Ed in ETEC

Precis of My Flight Path

When I created my initial Flight Path for ETEC 565, one of the biggest concerns is the lack of public funding towards our education system to satisfy the increasing technology demands of our schools and of this changing world. I said in my Flight Path that I was pleased to learn in my previous ETEC course that some free resources are available for educators, and these resources could help educators enhance the learning experience for students in terms of technological needs. The worry I have, however, is that these resources, though available, are not known to most educators. It is therefore my hope to help facilitate a process by which educators can learn of the availability of these resources; and, should they so choose to, be able to enter a collaborative learning community where educators can assist one another in the implementation, and the delivery of these resources.

Though not explicitly stated, another concern I have in the implementation of these resources is that educators would be reluctant to learn and to implement them because they are afraid to “learn a new trick,” or are too busy teaching the curriculum as is. While I cannot necessarily help alleviate their busy schedule, I feel that I can help them remove the fear of implementing new technology through the example of a not-so-technologically-advanced person being able to do so. Specifically, I said, “as I do not consider myself as a technology wizard, I feel that I can convey to my fellow staff member that you do not need to be a “techie” to deliver education that is technology-based.” As ETEC 565 draws to its closure, I feel even more convicted with this emotion – though I continue to face challenges when using a new technology tool, I also feel confident knowing that there is a great collaborative community out there, whether that be those enrolled in the MET program, or educators around the world, who are all willing to provide the assistance in various forms. In reality, it is not a matter of an educator not being able to find the resources and assistance needed, but whether or not he/she is willing to seek that assistance.

Toolkit Experience

I have explored several toolkits during my time in ETEC 565. For the most part, I have explored the tool kits that are directly related to the course, namely, the one on the learning management system (LMS), and ones related to media and authoring tools. The e-learning toolkit experiences, for the most part, have been fairly positive, but they were not without moments of intense frustrations. Nevertheless, the toolkit experience, for the most part, has taught me a lot, and has highlighted some areas that I need to continue to work on.

While working on the toolkit involving Moodle, the LMS of my choice for ETEC 565, I’ve found the initial instructions to set up my Moodle course site to be extremely straightforward. Following these instructions, I had no trouble what-so-ever in creating my course and the basic layout. Later, as I was required to put more content into my Moodle course, I found the links provided by the Toolkit to be very useful. In particular, I find the videos other educators have posted showing me, hands-on, how to perform a particular function on Moodle, to be the most suitable for my learning. Tomaz Lasic’s 2-minute Moodle Tutorials, found here http://human.edublogs.org/moodle-tutorials-2-minute-moodles/, are the most practical and useful.

Toolkits for media and authoring tools gave me more difficult challenges, and that is a rude reminder of how technological skills, even when mastered, may yield undesirable results when a technical problem arises. While learning how to use various DVD authoring tools, my computer began crashing at various points. This occurred even when I have turned down all other operations to minimize the memory requirement on my six-year-old computer. The computer was behaving so erratically that I eventually had to give up on using the DVD authoring tool to create a different version of my digital story (which was never published or submitted). That was a great disappointment as I saw a lot of pedagogical potential in mastering that tool, but it was also a reminder that, at many of our public schools, technology is so outdated that they could not handle the newer tools that are available, even if they are free to use.

One aspect of the toolkit learning experience, though not directly related to the toolkits themselves, played an instrumental impact in my learning, and that is the collaboration and peer-mentoring that took place among the ETEC 565 community. Even the best-laid toolkit cannot possibly provide every detail needed in using a particular media tool. It is then where the collective community of ETEC 565 students stepped up to help one another. Without their professionalism in actively engaging themselves in the collaborative and peer-mentoring process of student learning, many of us would probably have to struggle for a much longer period of time to figure out how to do certain tasks.

SECTIONS Model and My e-Portfolio

As I compile my e-portfolio, inevitably I have to create its components in congruence with Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model (2003). If I were to evaluate my own e-Portfolio, I would say I score quite high on some, but perhaps not so high on some other components:

S (Students): Using a weblog to compile the various learning activities in ETEC 565 is a very appropriate choice of technology for a student in the MET program. As graduate students, we are expected to prepare a portfolio to demonstrate what we have learned. An e-portfolio is the next step, and an appropriate step, in the digital age. For me personally, it opens a new door of opportunity in using a weblog – not only can it be used as a forum to share my ideas; but it also can serve as an online storage system for scholarly records.

E (Ease of use and reliability): Using a weblog is extremely easy for me, because I have been blogging for a very long time (from the days of using Open Diary and Xanga to record my thoughts to Blogger as a forum to publish pieces that are rejected by the mainstream media). The choice of using WordPress as the hosting place for our ETEC 565 weblog is also appropriate. While I have not explored all of the features from WordPress, it does offer even more flexibility in desktop publishing than Google’s Blogger. In particular, I appreciate WordPress’ ability to create categories and sub-categories – this feature allows me to post my weekly reflections into manageable and easy-to-find locations (under the grand category of ETEC 565, followed by the module the reflection piece belongs to).

C (Costs): As an educator in a public school system, costs have always been a primary concern for me when thinking about technology. Any technological implementations, however pedagogically useful and effective, would render pointless if the school (or the school board) does not have the resources to implement them. Using WordPress is free of charge, and even if this activity is extended to include my own students, it would continue to remain free. The only hurdle is to convince administrators and parents that we will be using a public hosting place to hold students’ weblogs.

T (Teaching and Learning): The teaching required for me to begin creating this e-portfolio has been minimal. As I have mentioned, I have been blogging for a very long time; the main learning that took place for me is to learn a new platform and interface in publishing. Understanding the differences between a “page” and a “category” in WordPress was somewhat of a challenge for me, and it created some early problems in my compilation of my e-Portfolio. However, once those initial problems were solved, there was not really much learning that need to take place.

I (Interactivity): Weblogs allow others to post comments. However, as an asynchronous form of communication, I find the level of interactivity in a weblog to be extremely low, even when compared to other asynchronous means of communication, such as that of a discussion forum. For the most part, my e-portfolio was just posted to be read by my classmates, and to be evaluated by my instructor. Very few have actually left a comment on my e-Portfolio (nor did I leave many comments on others’).

O (Organizational Issues): As I finalize my e-Portfolio, I have decided to make a substantial change by re-defining my categories. I believe this would allow the content of the e-Portfolio to be more narrowly and accurately placed. Specifically, I have created five sub-categories under the category “ETEC 565” for each of the learning modules we have in the course. This allowed me to place my reflections and other contents into their appropriate place instead of being all under the big “umbrella” of ETEC 565.

N (Novelty): Weblogs themselves have been around for quite some time, but the use of a weblog as a storage tool to build an electronic portfolio was definitely a new idea to me. This actually prompted me to reflect back in the way I have been using my two Google weblogs – instead of just using them to record my thoughts of the day, they can be used as a record-keeping device to store and upkeep materials.

S (Speed): To upload my e-portfolio materials onto my weblog was not time-consuming at all. In most cases, WordPress allows me to directly copy and paste what I have typed up in a Word file into my weblog. The only challenge, which I actually was not able to overcome, was the formatting limitation when I had to publish my multimedia inventory. I ended up having to provide a link to a .pdf file of the inventory.

Next Step in Education Technology

As I venture into the next steps in my program and career, I must say that ETEC 565 has taught me a lot. At a personal level, I have realized how much I still need to learn in using the various technological tools (though I have always considered myself, and rightfully so, to be one of the more technologically-advanced educators in my school). The various toolkit resources that are found in the course site have been invaluable, and I will definitely take some time to record them, archive them, for future references.

Professionally, I have learned to appreciate the collaboration that took place in this course. Sadly, I had a poor experience in my first MET course when trying to collaborate in a final group assignment – I ended up having to re-do the entire assignment by myself. ETEC 565 re-assured me that most educators are very willing to collaborate, and are very diligent in the way they deal with their course work. The numerous assistance and encouragement provided by my classmates would be something I sorely miss when this course completes; I can only hope that I can become as resourceful and encouraging a colleague to other educators who are learning to implement technology in their classrooms.

In conclusion, I feel that ETEC 565 has been a classic demonstration of the seven principles for good practice in education, as proposed by Chickering and Gamson (1987). Contacts have been frequent between the instructor and the students; reciprocity among students has been the most extensive, learning techniques have been taught well, feedback has been given, we have learned to devote the appropriate amount of time in creating various components in our course, a very high level of expectation was conveyed to us, and students were given every opportunity to demonstrate their diverse talents. ETEC 565 teaches me that the principles in educational theories can actually be lived out and lived out well, and that is something I will remember for a long time as I continue my educational career, both as a student and as a teacher.

References

Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987).  Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.  American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7.

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.