Reflection on Assignment 3
Every year, posters, poems, Star Wars figurines and mini robots are scattered around my classroom fostering wonder and creating a fun learning environment. Although I have acquired these gadgets/paraphernalia to create a presence in the “traditional” classroom, to recreate this environment virtually requires completely different tools and skillsets. As such, using the affordances of Moodle and html coding, I have tried to infuse my course with my own personality and passion for science.
Reflecting back on the Entire experience
Having previously estimated in an ETEC 565 activity that it would require 12-15 weeks to transfer a course into a digital environment, I expected this assignment to take a fair amount of time to complete. However, I had not accounted for the ease at which one can easily become side-tracked by the numerous features available on Moodle. Every few steps, I would discover a new feature and then find myself taking the time to conduct a small version of Bate’s SECTIONS (Bates & Poole, 2003). I became engulfed in the design process and often analysed everything; carefully considering how each piece of media, activity and feedback opportunity suited the needs of my students.
Throughout the design process, I reflected on the forms of interaction (Anderson, 2008a) that would be required and the manner in which these could be implemented. As a result discussion forums, online simulations, various media and assignments were added to the site. The interactions permitted by Moodle shadow the more traditional and static class websites.
Bippity Boppety Moodle
I hope to continue using Moodle and honing my design skills in the future, no matter where that will lead. Although originally terrified by the blank canvas, I now rejoice in the possibilities; I have gained confidence in the tools at my disposal. The following reflection focusses on one specific tool I have come to highly respect; the digital story. This tool is one of the magic wands that will help bring the human touch to a binary world; it will help bring the digital classroom to life.
Looking for Prince Charming: the ideal digital story
I found myself at a loss when trying to think of a digital story idea, having very little prior experience with this tool, and therefore promptly placed it in the corner of my mind. Yet, as I began filling in the content pages of the Moodle, the purpose and importance of the digital story began to materialize. Not only do digital stories connect the student with the content in a more personal manner, it also can convey the teacher’s presence and their enthusiasm that are often lost behind the computer interface. It can create a sense of trust, safety and community, all important features for e-learning (Anderson, 2008b).
With this purpose in mind, I drafted a list of criteria for my digital story to follow. First of all, it could not be forced or contrived, it needed to be genuine. Secondly, humour was a must as it helps brings a human side to the site. Finally, I wanted my digital story to help foster the wonder and fun learning environment I was used to in my “traditional” classroom setting. Yet in spite of all these criteria, the most important feature remained unaccounted for: the message.
I reflected on my past experiences. Usually to begin my courses I would present a brief lesson on the merits of science. Not the stuffy, overly-academic view of science, but the humorous, odd, amusing anecdotes that people remember. Every year, I showed students that science was not static or reserved for the genius, the elite, but that science is everywhere; it is exciting, it is happening now all around us. I had found my message.
Finding a shoe that fits: selecting tools
I had a list of criteria and a message; I now needed to consider the media. This decision is crucial, after all “the Medium is the message”(McLuhan & Fiore, 1967); a poor choice could send conflicting information. As such, one must consider the various affordances of each form of media (Siemens, 2003) to select the tool best suited for the task (Prensky, 2001).
I carefully considered the content and content structure, as defined by Bates (2014), of my desired digital story. The message I wished to convey is relatively abstract and, as such, the inclusion of pictures showing concrete examples could foster deeper learning (Bates, 2014). To add my own presence to the digital story I wanted to include pictures I had taken, animations of my creation and the poem that usually adorns the back wall of my classroom. Considering the variety of media that I was hoping to incorporate (image, text, animation), the creation of a video seemed like a highly logical choice.
I selected the tools based on the criteria established by Siemens (2003) and Bates (2014) as well as the ideas of Levine (2010). I considered the tools that were at my disposal, the time required by each to either learn or to use and my comfort level with the technology in question (Siemens, 2003)é I made a table comparing my options.
| Tool at my disposal | Time required | Comfort level |
| Blender (3D) | Great amount of time | Medium |
| Powtoon (2D) | Relatively quick | High |
| VideoScribe | Never used before | Low |
| PowerPoint | Relatively quick | High |
| Prezi | Used once before | Medium |
| Audacity (audio) | Relatively quick | High |
| Virtual DJ (audio) | Relatively quick | High |
| Movie Maker | Relatively quick | High |
I decided to combine the programs I was most familiar with to create my digital story. PowToon was selected for the beginning animations (recognizable by the yellow background) as the characters can move quickly without a large quantity of slides. PowerPoint was selected to record the voice over and to embed pictures, videos and other animations (black or white backgrounds). Movie Maker was used to combine audio, PowToon videos and PowerPoint videos together. Audacity and Virtual DJ were used to edit and remove background noise from the voice over. If I had not had previous experience with this extensive list of tools, the digital story would have looked very different.
A Happy Ending: How the digital story fits in
An important characteristic of a good story is a promise that it will be worth our time (Stanton, 2012). Every year, I greeted dulled eyed students already dreading the memorization and work to be completed in the grade 10 science class. While other teachers start the year running with the periodic table, I preferred to introduce the true nature of science to my students through, as mentioned earlier, a short mini lesson on anecdotes about science. This acted as a promise that this course will be interesting and would challenge the students’ preconceived notions of science. Although I cannot convey my passion for science directly through the interface of the computer, I have chosen to do so through the creation of a digital story. I hope that through humour and multimedia I have created a message that will endure; the idea that science is part of everyone’s knowledge construct, within everybody’s reach in one way or another.
I hope that this story acts as a promise, as hope that they can achieve greatness in science and that there is no shame in failing as long as you learn from your mistakes. Thus, I have placed my digital story in the introductory module of my course to act as a promise that studying science is worth their time and effort. I cannot promise a happy ending for their course (high grade), but I can guarantee a learning experience, an adventure.
References:
Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. Theory and practice of online learning, 2, 15-44.
Anderson, T. (2008b). Teaching in an online learning context. Theory and practice of online learning, 273-294.
Bates, A. W. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Open Textbook.
Bates, A. W., & Poole, G. (2003). Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success: ERIC.
Levine, A. (2010). 50+ Web Ways to Tell a Story. Retrieved from http://50ways.wikispaces.com/
McLuhan, M., & Fiore, Q. (1967). The medium is the message. New York, 123, 126-128.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the horizon, 9(5), 1-6.
Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating Media Characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes: Elearnspace.
Stanton, A. (Producer). (2012). The clues to a great story. TED Talks. [Video]