Reflections – General & Questions from Course
Think about an example of how multimedia have been used effectively to enhance your learning. Feel free to reflect on your MET experiences, or any other.
A few examples come to mind, and all of them are related to hands-on activities. In 565, our digital story assignment required us to explore our choice of 50 web 2.0 multimedia applications, and then choose one to use. This experience required us to not only reflect on the affordances and limitations of many of these applications, but then to actual use one to create a story. The use of the application really brings the tool alive. The frustration and the elation of the process are important experiences. Each time I “fixed” part of my story I thought about how I could set up my project next time to make it a little more effective. This practice will definitely help me when I am creating tools for my courses, or creating assignments for students to use these tools – it is important to understand a tool from a student’s point of view (the perspective of the person completing the assignment).
565 has been a course with many hands on opportunities, and I truly value these experiences. 531 and 590 were also courses in MET that required us to experiment with various technologies while still providing a lot of flexibility for us to choose the tools that are of interest to us (likely tools that will fit in with our own teaching context).
I will apply these experiences to my own teaching – remember to include choice and flexibility for students, and remember to allow time to experiment. When a person has what may seem like “extra time” (not too rushed), then instead of just doing something quickly, one is able to experiment, reflect, make changes and re-evaluate. This less-rushed approach is valuable.
How has your idea for an LMS course site evolved over these 13 weeks? What particular aspects of ETEC 565 advanced your thinking?
I have really appreciate the hands on assignments and experimentation time we were given in this course. The actual creation of artifacts with the web 2.0 tools advanced my thinking….. why would I choose certain tools over the others, what are the affordances and limitations of the various tools. We can use the Bates & Poole (2003) SECTION model when we are comparing and evaluating various tools. I don’t believe I would have just added in a tool to have something new in my course, I have never believed in technology just for the sake of technology, it must serve a purpose, however with the SECTIONS model I now have a more concrete and organized way to approach the evaluation.
And, aside from what you have learned about the technologies, what have you learned about yourself?
I have learned that I am too ambitious and often think I can complete more in a day than is actually possible. I have learned that when I estimate how long a technological project will take, I will double my original estimate and then I may be closer to the actual required time. I have learned that I get frustrated when the technology won’t cooperate – I have an outcome in mind and I want to make things a certain way, however if I step away when I get frustrated and come back in a couple of hours I can either find a work-around, or a new tool. I like to try to keep things simple and try to figure out the frustrations of a tool before I recommend it to other teachers.
Be sure to take a look back at your flight path, your reflective weblog entries, and the SECTIONS and 7 Principles readings from Unit One.
My Goals from my original “Flight Plan”:
1. Examine why I would like to include additional learning technologies
- Student engagement, motivation
- Allow flexibility in terms of time, location, learning style, interest
We did examine the “why” and some of the required readings also touched on this subject and helped with background information. For example, Siemens (2003) article talks in great detail about why you might choose to use various forms of media.
2. Examine how to choose one application over another
- Our division already has our LMS chosen (Moodle), so here I am referring more to the additional applications that can be included in Moodle (although additional Moodle experience is always welcomed)
Our time spend on Bates & Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS model really helps with the comparison of various applications. The SECTION model provides a consistent and logical way to compare and evaluate technologies.
3. Choose a few learning technologies and dive in…..
Yes, we did dive in alright. I have further examined Moodle, examined Everytrail (a very cool gps application), Photopeach, WordPress, and then my nemesis, Prezi.
References
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: 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. Available here.
Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating Media Characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Elearnspace. http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm (accessed July 11, 2009).