Flight Path
I have been a middle school teacher for almost 15 years, and have always been interesting in making and creating using both low and high tech materials. This is something that I continue to enjoy, especially in the company of my own two children. It is important to me, and in keeping with the ISTE Standards for Teachers (2008), to continuously improve my teaching practice and reflect on my growth. I have had the opportunity to begin this reflective journey in two previous MET courses, but have now started utilizing WordPress to record and organize these reflections which was a goal I had set for myself during this course.
In my Flight Path I had set a goal to immerse myself in a variety of technology platforms, Google Classroom, Moodle and WordPress to be exact. I wanted to learn how to use these platforms to reflect on my learning and document growth in my teaching practice. A second goal I had set for myself was to “thoughtfully consider ways to express student learning” and “how technology can facilitate the communication of student knowledge”. Finally, I didn’t want to get to anxious about the vast variety of technology that is available and my unfamiliarity with a lot of it.
Overall ETEC 565A experience:
In reflecting on my learning experience over the past thirteen weeks in this course, I have been mindful of the goal I set out as I went through the course readings, discussions, and variety of assignments. I have accomplished much, however, I still have a lot of learning to do.
Overall, this has been the most useful course thus far in my MET journey for a number of reasons. It is evident from my Flight Path that I did not know much about Learning Management Systems when I first started this course. I have learned about what an LMS is, how it can be used as in a fully online or blended course, and how to critically select a platform for use. Originally, I did have a desire to utilize an LMS in the Makerspace course I was to teach in September. This has now changed as I have become a Vice Principal and will no longer be teaching in the classroom. However, I continue to believe that an LMS would be a valuable tool to help educators gain confidence and experience in the maker movement and I will be sharing the content module I created with colleagues who are interested in Makerspaces. That is why I chose to use my content module to focus on teaching teachers, as opposed to middle school students.
There are several areas in particular that I would like to focus my final ETEC 565A synthesis on in relation to the goals I set for myself in my Flight Path. These areas are the course content module, the digital story, assessment tools, and my classmates.
Course Content Module
This was such a rewarding and worthwhile experience with many facets which I can authentically apply in the future. While I personally won’t be teaching online anytime soon, I appreciated the opportunity to learn in depth about an online learning platform. My content module has the potential to allow educators to access a course such as this to further their professional development asynchronously and I would like to continue developing this course to its completion. Many components of this module forced me out of my comfort zone, to dive into the academic literature, conduct my own research, and to thoughtfully apply the lessons from this course; these essentials skills are transferable beyond MET coursework.
I would never have imagined that I could be creating an online course and I believe that Google Classroom was a good starting point for a novice such as myself. Even though I felt the platform was quite limiting for what I wanted to do, and visually repetitive, I could focus on how a LMS was laid out. Part of my decision in choosing Google Classroom was a practical one – it is the current preferred choice of LMS by colleagues in my school. I had not used Google Classroom myself, but had heard lots about it (from teachers and students) and I wanted to investigate what it was all about and its capabilities. I now have that first hand experience. The purposeful scaffolding of LMS knowledge from the beginning of this course to the end has really supported my learning and its application to the Content Module. It was hands-on project-based learning, and allowed us to put constructivism into practice, as opposed to just speaking about it; I both appreciated and learned greatly from this experience.
Module 1 and its overarching theme of making sure educators are informed about the technology they use resonated with me and will be something I can take with me as I move into administration. Learning how to assess both my own, and other learning management systems from the SECTIONS perspective (Bates, 2014a) is a useful tool and one that will be applicable as I continue to use technology in my practice. This model is one that I have reread numerous times and keep coming back to as it is relevant to not just to choosing an LMS, but also for reflecting on our choices of media for teaching and for learning tools. The completion of a rubric for the group assignment using the Bates framework helped me to consider areas that I hadn’t before and might want to consider, including mobile technologies. In the past I have often selected technology tools based on what I had previously used or heard about through word-of-mouth, unfortunately not always having the opportunity to assess it with a critical eye before I used it myself (I always try something out before I use it with my students). Bates SECTIONS model provide a user-friendly framework that I can now apply to materials. It is also one that I can share with colleagues as they make and justify decisions about the types and use of technology in their classrooms.
