In my flight path in the beginning of the course, I had mentioned that my goals through the MET program were:<\/p>\n
My\u00a0reasons for these goals was that I want\u00a0to increase my skills and knowledge, (and the piece of paper) to have some security in the work place, and perhaps even advance my career. I\u00a0enjoy the work that I\u00a0do as it\u00a0allows me to be creative, and input my ideas into the use. I want to make sure that my skills can support that.<\/p>\n
I also had mentioned that I was not keen on the world of business creeping into education to the degree it has been. \u00a0And that I\u00a0don\u2019t like the idea that educational institutes are letting these businesses access to thier students.<\/p>\n
It’s funny how a few months can change a person’s perspective. While my goals are essentially the same as I had indicated previously, some of my other perspectives have changes. For example, I was focused on the “negative” impacts that business could have on education, and I had failed to see the “positive”. In our Week 12 discussion and readings, the importance of economics (Alexander, 2014) as a driver for positive change in education became apparent to me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I think the next few years will be interesting as far ed tech. Especially with rising costs of education, it will be particularly interesting to see how MOOC’s and non-traditional education fares.<\/p>\n Overall, the ETEC 565A was confusing initially. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a course, which was split over 2 LMSs, and involved contributing to two blogging sites as well. And for me with the badges, it got to be to much detail, I ended up not following up on the badges in my classes as much. Note: my other class this semester used badges as well. Badges became\u00a0another little thing I need to remember to do.<\/p>\n Once I understood the reasons for the two WordPress blogs, I really thought that part worked well in the course. It makes sense for the class to have a “shared” space, and for individuals to have their “personal” space in WordPress as well.<\/p>\n In terms of my practice in educational technology, I definitely want to explore some more technologies, some of which I \u00a0learned about through the MET courses, or other students in the courses. I also use social media to keep up to date about ed tech.\u00a0Here are some of the things I am planning to learn more about:<\/p>\n Edaura<\/a> Grav<\/strong><\/a> Adobe Slate<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0FutureLearn<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong> Makerspaces<\/strong> One practise I really appreciated throughout the MET program is the sharing of information by instructors and students. I will make a point not only to learn more about ed tech, but to share what I have learned as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pr\u00e9cis of Flight Path In my flight path in the beginning of the course, I had mentioned that my goals through the MET program were: To learn about good course design To gain specialized skills and knowledge To complete a Master\u2019s degree My\u00a0reasons for these goals was that I want\u00a0to increase my skills and knowledge, … Continue reading Synthesis<\/span> Next Steps<\/strong><\/h5>\n
\n<\/strong>This is an LMS that was founded by a MET classmate. I would like to explore it some more, and perhaps test it out with some actual content for teaching.<\/p>\n
\nI learned about Grav from a LinkedIn post by a thought leader in \u00a0educational technology . Grav is an open source CMS which would be able to serve as a LMS.<\/p>\n
\nThis was used by a classmate for her digital story assignment. I really liked the way the information is presented using Adobe Slate. \u00a0Also on the Adobe website there are some examples of it being used for collaborative school projects, reports and\u00a0school newsletters. I want to explore the potential in creating assignments that students can work on together using this tool.<\/p>\n
\nTony Bates refers to this MOOC platform when he describes a brief history of MOOCs\u00a0(Bates, 2014). I’ve checked out some MOOC course on EdX and Coursa already, but I am curious about FutureLearn. Currently I’ve signed up for the\u00a0Learning Online: Learning and Collaborating<\/strong> course that started today. I’m sure this would have been useful for me at the beginning of the MET program. It’s a short course, and my interest in it is to see how it is facilitated and how it compares with other MOOC’s I’ve taken.<\/p>\n
\nI heard about the maker movement a few years ago, when I was invited to Makerfaire Vancouver<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0A short while later I started to hear more and more about the maker movement and\u00a0educational technology. The New Media Consortium’s report identifies it as a major trend in education, and discusses the interest by universities to include\u00a0makerspaces \u00a0as interdisciplinary “hubs” (2015, p.41). I intend to attend the Vancouver Makerfaire again this year, and learn more it.<\/p>\n
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