Flight Path Précis

When first embarking on the UBC’s Master in Education Technology program, I had several goals in mind. One particular goal was to become more familiar with a number of educationally relevant technologies. The ETEC565 course looked promising and came recommended by several people as just such a course. Although I did have some experience with Learning Management Systems (LMS) as well as Synchronous Communication tools, I had not been formally trained in either. I wanted not only the hands-on practice, but also the formal structures, theories and concepts, to back up my decisions for using a particular technology. To go along with this, assessment and feedback tools have also become important in education, so consequently it is also more important to me. As I have a personal educational interested in speech technologies, I was hoping to explore more tools in this area as well. I realize that no tool is perfect, but with training and sound educational theories to support and back up my decisions, I believe that I will be able create a stronger, more robust classroom.

Now, half way through the MET program, I have had the opportunity to discover and explore a number of technologies. In the ETEC565a course, we started off by looking at a number of theories and constructivist models with which to critically assess a technology’s value. The one that has repeated come to the surface for me has been Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model for selecting technology. It has become easy to quickly go through each of the acronyms and see where a given technology’s strengths and weaknesses are. Next we began to work with different programs and technologies; weblogs and eportfolios, Moodle (LMS), Digital Story Telling tools (Multimedia and Authoring tools), and wikis. I worked through each task with a dual purpose in mind, learn about it for my course and the personal gain I was receiving with the experience, as well as how might I implement this into my classroom. As an intermediate teacher, I am always somewhat hesitant to incorporate too much technology into my classroom quickly as there are always the safety concerns and teaching of responsible digital citizenry to consider. What I have discovered is that some technologies I will implement quicker and some I will probably not use WITH my students at all. I loved working with the digital story telling tools and am certain that my students will as well. With the SECTIONS model to help guide me, I will always be able to assess the next technology with a critical eye for its use and benefit.

Reflections on eLearning Toolkit:

Each of the tools that I have used in the ETEC565a eLearning Toolkit are based on constructivist models. Below are some details surrounding my experience with each and reflections while completing my tasks.

Learning Management System (LMS)
– using Moodle

Although I have had some limited experience with web design as well as Moodle in the past, it was not in a combined situation. When I first tried Moodle, I looked at it as a chance to explore something new, with the forever eye of “Can this have a use in my classroom teaching environment?” I tried a few of the available tools, but at the time, it really wasn’t what I wanted for a learning space. With a fresh start and a task given to me in ETEC565a, I was excited to learn what this LMS was actually capable of, and felt optimistic that I would be able to use it to support my classroom in its ever-growing and challenging needs. What I found initially was, that it was a frustrating program and difficult to build my required course site to match the given assignment criteria. With a lot of time, some patience, trouble-shooting and practice, I found that my initial reaction of frustration was disappearing and I could complete my assigned task. A large weight was quickly lifted off my shoulders when I realized that I was not the only person who was struggling but with guidance from knowledgeable peers and many hours of experimenting, I created a site that not only matched the expectations, but that I was happy with. One thing that repeatedly struck me while I was working on this task was that I had also used the LMS, D2L. This program also initially caused me grief, but I was fortunate to have on-site support and administrative access to the root directories. These two little differences made a huge difference as I was able to visibly see where I was placing HTML pages and easily move them around as I needed. In the end, despite the challenges and frustrations with Moodle, I still considered this assignment to be a valuable and positive experience for two main reasons; as with most technology, trial & error plus repeated practice increase proficiency. And secondly, I have current first-hand experience as to how students may feel in situations of a similar mental nature, where they must struggle through something in order to learn or complete a task. In children, many would have given up, but as we are a group of adults with a purpose, that was not an option.

