Synthesis

I am heavily influenced by technology and there place/potential in educational spaces and so I started the ETEC 565 very ‘gunho’ and excited to learn and leave with practical tools and skills to enhance my ability to create, manage and deliver online courses. See my Flight Plan . My use of technology in class prior to ETEC 565 was the use of class websites (free templates) from which my class and I worked in both face to face settings and communicating, primarily, through website access and links to online resources, online discussions and email. However, my work has been primarily ‘lone ranger’ (Bates and Poole, 2003) activities outside of a structured LMS and as such the benefits have not been as far reaching. For example, students cannot track their progress. Also, I believe that there could be more opportunities for and more effectively managed discussions in this system.

The following were my desires and expectations when I created my flight plan: proficiency in selecting, creating and managing technologies that increase personal interaction and engagement with content through increasing authorship, critical thinking and more opportunities for students to direct their own learning; the creation and management of Online Learning Management Systems, while increasing diversity and choice in course content delivery, communication and interaction methods, which students can access anywhere, anytime. I intended therefore to: Learn html coding; Develop course management systems using Moodle and WebCT, (Moodle and E-portfolios); Learn how to create and manage social media tools such as: Wikis, Weblogs, and Social Bookmarking; Master use of Wimba and video creation and editing in order to create multimedia content and interaction.

Deliverables and the E-Learning Tool Kit – Fuelling the flight

The E-Learning toolkit was a valuable experience in assisting me in achieving my deliverables from my goals in my flight plan. The exploration also introduced me to not only a number of tools I had not encountered before but also experiences such as actively blogging rather than just reading blogs.

Another great experience within the Toolkit was that along with the tools we were presented with examples of the tools and their uses, actual opportunities to access and work with the tools (sandbox), links to other resources, as well as pedagogical discourse and analysis, which further considerations of relevance, affordances and use. Siemens (2002) shows that such considerations, in relations to media but the same applies for learning tools in understanding, are essential in determining what ‘most effectively presents the learning material in order to achieve intended learning outcomes’.

The activities were practical and enabled self-directed and active learning thereby creating a more meaningful experience for me (Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory, Constructivism and Discovery Learning).
There were so many tools that I will comment on the experience of the ones that stood out the most, were very new or that were significant in achieving my Flight Plan .

Learning Management System and Web design and HTML authoring
I will group my LMS experience with Web Design and Html authoring as they were very integrated. I was able to work with both WebCT Vista and Moodle having had a sandbox for both. I left with skills that enabled me to truly say that I achieved my goal of creating and managing complete a complete LMS with added skills and knowledge of HTML language. In working with the Web Design toolkit I not only learnt style effects (CSS) but also some very good tips in creating effective storyboarding for Websites https://www.vista.ubc.ca/webct/urw/lc5116011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct, which really influenced my LMS and course design. For further discussion on my experience view my blog post WebCT vs Moodle.

All in the all the experiences were a full manifestation of Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory in experiencing and participating in authentic and relevant learning structures and activities. The Moodle experience was meaningful as I used a real course and had the desire to create a full LMS. From my Moodle experience I was also able to have a more meaningful experience with WebCT Vista. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of Moodle, particularly for having left the experience with new skills, particularly html coding, which I did not utilise as much in my WebCT Vista experience.

Synchronous Communication Tools
The synchronous tools I experienced the most were Wimba and Skype. I also came across the Chat tool in my Moodle experience and actually used it as an activity in building my Moodle site. I can definitely say that I have access to and knowledge of tools that can help me to achieve the increased interactivity that supplement asynchronous means, increase teacher-student contact (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996; Chickering, & Gamson, 1987) and supplement lack of face to face interaction (Anderson, 2008); all goals in my Flight Plan .

Social Software
Having already been exposed to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa and Delicious it was refreshing to read and explore the use of them in an educational context. The one that interested me that I did not get a chance to fully explore was Second Life. On surface explorations it looks more applicable to a more mature audience as questions of exposure and potential predators arise.

Weblogs
Wordpress was a joy to work with. One very important attribute is that it is free. The affordances offered also make WordPress one of my favourite experiences in the toolkit; it allows not only blogging but also discussions and creating personal pages that can be used as an e-portfolio. I enjoyed the blogging experience thoroughly and appreciated the alternative space to further express and/or critically comment on ideas and experiences on not only my own work but that of my colleagues and to get regular RSS feeds. For further expansion view my blog post on my WordPress experience see Weblogs and WordPress

Wikis
I had to author wikis in another of my MET courses so that experience was not new. However, having a discussion on wiki was new and I can see the benefit of it in students being able to comment on and or question wiki edits/
and also tracking who edits what and checking credentials of the author. I can say this added a new dimension to the educational uses of wiki from a social perspective. For more discussion on my wiki experience see my blog post My Wiki Experience

Multimedia and Authoring Tools
Prior to this course and the tool kit I worked with editing of images and actually taught this to some of my students. The editing of videos and creating DVDs were a real plus to creating multimedia content to supplement my lessons. I really was keen on this particularly my Math course as I saw it as a solution to providing additional support and resources that were visual. I did not get to work lot with audacity. I downloaded it but just did not have the time to delve deeper but I am excited at the possibility of recording and uploading audio resources.

Accessibility
Now this is not something I would have thought of were it not for the E-Learning kit. I believe if one were applying a framework such as SECTIONS (Bates & Poole, 2003) in assessing content and media (Boyes, Dowie, Rumzan, 2005) then one would indeed have considered accessibility for Students and for Ease of Use. This is something I intend to follow up on.

mLearning
I have actually attempted to access courses and upload content via my mobile device. It is not always consistent in results (i.e. that of success) and many times the process is slow and frustrating. I even had to download a different browser, still with inconsistencies but better. I think the power and potential of mobile learning is great but there needs to be more effort on creating supporting software and devices to improve Speed and Ease of Use.

The ETEC 565 Experience – Jetting down the runway

The course was very practical, well designed in terms of activities feeding into assignments and constructing knowledge used for completing course and work components. For example Benoit and the time to create an online course, and the use of case studies that introduced us to the different tools we would be working with, educational and social contexts of applications and potential constraints and limitations, such as dial up networks, limited resources and non-traditional learners. An essential aspect for me was that all assignments fed into each other and built your skills, knowledge and critical analysis in a comprehensive way.

The course site was easy to manoeuvre. Use of announcements kept us aware and engaged. The facilitators, John P. Egan and Robert Marthaller, were also instrumental in fostering that engagement and keeping persons on track for tasks and so facilitated in ensuring success. This is in keeping with the seven principles of good education (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). Responses to questions and assessments were timely with high quality feedback. I really learnt and saw a model of effective ‘teaching’.

Interactivity was high. I enjoyed the emphasis on practical exercises and discovery learning, which really influenced my approach to designing my course, content used and hyperlinks provided, making it more experiential rather than just information giving. The highly practical nature equipped me with skills beyond which I could ever imagine.

The discussions and groupings were interesting, engaging and I felt as if I had really developed a meaningful relationship with many colleagues despite not knowing what they look or sound like, even though the introduction at the beginning of the course with voices was really good for this. This is the first course I type ‘lol’ so freely and so often :-). It really was a positive and fun learning community.

I have left with so much that to fully qualify it in this form and space would be difficult. A great and valuable course and I am ready to fly!!!

Moving Forward – The Flight has taken off

To be able to say that I achieved all the goals I set out with in my flight plan is truly amazing. I think that the structure of the course and activities really were practical and well organized. Also, there are many opportunities for self-paced, self-directed and discovery learning. This experience really has influenced me in terms of lifelong learning as I will continue to research and test new media and technology for use in the educational context. I will definitely follow up on Wimba, Second life, and working with students to create e-portfolios. I think Second Life would be particularly interesting as I work with mainly arts students’ and the software features support arts oriented environments.

Increasing learner interactivity, ownership and self-direction will be at the forefront of my future endeavours and I have the skills and tools to do it. I will also investigate including more visual and audio content such as: use of audio and video conferencing as social engagement. I really intend to work with audacity and put some of my lectures on audio. This will also satisfy learners of different learning styles and intelligences.

I will continue my research and analyses using SECTIONS (Bates & Poole, 2003) to evaluate LMS and media. I plan to continue developing, managing and delivering online courses. My next course will be a Mathematics course, which I intend to develop in Moodle starting in September. This was/is a really important goal for me. I will continue to update my skills, knowledge and awareness of media and strategies and immerse myself in professional communities of practice in order to continuosly grow and keep soaring as I have been opened up to limitless and ever growing possibilities. I hope to really touch many lives and change the face of education in my country. Listen and look out for me 🙂

References

Anderson, T. (2008). “Teaching in an Online Learning Context.” In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University.

Bates and Poole. (2003) “A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology.” In Effective Teaching with Technology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pages 75-105.

Boyes, J., Dowie, S. and Rumzan, I. (2005). Using the SECTIONS Framework to Evaluate Flash Media. Innovate 2(1). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=55. Accessed Oct 5, 2005.

Chickering, A.W. and Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever,” American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), p. 3-6.
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples.htm

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.
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm

Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating Media Characteristics: Using Multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Elearnspace. http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics