Flight Path

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

Mark Bates Posted in — No Comments ↓

(cc) Photo by Richard Hurd via Flickr

“Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.”
Victor Hugo

The Task

Write a proposed flight path during ETEC 565A. Tell us a bit about yourself, your experience, and your goals for this course (or, perhaps, the MET). Explain what you want to learn about Learning Management Systems (LMS), assessment, social software, and multimedia. Give your best estimate (guestimate?) about what resources you would need to master these technologies as a novice professional.

My Response

A Bit About Myself

I am a life long Maritimer who grew up in Nova Scotia and now resides in Quispamsis, New Brunswick. I am an educator with ten years experience, mainly at the elementary level, teaching in Saint John with the Anglophone South School District.

Personally

Three fairly recent events have shaped my life personally and professionally. It has been 5 years ago since I successfully had surgery to remove a brain tumour and am very fortunate to be free of any sign of it reoccurring. The other two events occurred shortly after with the birth of my daughter and son. These events have changed the way I approach and experience life with me becoming a true believer in not wasting energy and time sweating the small stuff.

Professionally

Professionally, for the last 5 years, I have been seconded by the Anglophone South School district as a Technology Mentor. My main role is to assist fellow educators better integrate digital technologies into their pedagogy. A secondary and initially unintended role is to train and provide assistance to other mentors, coaches, school and district administration on what are for the most part special projects.

My Goals While in the MET Program

There are several reason I have come to UBC’s Master in Educational Technology program. Over the past ten years, I have gained much knowledge and experience from being a classroom teacher and a technology mentor. I felt that I had been in the field long enough to have experiences to draw upon and give some context to the theories and concepts I would be learning in the MET program. In turn, I would incorporate into my own developing philosophy, a formal structure to better organize my future experiences and making me more effective in a position I enjoy so much.

Within a leadership role in my District, I feel the need to back up my opinions, not just based on my experiences, gut feelings, and anecdotal evidence but with evidence grounded in leading research, theories and skills learned at this level in a post secondary program.

My Low Tech Mind Map

My Goals While in Course

I was drawn specifically to the ETEC 565 course based on the content of the course syllabus – multi / social media, LMSs and assessment. I had either an interest, experience or familiarity with many of the technologies being examined and honestly having this choice was a nice break from my previous 2 required courses. At this early stage in the course, I am already happy with the evaluation tools being offered for consideration and am specifically interested in expanding my learning on Learning Management Systems and Assessment.

In my last course, I was part of a group that did an evaluation, including a functional course demo, of the CANVAS LMS by Instructure and am looking forward to learning more about Moodle. The topic of LMSs in New Brunswick is a contentious one. The Province has firmly attached itself to Microsoft’s SharePoint platform and used for various system including its secure portal, public school sites and a version of a LMS. I say version, as the ITC department has been trying to create a SharePoint environment which can mimic many of the functions of other LMSs. Unfortunately, upper management does not appear open to evaluating other systems which have already been created for that purpose and in many cases open source and free. One of my goals is to educate myself on alternatives and be able to present, when given opportunity, a balanced overview of alternatives.

With more teachers and administrators embracing technology, I am being asked to participate in more discussions surrounding the assessment of students (e.g. online tools, ethics, best practice)and various technologies (e.g. Apps, devices, concepts like Learning Commons). I am interested in how the course addresses this issue, as well as, what I will learn from my course peers’ experiences and opinions.

The Novice Professional

Sometimes being self taught, in regards to my technological knowledge, can be beneficial. It allows me, as a Mentor, to empathize with the flight path many teachers undergo when learning a new technology. I have experienced many of the same frustrations, repeated missteps and questions.

The technologies presented in the course have many commonalities in regards to the learning process for the novice professional. To master, all require: