Synthesis

Final e-Portfolio Synthesis Reflection

Précis of Your Flight Path

When I look back at where I began in ETEC 565, I see some great acquisitions both academically and personally. I noted in my Flight Path that I came to this course with a decent degree of experience in using and developing media and online content. What I came to realize, that in the academic field of online learning, I am a simple serf. I was particularly humbled at some of the examples that were brought forth in this course.

I identified in my Flight Path my desire to develop experience with Moodle. It was just one aspect of this course that I wanted to take with me into my own teaching career. While I found the time commitment to my Moodle site to be extensive, I really pulled away a great deal of appreciation for the software and possibilities. It struck me that online learning environments are not just quickly thrown together shadows of f2f classes. They have a distinct and unique place in the education system.

I also feel that I have become more analytical to the uses of online tools and technology in general. I stated in my Flight Path, “I hope that I will have a better understanding of the rationale behind using particular web 2.0 technologies.” The SECTIONS and Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education really brought me to a new way of thinking of how to evaluate technology. It took me away from my old mindset that, “newest is best”.

As I mentioned, I feel that my over confidence in my Flight Path was diminished by my realization of how in-depth LMS’s can be. Overall, I acquired some great resources along the way that I can implement, not just in my classroom, but for my own social circle.

Reflection on your eLearning toolkit

This is one part of the course I could have been more involved in. I really struggled to return to these activities when I had free time (heavy on the free time part). For me, some of the toolkit activities I was already familiar with, yet I should have spent the time to refresh my knowledge of these tools. For those that I reflected upon, I did find the activities to be rewarding and enjoyable to complete. Of real benefit to me was the web design and HTML authoring activity. I knew that this would be a big component of our own Moodle site and I needed a good refresher on Dreamweaver – a tool I had not used for many years. It allowed me to try things out, see how the interface had changed and more so, see how different templates could be used. It reminded me why professionals make use of software like this; it is just hands down better than simple text editors.

The Social Software activity was one of my favourites. It forced me to read through end user agreements and terms of service agreements. It is interesting the amount of language that is put into these agreements. While I feel odd about making this connection, there is a rather media attracting cartoon that had an episode which really made me rethink ToS agreements and why we should be reading them. As I mentioned in my reflection, I was not really surprised by Blizzard’s ToS, but it speaks to what rights a user has even if he or she has purchased a product and pays a monthly fee to use that product.

Lastly, I found the mLearning activity to be a very purposeful task to complete based on the popularity of mobile devices today. The use of mobile devices for online learning has been something I have always thought of as an easy transition from desktop and laptop computing. From my experience, it appears still somewhat unpolished. The use of apps would be a great improvement in this medium and I think all of us should be aware of this potential means of learning.

Reflection on your overall ETEC565 experience

Modules

I found the modules to be well balanced and layered in a way that purposefully directed my (our) learning. I felt as if serious thought had gone into how we should be learning as students. This was really rewarding for me because I had just finished Learning Theories and Research Methodology. Many of the activities complemented the readings and overall goals of the module and lessons. Take Unit 7 in Module 3, communication tools. The case study of Trinh presented some real world questions that needed to be answered when using online education that spans time zones. As well, the rationalizing between synchronous and asynchronous learning spoke to how, we as humans, like to interact. This was an enjoyable and mind opening unit for me.

Module two was another segment of this course that proofed very beneficial at the end of this course. Coming to understand the differences in online learning environments and how those tools are used made a difference in how I wanted to present my unit within Moodle. As well, building a “grading” rubric for an LMS, within a group, showed how we could make use of another online tool (Google Docs) to complete live and revolving editing and discussions. It was a great experience for me.

Community of Learning

I found that within this course, there was a very true community of learning. While there were the discussions that were taking place within the module activities, I found the discussion topics outside of these to be very functional. The general course queries, Moodle queries and Cool Links spoke to the activity of our community. I was pleasantly surprised by the quick and useful responses when I posed a question within the queries.

The overall module discussions were very active. It is one of the few times I came out of my comfortable place and really tried to ask some challenging questions. I have noticed in the past, many responses are just nice pleasantries. I was trying to get away from this, even if maybe my take on circumstances were wrong. As I have found before, it is always interesting to see the perspective of education outside of where I teach, being Ontario.

E-Portfolio / Assessment

The use of an external website, WordPress, to showcase and reflect upon our work was definitely beneficial. I found it forced me to become familiar with an online tool that I had only played around with in the past. It allowed our community of learners to post and share comments in a way that felt more genuine than if it were solely embedded in our Vista course site. At the same time, I am not sure that I was as active with other students’ posts as I have been in other classes, when activities and tasks were a discussion post in Vista.

The tasks and involvement in discussions were well defined and accomplishable with no second guessing. As mentioned earlier, the tasks had a purpose that scaffolded our learning toward a larger goal (ex. the Moodle site). I found the digital story to be one of my favourite exercises. Again, it forced me to use an online tool that I had just topical experience with. I realized that Google Maps can be more than a resource to use. It can be a social distribution tool that can share content other than locations. The discussion topics and case scenarios helped to focus our thinking around issues in educational technology. I really preferred the case study activities. The one that sticks out the most for me was Noelene and her decision to use LiveJournal as a component for her Grade 9 English class. It was interesting to see the conversations evolve around the use of this tool. While I felt I may have been a little polarized in the discussions, I appreciated the chance to voice and share my point-of-view.

Wimba

While I was only able to take part in one of the live chats, I have come to perceive this tool more than just some simple add-on. It was really interesting to hear the voices of all the students in this class in the opening module. It just personalized names that I have become accustomed to seeing in text. The Wimba live session was, for me, a real example of where online learning should be going. It was one of the few times that I shared with friends and colleagues how powerful an online tool can be. They all agreed that would make their own experience(s) with online courses more interesting.

Personal Component

When I began this program, this was one of the courses I was really looking forward to taking. It was aligned with much of what I had done in the past and my current hobbies and interests. As much, I found these last 3 months a real challenge. Having a new baby at home and a 2 year old to manage, really cut into my free time and energy level. Some nights, I would not be able to start readings, responses and activities until about 9:30p.m. Since school ended, the challenges have increased. On many occasions, I found I struggled to put my best foot forward. This is something I not very happy about. At times, when I look back, it showed in my work and discussions. Such as, I may have been more subjective than objective. I made a promise to my wife, and myself, that I would not take another spring/summer course for the duration of this program. It is not that I did not enjoy this course, which I did, it was just the wrong timing for me and I regret that I may have been unbecoming to the expectations I had signed up for.

Next Steps

This course has taught me many new aspects of learning and technology. I feel like I have not only refined my skills with technology, I have also gained a new appreciation for LMS software and the development of online courses. Yet, I sense I have many areas of growth to explore. As mentioned above, I think that mLearning may become the next big thing. I would really like to play around with / learn the development software that is used to make these apps (ex. iOS SDK 4 and Android SDK).

I would also like to implement a broader range of technologies in my classroom. Looking at what we accomplished here in this course, I could see myself actually trying out weblogs and some of the 50+ ways to tell a story resource (a page that I added to my bookmarks).

Personally, sometime in the future, I would like to teach an online AQ course. To do this, I will need to keep on top of the technologies and tools available online. I would like to work with Moodle 2.0 or other LMS software. While I am unsure how successful my own unit Moodle was, it did give me the chance to see the process in action and I would hate to leave it just at that.

Overall, this has been a great journey and flight. I learned once again that we cannot work in isolation for the betterment of our own knowledge or that of the community. I also reaffirmed that technology is always changing and if these changes are not embraced, you as an educator, become stagnant. I hope that I am never that stagnant educator.

References:

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.

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