Welcome to ETEC522!
Hello everyone!
I’m your instructor – David Vogt – you can reach me whenever you wish at david DOT vogt AT ubc DOT ca or by using the message system in this weblog. I spend most of my time as an entrepreneur and innovation leader, but I have a longstanding passion for learning technologies which makes me very happy to teach this course.
DavidV on NFLD’s East Coast Trail
Usually two Davids teach this course. That’s why you’ll read “we” so often in the course materials. My colleague, co-author, and good friend David Porter can’t co-teach this time so you’ve just got me (although I’m betting DavidP will pop up a few times).
Rather than two concurrent sections of the course, we’ve combined everyone in order to get some crowdsourcing happening. We’re therefore a big group, which is why building a presence for yourself through good postings will be essential to your success. However, given the group size, be smart (and courteous!) – make all of your postings brief and valuable.
A few important points about this WordPress environment we’re going to share:
- appropriate to the innovative spirit of ETEC522, we’re always trying something new. Please walk through “How To Use This Weblog” under the 1. Inspiration tab above to understand how this environment works.
- it’s not an experiment if it doesn’t fail sometimes, so let me know when something isn’t working, or contact the MET support crew.
- you don’t need to reveal your external email as I did above because we’re all connected via private email within this system. However, that’s one of the few things that are private. Please be aware at all times that your postings here are public – conduct yourselves accordingly. And if you do reveal your email, use a convention like I’ve done above.
Here’s your job list for this first week:
- Carefully review everything about this course and what is expected of you by making your way through all of the section under the 1. Inspiration tab above. Let me know immediately if anything isn’t clear, or if you have questions.
- Complete Activity #1A – Introduce Yourself!
- Complete Activity #1B – Emerging Markets Poll
- Notify me by email if you have a special interest in any of the emerging market topics – if so I can try to assign you (no guarantees) to the appropriate team for Assignment #2.
By the way, you might find the front page story in this last weekend’s New York Times (on the failure of learning technologies to impact test scores) a sobering way to begin our time together. Those of us keen on learning technologies need to solve this problem. Your comments welcome.
Please enjoy the course – I’m really looking forward to your contributions!
DavidV
Posted in: Announcements, Week 01: Introductions
Jim 3:35 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi David,
I am really looking forward to this course. You invited comments about the New York Times article so here I go…
I completely disagree with most of Randy Yerrick’s points in the New York TImes article. It appears as though Yerrick is citing research that is looking at engagement and test scores. What I think is always the missing, but most important piece, is how the *teacher* is using the technology within a solid instructional design. You can’t just dump millions of dollars of technology into schools and expect it to have an effect on learning (as measured by “test scores”) but this article makes it sound like that is exactly what they are looking at. The Maine study should have been a clue–they had difficulty separating the effects of the technology from the effects of the teaching. I think if you really think about this, the teacher’s instructional design will always have a significant effect on learning… if technology is used effectively in that instructional design, then that is great, but it is still the teacher’s decisions regarding implementation that counted, not the technology per se.
Where I do agree with Yerrick is in his assessment of “engagement.” It is a fluffy term and I wish educational technologists would stop using it when trying to justify technology in classrooms.
The article notes a lot of dollar figures about the millions spent on technology but it doesn’t really say how much, if any at all, was spent on training the teachers to use the technology effectively with students, in ways that would maximize student success.
I really like Mark Share’s point that he makes in the signature of each of his emails: “It’s not the stuff that counts — it’s what you do with it that matters.” That’s exactly right.
David William Price 12:05 pm on September 9, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Re the importance of design, the fluffiness of engagement, the failure to separate pedagogy from technology in producing results… Amen Brother.
bcourey 9:48 am on September 10, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
You are speaking my language! If I ever use the engagement term in my office, my Director winces…he agrees that it is a fluffy word that rarely translates into improved achievement. As he stated, “if I walked into a classroom in a clown suit, they would sure be engaged too…and I would not have had to spend much money at all…But would they learn…not likely”…same with the technology. If learning theory understanding and sound pedagogical practice do not accompany the technology, then you have wasted a lot of money and time..