Digital Story
This was the one area of this course I was not fond of. I have terrible anxiety when I have to record my voice, post a photo, or video myself, so to even complete this portion was a challenge. Due to my anxiety around this, I used VideoScribe, something I have used previously, but unfortunately probably not the best fit for this assignment. When watching my classmates videos I have come to see that there are other more effective media and video recording tools that I could have used to properly edit my story. I was unaware of them at the time, but now know about them. Adobe Spark, Audacity and Camtasia are new tools I am looking forward to investigating further. Other visual tools such as PiktoChart and Canva will be very valuable for displaying and organizing information.
Assessment Tools
Gibbs and Simpson (2005) provided some important and timely food for thought. A focus on assignments as opposed to examinations and the significant role of feedback were two huge takeaways. I have found in this course that there has been much more feedback (thank you!) than my other courses and it has greatly assisted my learning. When I know what I am doing incorrectly, or how I can look at something from another perspective, or take to another level, I learn and grow. This is equally important for me as an educator. Making sure that I am giving my students, or colleagues, the feedback necessary to help them grow and learn is vital. I enjoyed deciding how to authentically assess “students” in my content module, while keeping Gibbs and Simpson’s article in mind. While I am still not a fan of including multiple-choice questions in my course, after the feedback I received I could see how it may be an effective tool. That being said, I find the Google platform for creating quizzes (particularly matching questions) ineffective. I spent considerable time trying to figure out how to automatically grade matching questions – to no avail!
Classmates
My classmate’s positive contributions to my learning, through the discussions forums and group assignments in this course, cannot be understated. While I’m not yet comfortable sharing all of my ideas online, and am quite intimidated by others and their strong “way with words”, I do read every posting and inquire about the different platforms suggested. I take the time to reflect on their thoughts. One of my goals was to immerse myself in new technology and my classmates posted all sorts of new apps and software that I will continue to inquire about.
The discussion forum when we were asked to speak to the “Power of Social Media” in Module 4, Week 8 was very interesting to me. It was surprising to see the number of educators in the MET program who did not use social media in their classrooms/schools for a variety of reasons. I found that people were incredibly honest about how they felt; whether it was skepticism, concern, unfamiliarity or something else. Everyone was incredibly polite and respectful which creates a place where people feel they can communicate safely, even when they disagree. November’s article (2012) on utilizing Twitter as a learning tool really confirmed what I have being trying to do with Twitter in my classroom and as a tool for my own professional development. I have been very mindful of the role that social media can play in communicating student learning and to communicate with parents what is happening within the classroom or school. There is concern around FOIPPA and making sure our students are protected and parents are informed. I have always respected the wishes/rights of those parents who did not want their child’s images posted.
As I move into administration, I will be responsible for the social media accounts at my school. These include the website, blog, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (I think that is all!) and will be used to communicate with parents, students and other members of school and school district community. This course has given me a new perspective on how these tools can be effectively used and managed to disseminate information (Bates, 2014b) and create engagement. I am also hoping to work with teachers who would like to use some of these tools within their classrooms/pods
Next Steps: Where do I go from here?
Moving forward, there is much I would like to explore and practice. Trying a different platform, such as Moodle is something I would like to investigate now that I feel quite comfortable with Google Classroom. I would also like to explore the variety of tools put forward by my classmates during the Digital story assignment that I never knew existed! I have been accessing the “Pot of Gold” and will be taking the time to thoroughly try out many of these tools and see where they could play a role in my educational journey, either through the remainder of my MET program or at my school. As an administrator, I can see myself using a variety of these tools to communicate our school stories, communicating with parents/guardians and our district and community. Learning how to design a website and use HTML are areas I have always wanted to explore, for both personal and professional reasons, and feel a bit more confident moving forward in this area after having taken ETEC 565a. This course has provided an excellent foundation as I continue my journey through the MET program.
References
Bates, T. (2014a). Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONS model. In
Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from
https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/
Bates, T. (2014b). Pedagogical differences between media: Social Media. In Teaching in
digital age. Retrieved from
https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/
International Society for Technology in Education (2008). ISTE Standards for Teachers.
Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports
students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31.
November, A. (2012). How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool.