1. Looking back, how does what you expected to learn during ETEC 565 compare to what you actually have learned, in terms of technical competencies?
I didn’t think that I would be exposed, as a graduate student to the volume of applications that I witnessed within this course. I understood that there would be a lot of applications that I would be evaluating in terms of the benefits to support student learning. I just was amazed at how many applications I discovered as being very useful towards motivating students to learn. I have always been successful in being able to grasp the technical aspects of any digital solution that I deemed necessary for my professional growth as an educator. I rather enjoyed learning about how the various digital tools could be infused within an education program. However, I was very happy to finally have a matrix that I could apply to the evaluation of a tool. The SECTIONS model was very instrumental in having me begin to critically analyze whether a digital tool would be useful to implement within a learning environment. This model has given me additional insights to decide the effectiveness of digital media. As well, I typically would evaluate the functionality of various media tools using a Windows and Mac based computer. I found that some of my implementation decisions were based on whether a specific tool would work on a specific platform.
2. Moving forward, how do you think what you learned in ETEC 565 will impact your educational practice, be it as an instructional designer, instructor, or administrator?
I really enjoyed investigating the functionality of the Moodle platform, and found that creating my LMS became an exercise in how to pedagogically develop a course that would stimulate, motivate and enlighten learner minds. I found that I was mentally filtering my media tools using the SECTIONS model when crafting the LMS course. As an educator, I plan to develop additional courses using Moodle that span several subject areas. Eventually, I would love to see students assist me in developing a Moodle course. This platform is extremely adaptable, benefiting the many learning styles that students bring to the learning environment.