Trinh definitely has a tricky problem that I would guess quite a few online educators have to deal with as well. I suppose that this is the burden that we all face with regards to the ubiquity and accessibility of numerous communication mediums. I think the best way to manage the overwhelming amount of channels in which to be contacted is to strictly adhere by guidelines set to the students that they can only communicate via specific means. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there is a great product yet that can manage all the various incoming channels. Although I guess smartphones are doing a pretty good job on the accessibility aspect. Now for the amount of messages Trinh is sent, that seems like the much larger issue. My recommendation would be to hire a non-paid intern assistant. Just kidding. However, it does somewhat address the real issue; Trinh doesn’t have enough time to respond to the amount of messages she receives. One possible alternative to this is to use an online community or discussion board for any official queries and allow (or require) students to be part of the process. Perhaps a question from Student A can easily be answered by Student B. It would be nice for Trinh to offload that work.
Author Archives: patrick conlan
Missing out on cool stuff
When I left from working in a high school, it was back in 2011. Our school policy at the time was that students were not allowed to be on their phones during class hours. The reasoning behind this decision from the administration was because we as an institution emphasised face-to-face communication and socializing as an element of the learning experience. While I suppose that teachers could have used their phones for learning purposes, not a lot did and I would assume that more than a few would feel it as contrary to the goal of the school to build community. However, when I left, the iPad had just come out and quite a few teachers/administrators were excited about the possibilities of the new device. It took the school until 2013 but they did end up implementing an iPad program for all the students. So there obviously a change took place within the administration’s idea about mobile learning technology. Coming from the tech support side of things, I could see many management and administrative obstacles with regards to going with a campus-wide mobile environment. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to be a part of that rollout.
Personally speaking though, mobile devices have really transformed my life as a student. It is really amazing to use my iPad to load up all my reading materials, plan out my schedule, and browse the web easily and seamlessly. I am a big advocate of using mobile devices and I look forward to seeing them mature in educational environments.
Assign 1 Reflection – Patrick Conlan – Le Conseil Scolaire Francophone
Assignment 1 was an interesting project. As someone who has had the opportunity to choose an LMS for their school before, it made me reflect on the many facets of that decision. I felt that the readings of Bates (2014), Spiro (2014), and Porto (2015), really helped contribute to the full scope of the decisions that went into making the rubrick. Since my background is primarily from the tech support/administrator side of things, the readings enlightened me in aspects of the curriculum design and teacher usability. Overall I think our rubric came out really well. Everyone in the group provided a lot of positive contributions and we worked well together. I can definitely see this rubric giving people a firm guideline of the questions and expectations to have during the difficult decision of choosing an LMS.
Le Conseil Scolaire Francophone Rubric PDF
Le Conseil Scolaire Francophone Rubric Google Doc
Bates, J. (2014). Teaching in digital age, Chapter 8. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Porto, S. (2015). The uncertain future of Learning Management Systems. The Evolllution: Illuminating the Lifelong Learning Movement. Retrieved from http://www.evolllution.com/opinions/uncertain-future-learning-management-systems/
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
Some assumptions for Lenora
My estimate for Lenora would be no, she should not use a website. However, this is solely based on a few assumptions. The case study says nothing about the interactivity of the pro-d environment that Lenora wants to create. So I question as to why she would need to create a website when she can just provide the appropriate materials for the development session as static documents (i.e. PDFs, Word documents, etc)? Having static documents also allows her to cut down on the network bandwidth issue that she has. Although, to be fair, yes, she does technically need some sort of site to host the documents. So for dissemination purposes of whatever content she ends up creating (documents, video, online discussions, blog, website, etc) if she wants people to be able to access this information, she will need a place to store it on the Internet.
My rationale for this response is mostly due to the writings of Tony Bates’ Teaching in a Digital Age, Chapter 8 (2014). His SECTIONS model makes you look at the availability and affordances of various aspects of utilizing technology for instructional purposes. Here is my line of thinking then… if Lenora has no web design experience, very limited bandwidth availability, and no need for user interactivity, she really should go for the easiest possible model of relaying information. That comes down to a document, perhaps even a presentation.
Now, if she does want to build out a community of people focused around this development issue, then yes, she must have a website. In fact there are some very easy ways to make that happen based on her schedule, location, and skill level. For instance, Google Sites is a quick and easy way to create a fully functional website. Using Google Gears also allows Lenora to work in offline mode so that she is able to create the content she needs while at home. Once she goes to work, she can simply sync the changes necessary. So really, it isn`t as big of an issue as the case study makes it out to be. I think it comes down to knowledge about certain toolsets. Google Apps is one as I`m sure there are many others that could fulfill her requirements as well.
Bates, J. (2014). Teaching in digital age, Chapter 8. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Too much work, not enough time…
Benoit definitely has a task ahead of him. The first factor that he should take into consideration before comparing the two platforms is the time constraint. Let’s say for example that Benoit has between 12-14 weeks until the next semester starts. That gives him roughly 60-70 hours of available time to invest in this project. Benoit’s time is a finite resource that needs to be taken into account throughout this project. While it does seem that there are positives and negatives to both platforms, my initial opinion is that with such a limited amount of time for development he should be leaning towards a platform he is more or less familiar with, which would be Blackboard.
To expand upon this, Benoit should be asking himself about the overall time commitment for development and support throughout the launch of this course. Being that Benoit’s experience with LMS has been limited to using them as an online repository for resources, the learning curve to create and maintain a new online course is going to be substantial for him. It is hard to say which aspect of technical support is going to be more time intensive between the two solutions. Even if IT is slow to respond for Blackboard issues, it might be quicker and/or easier than some of the issues that arise in Moodle with no formal support structure. I suppose it depends on how comfortable Benoit is with working on online systems.
My breakdown of the time allocation needed for Benoit is as follows:
4 hrs – Review of existing course materials to see if anything needs to be updated or removed for the course transitioning to an online delivery platform.
8 hrs – Revision, modification, and addition of course materials to suit the online course model.
4 hrs – Development/modification of the course topics, objectives, and outcomes.
8 hrs – LMS account/course creation and training time to familiarize oneself with a new system.
16-24 hrs – Creating and/or curating multimedia content for the course. This would include videos, images, audio, presentations, etc.
16 hrs – Development and creation of the weekly activities in the LMS.
8 hrs – Development and creation of the LMS assessments if applicable for the course.
4 hrs – Time spent reviewing and testing the modules of the course.
8 hrs – Time spent dealing with technical difficulties.
My total estimates would put the development at around 76 hours or 15 weeks for Benoit’s Business Writing course.
Patrick’s Flight Path
Hello, my name is Patrick Conlan and I am from California. While I have done just a tad bit of teaching before, I wouldn’t classify myself as a teacher at all. Instead, I would call myself the technology guy. My undergraduate degree is in physics and computer science, so I have a knack for technical things. I started my career working in IT at a University doing Mac computer support for the science & multimedia departments. That is how I got myself into the area of educational technology. Eventually I moved on and got a position as a Directory of Academic Technology at a high school which opened me up to a lot more types of learning technologies and way more responsibilities. While working at the high school, I completed a masters degree in multimedia. I have always been very interested in movies, games, and interactive storytelling, so it was a great experience to go through. When I moved up to Vancouver, Canada, I decided to try my hand working in video and multimedia. I’ve worked as a Media Specialist and am currently working as a Video Producer in the network technology industry. I have had a weird and round-about career/education path but it is finally starting to form into something that I see as having a lot of potential. Ideally I would love to find a school that needs someone like me who has not only the strong technical background but someone who understands what it is like to create media and use technology in a classroom. My hope is that the MET degree will help me get access to those opportunities some day.
As mentioned above, my experience is fairly broad in a lot of ways. Fortunately, working at the high school gave me access to a number of great technologies to play with. Initially I was tasked with the responsibility of converting over our old student information system to an entirely new platform. This also included setting up and transitioning approximately 75 teachers to online gradebooks. It was a neat time at the school because there was so much change on the technology front that everyone just kind of gave up resisting and went with it. So beyond the student information system and online grades, I also spearheaded a full campus rollout of student email accounts and collaborative tools via Google Apps, a teacher laptop program, a Moodle installation for self directed and blended learning, integration of multimedia equipment into the curriculums, online course assignment schedules, interactive clickers, online surveys, and video and animation courses. Needless to say, it was a busy few years.
I feel confident in saying that I have strong grasp on how to implement and support technology in a school environment. Although one can always learn more and I felt that my lack of experience was in the area of curriculum design with technology and how learners use technology in meaningful ways. Since I am a tech person, I will always be curious about the new tools that pop up and how we can use them in new and interesting ways. My overall goals for both the MET program and 565A is to be exposed to tools that I have not had the opportunity to use before, to learn about what makes a piece of technology useful for learning, to explore the concepts of distance learning, to contemplate what the future of learning environments is going to look like, and how to design learning technologies. As per specific tangible goals that I am looking to meet throughout this course and in the near future in this program, these include:
- Building course content in an LMS
- Become more familiar with the new LMS alternatives
- How to leverage social media as a teaching tool
- Discovering new learning tools
- Understanding the best uses of assessments within varying technologies
- Whether or not mobile learning is more meaningful than traditional environments