Rebecca Jacobson's E-Portfolio

I now have four complete versions of my story using four different Web 2.0 tools. Choosing the one to submit was not an easy task. The question boiled down to captions or audio narration. In the end, I chose the former simply because the result was more professional overall.

However, I certainly have not abandoned the idea of offering a narrated story in the future and have learn a ton about what’s available out there.

While somewhat time consuming (entirely my fault; I was having so much fun, I kept trying more and more tools!), this task was an eye opener and very enjoyable…

While I haven’t published my story here yet (I haven’t settled on a final version yet, but two preliminary versions have been posted to the discussion forum in Vista), I’ve had quite the adventure so far.

When I first encountered Alan Levine’s “50 Ways” website (http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools), I was really excited and amazed thinking about the possibilities. After looking at most of these tools (usually by viewing the “Dominoe” story), I wrote my own story, collected some images and went back to try some of these out.

What soon became clear is that there aren’t as many different options as one might think (“50” or not…); many are very similar. In any case, I created two complete versions of my story (using “yodio” and “photoshow”), but also created partial trial runs using six other tools. This experience taught me that most tools are easy to use, but each seems to have limitations of one kind of another. What this boils down to, I would argue, is having a clear idea of what you want to create and why and choosing accordingly. Just because a story can be told in many different media doesn’t mean that all of them are appropriate.

Impact: the story I created in “yodio” is much more comprehensive that the one I created in “photshow.” The former allows audio that goes with images; this give one the opportunity to include details that the latter does not allow. This is because photoshow uses captions to go with images; captions, by their very nature, must be very concise. So this version of the story omits many of the details that I feel are important to the learning objectives of the story. On the other hand, I prefer the look and feel of the photoshow story… Hmm… what to do!

Having said all that, I believe that the possibilities here for motivating and engaging students are valuable and very real. My story is for my English 200 course: Survey of English Lit. Offering a story about an author we will be studying is much more engaging for online students that just having them read a textbook, and if we can bring the author to life, we can do the same with his or her writing.

That’s my take so far; I still have to decide on the final tool I will use and make some final adjustments.

What? I have to figure out who said what? I have to scroll around and find out if anyone replied to me directly? I have to sort through the mess?

I’m spoiled by the neatness of LMS discussion forums; even blog discussions don’t compare.

However, in terms of hashing out/editing content and disagreements, the discussion space in a wiki is useful, even necessary. That’s about all I’d use it for though.

Taking the plunge and actually contributing to a public wiki takes courage! But after looking at the possibilities, I’m considering giving this a whirl in my 2nd year lit class. After using the ETEC 565 class wiki, exploring wikipedia (I never looked at the behind the scenes discussions before…interesting!), reading through the toolkit and looking at the examples, and checking out the Moodle wiki, I think there are possibilities here for a collaboration on some of the literature that students find particularly difficult (such as Chaucer).

Now to decide: Moodle wiki or public wiki?

Well, that worked well. I’ve now met “audacity” and uploaded a test file to Moodle. This is going to be useful for “talking” to students.

I keep forgetting to “reflect” and I’m not very good at it. I don’t know what to say…

Happily for Boris, technology can solve this problem. He’s got access to Moodle, so all he needs to do is create a quiz that is auto-assessed and offers instant feedback and students can practice as many times as they like.

In addition, he can offer formative feedback which includes links to appropriate resource sites and/or documents. Boris’s students need no longer resort to memorization; this tool is interactive and versatile and, once the quiz is carefully created, completely self-sustained.

Go Boris!

I’m glad I met this application! I’ve enjoyed playing with it using some family photos. The process was relatively painless and the results exactly what I expected.

I’m still confused, however, about where people generally get images for their classes. I see a lovely banner and wonder if individuals created it themselves (in the case of animation) or used their own photos (in the case of digital photos).

Happily, I’ve asked this question in the forum, so the mystery will soon be solved! Meanwhile, I’m now more adept (and interested) in playing around with still images.

Well, my proposal was thorough and fully 900 words long.

Cut, snip, tear, rip, delete, delete, delete…and we’re at 500 (excluding references).

That was a challenge, but I do this with my students as well.

The art of being concise is a good one to master indeed.

Okay, so this week in the tool kit I concentrated on building a website; I spent 1-2 hours each day on this, and I can’t believe that fact and the fact that today is Saturday. One hour can simply disappear as you read through instructions, try stuff out, fail, try again and so on… I do not have a website that I would want anyone to see and I’m beginning to wonder what the point might be in terms of education. Okay, I get the point, but why do all that work when you can use an LMS?

Working methodically through the toolkit page on websites, I began by writing a couple of simple web pages and linking them together. This worked but not until about Wednesday. I then went to “Bravenet” to get a domain. This was straightforward, but when I got an account, I realized I can use themes and write pages right in the site. Because my pages are so rudimentary, why bother writing code? So…

I chose a colour scheme and all that jazz and now I’m sitting here with a fill-in-the-blanks shell and I’m done for now. I seriously can’t believe that this is what I’m left with after a week of work. Something to think about when estimating time for beginners.

I learned Moodle alone; I played and fiddled with the site while researching and reading about pedagogical approaches to online learning on and off through the entire summer of 2004; my course ran that fall and it was, in my opinion, a thing of beauty. 😉

Do I need all summer to build a website? After completing assigned tasks in my two ETEC classes,  after my dog is walked and my garden is weeded…I’ll give it some time. Truth is I’m now bound and determined to figure it out, but one must prioritize.

Time to let the things I’ve learned gel and focus on my LMS proposal for 565 and tons of readings for 520.

Sooner or later, I will prevail!

(ps: in my opinion an LMS is infinitely easier to learn than building a website…which reminds me: I’ve also got a new Moodle site to build. Gotta go…!)

Okay, it’s time to get serious here. So far, I’ve allowed myself to read every single entry; I’ve clicked and read so many links on so many subjects that I believe they’re completely jumbled in my mind. I’ve had several false starts in actually working through and accomplishing one of these tools but have produced nothing tangible.

In my own defense, this seems to be how I operate; I need to see what’s there, check everything out, gather information, and get an overall feel of things before I “jump in.” However, time for a little self-discipline! My next phase: work systematically and methodically through these tools one at a time. Enough testing the waters!

Next week’s plan: I’ll be reporting on the actual outcome of an adventure in ONE of the tools in the toolkit. Once that one’s done, I’ll move on…but not before!

Whew!