the UBC WordPress blogs made it easy to deposit assignments and links to other pieces of work. The individual student blog zone acted like a repository for 565 assignments just like the student generated ePorfolio will act like the repository for the 590 culminating project. Soon I will move my material from the 565 weblog to 590 ePorfolio.

Novelty – for me… blogs, Wikis, forums… any social networking sites are very novel. I’m still not on FaceBook. Interestingly, it wasn’t until my 5 or 6 course until I started to realize the true value in social networks. The novelty of this media keeps me excited in the way I learn as I use it. Whether it is my 565 WordPress blog site or 590 MET ePortfolio, I will continue to use this platform as my online resume. I will need to transfer material from 565 to 590 before the site becomes extinct like the other MET courses unfortunately have.

Speed – with three sections of 565 students and approx. 25 per group, it wasn’t long before people were responding to my posts or queries. With John Stringer in China, he was usually the first one to answer as he was in a completely different time warp. In a space ship far, far away. Others who lived in British Columbia understood the educational system here in B.C. and were able to respond with complete confidence. My 590 ePortfolio will take advantage of the Ning site produced by David Roy as a link to previous students. It will be interesting to see how many students update the Ning site or respond to queries within our realm of studies over the years.

Next Steps in my Educational Technology practice

My next step in my UBC Educational practice is to complete my Masters degree by December of 2009. While accomplishing that task… I will also be teaching full time. I hope to take one UBC on-campus course to break up the online series. While teaching at my high school, I plan to develop my Moodle site for my Business Education 10 class. Other than August, I’m not quite sure when I will find the time to do that once school starts. This course has taught me to NOT be afraid of software and technology. Over the next years, developing online module will certainly become part of my educational domain.

As I mentioned earlier, a shop teacher must be mindful of the material we use. If material is wasted, then it is good to No One! Time on the computer is not wasted, nor is the experience you gain from it. The wastefulness I speak of as a shop teacher is the tangible material, digital information is not so wasteful, it can be saved anywhere and in any shape. It’s hard sometimes to get my head around the wastefulness in a digital environment, this course has taught me to let my concerns subside.

References

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003) Chapter four: A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

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