Synthesis Reflection

Final Course Synthesis

It seems like it was only yesterday that ETEC 565 started and I was extremely nervous, anxious, and excited to get started. Now, three months later, I can safely say that I have learned a great deal about the implementation of learning technologies for use in my educational practice. While the process of working my way through ETEC 565 hasn’t always been the smoothest experience, I feel I have gained valuable insight into the selection, design and application of learning technologies.

It is always a fascinating process to look back on prior personal reflections and writings. Revisiting my Flight Path, my E-Learning Toolkit reflections, SECTIONS and the 7 Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education didn’t disappoint. Throughout my ETEC journey I have learned a great deal about myself and learning technologies such as Web 2.0 tools. In the next few paragraphs I will reflect on my overall experience in ETEC 565, revisit my Flight Path, reflect on my E-Learning Toolkit experiences, and describe the next steps for me working with educational technology moving forward.

My Overall Experience in ETEC 565

Coming into ETEC 565, I brought with me some previous experience in working with multimedia technologies, web 2.0 tools and basic web design. For many years I have played around with rudimentary flash animations, simple web design, movie making and editing skills, electronic music creation and recording, and photo editing. These skills have been invaluable to me in my teaching profession thus far. However, I always felt as though I needed a deeper pedagogical understanding of how to properly implement technology into my teaching. What I desired was a theoretical framework to assist me in selecting technologies in order to apply them to their fullest potential. Now that I am on the cusp of completing ETEC 565, I believe I have gained this necessary theoretical understanding of using various learning technologies within my teaching practice. Throughout the rest of my career, I will continually refer back to Bates and Poole’s (2003) “A framework for Selecting and Using Technology” and Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education”. Both of these resources have been instrumental to me in my selection of learning technologies and development of my Moodle Course Site.

My overall experience in ETEC 565 has been extremely positive and highly beneficial. If I can think of one important aspect of the course that I can take away with me, it is to always question the reasoning behind implementing technologies in the classroom. The SECTIONS framework has been an invaluable resource which has provided me with a great basic model to refer to. I think back to before I took this course and how I would implement certain technologies into my program without questioning its pedagogical relevance or benefit to my students’ learning. My thinking at the time was that if the students were enjoying themselves, learning a new technology, and being kept busy then the technology was justifiable. However, now I recognize when using a specific technology is justifiable and I am able to critically analyze which instructional methods will best support a chosen technology. In addition, ETEC 565 has provided me with a wealth of activities, which I can use to incorporate more learning technologies into my classroom. I am extremely excited to see what the future holds for me and the numerous burgeoning learning technologies.

I have enjoyed being exposed to so many different web 2.0 tools such as blogs, social media tools, and the vast array of storytelling tools. It is amazing that so many resources are available at our disposal. For example, I really enjoyed working on my digital story and found the activity to be extremely worthwhile. I found the most difficult aspect of finishing this particular activity was due to the vast choice of digital story software. After a few hours of exploration I finally decided to use Pixton as I found it easy to use and highly editable. I have already introduced the various storytelling tools to colleagues throughout my travels and have continued to explore the digital storytelling website.

My Flight Path

When I revisited my flight path, it was interesting to re-examine the goals I had set out for myself in ETEC 565. One of my goals was to gain a greater understanding in developing Learning Management Systems particularly working with Moodle. When I first began to build my LMS course site I was having a difficult time deciding on how I was going to present the material in a logical format that could meet the needs of my students. Furthermore, I wanted to provide a learning environment which my students could feel comfortable and competent working with. This was critical to me mainly because my site would be designated for intermediate elementary students.  As Anderson (2008) states, “…the effective online teacher is constantly probing for learner comfort and competence with the intervening technology, and providing safe environments for learners to increase their sense of Internet efficacy” (pg. 4). In addition, I felt that it was necessary to provide students with different types of technologies to learn with as different students will prefer different types of media to learn from. Bates and Poole (2003) acknowledge that, “It may seem obvious that students will have different preferences for various kinds of technology or media. The design of teaching should cater to these differences” (pg. 84). Taking this into account I made sure that my LMS course site recognized this. For example, for my Ancient Chinese unit on inventions, the students are required to create a mind map and as well, create a comic explaining the origins of an ancient Chinese invention. Both of these activities provide the students with a lot of flexibility and take advantage of different types of media. My LMS course site has been intentionally set up in a way to include constructivist learning theory in a highly engaging, interactive, easy to navigate, fun to use format. After hours of working on it, I believe that I achieved my goal of obtaining a proficient level of understanding of Moodle.

Creating my Moodle course site wasn’t without its challenges. Being an avid technology user and computer enthusiast, I thought that I would be able to manoeuvre around the software with ease. However, I was surprised by my initial difficulties working with the LMS. When I first started using the Moodle I faced frustrations in working with the program such as when I was trying to import custom made HTML pages and insert pictures. However, I persevered and was able to create a Moodle online course that I am very proud of.

One of my other goals in ETEC 565 was to expand on my knowledge in incorporating and effectively choosing media to be used as an effective learning tool. As I previously mentioned, this course has exposed me to a number of different learning technologies such as web 2.0 tools, blogs, and digital storytelling tools. I feel that I have been able to successfully fulfill my goal as I have many more media options to choose from and feel that I have the knowledge to implement them in a meaningful way. In the future I would like to further explore my options for web 2.0 and storytelling tools with my class. I feel that since technology is never static I will always be learning more about these tools. Throughout this course, we were given the opportunity to explore various web 2.0 tools and multimedia software.

For my final goal outlined in my flight path, I wanted to expand on my knowledge of open source software for use in an educational setting. Although ETEC 565 did not provide me with many opportunities to explore the world of open source, I feel that I met my goal as I was able to explore a few open source programs such as the photo editor Gimp and the audio editor Audacity (which was one of my E-Learning Toolkit activities). I even went as far as installing the latest version of Ubuntu and open office onto my new laptop. I am extremely excited about the potential of open source software in educational settings and have been a vocal proponent of the movement in both of the school districts that I am currently working in. In fact, just recently the Vancouver school district has begun installing many open source programs such as open office as an alternative to commercial software.

Reflection on my E-Learning Toolkit Activities

In total, I completed 6 E-Learning Toolkit activities. With each of these activities I learned something new that will surely come in handy in the future. Each one of these activities provided me with an opportunity to hone my skills and develop my Moodle site. What I really liked about each of the E-Learning Toolkits was the organization of the activities and what a joy they were to work through. I also liked the hands on approach they took. For example, with the Picasa toolkit, the instructions were precise and I enjoyed that I was instructed to edit and crop a photo. This hands-on approach was exactly what I needed to work on my skills. My only regret was that I wasn’t able to complete more of these activities as I would have liked the opportunity to work on the video creation toolkit. Hopefully I will be able to have the time in the near future.

Next steps for me, in terms of my practice in educational technology

I wasn’t quite sure what I expected to learn during my ETEC 565 experience other than a greater understanding of learning technologies. This course has exceeded all of my expectations. All of the great things I had heard about the course before we started ended up being true. When I started this course I was fairly proficient in many technologies, however, I feel that I have gained a greater competence in this field. In the future, I hope to explore more learning technologies specifically audio and music creating software and video editing software. In addition, I hope to stay on top of current learning technology trends. Since technology is constantly evolving, I feel that I too will need to evolve to keep up with the times.

I believe that ETEC 565 has significantly impacted my educational practice moving forward. This course has exposed me to a myriad of different technologies, educational theories and practices and issues surrounding the use of technology. I feel that I have gained a substantial amount of useful knowledge that will only enhance my instructional practice. I believe that I will put this newly acquired knowledge to work in my practice and look forward to the day when I have an opportunity to do so. I also would like to take a leadership role in implementing technologies in the future and would like to become involved in some capacity creating a digital audio recording/music composition program for students. I have learned a great deal this semester and I have already begun to share my knowledge with colleagues.

References

Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a Theory of Online Learning.  In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Accessed online 3 March 2009 http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008_Anderson-Online_Learning.pdf

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Chickering, A.W. and Gamson, Z.F. (1987).  Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.  American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), p. 3-7.

Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating Media Characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Elearnspace. Accessed online 11 October 2005, http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm

Spam prevention powered by Akismet