Synthesis Reflection
In the Departures Lounge…
…I began this course with a plan to learn about Moodle, WordPress, working with images and graphics, digital copyright and video creation. As I was already a mid-level user of educational technology in a distance education context, my end goal was simply to be able to do what I do better and to expand my repertoire. Was I successful in completing my flight path? Mostly, I don’t feel like I’ve reached the Arrivals Lounge let alone the Baggage Carousel: I’m still picking up souvenirs from stops along the way.
I now know quite a bit more about Moodle’s functionality and drawbacks (I’m still not sold on the platform except as a low-cost alternative to something more polished). I am sold on WordPress’ functionality and ease of use. I’ve enjoyed working with it as an ePortfolio/blogging platform and will continue working with it personally and professionally. I still need to work on manipulating images and graphics, but have become familiar with using Picasa 3’s simple editing features. Digital copyright is a consideration with which I am now more comfortable, especially in understanding Creative Commons licensing. Video creation is a skill I need to practice further, but has become much less daunting to me.
Tinkering with the Toolkit
I’ll admit that I didn’t attempt all of the activities in the eLearning toolkit. I found that there was just too much to do between the module readings, discussions and activities, assignments, toolkit activities and life. I also suspect that because the toolkit was not integrated directly into the course modules, it was easy to forget that it was there – a useful lesson for my own course design activities! I do understand that this was to be a self-directed set of activities, so placing the activities into the modules would have missed the point. For someone as scatter-brained as I can sometimes get, more explicit prompts to complete an activity each week (yes, there is a ‘soft’ mention in each module) might make a difference. In the end, it was up to me to explore these activities and I did not complete them as thoroughly or regularly as would have liked to do.
Looking back at the toolkit, I spent most time in the “Learning Management System” and “Multimedia and Authoring Tools” sections. After all, these two sections intersected best with the goals I had in my original Flight Path. However, the toolkit is an excellent resource, which I have bookmarked in Delicious and will come back to often as a point of reference.
SECTION-ing my ePortfolio
It’s not entirely clear to me what we’re expected to assess here, so I’m looking at both the ePortfolio and the Moodle course, elements of which are described and linked in the ePortfolio.
Students: what is known about the students – or potential students – and the appropriateness of the technology for this particular group or range of students?
In this case, I am a student using the ePortfolio. Being a Master’s student in an Educational Technology program, I have had a wide and deep variety of experiences using and creating educational materials. This is an entirely appropriate technology that allows me to integrate several known and some new technologies into my educational experience. I have been able to stretch my limits with WordPress.
The potential students of my Moodle course are adults who have a wide range of socio-economic and educational backgrounds. Most students have internet access and use email and cell-phones. There will be a small number who are entirely unprepared for online learning. The learning will need to be well-scaffolded to accommodate all participants. For the most part Moodle will work for these students, provided support is in place and easily available to them.
Ease of use and reliability: how easy is it for both teachers and students to use? How reliable and well tested is the technology?
WordPress is well tested, being one of the most popular blogging platforms available today. It is quite easy to set up and use at a basic level. Once users have some comfort with the platform, it does not take long to figure out how to customize WordPress.
Moodle is sort of easy to use, although its navigation and discussion forum layout leave much to be desired. I expect some students will easily lose their place mid-module on a regular basis. In terms of designing and creating the course, Moodle works well enough…just. There are some features that are more complex than necessary, and other features one might expect, such as timed release of a module, just aren’t there.
Costs: what is the cost structure of each technology? What is the unit cost per learner?
WordPress + Moodle = ~$1400 (tuition). WordPress and Moodle can both be used for free, but there are significant costs incurred through the purchase and set-up of hardware, facilities overhead, human resources to maintain hardware, design and create courses and to supervise/teach the courses. For students in the Moodle course, their only costs will be tuition fees plus any textbooks they may need.
Teaching and learning: what kinds of learning are needed? What instructional approaches will best meet these needs? What are the best technologies for supporting this teaching and learning?
Interactivity: what kind of interaction does this technology enable?
WordPress offers student-student, student-teacher, student-content and student-self interaction through comments and reflective writing.
Moodle offers similar interaction through discussion forums and wikis, and through meeting plug-ins and other embedded apps such as DimDim or Voicethread. These interactions involve the construction of ideas and the production of new content.
Organizational issues: what are the organizational requirements and the barriers to be removed before this technology can be used successfully? What changes in organization need to be made?
Both WordPress and Moodle have extensive user communities that can provide support. However, such community support may not be reliable, available when needed, or even correct. Support for paid services might also be unreliable and wrong, but will at least be available.
Novelty: how new is this technology?
Neither WordPress nor Moodle are all that new…to us. They may be quite new to the potential students in my Moodle course. As with anything new, the novelty will soon wear off.
Speed: how quickly can courses be mounted with this technology? How quickly can materials be changed?”
WordPress – courses can be mounted fairly quickly and modified even faster.
Moodle – it takes quite a bit of time to create a good course in Moodle, but modifications can be made very quickly.
In both platforms, the course content takes the most time to prepare, revise, and polish. Content needs plenty of thought and care devoted to it; otherwise, even the best technical design of a course will be moot.
…the Journey Continues
So, what are my next steps? I’ll be continuing in the MET program, completing the degree requirements by taking ETEC 521 in the fall and ETEC 520 in the winter. I will continue consulting and collaborating with ed-tech colleagues in the MET Ning site, on Twitter, with Google Reader, as a member of CNIE, and through quasi-informal pedagogy workshops at my university. I will be teaching a class on String (violin family) Pedagogy in the winter session and plan on using Voicethread as a tool for practicing the critiquing of students’ performances. I plan on, eventually, acquiring an image editor somewhat more powerful than Picasa and somehow learning to use it properly to create media that will customize the feel of the online courses I design. The eLearning toolkit for this course will continue to be a reference tool for my professional work. In my spare time, I am also planning at least to lurk through CCK09. Hope to see some of you there.
Reference
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
