Flight Path Précis
I began this course with a rudimentary idea of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to learn. My flight path begins by explaining some of my background, including the facts that I worked for three years for Selkirk College’s Distributed Learning Centre (DLC) while also teaching online and on campus. Three years ago, I went to full time teaching and gave up working for the DLC. Rereading my flight path, I realize that I really didn’t know what to expect or where I hoped to go in this course. It indicates that I was hoping the course itself would offer me this insight and I believe it has.
E-Learning Toolkit Experiences
The e-Learning toolkit was a great resource; each time I worked through one of the tools, however, I came to the same conclusion: I need more time to work with this tool thoroughly! Nevertheless, this resource has given me a solid idea not only of what these tools are and what it takes (in terms of time and resources) to use them, but also how they can be appropriately applied to education. I found the toolkit in combination with the Siemens article particularly useful. The former shows how to use the technology while the latter discusses when to use it and why.
ETEC 565 EXPERIENCES
This course was a lot of fun, and I learned a great deal; indeed, more than I feel able to digest at this stage! I have a list of resources (readings) and online tools/applications/links that I want to revisit as I move ahead in my career.
I was particularly pleased to read Chickering and Erhmann’s seven principles in relation to technology and to learn how to make pedagogically sound choices when deciding what kind of technology is useful for a particular course and its learning objectives. This help, right from the beginning, to keep me reigned in, so to speak! In addition, it helped to confirm what I already believed: technology can help us to learn, if used correctly.
This course was extremely well organized and moderated. I feel I’ve learned as much through the actual content as I did through the instructor’s exemplary modeling of an online teacher. I witnessed an enthusiastic instructor who was fully and completely present while allowing just the right amount of independent study and peer-collaboration study. Being an online student, after teaching for five years online, has given me a valuable reminder of what it’s like on the other side of the LMS, so to speak, and the way in which this course in particular was moderated reminded me of the importance of putting in the necessary time to help my students to succeed. Thanks John!
NEXT STEPS IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
Finish the MET program (7 courses to go…)! This course really made me realize that educational technology is a life-long learning adventure. The tools we learned about are bound to change and evolve very quickly, but the course really taught me that keeping up doesn’t have to be overwhelming. One can explore what’s going on by using a few well chosen RSS feeds to relevant blogs, joining communities geared to educational technology and continuously trying out new tools while reviewing the literature. In fact, this is what the MET program in general is helping me to realize.
Resources
Chickering, A.W. and Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever,” American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), p. 3-6.
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples.htm
Janson, A. & Janson, R. (2009). Integrating Digital Learning Objects in the Classroom: A Need for Educational Leadership. Innovate, 5(3). Accessed online 3rd August 2010 http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol1_issue1/Effective_Technology_Integration_in_Teacher_Education-__A_Comparative_Study_of_Six_Programs.pdf
Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating Media Characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Elearnspace. Accessed online 5 August 2010 http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm