Author Archives: Mark Viola

Synthesis

When first reading the course description for ETEC 565A, I was excited by the prospect to further my knowledge of various learning technologies. My role in my school has evolved over the past few years to include assisting teachers and students integrate technology into their learning/teaching. Being able to evaluate and select learning technologies by first defining school requirements has been something that I have been working at few some time. I regularly find myself being consulted by administration to ‘look’ at various learning technologies that educational technology companies present to school leadership. One of my s=goals for the course was to develop a set of criteria for my school to use when vetting various technologies. By gaining experience using new a new LMS, I am also able to better provide professional development for my peers as we look to integrate eLearning into the program we offer.

ETEC 565A also addressed my interest in mobile technologies and social media. Having introduce a 1:1 iPad program 4 years ago, I am constantly looking for resources and professional development ideas to help staff in their day-to-day teaching. I believe that social media, along with mobile technologies provide great opportunities for learning to extend beyond the traditional classroom. Just this week I introduced a new project for my senior art students that began with an exploration of the ‘selfie’ – where students looked at the tradition of portrait painting and compared how ‘selfies’ are a continuation of that art form. The ability to integrate technology into my teaching has reinvigorated my lessons and provided my with new exciting avenues to enrich the experiences of my students.

 

Module 1 – Selecting and Using Technologies

Week one and two of the course challenged us to take a step back from actual learning technologies and look at broader frameworks of educational technologies. In this way, we were tasked with defining the context within which a learning technology would be used and the requirements that were presented by that context.

Week one presented two readings – the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) publication “National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers” (or NETS). NETS is essentially a list of skills and abilities that define a 21st century teachers. The second reading was Chickering and Ehrmann’s “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever” (1996), which presented technology as an agent of change in how a teacher taught in a classroom. These two readings identified for me what would become my personal theme for the course which was ‘what were my beliefs about technology and the role they play in my teaching’.

I have always prided myself on trying to create dynamic lessons for my students that inspire them to be creative and agents of change in their world. Technology has always been something that I have tried to integrate into my teaching, but I have not always considered the context of the learning when considering the technology. As I think about my teaching history, I can see now that I often chose learning technologies that were in fashion or were of interest to me personally. When asked to evaluate myself against the ISTE principles, I was happy to see that many of the standards that are trademarks of a 21st century teacher are part of my teaching. I have become a leader in my school with respect to curriculum and educational technology, and ETEC 565A has now given my a greater understanding of how to place learning technologies into a context for teacher.

Week two presented two theoretical frameworks by which we were able to consider technology in relation to pedagogy. Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS framework identifies a sort of criteria to help educators evaluate learning technologies, while Nel, Dreyer and Carstens’ framework focused on identifying primary and secondary criteria.

Bates’ SECTIONS framework resonated with me – each section of the framework acts a checklist for identifying and evaluating potential learning technologies. As my school is currently in the process of determining our new LMS, the Bates framework has provided my with the rationale I needed to make decisions for the school. As I wrote in my original reflection, in the past my administration has spent tens of thousands of dollars on technology (SMART) because they were convinced it was a transformative technology. The boards and the countless hours of PD have gone largely unused. No framework was used to identify the merit of such a technology in our learning environment. What I have come to realize after reading the BATES framework is that there is no such thing as good or bad technology. Technology can only be evaluated in a context – only when considering the technology in a specific environment and with specific users can one truly determine the effectiveness of the technology.

 

Flight Plan

It was during Module One that we completed our first assignment . The assignment served as a way to establish were we had come from and where we as digital learners hoped to go. For me personally, my path into Ed. Tech. has not been very typical  – I do not have a technology background (I am an artist). My interest stems from trying to meet the needs of my students in the world they now inhabit. My areas of interest are in social media and mobile technologies because I truly believe that these two learning technologies will define education as we move forward. Traditional concepts of course schedules and class time will slowly be phased out. eLearning and ‘social’ learning will define education for the next generation of learners. I constantly tell my colleagues that we need to prepare our students for a world that does not yet exist – with skills that will translate into different contexts with different applications. Traditional skills like rote learning have become extinct because everyone has access to unlimited amounts of information, by just accessing their phone. What is important now is teaching students how to filter, understand and use the countless pieces of content that is available to them.

 

Module 2 – Presentation Tools: Spaces, Places and Platforms for Learning

Week three, four and five identified the two common elements for learning technologies: 1) the content, and 2) the delivery platform.

The focus of week three was Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and presented readings that asked us to think critically about the function and value of LMSs. Coates, James and Baldwin (2005) present six drivers for LMS adoption. They are: 1) increased efficiency of teaching; 2) enriched student learning; 3) student expectations; 4) competitive pressure between institutions; 5) increased  demands to access to higher education; and 6) gives university the ability to control and regulate teaching. What stuck me this week was an understanding that at this time in education and LMS is required. The LMS acts as a bridge between the traditional concept of a school to a new dynamic model of eLearning which gives the students the responsibility of learning. At this time, an LMS seems like an intermediary step – a necessary stop which allows educators and students the ability to acquire new skills before moving forward again. Some of the readings from Week three and four focused on reasons why LMSs will not be that method of instruction in the next 5-10 years. Inflexibility is often cited as the key reason for the downfall of a traditional LMS (Porto, 2015), the inability for a student to determine their own learning on their own timetable was the rationale behind the push for eLearning and will be the rationale for the transition way from the traditional LMS.

 

Assignment #1: Online Delivery Platform

During Week 3 and 4 we were split into groups as asked to create an evaluation rubric for an LMS. Given a specific context – we were asked to determine the criteria by which an institution could evaluate an LMS and assess the viability of that LMS. Our situation looked at a specific requirement for uploading and annotation video in a medical school context. Working in small groups provided a nice change from the individual nature of eLearning. Group work can pose challenges – availability, ability to compromise, etc., but I believe our group worked well together as each member naturally gravitated to their area of strength. The actual creation of rubric with which an LMS could be evaluated was a very rewarding assignment. Having just gone through the process of evaluating various learning technologies, I wish that I had taken this course earlier in my career. While it seems like a natural concept to identify your ‘must haves’ or as Wright and Lopes (2014) call them, ‘your non-negotiables’ at the onset of a process, too often we can get caught up in what a learning technology can do rather then what we need it to do.

 

Week 5’s focus was on mobile learning and the reading for the week centred on student motivation. Mobile learning is a passion of mine – I have implemented a 1:1 iPad program in my school, have moved our school to a new LMS which allows teachers the ability to plan and deliver content from mobile devices, and am currently involved in moving our school storage to a cloud service. What I have come to realize, painfully, is that in order for mobile technologies to be fully integrated and become meaningful learning tools in school, pedagogy must change. The greatest barrier that I have encounter to the inclusion of tablets and phones into education is teachers. The fear of not being able to control what is happening in the classroom has made teachers ban mobile devices from their classrooms. As a result I have focused most of the school’s professional development of the past few years on mobile eLearning. What I hope to achieve is a ‘culture’ change. The iPad program has forced teachers to rethink what they have been doing in the classroom and what the goals of their teaching is. This has been a difficult experience for some teachers – it is easy to blame technology, ‘it is a distraction’, ‘it takes too long’, ‘that’s nice, but how can I use that in my classroom?’. In the case study by Ciampa (2013), she identifies that the control over their own learning that mobile devices offered students was one of the key factors in determining the success of the learning technology (p. 89). The goal of any educator should be to provide a opportunities for student success and the personalization of learning offered by mobile apps allows for such an education that more fully meets the needs of the 21st century student.

 

Module 3 – Interaction and Assessment Tools

Module 3 focussed on the interactions, communications and assessments that occur in eLearning environments. Online learning poses its own set o f challenges with respect to interaction and communication – too often poor design can lead to a lack of a sense of belonging or community within a class. While asynchronous communication provides students with the flexibility to work on their own time, not bound by physical location, it can reinforce the feeling od isolation and learning alone. However, good design which incorporated multimedia, opportunities for group work and synchronous communication can create positive learning environments.

Week 6 focussed on communication tools in an eLearning environment and the use of good design to promote active communication within a course of study. Face-to-face learning has the advantage of having a physical aspect to the communication, but that does not ensure that the student is an active participant. Sitting in a lecture hall with over a thousand students is not a ‘personal’ experience and can create the same feelings of isolation as eLearning. When designing an eLearning environment a designer must consider opportunities for: both public and private communication (email and discussion forums), and  synchronous and asynchronous communication (live chat, video conferencing, etc., vs. email and forums). New learning technologies have made this much easier for educators, no longer does creating an  online course require that any knowledge of html or programming. Platforms like Moodle and Blackboard provide teachers with templates for course creation. What is now important is understanding good design and how to promote learning with the course.

Week 7 looked at how to use design to create opportunities for interaction within a course. Anderson’s article on a theory of online learning prompted me to think about the opportunities for student learning in an online environment. Simply filling page after page of a course with text does not make use of the potential in an online course. Students must be challenges to express themselves using different outlet offered digitally. Students now have to ability to use video, audio, animation, and countless other forms to express ideas, making the learning a much more interactive and meaningful experience. This is a shift in pedagogy that sees other forms of communication, that is other then written text, as a valuable and comparable learning outcome. In the same way, educators need to take advantage of those same learning technologies in their course design. As Anderson notes ‘interaction is on of the defining components of the educational process that occurs when a student transforms the inert information passed to them from another and construct it into knowledge with personal application and value’ (p. 55).

Week 8 focussed on assessment tools and the value of assessment in eLearning. Too often teachers fall into the trap of too much assessment, feeling that in order to justify the content there must be a grade attributed to the learning outcome. It almost seems that teachers use assessment as a way to punish students – when the actual purpose of assessment is to promote student learning. In Ontario, we follow a document called ‘Growing Success’ (https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growSuccess.pdf)  which describes the differences between formative and summative assessment (now called Assessments  ‘For’ Learning, and Assessments ‘Of’ Learning). In both types of assessment, the purpose is to provide students with opportunities to show what they have learned, to provide feedback to the student and to motivate the student to continue learning.

 

LMS Introductory Module

When tasked with creating an online course I decided to use my Grade 7 art class. The program has recently be redesigned to incorporate the iPad and as a result makes use of many digital resources. While the course will most likely never be offered as an online course, the opportunity to provide the course in a blended environment might be a possibility as we look at ways to include more diversity to our current course of study. The creation of the introductory unit was in itself an introduction to Moodle for me – I have had some experience with online course design, but not to this level. I found the exercise difficult in the sense that I found myself simply posting resources for students, asking them to download readings, complete worksheets and submit assignments. I had fallen in to a cycle of poor design. Where are the opportunities for interaction that Anderson discussed in his reading, where were the opportunities for both synchronous and asynchronous communication? Would my students not feel isolated? Looking back now I realize that I relied on the in class component of the course to provide those opportunities for interaction. Looking ahead to my content unit I made a much more concerted effort to incorporate opportunities for interaction through video and discussion forums  for students to get to know me and their classmates and to demonstrate what they had learned.

 

Module 4 – Social Media

Module 4 focused on social media tools as opportunities to extend student learning. Social media tools provide students with opportunities to connect outside of classroom with individuals and groups from around the world. Social media focusses on user-generated content rather then academic knowledge, creating an entirely new collection of knowledge – social knowledge (think of Wikipedia). Social media creates opportunities for individuals to belong to groups, something that other online platforms have struggles with. Students feel connected to their peers online in ways that are very different then the way they feel about classmates in an eLearning environment. There are many things that designers can learn from social media when it comes to course design. However, with those opportunities for connection and belonging come risks around copyright, privacy and protection of student data.

Week 9 looked at social media and learning and I found Bates’ chapter on social media to be very interesting, especially his list of the educational advantages of social media in education. These include: the development of key skills needed in the digital age; the ability for teachers to set online group work; ability to post media-rich assignments; ability to connect work to e-portfolios; ability to learners to take control of their learning; and the ability to add richness and perspective to the course by opening the scale of the resources (Bates, 2014). However many students are not ready to learn this way yet. Students still require structured support and selected content – they need a teacher supported environment for learning. However that requires teachers to become familiar with and comfortable enough to use social media in their teaching – no small step.

When living in a world where mash-ups are a thing and tools like YouTube and other multimedia tools encourage the re-purposing of found material questions of copyright and ownership become much more complicated. When does intellectual property cease to exist? Is anything private anymore? In my reflection I discussed the artist Richard Prince who reuses Instagram posts and adds new comments and hashtags to the imagery, then prints then image and sells them for  over $100 000 at auction. His argument is that by deleting the original comments and adding his won he has substantially changed the nature of the image and thus it does not fall under copyright laws. This has been dubbed ‘re-photographing’ – who knew? What became evident form me during module 4 was the need to inform students of the importance of copyright and giving credit where it is due, both from an ethical and legal perspective. As a corollary to that to warn students that context does not exist when an image or text is removed from the original post, so they need to be aware of everything they write, post, share, like, etc.

 

Digital Story

It was during week 10 and 11 that we were tasked with creating a digital story that was to accompany our content module in our LMS. I have to admit that I found this assignment difficult. I was unsure (and still am) if I met the assignment criteria. I am pleased with the way that the digital story is part of my content module – I think it serves as something different in the experiences of the students. However I am not pleased with the final product – more about the limitations with the software and my inability to execute my vision. I agree with Ciampa’s statement that ‘multimedia effects such as video, audio, music, animation and interactive capabilities afforded by mobile devices evoke sensory curiosity’ (pg. 84), and I hope that this digital story will create that sense of curiosity in my course. As a side note, I did show my current students my digital story and was pleased with their response. They asked if they could create their own story for a different colour. This is where I think I may have missed the mark of the assignment – I hope my students do not see this as another assignment in the course, but rather as a different way of communicating knowledge.

 

Module 5 – What’s on the Horizon?

Module 5 offered an opportunity to consider changes to education as new technologies emerge. For me one of the most interesting avenues will be Augmented Reality (AR). The ability for teachers to add digital content to the real world will profoundly change how we think about learning. Imagine the opportunities presented when a student (most likely using a mobile device) will be prompted (either location or an actual object) by his or her technology to learn more about a specific subject. Consider a school trip to a foreign city or a museum and having student learn about landmarks or works of art as they physically got close. How personal can learning become? How overwhelming will learning become? Is there a limit to how much we can learn? When looking to the future there will always be more questions then answers – but that is the excitement about education and technology. While we may not know exactly what it will be like, I think we can all agree it will be an amazing experience.

 

Content Module

I am pleased with my final content module which focussed on Colour Theory. As I noted in my reflection, my greatest concern was that my personality would get lost in the digital platform, and this was true for the introductory module. However through the use of video and less of a focus on downloading readings and answering questions, I think that I have been able to re-establish some of the character of my teaching style. I must admit that creating an online course was much more difficult then I anticipated – it took countless hours of making sure that pages looked consistent, that links worked, that resources loaded and that images were linked back to their original source. Besides that technical requirements it also required that I rethink how I teach my course -a successful eLearning experience is not just a digital version of what happens in a traditional classroom – it is itself an entirely new and different learning experience. When it is not treated as such it is easy to understand why student can have negative experiences with online learning.

 

Synthesis

This final assignment – looking back over the course has provided me with the opportunity to see ll that I have learned and how far I still have to go. As I draw near the end of my MET experience I am saddened that the experience will soon be over, but excited that I now bring more to my profession then before. The future of education will be determined not by technology, but by pedagogy. Technology will always be just a tool, when we think it is more then that we run into problems. Student-focussed learning will define education in the 21st century, and technology will be the tool used to create the reality.

 

 

Digital Story and Assignment 3 Reflection

My Content Module

I would like to think that the result of my first experience with Moodle has been a success.  I am pretty please with the final result of my Introductory Unit and my first Content Unit (Module 1 – Colour Theory). I chose to create an eLearning version of a grade 7 art class that I currently teach. The course is part of our 1:1 iPad program so a lot of the resources that I added to my online version had that type of learner in mind. I appreciated that Moodle works well on the iPad, however, I would have liked to see a stand alone app that allowed for notifications and alerts for students.

The greatest challenge for me when moving from a traditional classroom environment to an online experience was how to maintain ‘my voice’. As Natasha pointed out in my Intro unit – that was lost. I struggled at first to make the course personal – focussing too much on content and direction, rather then making it a more relaxed learning environment. With those suggestions in mind I looked at reformatting not only my Content Unit, but my Intro unit as well.  As identified in the ISTE Standards for Teachers, a teachers role is to ‘advance student learning, creativity and innovation in both face-to face and virtual environments’.

The inclusion of video introductions and more opportunities for students to share, I believe have made the course more interactive for students. As Ciampa notes ‘Multimedia effects such as video, audio, music, animation and interactive capabilities afforded by mobile devices evoke sensory curiosity’ (pg. 84). By providing students an opportunity to ‘see’ me, I feel that I will be better able to connect with my students. I feel that the personality of both teachers and students can sometimes get lost in an online environment. Allowing students the opportunity to use their mobile devices to add multimedia to the course will provide opportunities to make the learning personal.

My greatest concern with the LMS however is still the online assessment tool. In Ontario, teachers are required to assess all four levels of the achievement chart for each Assessment ‘Of’ Learning (typically 1 per unit). Moodle does not permit a course designer the ability to determine what part of an assessment be directed to a specific grade category. Through some research I have determined that while teachers use Moodle as an eLearning provider in Ontario they do not use the online testing tool for Summative Assessments.

 

My Digital Story

I used the digital story as a way to further a class discussion and to provide students with a ‘spark’ to begin thinking about the meaning and symbolism of colour. My intention was to create a short animated video that brought some humour and personality to the concept of colour theory. I specifically chose to include the digital story as part of later section in the unit (2.5 – The Meaning of Colour) to provide students with a different method of instruction – using variety to keep students engaged. As identified in ‘Towards a Theory of Online Learning’, students learn creativity through playing and observation through viewing examples (pg. 62). My hope is that the digital story provides students with both – an opportunity to view and example, but also to engage in a fun and enjoyable learning experience.

 

Here is a link to my Digital Story – Hi! I’m RED!

 

I have always found VideoScribe to be an amazing presentation platform. I have been intrigued by lectures by Sir Ken Robinson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U) which used the animation capabilities to create interesting and humorous discussions about the state of education. However, once I actually began working with VideoScribe I found myself becoming frustrated. The ability to animate and keep the narrative interesting and dynamic was much more difficult then I had anticipated. While I like my final product and am happy with the way that it functions as part of my content module, I will definitely be spending more time working with VideoScribe before  launching this course to my students in the future.

 

The future is Augmented!

One of the areas of most interest for me has to be the application of AR (augmented reality) to education. Unlike virtual reality (which requires and entirely digitally created environment) AR enhances the real world by adding an overlay of information to reality. Google Glass is perhaps the most well known example of an AR application, but Oakley created a similar product for skiers in 2012 and many car manufacturers are attempting to redefine dashboards in vehicles using AR applications.

With the sheer volume of mobile devices, app developers are taking advantage of built-in GPS and compasses to create applications that can interpret the needs of the user and provide suggestions about surroundings. Apps like YapQ can determine a users location and will narrate Wikipedia articles about historical landmarks that are nearby. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (http://naturalhistory.si.edu) has developed an AR app that acts as a personal guide. As a visitor wanders through the gallery, sensors within the gallery trigger the application which in turn provides the visitor with information curated by the museum and other guests.

AR makes learning a personal experience – one that is determined by the learner. As education in the 21st century moves to being focused on the individual, AR is an exciting avenue for educators to explore when creating interactive lessons for students. Using apps like Aurasma (https://www.aurasma.com), teachers can embed content in to images within student worksheets. When students scan an ‘Aura’ the digital content created by there teacher is opened and presented to the student on their mobile device. For example, in a lesson on three dimensional forms a student might scan over a net for a cylinder and on his phone or tablet a fully formed cylinder may appear. This reinforces the learning for the student, making visible what was once difficult, if not impossible to see.

What the heck is ‘rephotographing’ anyway?

Copyright issues in a visual arts classroom is often the centre of focus. In my opinion, it is an unreal expectation that student will go out and photograph their own reference images and too often Creative Commons images do not provide students with an mage that is suitable for a particular work. That being said, students are reminded to identify and give credit to any image they use. We use the analogy of a works cited list for a paper – what resource/source imagery have you used in the production of your work of art? Unfortunately, there is no Bibliography that accompanies a work of art.

When we consider the skills that we are teaching students and the tools they use – ones that allow them to easily mix audio and video from different sources, the idea of ownership becomes blurred. When the latest craze is to ‘mash-up’ different songs, videos and images into something new, how do can we speak of intellectual property. YouTube alone is an excellent example – how much of the content on YouTube is original? How much is repurposed or mashed-up? Who is the artist? To whom should the credit be given? Is it the original creator or the individual who took parts of it and transformed it into something new?

I think of Richard Prince, the artist who ‘rephotographed’ hundreds of Instagram selfies and sold them at auctions for $100 000. Prince took images by other people (usually attractive, 20-somethings) added some creative Instagram-like text and emojis and printed them on a large scale. Prince never asked permission from the subjects of the photos to publish them, nor did he compensate any of the individuals. Is this not an infringement on the individual’s privacy? Firstly the images came from accounts that are not private, which means they are viewable by all. Secondly, because Prince added comments and deleted the existing ones, he can argue that his work is ‘transformative’ and under the US Copyright Act he is protected.

In this era of online digital editing tools and Web 2.0 media creation tools, issues of copyright must be re-thought and redefined.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/18/instagram-artist-richard-prince-selfies

What the heck is ‘rephotographing’?

Copyright issues in a visual arts classroom is often the centre of focus. In my opinion, it is an unreal expectation that student will go out and photograph their own reference images and too often Creative Commons images do not provide students with an mage that is suitable for a particular work. That being said, students are reminded to identify and give credit to any image they use. We use the analogy of a works cited list for a paper – what resource/source imagery have you used in the production of your work of art? Unfortunately, there is no Bibliography that accompanies a work of art.

When we consider the skills that we are teaching students and the tools they use – ones that allow them to easily mix audio and video from different sources, the idea of ownership becomes blurred. When the latest craze is to ‘mash-up’ different songs, videos and images into something new, how do can we speak of intellectual property. YouTube alone is an excellent example – how much of the content on YouTube is original? How much is repurposed or mashed-up? Who is the artist? To whom should the credit be given? Is it the original creator or the individual who took parts of it and transformed it into something new?

I think of Richard Prince, the artist who ‘rephotographed’ hundreds of Instagram selfies and sold them at auctions for $100 000. Prince took images by other people (usually attractive, 20-somethings) added some creative Instagram-like text and emojis and printed them on a large scale. Prince never asked permission from the subjects of the photos to publish them, nor did he compensate any of the individuals. Is this not an infringement on the individual’s privacy? Firstly the images came from accounts that are not private, which means they are viewable by all. Secondly, because Prince added comments and deleted the existing ones, he can argue that his work is ‘transformative’ and under the US Copyright Act he is protected.

In this era of online digital editing tools and Web 2.0 media creation tools, issues of copyright must be re-thought and redefined.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/18/instagram-artist-richard-prince-selfies

Using Social Media to record learning

Every year in the Spring I take my Grade 12 Art students on a gallery trip to New York. We have an opportunity to visit MoMA, the MET, the Guggenheim and the Frick gallery (besides catching a baseball game and doing some shopping). A few years ago I encouraged students to take pictures while in the galleries and post them using a specific hashtag. This first step at incorporating social media was successful but without a few hiccups. Students needed to be reminded that a hashtag will link their photo to a larger conversation and as such they need to be aware of what they are posting. On the positive side, parents were able to see what their sons were doing while on the trip and to comment on their photos (Instagram was by far the most popular social media app used).

This year I have started to develop a social media assignment around our New York trip. The purpose is still to take photos of works of art in the galleries we visit, but I would like students to post and begin a digital conversation with other patrons about the art in the gallery and what their experiences and reactions to the pieces are. This is typical of many gallery shows that use a hashtag to start a trending conversation. I would like to emulate this at a student level.

As Bates notes, social media tools are ‘extremely useful for developing key skills in the digital age’ and as such should become part of the educational sphere. While teachers must teach caution and discretion when using social media as well as a separation between private and educational uses of social media, it does our students a disservice if we do not educate them about these platforms. Students need the structure and support of a classroom setting to learn skills to become independent learners, and the guidance from someone they can trust.

 

Bates, T. (2014). Pedagogical differences between media: Social media. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/ (Chapter 7, point 6)

First Kick at a Moodle Class

I chose to create an online version of my Grade 7 Visual Arts class – AVI 7X1. It is a compulsory full year course offered to grade 7 students at my school. I choose this course as the Grade 7 program is part of our 1:1 iPad program and I have spent the better part of the past 2 years developing an arts program which makes use of technology – choosing an online platform for the delivery of the course seemed like the logical next step. While I don’t think I would ever like to see the course offered exclusively online, I am very interested in how the course would function in a blended learning environment where students met in class once every cycle to work in a ‘studio’ environment.

 

EXPERIENCES WITH MOODLE:

So far, my overall experience with Moodle has been positive. The platform itself is user-friendly and functions well on different platforms and operating systems (I worked on several computers, using different OS). The iOS experience was natural as well, however I would like to see a program specific app which would make taking a course in Moodle on a tablet more practical. App alerts and notifications would keep users up-to-date in their course, and make the experience more natural. One particular issue I experienced on the iPad was with file upload – this was limited to images in the Camera Roll only – I was unable to access any cloud-based storage device.

 

In a traditional computer experience adding files, links and images is easy and the simple text editor allows for easy construction of pages that look uniform. I found it very helpful to have two screens running at the same time – one logged in as myself, the other logged in as the student. This way I could make changes to a page or setting and save on one computer and see the results on the other screen without having to log out or ‘change roles’. It would be a nice feature if Moodle incorporated a ‘preview’ function which acted as a quick way to see the page without having to save and leave the editing screen. One of my biggest issues working with Moodle is the speed at which pages load – the slow process was an impediment to the design process.

 

I was happy to see that Moodle has a Badge system created and I was able to include several tasks that when completed, students are awarded a badge. These tasks fall outside of the course requirements and include such tasks as updating the profile, adding a post, replying to a peer, etc. However, I wish Moodle included a ‘Badge’ page where students were notified when they were awarded a badge – I found it difficult to find where badges were collected and stored – it was only after some research online that I discovered they are part of the user profile.

 

While the overall experience was positive, I do have some concerns with the Gradebook employed in Moodle. In Ontario, teachers are required to assess learning at various stages of the unit. Reflections, quizzes, exit tickets, peer evaluations are all important forms of assessment, but ones that do not affect the overall average of the student. According to ‘Growing Success’ (a Ministry of Education document)  these are called Assessments ‘As’ and ‘For’ learning as they are for the student and teacher to determine progress throughout the unit. Each unit must also include a culminating task (an Assessment ‘Of’ Learning) which addresses all four categories of the achievement chart (Knowledge, Thinking and Inquiry, Communication and Application). In a typical course, the term work makes up 70% of the final grade while a Summative Assessment (usually an exam) makes up the remaining 30%. The 70% term work must be divided into the four achievement chart categories (for example, 15% Knowledge, 15% Thinking, 20% Communication, 20% Application) and each culminating task in a unit must address all four achievement chart categories. So, if at the end of Module 3 I ask my students to complete a painting, my rubric must include Knowledge, Thinking and Inquiry, Communication and Application categories. I was able to create the 4 categories in my Moodle Gradebook, however I am unable to assign them a percentage of my overall course. Additionally, when I create an assessment tool I am unable to direct specific questions to different categories. Currently my online test for Module 2 falls under the Knowledge category – however various sections of my test address different categories of the achievement chart. I researched this and found that this is a short-coming of Moodle and is the key reason it has not been adopted fully in Ontario.

 

FUTURE STRATEGIES FOR COMMUNICATION AND ASSESSMENT:

Looking ahead at my course there are several communication strategies that I would like to include in the upcoming units. The first strategy is video tutorials – an integral part of my teaching is in-class demonstrations and this needs to be addressed in any online version of my course. I have already begun to record some of the instructional demonstrations that I complete in class, using my document camera to capture lessons on painting techniques, shading practices, proper form and technique, etc. I will begin to include these ‘Video Lessons’ into the structure of my units. By demonstrating for my students I provide them with a different learning strategy – one different then the text-heavy nature of traditional eLearning environments. Also, I will look at providing students with examples and links to practicing artists. By looking at the work of actual artists, students will be able to understand the skills they are developing in a real-world context. As Anderson notes, learning is ‘about making connections with ideas, facts, people and communities’ (pg. 49).

 

I will also ask students to create their own video demonstrations so that I and their peers may see their skill and provide feedback. Art is a discipline that is learned through practice and execution, thus the best strategy for assessment is one that relies on product versus testing. The ability for students to show their skill will provide students with an opportunity to not only display their understanding of the course but the discussion will help to build a sense of community in the course (Anderson, pg. 48).

 

eLearning experiences can become isolated environments, so I have considered some opportunities for small group learning and for full-class interaction. During Module 5, small groups will be formed and students will be asked to present some content to the class (a presentation on a member of the Group of Seven Painters). Part of the assessment will include a planning session which will include a synchronous video session using an online video platform. Students will then work together to create a learning activity for the entire class. Again, one of the goals of this type of exercise is to create a sense of community within the class, but also to introduce students to new learning platforms and applications available to them.

 

 

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. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

End in Sight

One of the most interesting things that I took from the Anderson reading was the concept that ‘different learning outcomes are best learned through particular learning activities’ (62). That is to say that the method of instruction or delivery should be determined with the end goal in site. By carefully planning, curriculum leaders can provide adequate opportunities for student, teacher and content interactions, this is true for online and blended learning as well. This backwards version of planning is not new, but may not have been applied to eLearning in a robust way in the past. With new advances in technologies (specifically with video and streaming services), educators can provide meaningful learning experiences that build on the student, teacher, and content relationships. What was once defined by asynchronous communication (based on the postal system), eLearning can now provide students with interactive activities and meaningful learning experiences.

 

Unfortunately not all eLearning situations fully understand ‘good design’. I have had the misfortune to take my Honour Specialist Advanced Placement course through a Canadian University that used WebCT as its LMS. The experience was entirely text-based with little to no interaction between students and between students and teacher. Readings were assigned, assignments were given and feedback was often held back and restricted. There was no sense of community created (I couldn’t tell you the name of another person in the course) and as a result my learning suffered. Some of the MET courses at UBC have been a quantum leap forward. Video conferencing, blogs, Twitter and other social media outlets, have allowed students and teachers to create relationships around the content. These relationship nurture the course content and create feelings of belonging. Discussions evolve naturally in these types of environments – similar to a face-to-face learning experience. As technologies continue to improve, I foresee eLearning to become the preferred method of instruction for most students.

Email overload

It is interesting – once we take down the physical walls of our classroom, so to do we take down conventions of time. Where once we would wait outside a professor’s office door to ask a question, now it is customary to email a professor at 2 in the morning. With that comes the expectation of a timely response. Asynchronous learning places a new level of stress on instructors – while the goal was to provide students with an opportunity to learn on their own schedules, this can make educators feel like they are teaching on everyone else’s schedule. Some ways that educators, and Trinh in particular, can help alleviate this stress, could include:

  1. Define communication protocol – educators need (very early on in the course) to identify for students ways that communication should take place. Whether that be by personal email, messaging within Connect, blog, etc., teachers need to identify what manner they would like students to communicate ideas and concerns. By defining these guidelines, Trinh will be able to ‘cut-down’ the number of platforms she needs to check on a daily basis to ensure that her course is running smoothly.
  2. Define a response time – most people identify a 24hr period within which they will reply to emails. It can become overwhelming, especially when email is forwarded to personal devices such as phones. Restrictions and self-discipline become important concepts.
  3. Create a ‘Q&A’ forum within the course so that students can pose course-related questions and other students can answer as well. Creating this sharing environment further develops the skills that are at the heart of eLearning.
  4. Provide opportunities for synchronous Q&A sessions – in several other MET courses, professors used the live chat function in Connect to offer ‘tutorial’ style sessions. These sessions were not mandatory, but provided people an opportunity to join a live discussion about the course and ask questions and seek clarification. Often these sessions allowed the professor an opportunity to go into more detail and explain more clearly a topic or idea. These experiences became very rewarding. For Trinh, this could provide her with an opportunity to discuss common concerns that have been expressed by students and possibly eliminate some of the asynchronous communication that she normally experiences.

 

Cheers,

Mark

Mobile Learning

In recent years mobile technologies has become the focus of my professional life and a passion. I believe that mobile technologies mark then next big evolution in education and that pedagogy and practice need to change in order to fully realize the potential of mobile learning. Instant access to information on a portable device allows the learner to move beyond the physical confines of the classroom and continue their learning in meaningful ways. The ability to author high quality content with little technical knowledge makes mobile devices one of the most user-friendly and important developments in education. Students can now create high quality video, author content, upload and download directly to their device – concepts which would have been very difficult just 5 years ago. Collaboration, especially through social media provides students and teachers with new platforms to continue the learning that happens in a f2f environment.

However, in many ways education is struggling to keep up with the innovations that are provided by mobile devices. Too often schools are bound by mobile device policies which prohibit the use of devices in the classroom. I find it ironic that schools ban the device that students use most in their lives, one would think that educators would try to leverage the device to make it an instrument to support learning. In addition, the perception of many educators toward mobile technologies create a negative atmosphere around the use of technology in the classroom.

Over the past 5 years I have developed and implemented a 1:1 iPad program in the CORE (grade 7 and 8) department at my school. Currently we have 250 students with 15 staff members using the iPad as their primary learning/teaching device. This program required a change in the teaching ‘culture’ at my school. The iPad forced teachers to rethink what they had been doing in the classroom and what the goals of their teaching was. This ahs been a difficult experience for some teachers – it is easy to blame technology, ‘it is a distraction’, ‘it takes too long’, ‘that’s nice, but how can I use that in my classroom?’. For many it was the realization that we hare preparing students for a very different world then in the past. For many, they will work in careers that don’t yet exist. It is our job to teach them the skills that will make them successful in that future – and mobile technologies will be the instrument that they use more often then any other. Educators need to move away from traditional notions of knowledge retention, and move to a teaching style that promotes collaboration and creativity. The ability to work in teams and problem solve will be 2 of the greatest skills students can have in the 21st century. The role of the teacher too needs to be redefined. No longer are we the keepers of knowledge, it is impossible to think that we have the answers to all questions. Teachers are now facilitators, people who create opportunities for learning to take place, give guidance and direction when required. IN the age of mobile learning, teachers and students are equal partners in the learning experience.