Category Archives: Assignment 4: Synthesis

Final Reflection

Precis of my Flightpath

My flightpath outlined 3 main goals that I intended to gain from taking this course. Well, after finalizing my LMS content module, I think I have done just that; accomplished my goals. They were:

  1. Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments (ISTE, 2008)
  2. Learn about LMS and create a course either using Moodle or Connect. I am familiar with Connect but not with Moodle. I hope is to learn more on this and then choose accordingly.
  3. Learn in what ways how to integrate social media into the classroom as a teaching tool.

I wanted to learn how to incorporate digital tools into the classroom learning environment. To allow my students to explore their curiosities and be more active in their own educational goals, manage their own learning and assess their own progress (ISTE, 2008). I explained that I wanted to learn how to create a course using either Moodle or Connect, and in the end I chose the former. I’m glad I chose this as I know many elementary schools do have access to this LMS. I believe that it will benefit myself down the road in my educational career. The last goal I had was to learn how to integrate social media into the classroom. November (2012) discussed how using Twitter can be a powerful educational tool and I now know how to use a hashtag with my students.

My ETEC 565A Experience

My overall ETEC 565A experience was challenging but exciting at the same time. It was very confusing in the beginning as we were first using Connect as our main form of online coursework and then switched to the New Learning Environment. I had to keep switching back and forth to see what I was supposed to do next and in what learning space. After a few weeks I got the hang of it and knew what was required from me. I learned that introducing new technology into the classroom, in our MET course and in professional work, technology will always have hiccups.

I must say that I learned a tremendous amount of information while taking this course. The readings, the practical component and our online discussions all tied together nicely. I found myself always referring back to the readings when I was unsure of something or wanted clarification on a certain topic. They were extremely useful for our discussions and our reflections. I appreciated Bates’ (2014) SECTIONS model as I never thought of how or why educators should choose a particular type of technology to use in their classroom. It makes sense. Educators shouldn’t just choose a type of technology since that might be the only one they know how to use, but should step out of their boundaries and consider what is in their students best interest.

The practical component, the LMS content module, was the most challenging but at the same time the most useful. I had only ever heard of Moodle before, never had I seen it in action. I had to learn a complete new type of software, just like most of us. It required a lot of patience, many readings and many videos on how to use it and see just how it works. It was fun creating a course online that I wanted to be engaging, thought provoking and appealing to my students. I think I created just that.

As with other master courses, you learn a lot from each other. As we did with our discussions in this course. Looking at other examples from past students LMS courses helped me greatly. I really didn’t know how or where to start. After reviewing others and getting a better sense of what I’m supposed to do, I tackled it head on. With our discussions, I also learned from others. What I may have not had thought of before, triggered a new view on a certain topic or idea. Constructivist theorists argue that online environments can enrich learning by allowing students to acquire a wider range of resources and materials (Coates, James & Baldwin, 2005). This doesn’t necessarily mean learning from other html pages online, but also what students can learn in discussion groups; from one another.

Next Steps

Traxler (2007) states that mobile learning, allows students to engage in self-directed learning and stimulates their cognitive curiosity beyond the classroom walls (as cited in Ciampa, 2013). I completely agree. I always had and will from now on, find a way to incorporate technology into the classroom. Whether it be using social media, LMS, mobile devices or using different apps or platforms, I am committed to using technology. I think it’s extremely important to engage our learners but also for us educators. Whenever there is a workshop on technology, I always sign up. I will continue to do so. I am glad I enrolled into this course as it will only benefit me in the years to come.

Works Cited

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in the Digital Age. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Ciampa, K. (2014). 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, 19-36

The International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). Standards for Teachers. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from: http://www.iste.org/standards/ISTE-standards/standards-for-teachers

November, A. (2012). How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool. November Learning. Retrieved from http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/how-twitter-can-be-used-as-a-powerful-educational-tool/

Final Synthesis – ETEC 565A – Véronique Brunet

Précis of flight path :

Twelve weeks ago, at the beginning of this course, my primary objective was to learn more about the selection process of appropriate and effective technology by educators, for learning.  I was hoping this course would broaden my views of different LMS and their purpose for online and hybrid learning. ETEC 565A provide me with an endless array of learning opportunities to pick up new technical skills and further refine my existing skill set which I drew upon the course of the program.

One of my goals for this course was to acquire the knowledge to be able to present some guidelines and criteria to my school board,  in order to enable them to make more educated choices when it comes to spending large amounts of money in technology for our schools.  Although I haven’t been as active in the forums as I would have wanted, with each week’s readings I learned more about the process of selecting technology for educational purposes.  I had weekly discussions with my colleagues, supervisors and with the educational technology committee at my board about what I was learning in this course and how it could help us find our path.  As a board, we need to “model digital age work and learning” (ISTE Standards, 2008 p. 1). Since January, we have had a collective reflexion on the board’s practices for selecting, purchasing and making technology available in our school.  While the IT department is still responsible for the purchase of technology, it is now up to the educational technology committee to evaluate and select technologies for the board.  This committee is formed of one teacher, one curriculum advisor, two ed-tech consultants, the IT director, the educational director, one school principal and one board supervisor.   The mandate of the committee has been clearly defined:  to set a long-term plan for the digital shift for the school board.

Social media was also a topic I wanted to know more about.  Although I use social media daily for personal and professional purposes, I am still unsure of its exact purpose and place in K to 12 education.  There is a huge debate when it comes to security and privacy in social media, especially for kids under the age of 18. So I thought Bates (2014) SECTIONS was very pertinent and allowed a complete evaluation process for selection of multimedia tools for education, since it addresses the security issues.  I still believe that not all educators have the knowledge to use all the criteria in Bates’ model.  Therefore, it is my belief that selecting proper tools or making social media use policies in school, should be issues that are addressed my heterogenous committees where educators, principals, administrators, and IT personnel can have a voice.

OVERALL ETEC-565A EXPERIENCE:

Overall, I found my ETEC experience to be an invaluable and a practical learning opportunity. I was able to explore and gain a better understanding of the tools that I would need to help guide me in the development of my Blackboard Connect online Course module.  I was able to learn about different LMS like Moodle and Connect, and compare them to the LMS I am currently working in (D2L) using valid criteria like Bates (2014) SECTIONS and Nel, Dreyer & Carstens’s (2010) primary and secondary criteria. Although Bates proposes a methodical model that can be used pretty easily by educators, Nel, Dreyer & Carstens’s model also resonated with me as it acknowledges the reality of educators who are too often left alone with poor background information to make multimedia selection decisions for their classrooms.

Weekly discussions, in the forum and with my colleagues at work offered a great deal of insight, support and inspiration throughout my learning process.  I did find it confusing at times to have to navigate between two platforms for this course.  I which the course was all held in one place, allowing me to make sure to follow all conversations. I liked that our instructor was very open-minded about her selection of a platform for this course and always had an open ear for comments, suggestions and concerns about this.  This contributed to creating a community of learners within the course (Prensky, 2010).

Creating an online course for an LMS isn’t something new for me, as it was my primary job for the past 5 years (at certain moments of this course, I wished I would have taken it five years ago, which would have made certain parts of my job so much easier).  I still learned a great deal from this assignment. At first, it felt awkward to me to start by designing as assessment while developing the introduction module of the course.  I struggled a great deal with this part of the assignment, not sure of what I needed to include in the assesement.  When I began working on the content module, I felt as if I knew exactly where I was going.  Having the assessment for the module designed before, gave me clear orientation for learning goals and teaching strategies (Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J, 1998, 2011).

Next Steps – #profdev

In my current role at the school board,  I will continue to be the voice of the literature and research on our educational technology committee, bringing light to the decision-making process by providing valuable information about what research has to say on multimedia tool selection and design. I will admit that not all decisions are taken at the board level.  Certain tool like a cloud based suite (our choice is now set on Office 365) have to be chosen my the board, but certain decisions are still in the hands of our schools and teachers.  For example, schools still hold their budget when it comes to computer or mobile device purchases.  And although the board supplies certain standard software, it is up tho the schools and/or teachers to select and purchase any other software or application they choose.  It is with that in mind that I am currently working on an evaluation rubric (based on Bates’ SECTIONS, 2014) that can help teachers select the best technologies to enable students to reach their learning goals.  I also want to work on creating a more collaborative culture in our schools and in our board.

Moving forward, I will certainly continue to be a lifelong learner. I have the opportunity to attend a few educational technology conference every year.  I have also dabbled with Twitter in the past, as I see the potential for developing a professional network (November 2012).  I would like to learn more about the use of social media (particularly Twitter) as a means of professional development and collaborative learning (Bates 2014).

Furthermore, I hope to deepen my knowledge and understanding of HTML authoring and digital video-creating and editing tool (although a very time consuming task, I enjoyed creating a digital story and agree it can be a powerful learning tool, especially in an online course).  I hope to achieve this goal through self-directed learning and by soliciting help and support from my professional network (which I will also be working on developing!).

References

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30 (1), 82–96. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcal.12036/epdf

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers

Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010). Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 35(4), 238-258. Retrieved from http://www.ajol.info/index.php/tvl/article/download/53794/42346

Prensky,  M. (2010). Teaching digital natives : Partnering for real learning. Thousand Oaks, USA: Corwin.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice-Hall.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2011). Understanding by design guide to creating high quality units. Alexandria, VA: Association for supervision and curriculum development.

Final Reflection

Overall Course Experience

This course has provided a multitude of learning opportunities both for myself and for my students. The thought that resonates most strongly with me is that of “Prensky asks not how students learn, but more specifically how do they learn what?” (Anderson, 2008, p. 62). This course has provided us with many options for best learning under a variety of learning situations.

As educators, we are frequently asked to evaluate appropriate technologies for our school. This can be a daunting task, particularly with the large volumes of apps, devices and sites continually  becoming available. Developing an understanding of the SECTIONS framework (Bates, 2014) gives us a frame of reference for evaluating technologies that is comprehensive and easy to follow. I found it amazing that it could be used for massive choices such as an LMS for a University and yet still be relevant for a classroom based app application. Not every section is applicable each time or to the same extent each time we use it, however it gives us a solid framework to delve into these decisions. We can feel confident we have considered most angles effectively after applying this framework to the decisions.

The assignment for designing with an LMS was a challenge worth pursuing. Although I have experience with a similar platform, it was interesting to see the limitations and opportunities that differ between the various LMS platforms. Using Moodle allows me to better understand LMS as a whole and also the technical applications of the program. I typically have used an LMS platform as a supplement to my regular classroom. I have not to this point, ever developed an entire unit to be delivered almost entirely online. Within the elementary setting, students typically perform their unit as a blended experience, however this unit would afford me the time to spend with individual students rather than on instructing each segment as we go. It also allows students to adjust their pace of learning and extend their learning to their home environment. Parents being able to view the assignment from start to finish develop a stronger understanding of the way project based learning works in schools. Spending time developing the unit in consideration of all elements the students would need to perform in order to be successful in advance of them undertaking the unit, made for critical thinking and planning. The challenge is losing some level of adaptability as the course progresses, that would normally be found in a f2f classroom.

The case studies were an effective way to apply the knowledge gained in the reading. It was a helpful process to read the reflections of others, who are tackling the same case. Seeing the perspective of our classmates helped to fill in gaps or perspectives we had not considered. The collaborative nature of the discussions sparked new ways of thinking. Putting the learning in context defines and synthesizes the content bringing an authentic experience to life. I would like to use case studies more often with my students in a variety of curricular areas.

Personal Goals- Reflection of Flight Path

Teachers as Learners

After participating in the learning tasks for this course, I feel better prepared to assist teachers in implementing technology into their classrooms. Have a task such as designing a digital story for a course they are teaching, results in teachers learning a variety of digital story programs through a meaningful product. Rather than simply showing them a digital story program first and asking them to create a story, the reverse was used in this course. Envision your digital story and then determine the program that best suits your needs. This does take a much greater amount of ‘play’ time, however I believe it would be worthwhile. As teachers move through a project they learn the components of the program that they need, expanding as they go. For example, with the digital story in Videoscribe, I learned how to place objects first, and then add sound later. Unfortunately I watched the section of the tutorial after the fact that explained to do the voiceover first. This is all part of the learning experience. As teachers gain familiarity with a program, they are able to assist others and look for additional possibilities for application in their classrooms. Effective implementation begins with visible support of technology by the school leadership team. Modelling new strategies, supporting trying new things, recognizing the effort and progress of staff, providing time for technology learning and resources, positively impact implementation (CITEd, 2015).

Effective PD needs to be ongoing and anchored in authentic learning tasks. It is beneficial to create an environment where teachers have input into their PD options, are encouraged to take risks, participate in conversations that critique current pedagogical strategies and determine ways to implement technology in meaningful ways. (CITEd, 2015).  PD that implements relatively simple uses that help teachers achieve their current goals is often more effective than introducing technologies to achieve new goals (Ertmer, 2005). Building knowledge through incremental steps, increases teacher confidence and willingness to attempt larger changes (Ertmer, 2005). I now feel more capable of implementing these ideas.

Assessment Through Technology

I was fortunate early in my career to be introduced to an LMS platform. Although neither Moodle or Connect has been approved by our school board, they are both similar to D2L which is the platform we currently use. Having this background allowed me to explore more of the pedagogy that goes with an LMS system. I typically use our LMS for delivering course content, housing links for further exploration and class discussions. Having assessment as an assignment component was a new way for me to leverage technology. I found creating the online quiz particularly useful. Providing feedback to 25 grade 5 students can be extremely challenging Understanding the importance of feedback thorough the work of John Hattie, who states in his bookVisible Learning, that feedback was one of the top 10 influences on student achievement (Hattie, 2009). The more ways meaningful feedback can be provided, the greater the impact on student achievement. Designing a quiz that provides corrective feedback for incorrect answers and positive affirmation in terms of score for correct answers is a way to increase immediate formative feedback with minimal teacher time. Inserting hints into questions can also be used to trigger memory and review content. Adjusting the settings so that students can take the exam more than once to demonstrate improved learning is also a great way to increase achievement. Lastly, using the question bank, weekly exam questions could selected as a unit review before summative testing or as a review throughout the unit.

Social Media

I do not feel I met my social media goal. I did gain a greater understanding of the possibilities but did not apply these programs in meaningful ways. I appreciated the Twitter feed on the side of the course and did use these suggestions throughout the course. I did renew my Twitter account and follow the class conversation, however I do not find Twitter intuitive and it is a struggle for me to participate in this way. I was hoping as I became more familiar with the program, I would become more comfortable and see a stronger fit into my teaching. This did not develop which perhaps speaks to the fact that technologies are personalized and not every technology works for every person. I much prefer to read blogs, webpages and chats. I will continue to persevere in improving my Twitter comfort zone.

Next Steps

Next year I will likely be tasked with teaching Kindergarten for the first time in my career. As a Learning Leader I have consistently challenged the concept that Kindergarten kids are not able to use technology effectively in school, as has been often suggested by the Kindergarten teachers I work with. This will be my chance to demonstrate my belief that in fact, all school age children can use technology in tremendously valuable ways. I would like to challenge myself to use the technologies we have explored such as LMS and digital stories with this age group. When many students are pre-literate, a reliance on visuals and auditory cues becomes highly important. Watching my son and his friends play on the iPad and our computer, I have no doubt about the ability of children to navigate technological resources when they are motivated by a purpose. An LMS at this age would also be largely geared towards engaging the parents. Information, educational links, videos, student work, responses to homework, etc. can provide a consistent home/school link.

In terms of assessment, I would like to produce an attempt at using computer-aided assessment as suggested by Jenkins. “It is also possible for CAA to be adaptive, in that the outcomes of an assessment can be used to determine further questions or information that the student needs to address. Thus it is possible to guide students through a programme based on their responses at key stages, in a way that is appropriate for their specific learning requirements.” (Jenkens, 2004, p. 69) I am as of yet, unclear of how to use the technology available in an LMS to program responses to personalize next steps in learning however I motivated to try. This would be another example of improved feedback for learning with a reduction to teacher workload.

As new technologies are constantly being introduced an evolving, I plan to continue to delve into new products and possibilities. I plan to apply strategies that align with the future trajectory as outlined in the NMC Horizon Report (NMC, 2015). Forecasting where our students are going and what they will need to be successful is highly valuable. I will continue to read this report in the future to keep up with trends and new possibilities for our staff and our students.

References

Anderson, T. (2008). Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.) Theory and Practice of Online Learning, Chapter 2 (pp. 45-74).

Retrieved from: http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120146

Bates. T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/5-8-assessment-of-learning/ (Appendix 1. A8)

CITEd (2015) Technology Implementation in Schools: Key Factors to Consider. Retrieved from:  http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=187.

Ertmer, P. A. (2005). Teacher pedagogical beliefs: the final frontier in our quest for technology integration? Educational Technology Research and Development , 53(4), 25-39.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge.

Jenkins, M. (2004).  Unfulfilled promise: Formative assessment using computer-aided assessment. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, i, 67-80. Retrieved from http://www2.glos.ac.uk/offload/tli/lets/lathe/issue1/articles/jenkins.pdf

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

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.

 


 

Synthesis

Flight Path Précis

My flight path for this course echoed my reason for undertaking this subject of study from the outset. I chose this field of study for my Masters because I knew little about educational technology and wanted to learn more. My learning was for me alone – not to meet any professional goals.

My flight path for this course was a journey of discovery. I am a proponent of trying to help other educators understand concepts of teaching and learning embedded in in the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL), a set of principles of education that reflect the shared understandings of the First Peoples of BC, and I started to wonder if there is a way to integrate educational technology in the schools in ways that could still honour the FPPL. In my perspective, the most challenging scenario would involve creating an on-line learning course that also explicitly honours the student’s relationship to place (including their natural environment) and others.

Another question has emerged alongside that original query: is there a way to use technology to create a learning experience for other educators to help them understand how to integrate the FFPL into their classrooms? In many of the workshops I currently facilitate, educators frequently express interest in being able to continue their learning in informal ways with other teachers around the province.

Because experience with distance learning technologies has been limited to this program, my goals were simple: learn what I can about creating a Moodle or Blackboard learning space; gain some hands on experience with more multi-media; and explore the possibility of setting up formal learning experiences via social media.

Reflection on Flight Path

I have had an interesting learning journey through this course which grew more complex as my schedule for my job increased substantially, resulting in me working 6 days a week and being on the road (by plane and automobile) during most weekends and many evenings. This schedule is largely the result of the number of educators in the province seeking to learning more about the FPPL, and how to integrate them into classrooms. It is rather ironic or serendipitous (depending on one’s point of view) that this focus challenged my time in a course where I wanted to explore how to use technology to do that vary thing.

I did accomplish some aspects of my anticipated flight path; I was able to learn the basics of Moodle and begin to design a course that could provide professional development experiences for educators in a way that could also honour the principles the Moodle participants were learning about. However, I did not explore as much as I wanted the possibilities of more effectively harnessing social media for the same purposes, but at least the question has been raised. I believe that creating the right question(s) is as important as looking for the answers.

Overall ETEC 565A Experience

Aside from some challenges with the Moodle, I did learn in the course, and that is my ultimate measure of success. One of the significant pieces of learning that I take from the course can be summed up in the words of Bates and Poole (2003) that “Teachers or educational administrators making decisions about educational technology should have some theoretical model or framework that guides the choice of media and technology. If not, they will be constantly driven by the latest technology development, whether or not they are appropriate” (p.80). I always keep in mind something that is foundational to what I believe about the role of educational technology – technology for the sake of novelty is not innovation. In “Stop Innovating in Schools. Please” Will Richardson (2016) argues that much of our innovation in schools is not directed to improving learning as much as focuses on trying to improve teaching, usually through the use of technology. He maintains that effective education focuses on supporting learning and the desire to learn. This can be achieved with or without additional “innovative” technology. This approach mirrors my philosophy about the use of educational technology – that we should always think carefully about the technology we choose to introduce and use with students. If it does not enhance learning, then I would question shy it would be used. This approach to educational technology has been reflected in some of the ETEC courses I have been a part of so far, and by some of the instructors and students in these courses. However, it has been equally absent in other courses and with other students and instructors who seem to embrace the use of new technologies for the sake of their novelty.

During this course, I encountered examples of things that could be done in e-learning environments that, to me, did not support learning. This served to underscore the need to think critically about how we choose to create e-learning environments and learning experiences for students. This critical examination includes questioning the decisions we make about how we design e-learning environments, and always asking what might be the unintended consequences of the design choices we make, as there are both pros and cons to every decision. Nel, Dreyer and Carstens (2010) acknowledge that while there is a necessity of considering accessibility, cost ease and convenience of use, it is also important that any decisions about technology or media choices begin with pedagogical justifications. It does not matter if everyone can use certain technology and access certain media of there is no pedagogical reason for doing so. Once it is established that technology and media can support or enhance learning, then the other factors come into play in choosing what to use.

One of the challenges I found with this course was the level of skill level with technology that was assumed for some of the assignments. I like to explore and play with technology, but find that the process is more effective if there are some initial structures put in place. For example the instructions about how to set up a WordPress blog at the beginning of the course was quite detailed, and even though I already knew how to do that, I appreciated the detail. A similar scaffold would have helped with the Moodle. Even before I could learn how to create a “splash page” and “customized GUI”, I had to learn what was meant by those terms. This experience reminded me to recognize the range of prior knowledge students bring with them to learning communities, and encourages me to remember to find ways for students in those communities to work collaboratively to enable each to share his or her knowledge with each other to create a true community of learners. In this course, this was found in the aspects of ETEC 565A when we were able to work in small groups. I found the small group work conducive to supporting a sense of a learning community that I did not feel in the larger group.

Next Steps

I do not anticipate continuing to develop my Moodle course in the near future. At this point in time the organization I work with does not have the additional capacity (in terms of extra personnel) to support such an endeavour, and my schedule is already stretched too thin. However, as I write this, I am also aware that circumstances can changes quickly, and opportunities can present themselves when least expected.

Through the process of developing the Moodle, I continually wrestled with the tension between the foundations of FPPL (which stress the development of relationship, a holistic approach to learning, and explicitly tying learning to sense of place and connection to the land) with the kinds of learning experiences possible with a wholly on-line learning experience. What I have come to understand is that it is possible in the learning activities to ask the learners to make those connections, and bring the learning they gained back into the on-line learning environment to add to the learning of all in the course. In a sense it could be described as a different type of a “blended course”. I intend to integrate this knowledge into work I do that helps other educators integrate the FPPL into schools and classrooms.

Plans for Lifelong Learning

I plan to continue exploring various education technology in relation to both the FPPL and using technology to create more seamless links between formal learning environments and the rest of peoples’ lives. In Module 1 we examined the ISTE Teacher Standards. The ones that continue to resonate as much now as they did then as effective approaches are Standards 1 and 2 – inspiring student creativity, engaging students in real-world issues, solving authentic problems, and promoting student reflection; and developing authentic learning experiences, promoting creativity, and supporting students in personalizing their learning, respectively. I value authentic learning experiences so that students are able to find relevancy in their learning and make explicit the connections between what they do in the classroom/school environment and the rest of their lives.

To this end, I plan to continue thinking about how to tap into the technology that is increasingly becoming a regular part of our lives (such as mobile technology and social media) and explore how we might harness those structures to promote learning that connects to each other and to place. In this way I can see a possibility for a convergence between the FPPL and the possibility for authentic, contemporary applications of learning. As Bates (2014) indicates, recent developments in social media have increased the potential for using it to supplement other learning spaces, or to use it exclusively as the learning space.  I am also interested in exploring more media that is very easy to use. As indicated in Bates’ (2014) SECTIONS model, people are “more likely to use technology that is quick and easy to use” (p.271) and that require little to no time for people to learn to use. I see that social media is a possible route to explore that uses technology that is not a challenge, or time consuming to use.

How this will all play out in reality remains to be seen, but I am looking forward to the continued journey.

 

 

References:

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from: http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Bates, A. and Poole, G. (2003) Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers

Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010). Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 35(4), 238-258. Retrieved from http://www.ajol.info/index.php/tvl/article/download/53794/42346

Richardson, W. (2016). Stop innovating in schools. Please. Retrieved from: http://willrichardson.com/

 

ETEC565A Synthesis

My original flight path was geared towards discovery and exposure to new or unused tools that I hadn’t had an opportunity to work with before. I was really interested in using Blackboard connect since I only had experience using Moodle. Social media tools for education were also something that I was interested in learning more about. I am not a big social media user so the idea of using those communication tools seems very foreign to me. Although my flight path was a little light on details, I was really open to hearing and learning about all the new ways in which we are going to be learning in the future. Mobile and online learning seem like such a huge world that hasn’t quite been taken advantage of in the realm of education and I think we have a long way to go to utilize the capacity of those tools to their fullest extent. Not having a clear agenda going into the course left me with a somewhat weak flight path but it wasn’t due to a lack of interest or motivation for learning, mainly that I didn’t have a clear expectation on what I wanted to learn. Since I am more excited by the use of technology for education than pedagogy, I really wasn’t sure what to expect for this course or for the MET program itself. It has been a good experience so far though.

My experience with the course has been very positive and I actually had quite a few assignments and readings that connected with me. I really enjoyed getting a chance to work in Blackboard. I have been around it for quite a while but everything I had ever set up had been Moodle based, so it was neat to force myself to get to know that system a little bit. Although after having spent more time in Blackboard, I can now see why Spiro (2014) wrote an article on the death of the LMS. Both Blackboard and Moodle seem like systems that are a response to a transition in learning as opposed to a revolutionary platform for expanding the learning potential. It was nice to read a little bit about MOOCs as well from Bates (2014) since I am a firm supporter of that online model of education. However, I’m not sure that the MOOC format is going to stay the same over the next 5-10 years. It seems that there is room for growth and maturity there that will serve future learners.

Overall, the course has been a great experience for me. I came into the course with expectations to learn more about LMSs and I met those expectations but I also was pleasantly surprised by a few other areas within the course; mainly the readings of Ciampa (2013) on student motivation, the analysis of asynchonous/synchronous communication tools, and the information on how assessments support student learning by Gibbs & Simpson (2005). All three sections of the course made me think about new and interesting ways to connect with students within the online learning environment. I am all about online learning since I feel that being untethered from the classroom is important for future education and these topics really addressed issues that I hadn’t quite thought about and definitely make online learning much more complicated than just putting information on the internet. I think this is going to allow me to be much more accepting of contrary views of online learning and how we can eventually build online platforms that will really facilitate learning as much as possible without sacrificing availability over quality.

The only area of the course I was a little disappointed on was the topic of social media and education. I had hoped that we would dive a little deeper into the world of social media learning but it was much more of a surface exposure. I think this is due to the fact that I am still very hesitant as to the validity of using these communication tools for learning. It would have been nice to have become a convert for social media for education but unfortunately I am still on the fence. It doesn’t mean that I won’t eventually make that transition but within this course I just missed that connection.

I felt that all of the assignments were really well designed and helped expand my knowledge of how to implement an LMS and online learning environments. My experience as an educational technologist has always been evaluating technology for usability, effectiveness, and cost savings although I had never been able to quantify how exactly I came to my decisions. Both the evaluation rubric and the pros & cons of communication methods really made me focus on the research methods involved in evaluating a technology. I also had the same experience with reading Siemens’ (2003) article about media evaluation. Having a masters in multimedia, I have just gotten comfortable knowing which media is the right and wrong thing to use at certain times but I realized through those two assignments that there are times when you need to be able to break down decisions into quantifiable pieces.

Both the introduction module and the content module were really fun projects to work on since I had never built out an online course before. I have helped others get parts of their courses into an online form through Moodle but I never had an opportunity to develop something from scratch. Since I am someone who loves to build structure to things, it was enjoyable to start with a generalized idea of a fictional course and plan out how that course would work over the course of 12-13 weeks. I think Andersons’ (2008) article on the theory of online learning helped put me into the mental context to design a course that takes advantage of the capabilities of online learning. It is definitely a different experience than classroom instruction and I hadn’t quite realized how much so until I needed to build a course of my own. Tying in the ideas from Spiro and Gibbs & Simpson really challenged me to create something that wasn’t just a plain old real life course that exists online but something that takes full advantage of the features of the online medium. I think I was far from making something ground breaking but at least I have those ideas in my head now going forward and I hope to eventually try and push the boundaries of what online learning can do in the 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). MOOCs. In Teaching in digital age.

Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation.Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96.

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31.

Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating media characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Elearnspace.

Spiro, K. (2014). 5 elearning trends leading to the end of the Learning Management Systems.

Final Synthesis-ETEC565A-TWalsh

PRECIS OF FLIGHT PATH:

When I began ETEC-565A, my digital media skills were limited to Articulate Studio (a PowerPoint add-on), Desire-2-Learn (D2L), and some voice-editing software. In addition, I was only a novice mobile-device user. So, when I read the ISTE Standard – Teachers (2008) which encourages us to “model digital age work and learning” (p. 1), I recognized that was not fluent in the use of digital-age media. In fact, I often felt like I was playing catch-up in terms of educational technology, so I really hoped that ETEC-565A would introduce me to a wider range of learning software and how best to implement these within my online courses.

At present, I am helping to develop online courses that contain excellent information and give learners plenty of opportunity to actively engage with the content and reflect on their own practice. However, there is no occasion for them to collaborate with other learners. I was hoping to find new ways to introduce collaborative learning activities within our courses. In addition, I wanted to explore some networking tools that would assist healthcare providers to make connections with other professionals so that they could co-manage patients with oral-systemic or other interprofessional healthcare issues.

 

OVERALL ETEC-565A EXPERIENCE:

Overall, I found that ETEC-565A met its stated objectives, in that we learned to evaluate, select and use various learning technologies. It was helpful to have a venue in which to explore new software. I do hesitate to do so at work, because I can’t afford to start a project without knowing how much time it will take or what the results might be. So, I tend to go with the tried and true instead of taking time to explore other options.

The theoretical frameworks presented challenged us to make informed choices about technology. As is stated in the introduction to ETEC565A Module 1 (UBC, 2016, Module 1), it shouldn’t be a race to keep up with the latest software. Although I certainly feel behind the times in terms of the adoption of new technologies, the longer I am in the field of online learning, the more I realize the importance of doing a few things well and knowing why you are doing them rather than dabbling in many just for the sake of novelty. Always, we are taught, technology must support teaching and learning. Therefore, we must always be thinking about the learning outcomes (i.e., what will the student be expected to do after the course) and whether or not a particular technology will help them achieve those objectives. In other words, as Nel, Dreyer and Carstens (2010) state it, our primary criteria must always be learner-centered instruction. Only afterwards should we consider the secondary criteria of access, cost, and operability.

Learner-centred instruction is also a big theme in this program. I think that I am now starting to wrap my head around the concept. It has always made sense to me in terms of student’ learning style preferences. Therefore, including a variety of learning materials and activities from which to choose increases the likelihood of satisfying learners’ needs by enabling them to engage with the content at varying levels and depths (Bates, 2014, Ch. 8; Nel, Dreyer & Carstens, 2010). As an example, I really appreciated that in this course that we were always free to choose the topic of our projects (i.e., digital story, LMS content) so that the work would be meaningful to ourselves. I was actually thrilled that we could work on this individually and not in a group because otherwise, we’d have to compromise in terms of topic or the age group of the learners, which would prohibit any of us from using the assets later. Instead, we each devoted more hours to our projects but it was time well spent because most of us will now be able to reuse them in our educational practices.

In Module 2, we went on to study learning management systems (LMSs). This is technology of which I am familiar. I have used a computer-aided system of instruction; I have had a lot of training in D2L; and I have now taken six courses in Blackboard. It was wonderful to have the chance to build a course from scratch in a new platform. Coates, James and Baldwin (2005) talk about the drivers behind LMS adoption. I’m quite familiar with these, and at this point, I am not surprised that many students just see the LMS as “a general part of university infrastructure rather than as special tools which add value to their learning” (p. 28). I can’t imagine that there is a major university that does not subscribe to some LMS. At the University of Manitoba, most courses have, at the very least, a shell in D2L where instructors can post their syllabus, schedule and a few learning resources. I have always appreciated the benefit in terms of distance learning and access. I love the fact that you can direct students to one place to see many learning assets. Instead of being limited to showing them videos or other multimedia in class, they can be posted online and students can review them whenever they wish. It has certainly changed the dynamic of communication between students and teachers. Instead of saving questions for designated ‘office hours’, students can post questions whenever they think of them and everyone benefits. It really does give the impression that the instructor is more available and hence reduces that ‘transactional distance’ that Coats, James and Baldwin (2005) describe. This does require that teachers become accustomed to this new form of communication, but I think it puts them in better touch with their students.

However, I also know from first-hand experience that an LMS does not work well in all circumstances. I do not think I would go as far as Porto (2015) or Spiro (2014) who both doubt its future but it certainly isn’t an online learning panacea, and in many circumstances could easily be dwarfed by other platforms, such as social media or mobile instruction. For example, in my field of continuing education (CE), I am dealing with professionals who want to access CE whenever it is convenient for them. They have no time to register at an institute, wait for a student number and university email in order to access our LMS. Instead, they need a system that is as easy to access as a website or an app. If we don’t find a way to respond to this need, we will not get professionals taking our courses.

In the process of considering other web-based approaches to online learning, we were assigned to create an online delivery platform rubric. This was my least favourite part of the course. In retrospect, I appreciated doing some hands-on work with a framework such as Bates’ (2014, Ch. 8) SECTIONS, because doing this exercise solidified the framework in my mind. However, I didn’t like that we were creating a rubric for a non-specified platform. I think it would have been more practical to have a small group discussion around a real platform and use the SECTIONS model as a framework to rate it.

In Week 5, we moved on to mobile technologies. I have a psychology degree, and took a full course in motivation, so Ciampa’s (2013) work was a review. The idea that technology is intrinsically enjoyable and thus, motivating is debatable because of the novelty factor that existed when the study was created. In addition, the forces at work to motivate a class of grade 6 students are not the same as the ones motivating working professionals. The people who take our courses are motivated by their respective colleges to collect continuing education credits. We hope that the subject matter of our courses will peak their curiosity, but most of the time, we struggle with the fact that physicians and other professionals tend to take courses in things at which they already excel. To get them learning about topics that encompass their unperceived educational needs (such as the improvement of their communication skills), we often have to plug content inside a physiology course (such as new findings in heart disease). That said, a few ideas of Ciampa’s were helpful. It was good to be reminded that we can tap intrinsic motivation by challenging learners with goals that are personalized to their own learning needs and by giving them control over their learning by enabling them to independently access our resources. For my audience, the more control I can give them, the better because, often, professionals are either looking for specific nuggets of information that they can apply to their practice or need to go in depth into an area that they have only passing knowledge of. I need them to be able to navigate freely to get either benefit.

Module 3 began with communications tools and reviewed the key interactions for learning. Garrison, Anderson and Archer (1999) explored essential elements in educational transactions. Naturally, it is necessary to have (1) a teaching presence which is evidence both in the design and facilitations of a course. I am impressed with the amount of student-teacher interaction we get in the MET program in general, and in this course in particular. I appreciate that you are quick to reply to emails and very positive in your acceptance of where we are in our journey and what we may need to learn next. It must be a challenge as an instructor to come across as if you were running a course for the first time, to keep things fresh. Then, (2) a social presence is important so that participants can connect with each other as real people and develop personal connections. Finally, (3) a cognitive presence happens as participants use their communications to construct their own meaning of the course concepts. An outsider to elearning might find it difficult to believe that a community of inquiry can be established online. However, Garrison, Anderson and Archer (1999) remind us that unlike the fast pace of oral communication, text-based communication enables participants time to reflect and thus practice higher-order thinking skills. Also, since online discussions are mandatory, everyone’s point of view is represented, instead of just those of the assertive few, as is often the case in a face-to-face classroom setting.

Anderson (2008a), in “Towards a Theory of Online Learning, also discusses crucial online interactions. For him, interaction is “the defining component of the educational process that occurs when students transform the inert information passed to them from another and construct it into knowledge with personal application and value” (p. 55). Anderson emphasizes the importance of creating a safe environment for learners to share their understandings and thus increase their sense of efficacy with the content and in the online environment. Each discipline has its own way of approaching their knowledge and since the Internet provides almost unlimited resources, it is important for an instructor to provide big-picture scaffolding. The community component allows others to support and challenge members of the group, and finally, the assessment component helps to motivate and provide feedback to both learners and instructors. It is recommended that learner to reflect on their own learning and acknowledges that often assessment activities are project and/or workplace based. Certainly this course has given me many opportunities to assess my own learning. At the end of the day though, the real test is whether I think I have made improvements to my course-design skills. We have been assessed many times within this course and within the program in general, but in reality, we are being testing in the outside world, by our employers, by our students, by our own standards. Certainly, being in the course is causing me to raise my own standards and expect more of online-learning in general.

Anderson only touched on the importance of assessment, but we then spent a whole week on the topic. I was very pleased to find such a detailed unit on the importance and effects of assessment. I am an educator by trade, but I was never trained as a teacher. So, this is an area where I have very little experience. It could be argued that it is the area where I need the least training because there is very little assessment in the CE world. Indeed, as I mentioned in my discussion post, in some instances it is actually prohibited. That said, I found assessment methods to be a hole in my education and I can easily say that this is the best learning unit I have had on assessment thus far.

I had to chuckle when Bates (2014, Appendix 1:A.8) in “Assessment of Learning comments that “assessment always comes at the end, almost as afterthought” (p. 1). That is how I have often thought of it. You build a learning module and only at the end think, alright, now how am I going to test them on this content? It was good to be reminded of the purposes of assessment: (a) to extend students’ learning, (b) to assess competence in desired learning outcomes, and (c) to provide feedback on the effectiveness of teaching. This last part I am very familiar with because evaluation is a necessary part of every CE program. In fact, all colleges require that a formal course evaluation take place in order for a program to be accredited. However, we often fall into Bates’ ‘No Assessment’ category. At CE events, learning can be quite informal and in the end is all about self-assessment and responsibility for one’s own competency. In our courses, we use some computer-based multiple-choice questions but just as a form of self-assessment and to highlight for learners the most important areas of the content. Despite the fact that formal assessment plays a very small part in my practice, I do not think I will ever forget Bates’ comment that “Nothing is likely to drive student learning more than the method of assessment” (Bates, 2014, Appendix 1:A.8, p. 4), especially because it is so well supported by the next article we read by Gibbs and Simpson.

The article “Conditions under which Assessment Supports Students’ Learning” (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004-2005) was very interesting because many of its statements hit home. I have been a student on and off for a long time and the greatest influence on any course for me, was how I was going to be assessed. It never occurred to me that the learning that takes place when completing coursework has much greater long term effects than the involved in cramming for exams. However, I can say with confidence that I still remember details from my first-year Greek theatre recreation project back in 1987, but remember virtually nothing from what I crammed into my head for the final exam on theatre history in the same course. According to Gibbs and Simpson, the trick when designing assessments is to generate engagement with the learning tasks without generating piles of marking. Since they also noted that students pay more attention to feedback and use it to guide their learning when it is given without an assigned grade, I decided to get students to give each other feedback on their long-answer test questions. This works because I just wanted the participants to reflect on the issues raised by the content. I did not need to generate a mark for them.

In Week 9, we moved onto Module 4 on social media. I have been waiting for this module for a long time! Bates (2014, Ch. 7) describes the main difference between social media and computer-based learning as the amount of control social media offers to learners. As our Module 4 notes say, it “moves us beyond the notion of clicking (or consumption) towards a space where anyone can edit and create (contribute)” (UBC, 2016, Module 4, para.7).   The overall effect is a blurring of the boundary between formal and informal education. This is important for professionals who are committed to being lifelong learners and never know when they may need access to a new piece of information.

The issue is that as learners are empowered to access resources and manage their own data there is less control over the content by an institution (Bates, 2014, Ch. 7). This is only a problem if the institution is trying to control how users access and apply course information. However, CE learners are only going to bother accessing information if it serves their own needs. So there really will come a point for us when we have to surrender the old controls and acknowledge the ‘democratization’ of the web. I very much want to see self-organising groups of learners using our learning assets beyond the institution’s boundaries. Our customers are independent learners. They are more than capable of judging the quality of resources on their own and deciding what is worthy of being passed onto members of their learning community.

I was hoping that during the course, I would be able to devote some more time to discovering how professionals network online. To that end, I attended a seminar on Twitter and another on eChart Manitoba (2016) which is a new system wherein heathcare professionals can access patient information. I also checked out the eReferral Service that I found on the Canadian Dental Association webpage (2016). However, it appears to be a service wherein general practitioner dentists can digitally refer their patients to dental specialists. In theory, and in time, it should also be a way that medical and dental professional can cross-refer and share patient information, but at this point it doesn’t appear that many are using it for that purpose. I was really hoping to find what Bates (2014, Ch. 8) calls ‘self-managed learning groups’ but in the end, the best I could do was include a Twitter feed in my course and hope to see that social media site grow as more and more people take our courses.

In Week 10, we discussed copyright and I really appreciated reviewing the “Fair Dealing in Practice” document (UBC, 2015). It helped me to understand the ways in which copyright-protected materials can be used with university LMS systems. I am personally frustrated because our courses do not, at present, fall under such a dealing. We are not-for-profit, but we publish hard copies of our courses through a commercial copy shop because the university print shop cannot give us the quality we need. In addition, our online courses are on a website not controlled by the university and so not protected under the fair dealing policy either. Consequently, I was truly appreciative of the ‘records safeguards’ on page 10 of the guide because it confirmed that I am properly documenting our ‘transactional permission’ for our copyright requests.

In Week 11, we moved onto multimedia. Let’s face it, multimedia is fun. However, it does not create itself and most of us, even though we may be creative, cannot build our media-creation skills overnight. So before we even start, it is certainly worthwhile to consider the most important question “What will this add to the learner experience?” If the answer is nothing, but I thought it might be fun, then go seek entertainment kick elsewhere because this is going to sap a lot more of your time than you think.

After having the experience of creating my own digital story, it no longer surprises me that so few MET instructors bother to create their own multimedia, though many use educational videos on the Net. Boyes, Dowie and Rumzan (2005) are quite right when they identify the primary costs of multimedia as software and development time. I do not know if I agree with their belief that students today expect media-intensive environments (p. 2). However I do believe that flash objects and other multimedia can offer a nice relief from text-based instruction (p. 4). For me, it is all about presenting, whenever possible a variety of learning formats, just as Siemens (2003) states: “Proper integration of media formats presents students with rich, varied learning” (p. 3).

Our last challenge was to imagine what the future of educational technology would look like. Bates (2014, Ch. 5) gives us a great description and history of the movement called Massive Open Online Learning, or MOOCs. I would love if in time, the movement developed to the point envisioned by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times (2013): “I can see a day soon where you’ll create your own college degree by taking the best online courses from the best professors from around the world” (cited in Bates, 2014, Ch. 5, 5.2.1, para. 1).

According to Bates, some see MOOCs as a disruption to formal education while others claim it is nothing more than a digital version of educational broadcasting. Although I love the concept, I have yet to experience one, and I think it will be a while before they become the norm. At this point, it is still very important, in most fields, to have formal credentials, so I doubt MOOCs will effect formal education in the near future. However, I can imagine them having a lot of influence over CE. Already, in my career, I have taken dozens of online webinars where I was one of hundreds of participants tuning in on their lunch hours. Some may argue webinars are not full courses, but they are based on the same ‘massive open online’ principle.

In examining Alexander’s “Higher Education in 2024: Glimpsing the Future” (2014), I was able to imagine the future of formal education being split into two cultures wherein some institutions operate wholly online while the brick-and-mortar institutions attract students with their blended-learning offerings. The online institutes could offer greater flexibility and perhaps lower costs while the brick-and-mortar institutions would boast of their on-campus culture and state-of-the-art studios and labs for hands-on work. I find it interesting that Alexander believes that in time the 18-22 year-old education segment will be considered a ‘specialized niche’ within the education system. Perhaps he envisions student working immediately after high school while taking their studies part-time. I certainly believe lifelong learning will be the norm in the future.

The New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report (2015) saw the proliferation of open educational resources as a trend emerging over the next three to five years. I sincerely hope that is the case. Knowledge should be shared and not stored behind password protected sites. I believe one of the reasons that there is so much misinformation out there or movement from “the tyranny of experts with the tyranny of idiots” (A. Keen, 2007, as cited in Bates, Ch. 7, p. 4) is that real science and expert knowledge is hidden behind password protected sights and cost-prohibitive journal subscriptions. Attribution is important, as credit should go where credit is due, but the idea of hoarding knowledge, I hope, will one day be a thing of the past.

 

NEXT STEPS:

Moving forward, I certainly trust that I will continue to be a lifelong learner. I work on a university campus, so I am very fortunate to have access to regular continuing education sessions. In the charts below, you can see the seminars I attended this term and the seminars I plan to attend in April and May of this year.

SEMINAR ATTENDED

DATE TOPIC
04 February 2016 A Little Bird Told Me: Entering the World of Twitter
10 February 2016 Enhancements to eChart Manitoba   (Manitoba College of Family Physicians)
11 February 2016 Copyright Information Session
16 February 2016 Integrating Quality Improvement Curricula into Health Sciences Education
09 March 2016 Narrative Medicine I : Writing Prompts/Attentive Listening/Narrative Interviewing
22 March 2016 The Art and Science of Powerful Academic Visuals
28 March 2016 D2L: How to Use Data to Improve Student Outcomes

 

FUTURE SEMINARS

DATE TOPIC
06 April 2016 Presentation on Entrada System
06 April 2016 Narrative Medicine II
14 April 2016 Adobe Mobile Learning Webinar
26 April 2016 Information and Privacy
12 & 13 May 2016 Manitoba Association for Distributed Learning and Training Conference

In terms of next steps, I want to keep in mind Chickering and Ehrmann’s (1996) third principle: ‘Good Practice Uses Active Learning Techniques’. They states that “Learning is not a spectator sport. They must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves” (p.4). I want to find ways of making our CE programs more active and practice-based. Unfortunately, the tradition seems to be for participants to show up, sign in to get their points, and sit passively or play on their phone until the break when they get a chance to socialize with their colleagues. I am hoping that by using mobile devices in the lecture theatres as audience-response systems and creating Twitter feeds for each course, participants will be encouraged to be more active in class. It will also be a good way for people to ask questions and network with others whom they might not yet know but who are attending the same event.

In Chapter 8, Bates (2014) talks about the importance of reflective learning: “At a university level we need strategies to gradually move students from concrete learning based on personal experience to abstract, reflective learning that can then be applied to next contexts and situations” (p. 268). The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada actually offers their members extra credit if they submit a reflective exercise after attending a CE event. I would love to suggest that our course leaders offer the same service, that is, if participants submit a reflection to them after a course, they will get feedback (unmarked) and extra CE credits to claim. The problem is that I don’t know if our subject experts would have time to do this. If they did, I think it would be a very valuable exercise.

For my online learning work, I will certain fall back on Bates’ (2014, Ch. 8) SECTIONS framework. Boyes, Dowie and Rumzan (2005) describe a major benefit of the framework is that it “provides a unified approach for individuals who have widely varying perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise” (para. 2). It such a common sense approach, that I believe that I will be able to use it when discussing my reasoning for wanting to use particular technologies with my coworkers even if their backgrounds are very different from mine.

In terms of furthering my own education, I realized that I have yet to explore universal design for learning. Bates (2014, Ch. 8) addresses this when talking about the needs of a diverse student population. He mentions that BCcampus (2016) has a guide for preparing web-based materials that meet accessibility standards, but I am surprised that none of my courses so far have covered this topic in any detail.

I still feel that I have plenty to explore in terms of presentation technologies. Most notably is Articulate Storyline. At this point, I consider myself to have advanced skills in Articulate Studio (their original software suite.) However, Storyline has more interactive features, and so I will need to learn how it operates. I once had a classmate, in this program, who challenged himself to learn one new piece of educational software per course. I have always thought this was a great idea. At this point, I am six courses in, and have learned the basics of Weebly, PowToon, WordPress, now Moodle and VideoScribe. So I’m at least one piece of software behind. This summer, I’d like to play with GoAnimate. I would also like to take a MOOC at some point, specifically a connectivist or ‘cMooc’ that emphasizes networking and content contributions from participants. I also plan to take 565M – Mobile Education which I hope will give me hands-on experience in a mobile learning environment.

Ultimately, I’d like to find ways of making our programs more personalized for our participants. As Spiro recommends, “Learning organizations have to make a shift from planning and control to facilitating individual learner needs. It has to offer personalized, rich and context aware content” (p. 6). At the moment, we have what Anderson (2008a) calls an ‘Independent Study’ model where participants interact directly with the content in our accredited courses; self-reflection is encouraged but the only real feedback is automated through our LMS. If learners want additional information, they are directed to learning resources or encouraged to collaborate with colleagues. In time, I would love to be able to develop a community-of-inquiry model where learners have some opportunity to collaborate with others. Ideally, once we have enough learning modules developed, learners could create their own learning paths by linking to their next item of interest within our curriculum.

As we adapt our undergraduate learning modules for CE, we will have more freedom to allow users to explore our content without having to force them down a particular path for the sake of a formal curriculum. When that happens, I would like to see shorter, well defined units with many hyperlinks connecting users to resources both within and outside our program. Ideally, by that time, we will have an established Twitter feed on Oral-Systemic Health which can help bind the community at large as well as a connection to one of the provincial apps that will enable healthcare practitioners to refer and share vital patient information. This will support the formation of a community of self-managed learners who may challenge each other, clarify misconceptions, and negotiate meaning within real healthcare contexts.

 

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?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email+marketing&utm_campaign=EDUCAUSE

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

Bates. T. (2014). Appendix 1: A.8: Assessment of learning. In Teaching in a Digital Age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/5-8-assessment-of-learning/

Bates, T. (2014). Chapter 5: MOOCs. In Teaching in a Digital Age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/chapter-7-moocs/

Bates, T. (2014). Chapter 7: 7.6: Social media. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/

Bates, T. (2014). Chapter 8: Choosing and using media in education: the SECTIONS model. In Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Boyes, J., Dowie, S., & Rumzan, I. (2005). Using the SECTIONS framework to evaluate flash media. Innovate Journal of Online Education, 2(1). Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.186.6505&rep=rep1&type=pdf

BCcampus. (2016) BCcampus. Retrieved from https://bccampus.ca/

Canadian Dental Association. (2016). eReferral Service. Retrieved from http://www.ereferralservice.com/

Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S., C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples.htm

Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcal.12036/epdf

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. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11233-004-3567-9

eChart Manitoba. (2016). eChart Manitoba: Information. Retrieved from http://www.echartmanitoba.ca/

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2004-2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105. Retrieved from http://www.anitacrawley.net/Articles/GarrisonAndersonArcher2000.pdf

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers

Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010). Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 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

Porto, S. (2015). The uncertain future of Learning Management Systems. The Evolllution: Illuminating the Lifelong Learning Movement. Retrieved from

Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating media characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Elearnspace. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm

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

University of British Columbia. (2015). Fair Dealing in Practice. Retrieved from http://copyright.ubc.ca/requirements/fair-dealing-in-practice/files/2015/04/Fair-Dealing-in-Practice-v-1-0-2015.pdf

University of British Columbia. (2016). ETEC-565A: New Learning Space: Module 1. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/ldash2015/courses/course-1/

University of British Columbia. (2016). ETEC-565A: New Learning Space: Module 4. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/ldash2015/courses/module-4/

Assignment #4 Final Synthesis

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

 

 

My last MET post ever!!!

After more than three years, ten courses, several papers and projects and hundreds of discussion posts, this is my last ever assignment in the Master of Education Technology program at UBC, before I graduate this May!

In my flight path, I talked about wanting to learn how to design an online course, which I have. The word “Moodle” meant about as much to me as “Mars” did before this course. I knew it existed, and vaguely knew what it did, but had never been there. I would now say I am much more familiar with Moodle than with Mars! I had also stressed the importance of my ePortfolio, something I have not worked much, but I intend to work on it over the next week or two for it to present a rounded picture of my MET experience.

In the first week of Module 1 we reviewed the ISTE standards (2008). Of the seven standards, one that has really been crystallizing for me in my latter MET courses was “Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility”, particularly in relation to copyright, which would come up again in Week 10. These issues comprised a big component of ETEC 540, and through that and the making of my Moodle course here in ETEC 565, I have come to realize I have a distinct advantage over many other educators, the fact that I have spent much of the last 20 years creating original works of art, music and photography. Thus, I have a great body of past work I can delve into to inject my assignments with a certain originality without having to worry about royalties, so even if no one else is paying for my art, at least I won’t have to! This was evident in our digital stories, in which most used VideoScribe or PowToons, and royalty-free images and music which leave an indelible aesthetic mark. My personal story was not as marked by outside aesthetic influences because I had created most of the material and made it in iMovie, a video editor that takes less control over the end product that some of these other multimedia platforms.

In week 2, we were introduced to Tony Bates’ (2014) SECTIONS framework, and the Nels, Dyer and Carstens (2010) reading. I got more out of the Bates reading and definitely intend to refer back to it, both in my own practice and that of my teaching colleagues. It serves as a practical guide to choosing technologies. The concrete nature of some of the advice it contained contrasted the abstract nature of much of the reading in MET. For example, in the “Ease of Use” section, Bates recommends taking no more that 20 minutes to learn a piece of software, because time learning the tool is time taken away from learning the content. As I mentioned in my video reflection, I was required to purchase Bates and Sangra’s (2011) Managing technology in Higher Education: Strategies for transforming teaching and learning for my first MET course, so returning to Bates in my last course underlined a unified vision in my MET experience.

So, just when I was getting comfortable with my knowledge of educational technologies thanks to the consistency of Bates, the Porto (2015) article on LMSs threw a curveball and let me know that things change very quickly in this field. In past MET courses, I had spend a great deal of time and effort analysing and evaluating different LMSs. Hearing that even the term LMS might be passé when most of my work colleagues have never even heard it yet came as quite a shock! The article basically argues that LMSs are limiting, that students should be able to use a wide range of tools available on the web for education, including social media. I used to work a school that used an LMS called Schoology, for free initially but later with expensive licensing fees. This year, the entire board has made Google Classroom available, an LMS in it’s own right but which, being Google, allows for freer interaction with the web at large.

In week 4, we began our case studies, so besides helping the hypothetical Lenora with her problem of building a website with little knowledge or web access, I feel like I established a great working relationship with Victoria Olson, whom I had “known” (without ever actually having met face-to-face) from a previous course. I now consider Victoria to be an essential part of my Personal Learning Network, as she helped me immeasurably with my Moodle course.

Week 5 saw the introduction of the controversial topic of BYOD, another theme that keeps coming up in MET but differs from others in that the public at large is very aware of this issue as well. I have written extensively on this in the past, but would just like to add that radiation is still a concern for me. I personally still use an iPhone 4, and I’m reluctant to get a personal electronic device for my children (who are still 5 and 9 years old) and intend to avoid it as long as I can, despite almost being a Master of Educational Technology! I see friends whose children have their own iPads and I see the tantrums when these children are separated from their devices.

The sixth week concentrated on synchronous and asynchronous communication, something I really hadn’t thought about before taking this course but now find myself thinking about daily. I just got an email on my phone. It’s on my phone, so I could respond synchronously, but it’s an email, so the sender thinks of it as asynchronous. Do I need to respond immediately? For the case study I role-played and answered as Trinh, again trying to bring a more outside-the-box approach to discussions.

Week 7 brought the Anderson reading (2008), something I had also encountered earlier in MET, but needed a refresher on. The ideas of community-centred, assessment-centred, knowledge-centred and learner-centred keep coming up through course colleagues, professors and readings and are another important way of categorizing learning to keep in mind when choosing and evaluating different learning technologies.

Week 8 involved assessment. This was about the time I began working on my course in earnest, so the Bates (2014) and Gibbs and Simpson (2005) readings had a strong influence on the assessments I included in my course. For example, Gibbs and Simpson pointed out that multiple choice questions don’t necessarily lead to shallower learning; it depends on how students prepare (p. 15). Because my course is more of a general interest course than an academic one, some multiple choice wouldn’t hurt as students aren’t engaging in the activities to get the best scores, but hopefully just because they are enjoyable in and of themselves.

In the discussion in week 9 I found myself taking a position that I figured might not be popular in MET, namely that education ought to keep its nose out of certain social media because we all need places and spaces where we don’t need to think too hard, don’t need to deeply analyse, revise and question our work before posting, and can just relax and have fun. Not that social media need be kept out of schools entirely, but that thick lines should be drawn, not just for students but for teachers as well. A few of my colleagues seemed to concur that Twitter was more of a professional space while Facebook remained more social.

Week 10 got more into questions of intellectual property, which I mentioned earlier. During  week 11, I mostly concentrated on creating my digital story and discussed certain frustrations with getting my subtitled text over the images as I had wanted in iMovie. I realized through participation in the discussions that others had allowed the medium to shape their message, while I stubbornly stuck to the idea of my message and manipulated the medium as much as possible to fit it.

I am wondering why the discussion suddenly shifted from WordPress back to Blackboard in week 11. As mentioned in my video reflection, I found navigating between two different platforms confusing. If I was on one platform, I’d question what I might be missing on the other, until I’d become comfortable in one and stop checking the other, only to find out I had missed something!

I will admit that I didn’t get very in depth into the readings last week, though I am fascinated by MOOCs and, since I will soon be done with MET, should have more time to delve into some. I started taking one from MOMA on teaching art a couple of years ago, and though I didn’t complete the course, I gleaned some useful lesson ideas that I actually used with my class at the time.

Well, it’s been quite a ride, and now to post my last MET post ever! There will be a lot I’ll miss about this program but I look forward to new challenges, and know that I can never really stop working if I hope to remain concurrent with these ever-changing educational technologies.

 

References

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

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/(Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)

Bates, T., & Sangra, A. (2011). Managing technology in higher education: Strategies for transforming teaching and learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved from: http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers

Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010). Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 35(4), 238-258. Retrieved from: http://www.ajol.info/index.php/tvl/article/download/53794/42346

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/