Synthesis Reflection
Looking Back
In my original Flight Path, I had three main technology goals for this class:
1. How to set up a Moodle Server (more server side knowledge in general)
2. More depth of knowledge of CSS
3. Screencasting (last time I tried I didn’t have enough memory)
I still haven’t addressed the moodle server side information, but will when I export my moodle course and set it up on my own server. I got my wish with CSS through ETEC 590 (which I am taking concurrently) I have explored and learned quite a bit about CSS this term. I did explore screencasting for several days this term. I learned quite a bit about embedding media objects into websites, which browsers support embedded objects and what movie file formats are supported. (essentially, life is much easier if you don’t have to deal with Internet Explorer) I used the toolkit to get instructions about movie making (Thank you!) and applied them to my screencasts as well. I found the toolkit to be a very useful resource, and I am hoping that it will be available after I finish this course? It is a very good collection of resources and instruction. I learned most from the accessibility pages. While I have done website development before, and knew a fair about about best practice, I had never considered *why* some of the practices are in place. I ended up looking through Moodle’s pages on accessibility and reading a lot about the topic.
Additionally, I had the goal of looking more at the purposeful selection of and practice of using different technologies and how they could be assessed as part of curriculum. Interestingly I have learned a lot about assessment and technology selection, through the SECTIONS framework and also through the course setup itself. Using a wiki as a toolkit was a brilliant idea, and one which I hope to borrow in my own practice. Using reflective practice was also something that I was surprised at. While I have my own blog, which I have used throughout the MET program as a showcase of my work, and to get professional feedback, somehow having the reflections be assigned made me think about things that I wouldn’t have normally written about. I will definitely use more reflection in my teaching practice, but may have to front load some instruction (since I teach elementary school).
SECTIONS
As part of my reflection, and admittedly I did not explicitly consider SECTIONS as I designed my LMS course, I wanted to use the model to look at the course and see if I had absorbed the information in the model and unconsciously used it in my course design.
S – Students:The potential students will all be teachers, with differing comfort levels with the moodle technology. If they are self-enrolling in the course about using technology, it should be fair to assume that they have a reasonable skill set from which to build.
E – Ease of use and reliability: I think moodle is pretty straightforward, and I have tested all the links to make sure they work in a few different browsers.
C – Costs: What is the unit cost per learner? Moodle is free so there is no cost.
T – Teaching and learning: I tried to think through what the different learning curves were and address the larger ones in the course design. I tried to use several different methods of instruction, including video, text, wiki and social media so that the course could not only expose teachers to different models which they could use in their classrooms, but also to address different learning styles.
I – Interactivity: Most of the course is designed around interaction rather than static content. There are small bits of information from which to build a collective knowledge.
O – Organizational issues: The largest barrier to organization will likely be dissemination of the information that the course exists. (Advertising)
N – Novelty: This is not a new technology at all. Moodle has been in existence since 2002, so it is not new technology. The concept of course management software may be new to some users, however.
S – Speed: The course development was fairly seamless and quick. Uploads and downloads are not time consuming and changes are easy.
Looking Forward
As I move forward, I hope to continue to use reflective practice both with my students and on my own. I will maintain my blog which documents my edtech adventures, and try to purposefully reflect on each new activity I try and document it. I have also enrolled in George Siemens course CCK09 in the fall, as I will be done with the MET program, and won’t know what to do with all my spare time!
I plan to make a giant poster of the SECTIONS model and put it above my desk at work as a constant reminder that I should always be purposeful in what I do. My next step is to re-arrange my classroom to accommodate some computers attached to keyboards, and to get busy learning how to use them together with my students. I also have plans to join our district technology team in a larger way and share what I have learned with others.
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 79-80). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.