I teach composition, literature and technical writing to first- and second-year undergraduates; my courses are about an even split between f2f and online. However, all of my f2f courses are, by choice, mixed mode. In other words, I have intentionally reduced my physical contact with the students by 1/3; the extra hour is conducted online in Moodle.
In addition, while I teach full time now, I used to work for the college’s Distributed Learning Centre as an instructional designer, which means that I helped colleagues from many different disciplines to either move their courses into Moodle or develop a Moodle site to supplement their f2f classes. This means more than just showing my colleagues Moodle; I also encouraged them to understand that they cannot just transfer their standard course content online without making changes appropriate to the medium.
What this means is that I have had the opportunity to use almost every tool that Moodle offers (I certainly don’t use them all in my writing classes) and am therefore comfortable with this Learning Managment System. However, despite this experience, it’s important to note that Moodle is essentially as far as I have gone with applying technology to a course (other than PowerPoint).
There is much, therefore, that I need to learn. In fact, when asked what I hope to learn in this course, I feel somewhat perplexed because I’m not even aware of what’s out there. I’m hoping, then, that my flight path is actually a hands-on survey. Chickering and Ehrmann (1996) remind us of the importance of “learning by doing” and that’s why I’m here: to gain a broader understanding of what is available, how and when to use it, how and on what terms professional growth can/should be implemented, and what I need to do to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.
In order to accomplish these goals, I need, well, this course. It offers a toolkit and appropriate readings and an opportunity to learn with class colleagues.
References
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.
