Flight Path Précis

When I began this course, I made note of the fact that most of my technological ability had been self taught so I have sort of a grab bag of skills when it comes to technology. What really drew me to this course was the ability to put more of my teaching online where my students could access the resources outside of class rather than just in class. To this end, I wanted to set up a Moodle site that could be used as a course companion, in particular for my Social Studies 10 and Social Studies 11 courses. Our district is implementing Moodle in September so I thought it would be appropriate to focus on Moodle.

As I had said in my Flight Path, I felt that perhaps I was a bit behind the others in my knowledge base when it came to this course. My goal was to narrow that gap through what I would learn in the course and I feel that, for the most part, the gap has been narrowed a little for me. I had hoped to provide a richer learning experience for my students through this course and I think I’m well on my way to doing that.

eLearning Toolkit Reflection

One of the more enjoyable experiences in this course for me was playing around with the eLearning toolkit. I found myself learning a number of different new skills that I can use in my teaching. The Moodle activities were particularly enjoyable as I now have a base to work from when I set up my Moodle course for my students. Probably the most challenging portion of the eLearning toolkit was the creation of a video to put into my Moodle course. I struggled mightily with this task and with copyright issues to the point that I had a working video embedded into my site only to delete it and start all over from scratch. Ultimately it was a good lesson and I’ve learned from the experience.

The other activities that I chose to do were also enjoyable. I’ve learned about all sorts of new programs like Audacity and Picasa. I also learned to use other programs like Camtasia through these activities. Because of my eLearning toolkit activities I uploaded my first video to Youtube which is something I had never done before. My webpage experience did not go well simply because I could not find a way to upload my webpage onto Bravenet. I did successfully create and upload a webpage for my ePortfolio in ETEC 590 so I consider that as part of my experience.

Overall, I think the eLearning toolkit gave me a good overview of the variety of options available to me as an educator to help engage my students in their learning. I can certainly see using some of these technologies in my teaching, either through how I present content to my students or how they demonstrate learning to me.

SECTIONS as Applied to my Portfolio

I’m going to attempt to apply the SECTIONS model put forth by Bates and Poole to my portfolio experience:

Students: Most students have basic web skills at a minimum these days. The use of a blog format for the portfolio portion of this course would most likely lend itself to the skill levels of most students. The set up and maintenance of WordPress is fairly intuitive so I would think that most would find it usable.

Ease of use: The relative ease of use of the WordPress format has made the experience more enjoyable. I think that most teachers and students could manage this type of format. My philosophy is: if I can do it, anyone can.

Cost: A program such as WordPress is open source so there are no obvious costs attached to its use. That being said, however, it is possible that there may be some costs associated with its use such as server hosting and any IT support that may be required.

Teaching and Learning: I think the use of a blog allows for both teaching and learning to occur. Because there isn’t a great deal of knowledge required by the teacher and the learner, the focus can be on the learning rather than the maintenance of the site. I found my blog experience to be such that I could easily use it to convey what I wanted to say without having to worry about whether or not it would function properly.

Interaction and Interactivity: My blog site allowed for both of these to occur. There was the opportunity for people to comment on my postings as well as the opportunity for me to respond to them. As well, I included a link to both my digital story and video that I created for my Moodle course that people could access. The ability to easily do this in this format makes a blog an attractive option for teachers.

Organizational Issues: I don’t think that there would be too many organizational issues with the blogs we used. There is support provided by UBC so I feel any major issues would be addressed. At a local school level, I think any organizational issues would be dependent on the level of support at the school level.

Novelty: Blogs have become so mainstream that I don’t think that the novelty issue really applies in this case. We have all had experiences with blogs in previous courses and I’m sure many students will have been exposed to them on the internet. As the platforms evolve I’m sure that the blogs will become even more user friendly.

Speed: The speed with which changes can be made in the blog format we used was quite good. I had to rearrange pages, delete current ones, add new ones, and change the appearance of my blog. In the end, it was quite easy to do and I was able to move postings around to where they were supposed to be. I think the ease with which this could be done would be reason enough for teachers to make more use of blogs.

Overall, I think that the SECTIONS framework applies nicely to the portfolio we completed for this course. I think perhaps this is one of the main reasons why this format was chosen by the course designers.

Next Steps

This is my final course in the MET program (unless you count 590 which I am completing at the same time). I can easily say that I have gained the most practical knowledge in this course. I found myself getting excited about things we were learning because I could see a direct link to how I could use this learning in my teaching context.

Probably the most relevant knowledge I have gained is centred on the application of Moodle in my classroom. I have already been given a blank Moodle shell by our district technology head and plan to soon begin building an online Moodle companion to my Social Studies 11 class. As I see it, this can be a resource that my students are able to access for a number of different reasons. They can use it as a refresher for what they have learned in class as well as a way to gain further understanding of concepts we have covered. They can use it to see what they have missed if they have been absent from class. In the past, homework requests from students who are away have meant a great deal of running around and photocopying of assignments which then have to be handed in at the office for somebody to pick up for them. Now I can simply say, “Check the Moodle site.” This should make things easier for all involved.

I would also like to have my students complete more of their learning through interactive technology. The idea of students completing a digital story instead of an essay would probably be more appealing to them and to me. I can see there being a greater degree of student engagement through these types of technologies.

Most importantly for myself, I’m going to have to make a point of continually investigating new technologies and programs so that I can maintain currency with what is out there. I think it’s too easy to become comfortable and complacent with what we use when instead we should always be seeking newer and better ways of teaching and learning.

References

Bates A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In A.W. Bates & G. Poole, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education (pp. 75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 4