The flight path that I outlined many weeks ago included becoming more confident in many different aspects. I adhered to my original flight play and also went into other directions. My original goals included
- Building up my skill set for different Learning Management Systems (LMS)
- Gaining additional knowledge of the affordances of limitations of LMS
- Learn how to implement and maintain a LMS
- Understand how assessment and feedback are incorporated into a LMS and how this knowledge can also lend itself into the classroom
- Looking to learn how to code
- Expand my knowledge of the Google classroom and its features
The professional growth that I experienced in the last few months was in combination to this course and Professional Development that I attended and engaging with my Personal Learning Network on Twitter.
LMS Platforms and Digital Tools
One of the biggest benefits and drivers for further development for me was the compilation of all the digital stories. I was driven to try out Haiku Deck for my own digital story for the very first time and was really impressed with its end product, ease of use, and use of Creative Commons images. This class is my seventh course and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was shown many digital tools and applications that were new and applicable to my teaching in the classroom.
Overall ETEC 565A Experience
I did appreciate how the projects in this course built upon each other. All the E-portfolio components worked well together and the feedback we received from the instructor and our classmates helped to develop a completed project: flight path, platform evaluation (Eliademy), introductory module (Moodle), content module (Moodle), and this final reflective summary. The final project became a website that documented all the work in this course and has been a strong stepping stone to move forward in this direction for either avenue, personal or career wise. I would say that I took away more from the sharing of everyone’s e-Portfolio and learning how different groups orchestrated their elements than the individual feedback on our assignments.
Including options for individual or group work and offering different platforms for LMSs was ideal in this scenario as each student comes into this picture with different needs, desires, workplace/school place restrictions, and goals so having choices helped decide on the option that worked best. I preferred having the option to work alone on the main project to help accommodate my personal schedule.
I used the Word Press version of ETEC 565A to help navigate the different assignments, readings, resources, and questions to think about for all of the discussions. I did bookmark this site as it made it easy to be working on as assignment and have another window open, that isn’t time sensitive, to be able to double check that certain elements were required. Even though all this information was also located on password-protected Bb Connect I liked having the option of using it on WordPress.
I have been in other courses where two platforms are used and I think if I were in multiple courses I would prefer one platform but since I am just taking this course having two didn’t create any problems for me.
The process of creating and putting pieces together for my e-Portfolio included goals, reflections, and projects that were completed on my own and with peers. Specifically I learned how to create an introductory module, a content module, how to work within two different Learning Management Systems (LMS) Moodle and Eliademy.
I think taking this course will be a great building block for ETEC 590 (Graduating Project) where my goal will be to create an E-portfolio that synthesizes the knowledge learned from my entire MET journey and will allow me to explain it in a way to show my own reflection on how I have grown professionally and pedagogically. I am taking a break this summer from the MET program and I look forward to having some time to play with some of the digital tools introduced in this course, to become more knowledgeable and efficient with their application to use both as a teacher and as student as I look to graduate next year.
The creation of this fully functionally online course helped me to develop some skills that I can transfer to the classroom or in a blended environment since I don’t foresee myself teaching fully online in the immediate future. Since taking this course and experimenting with Moodle I definitely empathize with course developers in their need for time and support of online resources both for online and blended courses.