Web Design
– using Dream Weaver

As I mentioned above I was already somewhat familiar with D2L, and was fortunate to have used the web designing program, Dream Weaver to create the needed web pages. Whenever working in Dream Weaver, I always keep the HTML code section open so I can watch how different pieces of my page are created or altered in HTML code but I have never created anything in code nor had I paid enough attention to be able to change much. This limited experience though did become useful when I had difficulties with the cross platform design of Moodle in a couple different instances. I knew that I could copy the HTML code and paste it into the editing space in Moodle in order to see if that alleviated the issue. However, what I found appeared to be that most issues that I encountered seemed to be because of the uploading/unzipping of files and periodic broken/unrecognized links. Perhaps this was even due to slow server and time-out issues. What I did find was that had this not been a time-restrained assignment, I probably would have enjoyed my challenge more.

Synchronous Communication Tools
– using Blackboard Collaborate and GoogleChat

In regards to synchronous communications tools, although we did not formally utilize this tool in the ETEC565a course, there were occasions that I used both. Three peers and myself were working on a group project and needed to be able to communicate information. One of these peers and myself used both synchronous tools, BlackBoard Collaborate and Googlechat so that we could discuss and create a cohesive final product. As well as our instructor and peers, had the opportunity to use BlackBoard Collaborate as another form of office hours. I find Googlechat to be easy to use and only requires a Google account. Blackboard on the other hand, requires Java to be installed and running on your computer before you are able to load the Blackboard program. Java has been known to create issues for some users so it is always important to try loading BlackBoard a little earlier than when you expect to actually require the program. I do enjoy both of these tools, but all participants must be online in the program at the same time as it is much like a face to face discussion. As I thought it might be interesting for my students to give the synchronous communication tool a try, I did include the chat resource tool in my Moodle course site.

Social Software

Although we really didn’t explore any particular social software, as a group we did discuss some of the various thoughts surrounding these platforms. Personally, I do use a couple of them with some regularity and have tried using Twitter with my class last year. It was a locked account with very strict parameters. I’m not sure that I would embark on using this tool again with my class, but I’m not totally opposed to it either. It was a valuable learning lesson for my students and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially as it was in a classroom setting. What I do feel is important is to use this knowledge to help teach my students to use social software responsibly as there are many safety concerns and cyber-bullying issues to consider.

Weblogs/wikis
– using UBC blog and wiki

As a general rule, I have not used a weblog or wiki for myself or my class. Several years ago I had set up a blog, but that was very short lived. In this course, one of the tasks was to create a UBC Blog and eportfolio. I am actually very happy that this was the case as I was able to see how easy it has been to set up and maintain. At this point I’m not certain that I would set up a blog, but I do know that there are some rather good educational host sites available, and it is certainly an option. Personally I am not a big fan of wikis as I feel that it is too easy for anyone to post content that I may not want to be associated with. I did appreciate the task within this course in order to experience working with a wiki. I also access Wikipedia on a regular basis, but it is still not something that I would expect of myself in the near future. Of course my opinion may change once I have taken ETEC 510.

Multimedia and Authoring Tools
– using Digital Story telling tools

I found this activity to be one of my favorites as it was fun, engaging and valuable to me. I tried the tool Animoto, as it had been recommended to me several times for its easy and excellent end-product, so I was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to use it for a legitimate purpose. It really was as easy as I was told, and despite taking me a fairly substantial amount of time to complete my task, this was mostly because of the vision I had in mind at the start. Incorporating music and pictures were straight-forward and depending on how much editing you do, a project could be completed rather quickly.  I will certainly be using this in the future as well as teaching students how to create their own digital stories. With so many different multimedia and authoring tools available, you are sure to find one that will work for your purposes, and mostly will not require a large amount of training once the basics are learned.

mLearning

Always having my smartphone nearby and using it for many aspects of my life, including teaching, I have become very in tune to the possibilities of using it with mLearning applications. Although we did not specifically look at mobile devices for learning, I have tried to use my mobile device to access my UBC courses but had found this to be challenging. What I have found to be extremely beneficial is when our instructors have added the subscription option to our discussion forums. I found this to be invaluable as it has allowed me, the student, to immediately read the posts that were being made, consider the thread and its associated comments and then make my own comments when I was able. In short, it allowed me to have personal processing time. Not that this option is necessarily something I would want for my own students, especially considering their age, it does open a number of possibilities for future programs and applications, both on smartphones and iPads/tablets. I have also used a variety of smartphone, iPad, and tablet applications which are specific to education, as well as those that could be used within an educational setting, such as videos of my students demonstrating their learning. I am extremely excited about the MET mobile device course I will be taking in the fall.

