Hello, my name is Justin Ouellette and I’m a Primary Years Programme (PYP) educator for year three students at an International Baccaleaureate (IB) international school in Suzhou, China.
As for LMS experience, I’ve had experience creating private Google + learning Communities (pre-Google Classroom era) at my last International School in Korea and for collaborative project work and feedback in ETEC512. I even used that experience as the focus for my ETEC 500 action research proposal around the impact such an LMS could have on student learning in maths.
G+ Private Communities
Also long-in-the-tooth now, I’ve used Blogger as a rudimentary LMS to run a summer novel study course for middle school students. More recently, I have been using Evernote (again, in very beta form) as a LMS platform by flipping learning out to students, collaborating with fellow teachers, planning, sending work home to students and parents, and using the work chat feature as a means of discourse for all stakeholders. The individual student folders are also viewable by parents and the Workchat feature serves as a good formative feedback channel.
I’d prefer to use another medium, however China’s Great Firewall (GFW) limits the use of pretty much anything else since 75% or more of web-based applications tend to have a Google script attached to them (i.e. Don’t work in China without a virtual private network). Furthermore, our campus servers are always at capacity due to having our WordPress class blogs and student portfolios locally hosted (again, GFW limits us to this option). More personally, I’ve had moderate experience using WordPress to create a (dated) teaching portfolio, using the medium for class blogs, and documenting student learning and mentoring for year five PYP exhibition groups.
My goals for this course are fairly open-ended, as I feel that I have a lot to learn with the two LMS systems I wish to learn the most about: Moodle and Blackboard. Quite frankly, I only have end-user experience with both. For Blackboard, most of my experience has been UBC-MET course related and know that I’ve preferred experiences to collaborate outside of the medium as much as possible. Perhaps knowing the more of the strengths and features, along with limitations, it may give me a greater, and more positive, perspective.
Moodle is the LMS that runs our school intranet system, DragonNet, that serves faculty, students and parents alike. It is a one-stop-shop for everything, from student assignment submission in middle school and up, to facility and hardware bookings, staff and student notices, messaging, surveys, documentation and more. I feel that by understanding the features and capabilities of Moodle, I’ll be able to offer suggestions, advice and help on how to improve or add features as the needs of our stakeholders, in which the medium serves, change. I’d love to be able to put my hand up on suggestions and be able to see them through to fruition, if granted approval.
My overarching, UBC-MET goal, is to apply the knowledge and skills learned within the program in my immediate practice (ongoing). Additionally, my greater aspiration is to gain enough experience and confidence in order to be a qualified applicant for an edtech coach or specialist position at my current or next school. Having greater understanding of LMS design and application will certainly stand to benefit anyone in such a role.