My original goal in ETEC 565 was to explore more technological tools and to make good judgments on how these tools are best used in the classroom. I wanted to create a learning environment that is both engaging and educational for my students. Throughout my MET experience, I have come across many technological tools and discussed various ways to evaluate these tools with others in the course. I now have a better understanding of educational technology and am eager to share them with my colleagues in school.
I have learned much on my MET journey, and I am grateful for choosing ETEC 565 to complete my Masters program. Not only did the course emphasize all the important points throughout other MET courses, but it also allowed the opportunity to pull all the tools I have learned together into one place. This course began by reviewing the early discussions of what learning should look like in the classrooms (Chickering & Gamson, 1987; Chickering & Erhmann, 1996), and also re-emphasized many of the key points from other MET courses, such as the SECTIONS framework discussed by Bates & Poole (2003), when choosing certain technology to be used in the classroom. However, the most challenging technical task in this course was to build a LMS. Before creating my first LMS, I was not aware about all the work and effort behind building a website. In the beginning of building my Moodle, I was very frustrated, trying to fit as many activities and tools as possible into the course curriculum. However, through course discussions about assessments and evaluation of tools, I decided that “more” is not always “better”. Halfway into creating my Moodle, I changed my plans and started over again – keeping in mind a storyboard of what I want the course to look like. This time, I had a better focus of what I wanted to do and how I wanted it to be done – but of course, there is always room for improvement.
I designed the Communications 12 Moodle Course Site with my former students in mind. Students that have graduated from our secondary school and students who are now in their last year (Grade 12), have continually contacted me, asking for advice in their studies. The Moodle that I have built on the UBC Moodle server is set up for the current students at the BC offshore school in Beijing, China, as an alternative option to support students in their learning and entrance into top universities in North America. In the Moodle, I have included activities that involve multimedia (using video, audio, and writing tools) and social platforms (such as blogs, forums, and wikis). I have also experimented with several assessment options within Moodle to provide instant feedback on students’ progress and their work. After creating all the activities, I sorted through them to pick out ones that would be the most useful and simple for the course. I also designed each topic page in a similar manner, to make it simple but versatile, should more courses be built in the future.
I chose ETEC 565 as my last course because I knew I would be able to explore many different e-learning tools. After spending most of my time with theories and curriculum design about e-learning in detail, I wanted to have more time with actual use of these tools. The E-Learning Toolkit was the perfect way to really get to know these tools and to understand how they can play a role in education. Through ETEC 565, I gained more confidence in building a learning management system (LMS), and managing the course as an administrator while testing the site through the eyes of the student. I am now more aware in the organizing of course content, and how to manage material in such a way that they will become available to students at certain times, to prevent students from being distracted in their studies. Building HTML and web pages within Moodle has been challenging. Although I have some basic knowledge of HTML coding, it was still difficult to make the pages look the way I wanted. As mentioned, I tried to create similar layouts on each page in my Moodle project. However, I am still not pleased with the final outcome and will continue to work on making pages easier to access, easier to view, and perhaps with more “white” space and less text.
As mentioned before, ETEC 565 provided an opportunity to review all the web tools I have learned about and used in the past MET courses through the E-Learning Toolkit. I was pleased to take a closer look at some synchronous communications tools, such as Elluminate, and learned to more tools, such as Wimba. I enjoyed the discussions about the appropriateness of using social software in the classrooms, considering that information students provide could easily be open to the public. The same issue arises when we ask students to use wikis or weblogs, such as Blogger, LiverJournal, or WordPress. In my opinion, I feel that the students, parents, teachers, and the school should be informed and aware that students’ work will be shared with others (and may be accessed by public), and steps are in place to prevent students from being hurt. I feel that with proper use, these tools can enhance students’ learning. As students will eventually use these tools later on in their life, in or out of school, it is important for us, as educators, to guide and teach our students how to use these tools safely and appropriately.
Finally, the course ETEC 565 has exceeded my expectations on what I would learn and accomplish in 4 months. I feel that I am more capable in my technical skills, and am more confident to start using some of these tools in the classroom with my students and also share the knowledge with my teaching colleagues. Although my MET journey is now ending, as a lifelong learner, I know I will continue to seek new ideas about teaching, to take time to consider and evaluate their use, and to continually update my e-portfolio: https://sites.google.com/site/eyuportfolio. I am happy to take all that I have learned with me and will always remember where to look when making decisions regarding educational practices, whether as the role of a teacher, a curriculum designer, or an administrator. Overall, the MET program has been a very wonderful and rewarding journey. I thank all those who have made this such a great experience, including my professors, my peers, and my colleagues. I would also like to give special thanks to my family and my friends who have supported me throughout the last two years. Thank you!
References:
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A framework for selecting and using technology, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers
Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6.