 

My ETEC565a experience

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed my ETEC565a course as much or more than I had expected. Despite the trials and tribulations with some of the tasks and assignments, I have found my ETEC565a course to be an extremely valuable, positive and rewarding experience. Some of the topics and tools were already somewhat familiar to me, others were completely new. I have built a personal eLearning toolkit with many new tools added from this course. When I consider my ‘flightpath’ and what I had hoped to gain and learn upon starting this course, I feel that for the most part I at least have answered my questions, and have found tools that will help my quest in a richer more robust classroom. I also now have the SECTIONS framework model for selecting and using technology, to draw on when considering future technology.

As a learner, I found the assignments and tasks challenging and engaging. I have learned both solid theory and had expansive practice with a variety of technology and tools, looking at them through two lenses, educator and learner. The tool that became most apparent in its significance, was that of my peers. Always supportive and helpful, trying to work as a team to solve any and every issue, was extremely valuable. It showed just how important the whole is greater than the sum of its part especially in a learning environment. Our instructor was there to guide us when we had questions and was always empathic to struggles and suggested ways to complete our tasks. The organization of this course, both physically in the MET shell and in the layout of assignments was well planned and followed a logical order. We did group work at the beginning to build our learning community which ultimately was a huge benefit and resource.

This brings forward the next piece of this course, the discussion forums. Until this course, I found varying amounts of participation and collegiality in the discussions. Each course has had the required participation with discussions, but nothing like this. It was not only a fabulous learning experience, but I feel that I have gained professional support peers whom I can call on in the future. It seemed that there were many with their own specialties but as a group, whether we posted or not, learning was occurring everywhere. There was such a large and in-depth discussion base with each topic that it often felt like anything I wanted to say had already been said several times over. And I was not the only person who seemed to feel that way. But this was excellent because the resource base we were creating guided us through much of our challenges, not just here in ETEC565 but in other courses and our classrooms as well.

My own philosophy is that learning is always a very positive thing. Much of what I have learned here, I will use either in the immediate or not too distant future. No learning is wasted, especially when it comes to technology as there is generally carry-over somewhere else or down the road.

Next Steps

I have two upcoming courses that I am very excited about and looking forward to. In the fall I will be taking the ETEC565m course, which is a new course focusing on mobile technology. The other is the ETEC510 course (core course) in January. I see great personal interest and value in the ETEC565m course, as I am a fan of mobile devises, use mine constantly, and hope to learn about technologies that will be of assistance to me in my classroom environment. I have waited to take the ETEC510 course as it is another core course that will build my base of solid pedagogical learning theory and understanding in the realm of technology.

In addition to these upcoming courses, and continuing with my other MET program courses, I intend to keep practicing and exploring those tools and technologies which I have used to date. I have always been, and enjoy being, a lifelong learner. I ask my students to show me the ‘newest and best’ gadgets and ‘toys’ they have, and in turn explore and share mine with them.

As the school that I am currently teaching at is technology challenged, (internet is limited and tools are not as abundant as most schools) I will do what I can to continue to promote technology and good digital citizenship. I will introduce my students to digital story telling tools, and may even try creating a class blog or Moodle site. I am still interested in trying to utilize some of the other tools I have learned, but they may need to wait until some of the current challenges change.

 

References:

Bates, A. W., & Poole, G. (2003). Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 75 – 105) Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley.

Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996).  Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6.

Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005).  “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf