Bev's Blog

Bev’s Flightpath:

I have been teaching math and language arts in junior/senior high for the past 11 years. Prior to working in the public system I taught English in Nigeria, worked with ESL and adult up-grading students for a college, and developed and established both an adult literacy and family literacy program.

I try to incorporate as much technology into my classes as is appropriate. I am not exactly what one would call “tech savvy”, I have many skills I need to learn, but I am very willing to work at learning new skills. Graphing calculators, the SMART board, and Senteo clickers are used on a regular basis in my class. As a math teacher I am really interested in finding new ways for exploring real-world concepts and solving authentic problems. I find that through the use of digital camera I can get the students to see math in the world. We utilize computer programs such as Geometers Sketchpad and spreadsheets regularily.

So what are my goals–

My youngest child has just graduated from high school so my husband and I are officially empty nesters. I am at a stage in my where I really can start pursuing some life-long goals- and one of those is to return to Africa to work- perhaps in the capacity as a teacher trainer or helping to develop learning materials primarily for teacher training using a blended format that includes mobile learning which has tremendous potential in Africa (Ford, 2007).

One of my greatest priorities is to learn about the affordances and constraints of Moodle as well as how to exploit it. In researching teacher- training colleges in Africa, I have found that many are using Moodle as a learning management system (LMS). Through my limited experience with this LMS, I believe it can provide a suitable platform for the delivery of instructional opportunities using mobile technology.

My second priority is to learn everything I can about instructional design. I am currently taking ETEC 510, 533 and 565. 510 in particular focuses on design, as does 565 in a more practical way (I think). Instructional design for mobile technology will present its own challenges. I hope to combine what I learn along with information from resources such as Mohammed Ally’s “Mobile learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education” (2009), and apply this knowledge to help develop appropriate learning opportunities.

Thirdly I hope to explore a variety of social media tools than allow for collaboration. This exploration will include a survey of different tools, how to set them up, and finally their affordances.

Finally I hope to develop some multi-media skills. I am very weak in this area. This includes learning more about code, Flash, Photo-Shop, and web-site building. I developed a NING site for a course last term, and learned a few html codes along with this. I am often very confused when classmates talk about CSS code and so I will make it a priority to learn how about this type of coding and any other that comes along.

Ally, M. ED. 2009. Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training. AU Press, retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120155 Jan. 16, 2010.

Ford, M. & Botha, A. 2007. MobilED – An Accessible Mobile Learning Platform for Africa?.IST-Africa 2007 Conference Proceedings, retrieved from http://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/handle/10204/1777 on Jan. 16, 2010