Flight Path Précis

My original flight path stated the skills that I have required in my past technology life. These include: virtual school training, with minimal experience using Jing, Moodle, and Blackboard, as well as an action project for the Technology Learning Network in my school district. I am interested in using authentic, reliable and user-friendly programs that I can also share with my colleagues. I want to be able to integrate online with F2F to create a blended learning environment. In particular, I wish to learn more about social software and multimedia and how to incorporate them into education.

Specifically, I wish to create a moodle course site for a French verbs unit. Also, I wish to find ways to make Language Arts more student-directed and collaborative using technology that goes beyond word-processing. I also thought of using a wiki for language arts. To learn these skills and programs, I need to have hands-on experience.

Overall ETEC 565 Experience

The Chickering & Gamson (1987) and the Bates & Poole’s (2003) frameworks for selecting and using learning technologies, were an excellent way to begin this course. These readings allowed me to connect with the frameworks and use them throughout this term. In particular, I found a deep connection with Bates & Poole’s SECTIONS model (2003). The straightforward frameworks, questions and concepts were excellent. Specifically, I was drawn to the idea that it all begins with “students”. The SECTIONS model was very important to me; therefore, I decided to share this with the technology team in my district. After we reviewed the theoretical frameworks and moved through each module, I was able to apply the SECTIONS model more and more.

Module 2, Perkins & Pfaffman (2006) and Panettieri (2007), readings let me discover the similarities and differences between Course Management Systems (CMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS). At this time, and through exploration on the ELearning Toolkit, I was able to begin building my moodle site.

Through Module 3, I was able to complete some more readings and assignments relating to assessment, an important goal for myself, as stated in my flight path. Anderson helped me discover the important of online assessment, and how to create authentic and a variety of types of assessment (2008).

After addressing assessment, we moved into module 4, where I was able to explore social media. I am very active in social media in my personal life and was excited about this module. In particular, this module helped me re-assess my moodle course and add more interactivities. Additionally, I thought the “assignments” for module 4, the wiki and blog discussion were great. I think that within unit 9, we were able to authentically experience social media tools (wiki and blog) while discussing social media tools. Moreover, the readings of Wesch, Fisch, Downes & Lamb were very interesting. I enjoyed Wesch, and have shared his video with several colleagues in my school district.

The final part of module 4 ended up being my favourite: Digital Story. As stated in much detail in my blog and on my digital story page, I thought the exploration of these 50+ tools was extremely useful, educational and fun. I was able to learn new skills while assessing (using SECTIONS) the benefits and limitations of these tools. Also, through the insight and presentations of my classmates I was able to look at several other tools I wasn’t able to experience myself.

For the final module 5, I was able to evaluate and reflect on all activities of this course. Looking back, I expected to learn about how to set up a wiki or make a mini-moodle shell. But to no surprise I learned much more. Overall, the technical skills acquired were many, including: creating and editing a moodle site, using Flickr & Delicious, using blogs & wikis and multimedia (ex. Pixton) tools, to name the very few. More importantly, I learned how to choose and evaluate these technology choices. I used to be the person trying to get everyone to jump on the technology bandwagon, but this course has let me stop and take a step back. I now pause and critically evaluate each tool.

After receiving my atrocious mark for my moodle site I needed to stop and reflect. I definitely suffered from overconfidence in my skills. As we worked through many items in the eLearning Toolkit (see reflections below), I felt confident in my skills as I could do many of the tasks quite easily, unfortunately this lead to issues in my moodle site. Firstly, I tend to be very quick and try to work ahead as often as possible. As this was the case with my moodle site, I found that I was much further than my classmates and it was difficult to ask them for advice. This lead to my second issue: relying on my classmates. I work well with support, but I believe we each were working on our own sites quite vigorously that we didn’t have much time to reflect on each other’s site in detail. Additionally, I was much further along than most students throughout the course and when I checked out the Splash GUI (my biggest issue), most students did not have much more than a title on their page. I am not blaming my classmates for my issues, I just think that I struggled and it was difficult to get help at times. Thirdly, researching moodle help topics was difficult. I think because our version was quite simple that it didn’t have many of the features that many helps options offered. Also, I think this related to another issue I had, I wanted to much more outside of this moodle site, but was restricted. Finally, my own learning was at fault. I like to look at templates and see what is an “A” project before I tackle my own work, just to make sure I am on the right track. Some may think that you get “copy-cat” assignments, but I think I just want to get ideas and make sure I’m doing well. Perhaps a check in at some point in the course, even for student to reflect on other’s sites might have been very helpful. At this point, all I know is that I won’t assume I know what I am doing next time and I’m going to ask for specific help.

eLearning Toolkit Reflection

Each part of the eLearning toolkit was a learning experience for me; both technically and personal reflection. As I worked through each part of the toolkit, I was able to reflect on each in my blog. I want to include a brief reflection on each tool:

• Learning Management System: The LMS part of the toolkit really spurned my passion and quick shift out of the toolkit into my own LMS Moodle site.
  
• Web design and HTML authoring: In particular, I really liked the “Web Pages that Suck” checklists. Even though I misinterpreted this assignment and assessed my own site, it was a great experience. I might even use this as a mini-unit for my students to assess websites as part of learning how to research online and looking for reliable resources.
• Synchronous Communication Tools: These tools were very intriguing. I think that many people claim that using computers or the Internet is causing people to be “anti-social” and we are losing interaction. These tools prove to be the opposite and pushing towards more interactivity online.
• Social Software: As I have stated previously, my experience on social softwares is quite varied, but this part of the toolkit let me think outside of my personal world and really see the ways to incorporate these tools into an educational setting.
• Weblogs & Wikis: The many opportunities provided to use our weblogs authentically has been very effective in this course. I also think that the Wiki assignment was authentic. In particular, I thought that commenting on the wiki through our blog was a great way to link these two tools.
  
• Multimedia and Authoring Tools: I had a brief chance to explore these in the ELearning Toolkit, but more chance to experiment and interact with these tools through my digital story. By accessing and trying out several of the 50+ tools, I was able to see which tools really work best for my style of teaching. Additionally, I really enjoyed viewing others digital stories as well as reading everyone’s reflections on their blogs and discussion.
  
• Accessibility: This toolkit really let me reflect on my own practice and realize that my moodle site relies heavily on visual aspects.
  
• mLearning: As this trend continues to grow, I think mLearning will be used in classrooms more and more. I am intrigued to see if UBC’s new LMS choice will be able to support mobile devices.

Where do I go from here?

Moving forward, I have many plans for my educational technology lifestyle. I hope, and have been asked, to write an article for my school district based on Bates & Poole’s SECTIONS model. I think this has really become an important part of my future. I hope to spread the ideas of this model and really teach others the importance of assessing technology. As I have grown more critical (not in a bad way) and more comfortable, I want to use the SECTIONS model, which I have for many tools in this course, to implement more technology into my classroom. In particular, after assessing these tools with SECTIONS and discovering their capabilities, I am planning to use moodle and Pixton in my classroom this fall. Additionally, I wish to share many of these tools with my colleagues.

My educational plans are to take my ETEC 590 e-portfolio course in the fall. I hope to use my e-portfolio building skills, acquired in this course, in the fall.

In terms of my career, I am looking at shifting into an educational technology role. Whether within my district or in a post-secondary setting, I see myself as a person that can help spread effective uses of technology in the classroom. With the information from ETEC 565, I hope to teach teachers how to design and select technologies more effectively. Even though this course is ending, my learning is far from over. I think technology is always pushing us to learn more everyday. I’ve always considered myself a life-long learner and I’m thrilled to be in a field in which the learning seems endless.

Resources:

Anderson, T. (2008). 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_Anderson-Online_Learning.pdf

Bates A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In A.W. Bates & G. Poole, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education (pp. 75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 4.

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. Retrieved from: http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm

Panettieri, J. (2007). Addition by subtraction. University Business, August, 58-62. Retrieved from: http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=845

Perkins, M. & Pfaffman, J. (2006). Using a Course Management System to Improve Classroom Communication. Science Teacher, 73(7), 33-37.

Wesch, M. (2007) A Vision of Students Today (& What Teachers Must Do). Retrieved from:http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/a-vision-of-students-today-what-teachers-must-do/