Flight Path
The transition from the classroom to the gym has been a rewarding experience for me, and I have continued to explore the ways in which technology can be leveraged to support and enhance student learning, whether that be in the classroom setting or within the context of physical education. I have maintained my connection to student learning in the classroom setting by working with students during extracurricular activities, and this helped to form the basis for my LMS modules on Scratch 2.0. As I’m potentially moving into a classroom based teaching assignment for the next school year, I envision the LMS modules that I created in ETEC 565A as a potential component of my teaching in Grade 5 and Grade 6. I feel that this connects with one of the focus areas that I had initially identified in my Flight Path, and this aligns with the first ISTE standard (2008), as I continue to aim my teaching practice to be centered around facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity.
Prior to my enrollment in this course, my experience with LMS had been limited to D2L/Brightspace, with a very brief foray into Moodle, and the opportunity to experiment with different LMS was an aspect of ETEC 565A that I was very much looking forward to. After having had the opportunity to review and assess different LMS styles and strategies for supporting and enhancing student learning, I feel that I have developed a deeper understanding of how LMS may be utilized to address diverse student learning styles, as well as ways to customize and personalize learning activities, as stated in the ISTE standards.
In my Flight Path, I had expressed my interest in exploring ways that technology integration could be utilized to apply neurological understandings in order to promote physical activity and engagement. In particular, I continue explore this as a means of helping students to support their ability to learn while managing concerns such as depression, anxiety and ADHD through exercise and healthy lifestyle choices, and this is an area of interest that I will further expand upon in the Next Steps section of this Final Synthesis.
ETEC 565A Experience
My experience in ETEC 565A has been both challenging and rewarding, and the design component of the course was perhaps the most practical experience of any of the courses that I have completed thus far in working towards my MET degree. The opportunity to learn and experiment with different learning technologies, in particular Moodle and WordPress, have helped me to develop a deeper understanding of the importance of design considerations when planning for diverse student needs, both academic and social. My own understanding of Design-based learning has been expanded as a result of my experiences in ETEC 565A, and I would define this as an educational approach that emphasizes designing (creating things, not just using or interacting with things), personalizing (creating things that are personally meaningful and relevant), collaborating (working with others on creations), and reflecting (reviewing and rethinking one’s creative practices). Throughout ETEC 565A, we were provided with opportunities to engage with all four of these important considerations, and I feel that the practical application of Moodle and WordPress were perhaps two of the more significant learnings that I will take away from this course and utilize in my teaching practice immediately.
The diversity of the assignments, and thus the assessment methods, that were incorporated into ETEC 565A allowed us to work with both structured and experimental tasks, and this challenged us to plan, design, collaborate, write and reflect as part of our experiences in the course. Spiro (2014) speaks to the fundamental importance of the course layout and design in creating adaptive content to meet changing needs and learning objectives, and these diverse and changing needs must be mirrored in the creation of adaptive student assessment opportunities. The challenge of working within both Blackboard and WordPress throughout the course forced us to evaluate and assess the strengths and limitations of both platforms, as we viewed both from the student point of view. When planning and designing our modules in Moodle, we were working from the perspective of the teacher or educator, and I found this change in perspective to be both challenging and illuminating. While simultaneously learning and designing with Moodle, I sometimes felt limited by my practical skills in that the ideas that I had for the course modules seemed to be beyond the scope of my abilities to translate appropriately into the context of an LMS. Nonetheless, throughout the course assignments and discussions, one aspect that I seemed to continually return to was the importance of supporting students in working within their creative and personalized means to demonstrate their learning. Much like our own experiences as graduate students in ETEC 565A, the experiences for our students should be based around providing varied assessment opportunities to demonstrate learning in personalized and creative ways while supporting the development of essential skills. Throughout the discussions in ETEC 565A, and through working collaboratively in creating the LMS evaluation rubric, I felt that we engaged in learning situations where the input and experiences of our peers represented a positive and meaningful impact on supporting the knowledge and skill development of others.
The opportunity to learn from our peers was an essential aspect to successfully working through the weekly expectations of ETEC 565A. With the use of both Blackboard and WordPress, I felt challenged in keeping up with the weekly readings, discussions and assignments through the first month or so of the course as I had to quickly adjust my expectations and learn how to best utilize two learning spaces for one course. The questions, ideas and contributions of the students and instructor in the course were instrumental for me in helping to navigate this steep learning curve, and without this peer support having been built into the course, I likely would have struggled immensely to complete the requirements of the course. This was an important point of reflection for me, as I feel that I have a deeper understanding of the potential struggles that our students might have in learning to work within a given LMS, and as a designer, these are considerations and supports that must be incorporated into any successful LMS design. According to Ciampa (2013), students enjoy having their efforts and achievements recognized by others, and in order to make this learning visible, an environment must be created that allows for the engagement of motivation through recognition. The structure of ETEC 565A provided these supports and recognition through opportunities to view and reflect on the work of our peers during the course, and I found that the postings around the digital stories and the Moodle course examples were two of the most valuable supports and recognition available to us within the course. Essentially, the importance of being able to learn from the ideas and the work of others is an essential component of student success, and this was evident throughout our shared experiences in ETEC 565A.
In terms of our course readings, the literature that represented the most significant and important ideas for my own, personal reflection were presented with the Bates SECTIONS framework (2014). Any consideration of technology assessment and selection should start with the fundamental questions of who our students are and what learning outcomes we’re aiming to achieve with them. As educators, we also need to gain an understanding of the skills and interests that our students already possess, and the areas that need to be addressed either prior to beginning the process, or to be undertaken in the early stages of our students’ engagement with technology. In particular, Bates (2014) addressed these considerations by stating that the first step in selecting technology is to know your students, their similarities and differences, what technologies they already have access to, and what digital skills they already possess or lack. In addition, the modules on Social Media and Copyright have highlighted the value and importance of digital citizenship and the ways in which the definition has changed and how the considerations evolved along with the technology itself. Effective technology integration can not be successfully attempted without the fundamentals of digital citizenship being a part of this process. Throughout my experience in ETEC 565A, these were considerations that I frequently returned to and reflected upon, and I believe that I now possess a greater understanding of my own skills and areas for future growth with regards to educational technology. As I move into my next courses in the MET program, and further my career as an educator, there are a number of ideas and understandings that will help to guide and support my pedagogy.
Next Steps
As originally stated in my Flight Path, I envision a return to a classroom based teaching assignment (perhaps as early as next school year), and one of the focus areas for my MET experiences will be a continued exploration of how my learning in the MET program will apply to cross curricular teaching situations and contexts. With my previous experience as an elementary school based technology leader, I may find myself travelling down that career path again, perhaps at the conclusion of my MET degree.
Regardless of what my teaching assignment for the next school year, and beyond, may look like, one of the key ideas that I will take away from this course will be Bates’ (2014) notion of perceptions of technology integration when he states that “the use of these tools or approaches should be driven by a holistic look at the needs of all students, the needs of the subject area, and the learning goals relevant to a digital age, and not by an erroneous view of what a particular generation of students are demanding.” I feel that the importance of starting with student needs and learning goals first, and planning for the integration of technology to help meet those needs and goals, are of paramount importance and should guide whatever next steps I undertake as an educator. Furthermore, it will be essential to continue to view technology in terms of what students need, rather than trying to determine what students want, as we can plan creative, engaging, and authentic learning experiences for our students without falling victim to the seductive nature of technology in the classroom. As I stated in the previous section of this reflection, there exists a need for continued emphasis on student learning around digital citizenship, and the responsibility of educators to stay updated and informed about the technologies readily being used by our students both during school time and at home.
Drawing on the experience of creating an LMS evaluation rubric, I intend to continue to build on my knowledge and understanding of LMS planning and design to create engaging, collaborative learning spaces for my students. I enjoyed the successes and the challenges of working within Moodle and WordPress, and I will aim to further align and integrate my pedagogy through developing online environments to meet cross curricular outcomes. I am quite new to the world of Augmented Reality, but I have attended several workshops on implementing AR into the classroom setting, including through physical education, and I would like to become more knowledgeable and experienced in working with applications such as Aurasma and Daqri and their potential for engaging and supporting student learning. I feel that there is a definite interest amongst school staff in learning about new educational technologies, and this could be an opportunity to share and collaborate around my MET experiences through professional development, collegial support and technical assistance. By having these types of collaborative supports in place within our schools, we can create positive environments, in league with school administration, to enhance the ability to promote and build teacher capacity with integrating technology amongst staff in order to maximize the impact on student learning. Technology implementation must be well designed and contextualized to be effective. Therefore, how are we supporting staff and schools in balancing the functionality and purpose of educational technology?
In one of my previous postings, concerning the future of educational technology, I had discussed the ideas of Bryan Alexander (2014), and in particular, how he envisions the early 21st century as a “Renaissance” in education, with future classes being based around the students creating multimedia projects in various forms through developing rich content in gamified classroom structures. According to this vision, Alexander states that “games and social media are delivery mechanisms for curricular content. Much of the curriculum involves creation: storytelling, game making, collaborative media work” (2014). This vision of the future of technology integration within education is an area that I feel a personal connection with, and I am interested in fostering the potential to engage and motivate our students in ways that create powerful connections between their learning and their own personal interests and values.
To end my final synthesis, I wanted to reference a TED Talk by Sherry Turkle (2012) that I had viewed during a previous MET course. The message of this TED Talk resonated with me in terms of my own interests in continuing to explore ways that technology integration impacts communication and physical activity, and how this potentially connects to social concerns such as depression, anxiety and ADHD. Turkle raises several intriguing points for consideration during her TED Talk on the “culture of distraction,” and the implications are considerable both within the field of education and well beyond. One of the key issues that Turkle discusses revolves around the notion that “technology is seductive when its affordances meet our human vulnerabilities.” She further explains that the need for constant connection via technology (internet, social media, texting, etc.) has fundamentally begun to change the ways in which we interact and communicate with each other, and how this flood of connection potentially leads to a “dumbing down” of our levels of communication. Essentially, we are vulnerable to the constant feelings of connection that technology offers, to the extent that time spent away from our devices can lead to feelings of depression and anxiety.
The impact on the development of skills pertaining to communication and interaction within our students, at an increasingly young age, becomes a primary consideration with this need for constant connection. If, as Turkle argues, many of us would now rather text or send e-mail instead of making a phone call or having a face-to-face conversation, how will this affect the ways in which we view communication skills as educators? Are we looking at a shift in terms of the practicality of “quick and easy” communication when we simply don’t have time for a conversation, or are there deeper beliefs being cultivated as a result? If constant connection leads to a failure in developing our ability to be alone, how do we approach the skills of personal reflection and self development? Daunting questions, to be sure, but important considerations in terms of the technological and social development of our students into their futures.
References
Alexander, B. (2014). Higher education in 2014: Glimpsing the future. Educause Review, 4(5) Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/higher-education-2024-glimpsing-future?
Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University.
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a Digital Age. http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/(Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)
Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96.
Coates, H., James, R., & Baldwin, G. (2005). A critical examination of the effects of learning management systems on university teaching and learning. Tertiary Education and Management, 11,(1), 19-36.
Spiro, K. (2014). 5 elearning trends leading to the end of the learning management systems. Retrieved from http://elearningindustry.com/5-elearning-trends-leading-to-the-end-of-the-learning-management-system
Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Publishing.
Turkle, S. (2012). Connected, but alone? TED 2012: Filmed Feb. 2012. https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together?language=en