When this course began I honestly wasn\u2019t 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.\u00a0 When the course began I established some learning goals for myself that included:<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019re lucky, you can run across an idea that can influence a fundamental shift in your thinking or your practice.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found that most of time when this has happened within the MET program it has happened when I wasn\u2019t really expecting it and in this course I was fortunate enough for it to happen twice for me.<\/p>\n
Frameworks \u2014 The irony here is that this is not the first time that I have been introduced to Bates. I\u2019ve run across this work in a couple of previous courses, and also in a post graduate certificate program form another University, so I\u2019m not quite sure why it took my so long to appreciate the SECTIONS model (Bates 2014).\u00a0 I think that it was probably a reflection of where I am in my professional life.\u00a0 I\u2019m 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.\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Case Studies \u2014 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.\u00a0 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\u2019ve seen and experienced case studies before and I\u2019ve always just considered them an exercise to work through.\u00a0 In this course however, something clicked.\u00a0 There have been a couple of projects at work where I\u2019ve 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.\u00a0 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. \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I think that overall the experience of taking this course was a good one.\u00a0 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\u2019m still not sure that the badges are working properly.\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly certain I didn\u2019t get some of the badges that I should have.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Probably the most difficult part of this entire course was contributing meaningful discussion posts.\u00a0 Many course it\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Most of the time I delayed posting mine to review and improve it.\u00a0 I actually found these discussions pretty intimidating a times.<\/p>\n
Throughout this reflection I\u2019ve outlined how my practice has changed and will continue to be influenced by this course.\u00a0\u00a0 Now more than ever I appreciate the idea that technology is a tool that needs to be examined and selected carefully.\u00a0 I agree that \u201ctechnology is not a panacea that suddenly transforms all learning\u201d (Nel, Dreyer, and Carsten, 2010, p. 253).\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s part of the problem though many time we look to technology for the quick fix to present the material and move on.\u00a0 That\u2019s how we end up with \u201cdeath by PowerPoint.,\u201d the right technology in the right place, and online courses that over-promise and under-deliver. \u00a0\u00a0I know that I\u2019ll be making better education technology choices from here on out.<\/p>\n
Bates, T. (2014).\u00a0Teaching in digital age <\/em>http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/teachinginadigitalage\/<\/a>\u00a0(Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)<\/p>\n Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010).\u00a0Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation.\u00a0Journal for Language Teaching<\/em> 35(4), 238-258. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.ajol.info\/index.php\/tvl\/article\/download\/53794\/42346<\/a><\/p>\n