My goal for this course will be to discern the appropriate scenario for this type of application. Not every learning scenario will be suitable for an LMS (and yet every learning forum has some such system for the management of the learning to take place). Knowing the type of learner that I am, my goals will be to know the breadth of elements that need to be considered for an LMS, to ascertain the types of assessment effective in given situations, to determine if/when the use of (which) social interfaces will be optimal, and how the many and diverse forms of media will be educationally sound.
I recognized from the conversion from one format to another during this course, how important concrete examples are to me. Therefore, I think I will be choosing Moodle as a platform because of the structured supports available online.
Many of the elements of Bates’ acronym will parallel differently in an elementary school setting, than in an adult learner construct. Privacy issues with “children in schools” are stricter than adults who have opted to divulge personal information. Internal email accounts that are available to students inside of our District require a school-based moderator. Gmail accounts require parent consent. Some children cannot have their image posted for various reasons which gives another glitch to natural, spontaneous sharing. Is there an educational pay-off that is worth the paper trail of forms?
Networking with team members works with adults, but I am wondering about the best way to set that up for children. Is there a way to virtually scaffold/dovetail the ways I am encouraging cooperation in the classroom?
Educators feel dialogue is the centerpiece of teaching/learning (Nel, Carstens, Dreyer, 2010)[1]. One of my schools has 4 different children who are select mutes, who would rather not be at school than risk speaking with anyone. Learning still needs to be meaningful for them even though the conversation is one-sided.
With that in mind, I am planning to construct an LMS that perhaps encapsulates some of the pre-packageable content that I teach in the library. It may not be a glove-fit for the way I teach, I do want to figure out what would make an LMS a good thing for a specific situation. “Check boxes” and “badges” are not facets of my current teaching practice, so I am not sure what that part will look like. (It may be an issue of terminology. Perhaps I will use ‘levels’, going the gaming route). The complexities of taxonomy for Kindergarteners is different than for say, grade 7s (even though both groups are quite myopic). I think what will be the most challenging for me is trying to make the learning appear/seem authentic for elementary learners.
I will first need to go through the pages available on Moodle’s webpage in order to understand its purpose of design. I will need to take stock of the things I teach in library, and see what can be restructured to fit into the Moodle configuration. I will take what I know of formative/summative assessment along with what we cover in the class and strategically build those pieces in where appropriate.
I will need to figure out (or at least simulate) a social media element. There are many ways student voice is fostered in the library now, but I could set out to forge new ways of doing this. Maybe through each of my Fresh Grade permissions, or more actively through my libraries Twitter feeds. That piece will need some more thought.
Bates, T. Teaching in a digital age: models for media selection. (2015). Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/ January, 2016.
Nel, C., Carstens, WAM. & Dreyer, C. (2010). Educational technologies: a classification and evaluation. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 35(4), 238-258. Doi:10.4314/tvl.v35i4.53794
[1] Authors are citing the research of Laurillard, 1993, p. 245.