About myself & my experience
My journey started from a part-time job as a learning technology assistant, supporting teaching staff using our in-house LMS, Cecil, in July 2000. In March 2001, I move to a full-time role, helpdesk supervisor, managing all matters relating to training and support. I had a boss, whom believed in listening to frontline support staff, which is a rare find. This lead to many years of working with the LMS.
My role evolved throughout this time, from support, training, training design, “client relationships”, to project management and more. In later years, I was getting tired of the job, but the people I work with were wonderful and I didn’t know what else to do. At one point, I was intrigued by the learning designer role; I talked to some of them but didn’t have enough push for me to make a move.
In late 2014, the University of Auckland started the evaluation for an alternative LMS, moving away from bespoke systems. Canvas was the chosen one and I was sent to the 2015 Canvas user conference. I felt re-energised and excited about work again! I realised I wanted to be doing more hands-on with staff in their courses. So, I created an opportunity and took on a part-time secondment as a Canvas facilitator for the Business School in August 2015 for 8 months.
Mid-2016, after 15 years of loyalty and hard work, my role was disestablished. It was heart-breaking and emotional, yet it was one of the best thing that had happened! It gave me the push I needed, for a career change!
Through my previous work with the Business School, I became their digital learning specialist, supporting staff using learning technologies in December 2016. While I had plenty experience working with LMSs, I found myself having to learn a whole suite of learning technologies, very quickly.
I have a degree in Business and in Arts; a PGDip in Marketing. Nothing in Education or Educational Technology. I wanted to learn a lot more about what I don’t know, so I can do a better job. That’s how my MET journey started.
Specific goals on technologies
One of the attraction to this course is the hands-on opportunity, after all, we all learn better when we learn from doing and be situated with an authentic activity (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989).
LMS
Even though I already know a lot about Canvas, I don’t have many opportunities at work to actually design a course in Canvas. From my experience, it is one thing to know how the system works and it is quite different when you have to use it to teach. For example, I get asked about what are the tips for marking online, I have to honestly say to them: “I can ask others for you. I don’t sit there and mark 200 essays, so you will have more tips to share when you are done, than I do!”.
So, I want to use Canvas as the LMS for my course work, so I can learn more about what it is like to use it to design a course, with some real content and purpose, for students.
Assessment
I often get asked, how can I use technology to make assessment marking more efficient? How do we give out more assessment opportunities without increasing the workload for marking? (and using not online quizzes).
My goal is to keep an open-mind in this course and see if I can pick up additional tools (or assessment methods) to explore further.
Social software
I want to learn more about WordPress. I know it can be a simple site and it is also quite a powerful tool, so it can be complicated, too. I’m very aware that I am not a graphics designer, so I don’t have the skills in turning out beautiful looking sites, but I want to get started.
Twitter. I remember seeing somewhere in the course about using Twitter to teach. I have helped someone to put a Twitter feed into their Canvas course, before central IT enabled it in our Canvas implementation. I’m yet to find out what’s the most efficient way one could use it in teaching and how it may help with student learning.
Multimedia
I would like to learn how to Podcast and make short video effectively, this may be a little ambitious. I would like to learn how make a podcast, just to see what does it take to make one. Maybe using iTunes, Easypodcast or Audacity.
Then move onto learning about, what does it take to make a good and interesting video that adds value in a course context.
Resources I would need to master these technologies
I think I need a small realistic task for each of the technologies. Perhaps some literature, article or blog post, with framework or tips on how to do these well, with some structure. Then I can figure the rest out. I believe it is better to learn from doing, with some tips and guides from more experienced people. But I won’t learn much without actually getting some hands-on experience.
Other Goals for the course
My goal for the course overall, is to have an opportunity to learn from doing and to learn new technologies. Then reflect and document on my own experience as a learner.
This is important to my work as well, as it helps me relate better to people I work with, as I am providing support for them when they want to try new technologies in their courses. As Diaz et al. (2009) suggested, support needs to be provided at all level and one aspect in the 2-5 year faculty development plan, is “ongoing support for new instructional delivery models, technologies, and pedagogies” (p.50).
Reference
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32. https://doi.org/10.2307/1176008
Diaz, V., Garrett, P. B., Kinley, E. R., Moore, J. F., Schwartz, C. M., & Kohrman, P. (2009). Faculty Development for the 21st Century. EDUCAUSE Review, May/June.