Month: June 2011

Since I have had some experience using WordPress here (no, you do not have to press anything – this page is it) I decided to try using Blogger I am starting to see the value in linking one’s web activities (but have not done so yet) otherwise it would be quite difficult and time consuming to update and keep track of everything – aah! I think I prefer to be the person who routinely and continually contributes to her blog(s) and updates her websites largely because I find it rather discouraging to visit a promising looking site only to find its last entry was literally years ago! This was the case with the Stingy Scholar. Sure, I was drawn to it because of its name (you try going through this list of 100 Education Blogs and see which one you pick!). However, when I visited it I was a little disappointed to find the last entry was June 17 – 2009! O.k., so maybe this blog was written by a student which would explain its limited shelf-life; I know you cannot stay in school forever, I tried. After clicking on the “meet the writers” button I found out that there were actually eleven writers altogether and the blog activity petered out from 303 in 2006 to just one in 2009. Hmm. There was also a link to the Stingy Scholar’s wife’s website for new moms but it too was last updated in 2009; new moms have a short shelf-life also. And then I felt a twinge of worry for these people. I hope they are both (or all twelve) still alive and well. Anyway, I did manage to find quite a few blogs that are very interesting and up-to-date (Clive Shepherd; The Open Classroom; and Moving at the Speed of Creativity). I am sure if given enough time I may have found 90/100 to be awesome blogs but these are three I plan to check in on from time to time.

The big lesson learned in this once again is that the process of learning and creating using technology (in this case blogs) is the easy part; the arduous task may be in keeping on top of it in the day-to-day routine and for the long haul.

Creating a wiki may be like riding a bike IF you have the same experience making a wiki as you do riding a bike. What I mean is, I had the opportunity to create a wiki in ETEC 510 and I know I spent a lot of time on it and I felt like I had a good grasp of what I was doing at the time – here it is: Ronna’s Wiki – it looks nice, right? Fast forward a few months and it was as if I was learning to speak a new language all over again. (Now, how did I get that content box to magically appear again?) I guess it makes sense since I spent a good decade riding a bike as my only means of transportation and only a couple of months “wikiing”. So, I found the UBC wiki sandbox and went to work (click here). I even learned how to make a table – the “real” way. Well, maybe if I had found the toolbar sooner that gave the option to “insert a table” I would have done that instead. But I am happy to have spent a bit of time re-learning how to create a wiki. Initially, I was a little disappointed in myself for having forgotten something I seemed to understand so well before, but it turned out to be yet another enjoyable experience.

I almost forgot, I also created a site on Wikispaces that I intend to use for my students in the Fall. It is important to me to be able to take a lot of what I learn in this course and actually use it in the classroom.

This exercise was quite a time robber! I suppose one could say that it was labour intensive, but I found it to be a labour of love. I really enjoyed learning and creating but soon (or not so soon) realized that to even come close to completing my website, I would need to dedicate much, much more time and effort. You can have a look at what I have created so far http://pharmtecheducator.bravesites.com/ keeping in mind that it is nowhere near being useful at this point. I did test for accessibility using the WAVE tool and was happy to find that it worked – at first! Then I tried getting too fancy and ended up with “2 possible accessibility errors.” I tried accessing my site using Internet Explorer and Firefox and it seemed to work just fine with either one.

I was a little surprised with how easy it seemed at first but how difficult (or tedious) it really ended up being trying to create an attractive and functional site. I wish I could throw together a website like this one: http://www.campluxe.com.au/relax (ah, so pretty AND functional) but I am guessing someone with a lot of experience had a hand in creating it.

I also downloaded Dreamweaver and have started creating web pages and loading them onto my Moodle site.

All in all this was a great exercise and I feel that I learned the basics upon which I am prepared to continue to build, learn and improve.

I found this exercise to be a bit more labour intensive than creating content and quizzes in Moodle! Even though I followed the instructions provided in the e-Learning Toolkit, I still had to “hunt and peck” a couple of times. Having sort of “winged” it through Moodle in a previous course, I am not entirely sure I would want to do that in WebCT/Vista. The layout and design is not as intuitive as Moodle. For instance, I like how Moodle is organized into two main functions: Resources and Activities. This lends itself to designing a simple, comprehensive, easy to understand course. WebCT/Vista may have more options and functionality than Moodle, but I say “less is more” in creating an online course – both for the student and the teacher. Although the WebCT/Vista practice site has a tab for both Course Content and Learning Modules, I think I would combine these (as ETEC 565 has). So, I recognize that not all options in WebCT/Vista must be utilized but I question its ease of use for teachers who find themselves having to create their own course. This was a great eye-opener for me in recognizing just how easy Moodle is!

I added a welcome web page and a discussion (forum) activity to my Moodle site following the instructions given in the ETEC 565 course site. Following the step-by-step instructions helped make these tasks very simple otherwise I felt that I would have spent a lot of time reading each and every option and the contents of their drop down boxes. While at first it seemed like there were many more options, and perhaps some unnecessary ones, when I compared it to D2L, it was indeed very much the same. Since I am used to D2L, I quickly look past the options that I do not use. The one thing that I did prefer about Moodle is the ability to grade discussions. This feature is not available in the LMS that I normally use. I also viewed some of the tutorials that are available such as how to create a quiz and how to use the gradebook and found them very helpful. I think they will help speed up (or flatten down?) my “learning curve” so I can definitely see myself taking advantage of many more online tutorials as I continue to build my course site.

I spent some time gathering information about several social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Second Life, and YouTube) and their Terms of Service and Privacy Policies. I suppose the biggest surprise was the claim by most of the sites that although the user owns their posted content and materials, the site has the right to provide these materials to others – without notice or paying a fee. This is not the type of ownership that I am familiar with. For instance, I own a bicycle. If I ride my bicycle to the grocery store and park it in their lot, this does not give the grocery store the right to lend my bicycle to whomever they please. Also, if you terminate your service, many of the sites then own your material outright. Further to this, most of the sites also stipulate that the user is responsible for their own losses and may be responsible for the losses of other users! The site is NOT responsible for loss of your material or personal information. It seems to be a case of social media sites having their cake and eating it too (oops, Eating their cake and Having it too!).

So, would I promote the use of these sites to my students? Since I teach adult learners, my answer is “yes, with caution.” I would ensure that they too read the Terms of Service and Privacy policies very carefully! And, did you know, Facebook requires their users to be 13 years of age or older? I think I have to go “unfriend” a niece and nephew.