Below is a copy of my overall Moodle experience that I posted to the Course Site page of this blog.  I thought it might make sense to copy it to this part of my ePortfolio as well seeing as though it fits in this category too.

About my overall Moodle experience…
My Moodle experience was an interesting one.  As I have mentioned some time previously, I am a relative neophyte when it comes to this technology.  I was a bit apprehensive when I learned I would be faced with not only the challenge of creating a Moodle Site, but also sharing my creation with my peers.  The thought of being judged by those that have more experience and skill than I do left an uneasy feeling in my stomach.  I have to be honest, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.  Once I got “my feet wet” the learning curve was relatively steep.

Creating a site for me would and did take a lot of time.  Personally, I didn’t mind the extra effort because I viewed this as an exercise that could be described as short-term pain for long-term gain.  Creating a Moodle site did take a lot of my time initially, but after creating all of this work I know I will be able to use it for long periods of time in the future.  I also noticed that as I got more comfortable with Moodle, creating documentation became far less time consuming.  For me, the pros FAR OUT-WEIGHED the cons.  I can say for certain that I will be using Moodle in the very near future.  I will continue to build my site over the next few months and will launch it in September at the start of the next school year (I better be teaching Engineering again!).

Perhaps my single-most memorable Moodle experience occurred this afternoon at school.  I was putting the finishing touches on my site at lunch today at school.  I was checking to make sure that all of the pages loaded properly when a couple of colleagues dropped by to have a chat.  They looked in at what I was doing so I asked them to navigate the site and give me their impressions.  They were so impressed that they asked if I would lead them in a Professional Development session on Moodle next month.  I have to admit that it felt pretty darn good to have fellow teachers (that teach Info Tech) to ask me for help – until now it has been the other way around!  At a time or nervousness (about to submit my site for evaluation) this was the best possible compliment I could receive.  Some may like what I have done and some may think it is rather elementary.  But for me, it is pretty much exactly what I was looking to create.

Cheers

~ Ryan

I don’t know what happened as I posted this (at least I thought) a while back when we were doing the module activity on creating videos & DVDs (Diabetes DVD activity). So I will repost my thoughts – although it is from memory at this point!?

My experience on a mac…
Right around the time we did scenario as a class we had a Pro-D opportunity at our school to learn how to use iMovie on the new Mac laptops at my school. The two colleagues that presented should us the basics that we would need to create a short movie. The editing software built into this application made it so simple to “grab” slices of the movie, edit and create. We were told to leave the meeting room and go shoot 5 minutes of video. “My Team” did something silly just so we would have something to work with. After filming we returned to edit our movies as a collective group. It was so straight forward that I got most done while the presenters were giving us tips. We were able to add text, graphics and songs to our creations. They demonstrated using basketball footage they had shot of our senior team. I immediately thought that this would work wonderfully for the wrestling team that I coach. I could either video tape moves for teaching purposes, record matches for analysis, etc. It was a relatively quick process as downloading the movie to the computer was done quickly (and not in real time). Converting the movie to a DVD was as simple as “clicking” a button.

Now I should preface all of this by saying that the cameras we shot the videos with are the newer HD cameras that use a memory card rather than tape.  In fact the cameras had a built in USB connection that allowed me to plug the camera directly into the laptop.

My experience using a PC…
It sucked!!!! I have a personal video camera that uses tape as its storage device.  It is not what you would call an ancient camera but technology has come so far lately that this camera is obsolete (in my opinion).  Unfortunately for me the videos of my kids first years were all made on this camera.  It is quite the ordeal to convert video to a DVD.  First, I have to download the video into a movie editing software on my PC.  There I can edit the movie but not nearly as easily or user friendly as the mac.  Once I am satisfied, I have to then upload back into my camera.  There I have to download it back to my DVD creating software so I can convert it to a DVD.  Now I know there are probably better and easier ways using a PC but I am not about to go out and purchase software.  The part that really hurts… every time I upload/download it is done in real time.  So if I have 45 minutes worth of video it takes 45 minutes to transfer to or form the PC/Camera – total drag!

Long reflection short… I have DVDs of my first child while my second child’s first months/years of life are still on the tapes (hope I can still find them).  I think it would probably just be better if I took them to someone to do for me because the process was so involved that I don’t want to do it again!  The mac on the other hand…

These have been my thoughts and experiences (again)

~ Ryan

My experience…
I liked creating the visual story and learning about the many different ways and tools to create MY digital story.  I chose to use RockYou.com which was a fairly pain-free experience.  I selected RockYou because I could upload images directly from my computer (rather than having to upload them to a differnt location on the web before adding them to my account.  I didn’t need to pay for any subscription service as RockYou was an open-source program.

How did RockYou.com impact my story telling ability…
The one thing that I didn’t like about RockYou was I wasn’t able to add voice narration – instead I could only add text to explain my thoughts.  Personally I would have rather used my own voice because a voice (in my opinion) is a much better and personal way to tell my story.  When simply using text it is hard to affect the tone of the story because it is just words.  For instance, if you are trying to imply subtle humour it can be difficult to do with words so the selection process of the pictures becomes more important.  I did look into the tools that would have allowed me to use my voice but unless I didn’t search hard enough, I would have needed software to record my voice (the tools I researched didn’t supply the software) – unfortunately my home computer doesn’t have that feature:(

How might I use this or other tools in my teachings…
I definitely am going to show my class the link we were given to search the 50 different tools.  Like I mentioned in my assignment, I have to do something similar with my grade 12’s so I think this will be a great way for them to share tell their story.  I feel as though it allows for more creativity and to be honest, it is a much better way to read/learn about someone else’s story then the old-fashioned way of using descriptive text.  I think this approach also allows the students to make it more persoanl and meaningful thus hopefully increasing their engagement level?

How would students access these tools…
Simple… give them the same link to the assignment that we were given (http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools).  I liked the way the site presented the 50 tools because it gave an example (using the same story) for each way.  The story didn’t change… how it was told/authored did.

What kind of impact will this have…
I have alraedy mentioned that I think higher levels of engagement will be achieved.  It has been my experience that whenever I can introduce computer based activities my students are much more likely to do a better job.  I am sure there has been research on the matter but for me I don’t need research to back up my thoughts as I have seen the results first hand.  Using web 2.0 tools such as these will allow the students to tell their story in a more meaningful and creative way!

Part II:

Well yesterday I complained about the fact that I am not a big fan of creating on the wiki – the whole notion of writing code.  I do have to admit that I did like the fact that there was some basic edit keys that we could use (ie: Bold, Italics, Underline, etc.) without having to actually write using the code.  I did notice that at first glance it appeared that some others had similar concerns.

Today I will add some more complaints but don’t mistake this as me be unhappy with the course or progress.  On the contrary I think this exercise was a good one because I have decided that creating on a wiki is not the easiest way to communicate.  I much prefer the discussion forums that we use in class site (LMS).  Conversations can stay more focused and replying to what one writes doesn’t extend the entire length of the document like it does through a wiki.

I am really not a fan of group work.  It is not because I think I am better than anyone else – far from it.  It is more of the feeling that I am letting others down if I don’t contribute enough or as often as they do.  I would much prefer to have to worry about my own effort and being responsible for what I can control.  But, I do like having the safety net of being able to bounce ideas of group-mates in a safe environment.  The irony of this is I do as a teacher assign several group projects for my courses.  However, I think I do it for different reasons.  I HAVE TO assign group projects because materials and resources are at a premium.  I wouldn’t be able to run some of my projects or even classes if every student did their own project.  One because of budget reasons, the second because I don’t have enough tools to go around for an entire class of individual projects.  I wonder what my students would say if I asked them if they like group work?  I suspect that the “slackers” would say they love it because they rely heavily on their partners to do the majority of the work, and the “keeners” would say they hate it because they end up doing the majority of the work while the “slackers” get credit.  Can you say, “Do as I say not as I do”?

Oh well, enough negatives.  Until next time…

~ Ryan

I think I will post my thoughts and experiences for writing a wiki in two parts.

