Erin’s Flight Path
I am an elementary teacher with ten years of teaching experience in international schools. I began my MET journey eighteen months ago when my professional use of ed-tech was limited to MS Word-created worksheets and e-mail. I’ve always known my MET destination: Ed-tech in the elementary classroom for effective teaching and student learning.
I moved to Hong Kong in 2008 and was asked to make ed-tech recommendations to the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Program by my present employer. Tapscott’s Net Generation and Prensky’s digital natives are my students: I want to educate them to become life-long learners through engagement in meaningful learning opportunities. I selected ETEC 565 to learn about the effective selection and use of a wide variety of ed-tech programs and applications to prepare me for my professional endeavours. Through ETEC courses am in the captain’s seat but I require a flight plan!
In ETEC 510, Anderson’s (2004) Towards a Theory of Online Learning made me consider how to develop strategies for engagement and interaction between the learner, teacher and content where there isn’t one “right” medium for teachers to choose. Teachers must learn to find their own set of online learning applications and adapt them to different student needs (Anderson, 2004). In ETEC 565 and 510 I studied Bates & Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS framework, which I will use to select particular technologies. In addition, Chickering & Ehrmann’s (1996) Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as a Lever is influential in my process of identifying how and when to use various applications.
The creative use of computer-aided assessment (CAA) is an area I plan to learn about in ETEC 565. Peer-assessment, self-assessment, and group-based assessment are methods of CAA I need in my skills set, but I want to learn about specific applications for an elementary setting.
Selecting effective Learning Management Software (LMS) is new for me! I plan to learn how to select and recommend LMS to elementary schools. I need more knowledge about the LMS open source software (OSS) Moodle and of other available LMS systems like Web-CT and MoonGate.
I plan to learn about the use of asynchronous and synchronous communication applications. Social software can be related to asynchronous and synchronous communication and I want to learn more about RSS feeds, social bookmarking and live chat applications. I must identify and select appropriate social software applications for students and the elementary level with effectiveness and safety of use being the main priorities.
My resources are in need of “bulk cargo”. I know a little about a few applications. As a novice-professional, my resources will include the ETEC 565 MET learning community, “help” pages of applications’ websites (like moodle demonstration site) and reliable websites like UBC library, Creative Commons and 4Teachers. Academically, I am strongly influenced by Scardamalia and Berieter, Terry Anderson (2004) and Don Tapscott. I recently learned about Mark Treadwell and his theory of “school 2.0”. For visual learning, I plan on searching Teacher Tube and “how-to” sites for models of technology applications.
References
Anderson, T. (2004). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca, Canada: Athabasca University. 33-60.
Bates and Poole (2003). “A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology.” In Effective Teaching with Technology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 75-105. (See SECTIONS excerpt at http://www.batesandpoole.ubc.ca/chapter-4.html).
Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6.
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples.htm
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(3), 265-283. http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/building.html
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5). Retrieved May 11, 2009, from http://www.twitchspeed.com/site/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.htm
Tapscott, D. (1998). The Net generation and the school. http://www.mff.org/edtech/article.taf?_function=detail&Content_uid1=109
Website Resources for the Novice-Professional
Archived Computer Assisted Assessment Centre at http://www.caacentre.ac.uk/
Creative Commons at http://creativecommons.org/
How to: Help for novices at www.ehow.com & www.howtodothings.com
Mark Treadwell’s “The Emergent 21st Century Teacher” at http://www.i-learnt.com/
Moodle Demonstration Site: http://demo.moodle.org/
Teacher Tube: www.teachertube.com
The Higher Education Academy at http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/ict/caa.html