Flight Plan Précis
With teaching both students and faculty about technology, I find that I am a very digital literate person. I twitter, blog, belong to few social networking sites and remix images, video, screen captures, and audio. I can create a website from scratch using html and css and can create a database from scratch and refine it to meet the needs of the user. I have built courses on WebCT and Desire2Learn but not Moodle until now. In this ETEC 565, I learned the mechanics of Moodle and explored it’s capabilities. Although I wasn’t able to get into the backend of Moodle and play with the php and sql, I did discover how to use iframes to get my GUI to work.
I found myself teaching my peers as well as learning from them. I often forget what is it like to be at the start of the learning curve. Interacting with my classmates who were just beginning to learn about digital tools, has taught me how differently people approach things. It was a great experience which I can bring into my professional environment.
E-learning ToolKit Reflections
I am not, by nature, a reflector. I am a ‘doer’ who builds and then moves onto the next thing. I understand the value of reflecting in learning so I thought I ought to give it a try not only for marks in this course but for the experience of it. Here is a list of my reflections from the e-learning toolkit.
- Synchronous Communication Tools Reflection
- Multimedia Reflection
- Digital Storytelling Reflection – the failure
- Still Image Reflection
- Wiki Reflection
- Web design and HTML Authoring Reflection
- Weblogs Reflection
- Moodle – 1st Reflection
- Addicted to Moodle – 2nd Moodle Reflection
My experience with the e-learning toolkit was more like a review for me. I have professional experience with almost of all of the activities of the e-learning toolkit. It did introduce me to a few new tools but generally I have already worked with similar tools making it easy for me to adapt to the new tools.
Overall my experience with ETEC565 was a pleasant one. It acted as a review and a reinforcement that I am on the right track with the tools I use and how I use them. I already teach a couple of college level courses that include, delicious, wiki, web pages, images, audio, videos and blogs.
Next steps
My next steps is to keep informed and on top of the new web2.0 technologies. New ones seem to pop up everyday. Hopefully my twitter and RSS feeds will keep me informed. I need to continue to explore how to educate educators in educational technology. I have recently been invited to a Rec.&Leisure Seminar to lead a a group of college professors in a workshop on educational technology. My plan is to spread the news about e-learning and help my fellow educators to learn how to bring technology into the classroom effectively.
The moodle site I created for this course really didn’t touch the digital literacy components I was looking to create. I need to rethink and rework the site to make it more effective.
OK, I lied. I do reflect all the time on things I build… when I am walking the dog. I don’t write it down or track it formally. I really should so I can go back and review the thought processes when building similar things. I will continue to update my personal blog, edutechfan.com. I have really fallen behind there.