PART I:

First, I have to say I don’t like it.  I am not a big fan of writing using code.  To be honest, rather than trying to learn it (because I don’t think at this time in my course and life I can afford the time) I merely copy from others.  If I am trying to BOLD something, use ITALICS,  change colour or add lines I find examples of others, look at what they did (ie: the code for it) , and copy the format.  It is a short-cut I know but the whole idea of learning code for some reason is both foreign and laborious.  I know I have to change my attitude but right now learning by imitating works best for me.  What I have started to do though is I keep a note book beside my keyboard and I add codes and descriptions in it when I come across something new.   I had to do a wiki assignment recently in my ETEC 510 course and as I was composing I found it helpful to do this.  I suspect that if I did it often enough I wouldn’t have to refer to it but since my instances are few and far between I definitely refer to it (perhaps more than I should?)  I just hope I don’t loose it – perhaps I should input it into my computer or just print off a “cheat sheet” for code writing that is already available on the web.

~ Ryan

So the course went dark for 2 weeks during the Olympics and I figured I would use that time to “catch-up” or “get ahead”.  Boy was I wrong.  Either I couldn’t remove myself from the couch as I was captivated by everything Olympics or I was done town soaking up the atmosphere.

I went downtown 5 times – twice with the kids; twice with my wife (sans kids); and once right after Sidney Crosby scored the overtime winner.  The thing that impressed me the most was how well-behaved everyone was.  Every year we have the fireworks downtown and it always seems to get out of hand.  I stopped going years ago because I no longer felt safe.  My personal safety never became an issue during the Olympics.

As far as events went I had a couple of cool experiences.  First there was the men’s downhill and Super-G.  I teach at Argyle Secondary in North Vancouver and Robbie Dixon’s mom teaches at our school.  Almost the entire school was in the large gym to watch him race.  It got so loud when he entered the start gate and unfortunately got so quiet a few seconds later when he crashed (both events).  I personally felt so bad when they showed Tracy (my colleague and Robbie’s mom) at the bottom of the hill – she looked so crushed!  That being said the energy and excitement in the school was nothing short of awesome!!

The second event that I got to experience was in mens hockey.  Team Canada vs Team USA (round robin not the final).  My buddy phoned me up a few hours before the game to say he got VIP tix to Molson house.  We got to watch the game in style!  White leather sofas, 50″ plasma TV’s, free drinks, free “gourmet” meals, Wayne Gretzky, Yvone Cournier, Pat Quinn, Tiger Williams, Maelle Ricker, Women’s Team Canada, Cam Neely, the celebs went on and on.  The game was an obvious downer but after the game we got to go over to the “club” side of the building for more VIP treatment.   Needless to say it was an experience I will never forget.

Now I am one that is a huge sports enthusiast.  I was all for the Olympics no matter what it will cost me, my kids, my grandkids, etc.  But I had no idea what I was in store for.  To see the passion, the support, the love, the pride, etc. was just amazing.

So thank you UBC for the extended break.  I am having a hard enough time balancing my life and keeping up.  I definitely would be lost if this course hadn’t gone dark for 2 weeks.

Go Canada!

~ Ryan

My objective this week was to create a “first draft” of an activity that I could use either a synchronous or asynchronous tool to support student interaction in your Moodle site.

A major reason for me taking the MET Program is that I want to be able to create meaningful and practical works that I will be able to incorporate into my daily teachings.  So, not unlike most I am sure, I have to decided to create a Moodle site for one of my courses – Engineering Technology 10.  I figure I will be able to transfer existing works as well as create new works for my class.  I think the site will allow me to build stronger teacher-student, student-student as well as teacher-parent relationships.

This first activity is one of my “new works” that I have created.  Working with Moodle has come with some mixed feelings so far.  At times I have been quite happy but sometimes I have had to log-off and walk away before my frustration level gets too high.  I experienced both emotions when creating this assignment.  The walking away feeling came when I couldn’t easily transfer what I had just created in a word document to my Moodle site.  I wasn’t interested in re-typing it word for word so there are a few minor formatting issues but in time I am sure I can work those out.  To compensate, I uploaded the activity in Word format so those using the Moodle site can see the Moodle activity (with its glitches) as well as the “original” document.  The goal, however, would be to eliminate the need for the paper copy but as the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

Description of the activity
Basically, I have created a Wiki Activity for the Bridge Unit of my Engineering class. In groups of two, students are to select both a term and a type of bridge and define/explain what they are (in context of Engineering).  The two parts of this activity have slightly different criteria which is laid out in the assignment.  After collaboration, each team is to post their solution to the wiki page of the class Moodle site.

Rationale for selecting this type of activity
I chose this activity for a couple of reasons.  First or all, I have found in the past (and present) that my students often have a poor grasp of terminology.  Many just want to “do” – they don’t want to “learn”.  I figure that if I can create a place (the wiki) where students can refer to it will increase their retention.  Also, by making them the “authors” of the definitions they will also be more likely to remember the terms and their meanings.  Secondly, I had them work in pairs because I believe this now becomes both  a synchronous and asynchronous tool.  The Synchronous communication will take place when the two partners work together (f2f) during class-time.  It becomes asynchronous communication when either they send each other emails and updates during non f2f time and/or when they finally submit their work to the wiki and other students read their postings.

How do I see students working within the tool I have set up?
Essentially I see this is one big collaborative class assignment where each group of two will be responsible for the learning that takes place in the class.  I can already envision a secondary assignment to this one where each student or group would then be responsible to posting their thoughts and comments to 2 -5 wiki entries (ie: what was good and what can be improved) in a discussion .  This way, students would get feedback from their peers and would be able to increase the accuracy of their submissions.

What tools are available to you to help you to track or record student activity within the LMS?
This part I am still working on.  Rather than asking for help I am trying to work through this.  I believe that I can go to the wiki page and look at the history to see when changes were made as well as who made them.  So if I wanted to do progress checks I could.

All-in-all this was a good activity for a newbie like me.  In the past I have always struggled with technology on the first attempt but I like to think that my learning curve is steep.  I hope this will be the case with Moodle!

~ Ryan

“Write an entry for your course weblog about your experience here (on your “Home” page and posting a new entry). How labour intensive was the process? What worked well? What was challenging? What surprised you?”

How was the experience?

To be honest this experience was a bit of a stressful one.  I started to the Moodle exercise on the wiki page a week ago.  I am one of those guys that isn’t confident with this type of technology until I start to use it.  I tend to have a lot of self-doubt at the begining.  So when I went on and tried to do the exercise only to hit a road block I thought it was an error on my part.  Only after emailing John did I find out that access hadn’t been granted yet – the stress was for not.

Now that I was able to get in and on it went rather well.  I think like most things new it will just take a few times (maybe more) to get comfortable and before I know it (hopefully) I will be a semi-pro.  I liked how easy it was to create something because my intentions are to create a moodle site as a teacher’s resource on my school’s network.  I just went through an in-service a few weeks ago (only an hour) about how Moodle was being supported and some of the pssibilities.  The hamster wheel started to turn and I had one of those ” a-ha” moments.  So fingers crossed – this is the start of something extremely valuable, practical and applicable.

How labour intensive was the process

I think the most labourious part of the process was setting up a split-screen so I didn’t have to keep toggling back and forth following directions.  Once I did that it was smooth sailing!

What worked well?

The instructions were laid out in a way very easy to follow.  Would have been lost if they were not so I would have to say the instructions worked well.

What was challenging?

As mentioned earlier the cahlenging part was when I tried to get access before I had access.  I found myself navigating through countless pages,  reading a nd rereading instructions trying to figure it out without help.  Finally gave up and asked only to find out I had jumped the gun and was trying to do something I didn’t have permission (account access) to do.

What surprised you?

Just how easy it was to set up.  Now in saying that I have a very basic shell I am sure but it is a start.  Eventually I hope to have something professional and meaningful.

~ Ryan