E-portfolio Assignment 6: Portfolio Synthesis Reflection
ETEC 565A(2012) is an online seminar that provides several theoretical frameworks to assist educators in evaluating, selecting and using various learning technologies. Students will gain hands-on experience using a range of learning technologies and platforms, including:
- Web publication
- Moodle, a Learning Management System
- Online communication tools
- Community and collaboration tools
- Multimedia
- Social media
Précis of My Flight Path
As a synthesis of my Flight Path it is hard to point out how much I didn’t know when I came into this course. I’m embarrassed to say when I read the course outline I really had no idea what it meant and made a number of assumptions that were incorrect. The world of technology is a completely different culture than what I knew. Learning the language, the customs and the protocols has been at times overwhelming. I started with the basics in computer experience, but nothing more
In my practice as a classroom teacher I have seen my students using technology as naturally as if they were breathing. In my school I have been one of a handful of teachers who are interested and motivated to learn how to implement technology in the classroom beyond looking up a teaching lesson on the Internet. I could see the potential of the technology possibilities but did not have a grasp of the scope.
Overall ETEC565A Experience
I have been climbing the steep curved ladder of learning for a few months now and the feeling of being a person faking was never far from my mind. When I started here in September I wasn’t even sure what a browser was let alone a LMS. My problem was not lack of time it was my insecurity with how to use the technology. From the get go it felt like I encountered every single problem there was to encounter. Having said all that I have climbed that ladder, maybe not as high as I would like, but the view from here is quite expansive. I have learned some efficacy with the technical aspects of my computer and the Internet. It’s a start.
One of the biggest surprises in this course was the theory and the practice of collaborative learning. The value of social interactivity for learning is well documented. Wenger (2001) says interactivity is integral to online learning while Chickering and Gamson (nd) in Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education says:
Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one’s own ideas and responding to others’ reactions sharpens thinking and deepens understanding.”
The design of ETEC 565 included a huge dollop of interactivity between students. We had lively weekly discussions, designed a wiki and a participated in a group assignment. Having a cohort of students who I could ask for help shrank the feeling of isolation. The scope of knowledge and skills and willingness to share the knowledge was a humbling and rich experience. In 1994 I completed a course by distance education from SFU. As far as I understood it was my teacher and myself involved in the course. I didn’t even consider other students much less interact with them. I was expecting something somewhat similar and was quite pleasantly surprised with how different the class actually was from my previous journey into ‘distance education’. Sitting in front of a computer can be a lonely and insecure existence, so having the support of a kind and helpful community of learners changed the experience completely
My favorite part of the course was module 4 Social Media. It started with the video by Michael Wesch (2007) A Vision of Students Today. Which was a critical look at the teacher centered world of the university classroom and the consequent lack of relevance to students. The instructor, from the University of Kansas is compelling in his wish to engage his students. He acknowledges the pressures on them in their lives and in further investigation of his practice, gives a glimpse into how collaborative student work could transform the world of teaching and learning (Wesch 2008). I shared this video with family and friends and generated some interesting discussion in the wider world. It is clear we are in a digital revolution right now and the misconceptions between generations are a considerable hurdle we will have to climb.
The following part of the module was creating a wiki with the class. It was a perplexing experience, but also quite inspiring. Seeing as I was becoming familiar with the insecurity of ‘not knowing’ I was not too concerned with the confusion our class experienced for that activity Nevertheless, building on one another’s work as a collective is a fascinating endeavor and right on the upper end of Blooms Taxonomy; to actually create something in order to learn about it.
The module ended with students making their own digital story. It was exciting to see the diversity of tools the class used and the creative applications of these tools. Most of them are free or have a minimal charge, which will allow a lot of accessibility for the classroom. I think having skill three or four of these tools would be a great advantage as a teacher.
ELearning Kit Overall Experience
The elearning tool kit was actually quite a helpful tool, yet I didn’t trust is as such until it was too late. I wish I’d used it more. The toolkit is in the form of a wiki and has practice instructions and tutorials for all the web 2.0 tools we are required to use, and more. Navigation was problematic for me as I was never able to download the correct version of Javascript onto my computer so the video tutorials would not open. This was a small inconvenience compared to others inconveniences so I didn’t pursue the problem. I actually assumed that it was a glitch with the system, not with my system. This was an unfortunate assumption as I lost faith in the validity of the toolkit. Nevertheless, I did use the elearning toolkit to practice making a digital story. This was an excellent use of my time as was able to use the collected photos for my ‘real’ assignment. I also used the toolkit for learning about weblogs and wikis and about learning management systems.
Next Steps
Because I started with such a dearth of knowledge, I am interested in many aspects of technology to pursue as I move forward. My challenge will be to spend the time and learn a few tools well rather than learning many in a superficial way. I would like to explore many of the web 2.0 tools used to tell a digital story. In particular, I am interested in storybird, animoto and though I struggled with emprssr I think I could get a handle on it if I gave it some unpressured time to explore. As for using blogs I would like to become familiar with kidblog as a safe online blog to use in the classroom. I also am interested in having an arsenal of educational weblogs or twitter feeds that I can refer to and use as a source of reference for my teaching practice. I set up Google Reader to track class blogs but have not adequately used this resource, yet.
An interesting discussion thread took place in our class regarding the use of blogs in the classroom. The debated question was, were we contradicting the purpose of blogs by creating a private space within the school? In the blog thefischbowl, Fisch(2007) states:
As many writers have noted, writing a weblog appears in the first instance to be a form of publishing, but as time goes by, blogging resembles more and more a conversation. And for a conversation to be successful, it must be given a purpose and it must remain, for the most part, unconstrained.
In my mind collaborative tools to use in the classroom are all good. I’m interested in the ‘pure blog’ philosophy but in a school environment we are supposed to be scaffolding the learning for our students. As a result, a blog in the classroom seems like a very effective tool.
An alternative to using blogs as a classroom tool is the wiki. Wikis seem like they require a lot of time and expertise but could be the ultimate in collaborative tools. The wiki falls in line with what web 2.0 is touting: Learning through collaboration where students create, build and share (Alexander, 2008). A wiki could be used, for a novel study or communication tool for parents. I would like to use a wiki in my class math help. It could be a place, generated by students for teaching about traditionally troublesome math concepts like fractions or long division.
I have been interested in social bookmarking sites and have used Delicious and Pinterest as an adjunct to the course. Folksonomy, as explained by Brian Alexander in Web 2.0 A New Wave of Teaching and Innovation for Teaching and Learning?(2006), are words that are generated by users that are attached to content. Tagging, as it were. In the olden days, information used to be hard to come by. Now there is too much information so we need to have effective filters. Tagging on these sites by like-minded people filter the information to make it accessible. In my own teaching practice I have helped spearhead the use of a Delicious site at my last school and continue to encourage staff collaboration of its use.
There is a lot of hype right now in the school system about ipads, ipad applications, smart boards, apple tv etc. I think teachers can see the potential but there is a lot of spinning of wheels. I realize now the value integrating proper learning techniques with the capabilities of the new technologies. They have to go hand in hand.
In September, I had a tiny sense of a bigger ‘tech’ world out there. After taking ETEC 565 my sense of the world of technology is vastly broadened. My understanding however, of how much I don’t know has broadened even further. Though I have struggled in this course I am highly motivated to pursue this culture for my practice and my life
REFERENCES
Alexander, B. (2006) Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? EDUCAUSE Review, 41(2), 34-44. Accessed online 2 March 2009. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0621.pdf
Chickering, A.W. and Gamson Z.F. (nd). Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education” American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), p. 3-6. Retrieved December 1 2012 from http://www.uis.edu/liberalstudies/students/documents/sevenprinciples.pdf
Delicious (nd) retrieved December 2, 2012 from delicious.com
Fisch, K. (2007). “Blogging: In Their Own Words, ”The Fischbowl. Accessed online 26 March 2009. http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/blogging-in-their-own-words.html
Henrick G. 2012 Moodle 2 A Tool Guide for Teachers retrieved from http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2012/03/15/a-moodle-2-version-of-the-moodle-tool-guide/
UBC Master of Educational Technology: MET Courses – ETEC 565. (2010). UBC Master of Educational Technology: MET Home. Retrieved October 25, 2010, from http://met.ubc.ca/met_courses/descriptions
Wesch, M. (2007) A Vision of Students Today (& What Teachers Must Do). Accessed online 25 March 2009. http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/a-vision-of-students-today-what- teachers-must-do/
Michael Wesch (2008) Accessed online December 1st, 2012 from http://www.michaelwesch.com
Wenger, E. (2001). Supporting communities of practice: A survey of community-orientated technologies (1.3 ed.) (Shareware). Retrieved Dec 1 2012, from http://www.ewenger.com/tech