Where I’ve come from
When this course began I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. I had heard that this was a great course to take for an overview education technology and working with an LMS. When the course began I established some learning goals for myself that included:
- Learning Management Systems — I wanted to have a chance to explore how LMS systems are evolving and changing to become leaner. I also wanted a chance to expand my knowledge of Moodle.
- Assessment of Technology — This course presented an opportunity to explore a less complex way to assess and present education technology decisions.
- Social Software — I wanted to expand my view on using social media in a learning context. Specifically, I identified expanding my own use of Twitter.
- Multimedia — I wanted to take the opportunity during this course to explore different ways of presenting information and the extent that hardware choices affect multimedia presentations.
I’ll be the first admit that my flight path deviated from some of the core experiences in the course, but even looking back at the course there were definite opportunities to explore all of these areas.
The Journey
The Aha Moments
I think with every course there is a minimal expectation of both the students and the instructor that the learning outcomes will be realized, but, if you’re lucky, you can run across an idea that can influence a fundamental shift in your thinking or your practice. I’ve found that most of time when this has happened within the MET program it has happened when I wasn’t really expecting it and in this course I was fortunate enough for it to happen twice for me.
Frameworks — The irony here is that this is not the first time that I have been introduced to Bates. I’ve run across this work in a couple of previous courses, and also in a post graduate certificate program form another University, so I’m not quite sure why it took my so long to appreciate the SECTIONS model (Bates 2014). I think that it was probably a reflection of where I am in my professional life. I’m currently in an organization where I am the education department so I need to clarify and present clear decisions to senior staff and volunteer decision makers. The SECTIONS model provides a valuable framework that I have been able to incorporate into my own professional practice. Although the model, as it was presented by Bates, does not quite my workplace I have been able to adapt it to help evaluate and communicate decisions.
Case Studies — There is something about getting outside of your own head and your own world view that really helps a person to appreciate the different realities that exist within the education field. For some reason in this course I found the group work case studies particularly enlightening. I think that it is common knowledge that sometimes you need to approach problems from a different angle in order to arrive at the solution, a think outside the box approach. Again, I’ve seen and experienced case studies before and I’ve always just considered them an exercise to work through. In this course however, something clicked. There have been a couple of projects at work where I’ve been so involved in that I found myself with a telescopic view of what the end product should look like and how we are going to get there. During the case studies in this course I realized that by approaching the problems from a different point of view the circumstances may in fact change and the entire approach may change. I stepped back from the project and using the same thought process I applied to the case studies I was able to appreciate the project through the view of other departments in my organization. As a result, a project that I was working on could expand across several departments of the organization.
My Learning Goals
Over the duration of this course I have had a chance to review my learning goals a few different times, and although I think they changed from what I had originally envisioned there were still valuable learning experiences in every area that helped me build toward the larger goals I set out at the beginning of this course.
- Learning Management Systems — To be honest, this is the learning goal that I feel I made the least progress on. I did get a chance to explore Moodle with a little more focus on course development with out being distracted by other administrative areas. This could have been a very deep hole of infinite time. I still feel like I was only to scratch the surface of Moodle course development and this is mostly due to the amount to time that I could develop for this course. I did have an appreciation of how long course development can take, but now I have an even great appreciation. The amount of choices is almost overwhelming and without understanding how each option functions it was difficult to explore and expand without worrying about time to develop. As for being able to examine how Learning Management Systems are changing that is also still a work in progress. When I started into the NMC Horizon 2015 Report I had hoped that there would be some information on Lite LMS systems, or even the migration to WordPress that seems to be happening in many places, even this course. I would not say that I’m disappointed in my progress on this goal, but rather I’ve refocused on the concept of using the right tool for the right purpose. I think that if I apply a SECTIONS approach to the various LMS options it could help to create a greater understanding of the right fit for each option (Bates. 2014).
- Assessment of Technology — This goal was a home run for me. As I mentioned above this was one of my eye opening moments of the course. Being able to once again run across Bates’ SECTIONS model was case of perfect timing for me (2014). I know that with the rate of technology development I will need to continue to explore new ways of assessing different instructional options, but now I have a better base to work from.
- Social Software — During this course every time that I ran across a new type of social media I made a more conscious effort to examine it through an educational lens rather than just through the eyes of a typical social media user. Through this different perspective I found a new appreciation for twitter as a source of knowledge. Particularly when using the lists and saved search feature. I was never a big user of the platform, but over this semester I found myself gravitating toward it for news and industry events. I’ve also realized that Twitter, and LinkedIn for that matter, are great ways to connect with almost anyone. If I’m looking for an industry expert to contribute to course development, or participate as a guest speaker these platforms would now probably be one of the first places I would turn to. This different perspective also provided me with the opportunity to examine new networks from an education first perspective. I’m particularly excited to see what happens with Anchor.FM. I think the platform provides an amazing opportunity to create audio conversations that could be added into class material. I only wish the conversation could be made private as that could also be an extremely beneficial addition to course material.
- Multimedia — This goal was interesting as I did have a chance to explore new multimedia choices, but for the most part I don’t consider them positive experiences. They were learning experiences from the point of view that I now appreciate the tools and I currently use more. Particularly, I just wasn’t satisfied with Videoscribe from a user experience or end product level. However, through the projects of my classmates I was exposed to some great tools that I can’t wait to try out. Adobe Slate is a perfect example of something that I don’t think I could have found on my own, but I can’t wait to incorporate into my own practice.
The Experience
I think that overall the experience of taking this course was a good one. I was able to grow my skills and expand my perspective which in my mind is really the ultimate goal of taking any learning program. I think that we would all admit that there was some confusion in going back and forth between platforms, and I’m still not sure that the badges are working properly. I’m fairly certain I didn’t get some of the badges that I should have. That being said, I very much appreciated the efforts that were made throughout the course to keep the class on track. I found the most instructors were not this involved, but without this involvement it would have been a lot more difficult to keep things together. Probably the most difficult part of this entire course was contributing meaningful discussion posts. Many course it’s pretty easy to rhyme off posts, but the posts in this course were at a much higher level than any of the courses that I have taken so far with MET. Most of the time I delayed posting mine to review and improve it. I actually found these discussions pretty intimidating a times.
Where I’m Going
Throughout this reflection I’ve outlined how my practice has changed and will continue to be influenced by this course. Now more than ever I appreciate the idea that technology is a tool that needs to be examined and selected carefully. I agree that “technology is not a panacea that suddenly transforms all learning” (Nel, Dreyer, and Carsten, 2010, p. 253).” That’s part of the problem though many time we look to technology for the quick fix to present the material and move on. That’s how we end up with “death by PowerPoint.,” the right technology in the right place, and online courses that over-promise and under-deliver. I know that I’ll be making better education technology choices from here on out.
References
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)
Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010). Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation. Journal for Language Teaching 35(4), 238-258. Retrieved from http://www.ajol.info/index.php/tvl/article/download/53794/42346
New Media Consortium. (2015). NMC Horizon Report 2015: Higher ed edition. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf