Synthesis Reflection

Flight Path Summary

At the beginning of ETEC 565, my main objective was to expand my knowledge on how educational technology and design can work together to create unique and engaging learning experiences. Frizell and Hübscher (2002) and Goodyear (2006) assert that there is a need for designers to understand pedagogical concepts in order to be able to communicate and address course development needs. As a designer lacking a background in the educational field yet with a strong interest in educational technology, my objective in this course was to learn more about the application of pedagogical concepts and theories to teaching and learning environments. Some of the pedagogical principles included Chickering and Gameson’s framework of good practice as well as Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model.

The eLearning Toolkit

Many of the resources in the eLearning toolkit were ones that I had previously encountered either through past courses, surfing the Internet, or through work. While working through the toolkit, it was interesting to read and think about how each tool could be used in an educational context. At the beginning of the course, I went through the toolkit to see how some tools could possibly be integrated into my proposed LMS site and also how they could be applied to a current work project. The toolkit provided a perspective of how different applications of what I merely considered “web tools” could be transformed into useful pedagogical web tools. For instance, the use of asynchronous and synchronous communication tools in a learning environment was something I was familiar with because I had previous experience with online learning during my undergraduate studies and was better able to relate to its application as a learning tool. While most of my rationale and reflection could have been expressed from a learning point of view, the toolkit also helped me in focusing on and visualizing each tool from a teaching perspective – a view that is also very important to consider.

Applying SECTIONS

Students

Using WordPress MU as a platform for my e-Portfolio provides several advantages to students including convenience, flexibility, affordability, and accessibility. Because many of my peers live in various places around the world, the e-Portfolio should be easy to access, easy to use, and should not take long to load on a computer, whether at home or at work. Having the e-Portfolio on WordPress means that the minimal skills that other students need to read the portfolio is the ability to click from link to link and bookmark, if necessary. Another option is to set up an RSS feed, which some students may need assistance with.

Ease of Use

The layout and interface of my e-Portfolio is relatively straightforward and I chose a pre-installed theme that appeared easy enough to navigate through and had fonts that were readable. Completed assignments are linked to visible page tabs and most of the reflections are pinned to the “Home” page and can also be accessed in the archives. There are two sidebars on the right side of my e-Portfolio. The first sidebar (in dark grey) contains the calendar, which indicates when posts were made, as well as a tag cloud to help users identify the popularity of certain topics, which they can then click on to view all the content related to the selected tag. The second sidebar (in grey), contains a blogroll of external links, recent comments from other registered users, and an administration “meta” link for logging into the blog or getting RSS feeds. Aside from the sidebars, users may also do a search for particular content. With the availability of RSS feeds to the entries or comments, users who are not familiar with this concept may take more time to understand how RSS feeds and aggregation work for tracking posts and comments. Another issue that may be more important with regards to those with a visual impairment like colour blindness may be that the tag cloud in my e-portfolio would be harder to see with the medium blue on dark grey. Overall, my e-Portfolio appears relatively intuitive and reliable to use, is easy to maintain, and there was adequate technical and professional support available for the technology.

Costs

The costs involved in running my e-Portfolio include time to post and making sure that any copyrighted information was properly referenced. Use of the blog itself was free for registered users.

Teaching and Learning

As reflected in my flight path, my e-Portfolio attempted to synthesize and apply concepts in educational technology and pedagogical theory to teaching and learning environments. The e-Portfolio was useful as a way to draw on previous knowledge and read the experiences of fellow peers through dialogue (Bates & Poole, 2003). One of the challenges of posting entries in a social media tool like a blog is to think about the audience and, in particular, the readers. While it would have been easy to compose entries in a casual tone, one has to be responsible and respectful of the academic nature of the learning environment.

Interaction and Interactivity

Although WordPress allows for feedback and interactivity between learners and instructors through the use of comment fields, feedback from other students on the reflections and assignments did not appear to occur due to concurrent module discussions in Vista and also because providing feedback on other blogs was not a participation requirement. To engage learners in the blogging experience and for learning to be a social activity on my e-Portfolio, I believe commenting has to be facilitated by another student or myself as a way to encourage others to respond to the reflections. The constructive feedback and comments provided by John were great for providing guidance and assessment on the e-Portfolio.

Speed

For several years now, weblogs have been a way to post information quickly and to updates posts, as necessary. More recently, blogs have increasingly become a social media tool, which can provide several advantages for teaching and learning. With my e-Portfolio, having the ability to create drafts before posting them was a great benefit as it allowed me to edit my thoughts and post them at a later time. For one assignment, I had forgotten to complete my reference (as pointed out by John) and within a minute or two, I edited and re-posted the entry to reflect the reference.

Next Steps

Some of the concepts from this course and from the reflections and assignments in my e-Portfolio that I hope to take away and apply in future courses and professional projects include the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model. From now on, these concepts will help me provide a foundation for evaluation and decision-making during course design and development. In fact, some of the things I have learned in this course have already been applicable to my current summer position at UBC Student Development and I am glad I was able to participate with my fellow peers in this course.

Siemens (2003) posits that there is a challenge to select the right media type that effectively presents learning material so that intended learning outcomes can be achieved. Through ETEC 565, I have made a further realization that this is one of the main challenges of educational technology that may seem to easy to implement and yet so difficult to decide on. While it is easy to get caught up in innovating the best looking learning concepts, it is better to determine if the technology can help support the learning outcome and motivate the learner to learn. In some cases, this means keeping the content as simple, usable and also, as flexible to different learning styles as possible.

All in all, I believe the first and last points outlined in NETS encapsulates the goals of my e-Portfolio and that is to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity and engage in professional growth and leadership (ISTE, 2008).

References

Bates, A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A framework for selecting and using technology. In Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success. New York: Wiley, John & Sons. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from UBC WebCT Vista: ETEC 565A.

Frizell, S. S. & Hübscher, R. (2002). Aligning theory and web-based instructional design practice with design patterns. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from http://www.auburn.edu/~frizess/frizell-elearn.pdf

Goodyear, P. (2004). Patterns, pattern languages and educational design. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds). Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference (pp. 339-347). Perth, 5-8 December. Retrieved April 29, 2009 from http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/goodyear.html

International Society for Technology in Education (2008). The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating media characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Retrieved August 2, 2009 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm