Synthesis Reflection
Flight Path Precis
My flight path was a journey with numerous stops, where I would learn about various technologies. As goals in my flight path, I sought to act on the opportunity to expand my understanding of educational technologies and to use a variety of these tools and media, with the final goal of implementing relevant educational technologies within the workplace training programs I deliver. With regards to synchronous communication, my goals in this area focused on incorporating technologies such as audio-conferencing, video-conferencing, interactive whiteboards and text chat. In learning about social software, I aimed to focus on how to implement blogs and wikis into workplace training, with an emphasis on reflection on learning and creating a repository of knowledge. In terms of multimedia, I wanted to learn to incorporate text, audio, still images, animation and video into workplace training. The incorporation of interactive games would also be area I’d like to explore.
For my flight path, I classified myself as a technological newbie. Although I had used some tools such as cmaps, wikis and blogs in prior MET courses, I knew I had just scratched the surface of these tools and had yet to discover various other technologies that exist. Through the course readings, assignments and toolkits I envisioned myself gaining the hands-on exposure to such tools and increasing my knowledge and confidence level. However, I realized that upon reviewing the NETS categories that I had a long road ahead of me in order to become a digital-age teaching professional. I concluded my flight path by wishing and hoping for a smooth ride, but realizing that turbulence was likely…as I was a tech newbie. In the end, my flight path has been quite smooth, with a few bumps and turbulence along the way as I learned to use various tools within the toolkit and complete the assignments.
Reflection on e-learning toolkit experience
In reflecting upon the e-learning toolkit activities, I was quite apprehensive about the exercises as I didn’t quite know what to expect. However, after completing the first toolkit my anxiety level went down a bit. The instructions for the Moodle toolkit were so easy to follow, it made me instantly feel more comfortable with the process and gave me confidence going forward. Of the toolkits I tried, the one I enjoyed the most was the Multimedia and Authoring Tools Toolkit. I really enjoyed my experience with Audacity. It was so easy to use, that I no longer felt like a tech newbie and questioned myself as to why I had never tried this previously. It was satisfying to record my own voice and to hear it played back in mp3 format. In terms of why I found this toolkit to be the most enjoyable and rewarding has to do with my past experiences with online courses. These courses were all text based with no audio whatsoever. I found that incorporation of some audio would have really enhanced the experience and engagement of the learner. Thus, when creating my online course in Moodle, I knew I wanted to add audio. I managed to complete a short welcome message for my course and if time had permitted, I would have liked to include a short audio piece in each module in order to add variety and to gain the attention of those learners who thrive on audio.
I would have liked to have completed more of the toolkit activities as I found them to be a very valuable experience, however time-consuming. I hope that once this course is complete and prior to the September term beginning that I will be able to explore a few more of these toolkits in order to further expand my experience and knowledge. One toolkit that I did not get time to complete, but which is of interest to me is the Accessibility toolkit; I feel that this would be extremely relevant to me in terms of developing workplace training that is useable by people of all abilities and disabilities.
Overall, I think the toolkit activities were well designed and helped to push us outside our comfort zone in terms of what we were used to and in the end has helped move us one step closer to becoming a digital age teaching professional.
Applying SECTIONS to my e-portfolio
In assessing my e-portfolio, I will apply the Bates and Toole (2003) SECTIONS framework where applicable.
Students: While I did not develop my e-portfolio with students in mind. The content is more appropriate for my fellow colleages at work in the Training and Development Department. They would be able to see how my work in this course and my content within the e-portfolio supports my objectives and relates back to workplace training.
Ease of Use: My e-portfolio is easy to use. Navigation is simple and the layout is clear. The individual pages allow for pointed access to specific content. My posts are categorized based on modules and the e-learning toolkit activities. As well, I utilized tags which a user can click on and bring up relevant posts on the tagged topic. Furthermore, the links within my e-portfolio are active, as is the link to my digital story on OneTrueMedia.
Cost: There was no financial cost in terms of the e-portfolio. However, the cost in terms of time is relevant, but hard to quantify as I did not log my development hours for the content nor my time uploading and populating the e-portfolio.
Teaching and Learning: My e-portfolio demonstrates learning through review of my posted assignments, which became more complex throughout the course. In addition, my reflection posts also attest to my personal learning and may also resonate with those who read my posts.
Interactivity: Interactivity within my e-portfolio can be found within the ability for comments to be posted. Those viewing my blog can comment and I subsequently I can reply.
Organizational Issues: As WordPress was being used as part of the UBC MET Program there were no organizational issues, as this was an approved tool. However, if I were to incorporate this within my workplace training, it would require a business case to be presented, which would need to be approved by a member of senior management as well as the IT department within my organization.
Novelty: This has been the second time I have used WordPress, the first time was in ETEC 511. In terms of novelty it is still fairly new to me, although I did gain more exposure to the features this term, such as tags and categories, pingback and widgets.
Speed: While creating the content was time consuming, the process of uploading it to WordPress was quite simple. I did however experience some trouble with my Multimedia Inventory and my link to my digital story. However, both issues were resolved and the content is housed in my e-portfolio. Updating content was also very easy; it involved clicking on the edit button, editing the content and posting/submitting the changes.
Next Steps in Terms of my Practice in Educational Technology
My next steps are to present my online Moodle course to my Director and Vice President to show them the possibilities of what we can do within our own workplace training with an LMS. I have already shared with them my digital story and have discussed other topics where videos may be an appropriate tool for our learning material. With regards to this, my next steps are to share with my direct reports my digital story and to have them create a short piece which can be used in our training programs. In essence, I hope to be able to share my experiences and knowledge with my team and what I’ve learned regarding digital story creation and creating an online course.
ETEC 565 is my fifth course in the MET Program, which means I am half way there! My goal is to continue to taking one course per semester and to complete this program by Spring 2011. In terms of what I hope my MET degree will do for me is to elevate my theoretical and practical understanding of educational technologies, whereby it will allow me to impact workplace training for employees in a positive manner. My hope is to remove the negative stigma attached to attending mandatory workplace training and to make the experience more enjoyable, engaging and rewarding.
References:
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.
ISTE. (2008). National educational technology standards for teachers. Retrieved on May 6, 2009 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm