vicki's e-portfolio

So I’m starting my ETEC 565 adventure, cleared for take-off.  I’m excited.  After being fairly theory based so far in my program and then having signed up for more theory this summer, I’m happy to have switched one of my courses to 565.  I’m an applications kind of girl.

Don’t get me wrong.  I like theory as much as the next, but I learn by doing and if we stuff too much theory in this little brain without using it in application, well, it will all get jumbled up: all files, no folders & good luck finding anything.  Watching you ride your bike does me no good when my car breaks down and I need to get somewhere.  Let me play.

So, in a personal realm, I’m known as neither decisive nor demanding – unless we’re talking about behavioural expectations of my charges, who are typically ELL students recently arrived in Canada (Surrey) from Asia.  I’ve been teaching since doing my B.Ed in 2004, also at UBC, with the exception of a year off to have my son, now 5, and another year now with my 3 month old daughter.  Before that, I was in the restaurant business which I left to complete my undergrad (B.A. in Psych and English) and teach.  When I do get decisive & strict, it’s mostly Ps and Qs type stuff:  I disagree with this newfangled concept that an apostrophe should be used with acronyms and abbreviations to indicate plural, so Ps and Qs rather than P’s ad Q’s.  These letters are owning nothing in this case.  Argue with me if you wish.  I’m open to a good line of logic as to why I should accept popular consensus.  But here we go.  This is my nutshell of what I want from 565:  technological confidence with the ability to apply.

I want to be able to:

1. create and operate an online classroom, including discussion, whiteboard visuals, viable assessments, and all the usual classroom stuff;
2. improve my knowledge & use of html (assuming I should have some know-how here for goal #1).  Some degree of progress should be easy.  I’m still at the starting line on this one;
3. use Moodle.  Again with my assumptions, I think this goes hand-in-hand with goal #1.  Oh, sub-goal:  find out what Moodle actually is.   I know it’s an LMS…which was helpful once I remembered what LMS is (Learning Management System), but that much info just doesn’t feel like enough.  MET’s Moodle site that I linked to through John’s site helped, along with those who let guests visit their Moodle classes.  (Thanks!)
4. become familiar with options other than Moodle,  like Desire2Learn.
5. become familiar and proficient with non-traditional teaching methods, perhaps unique to technology environments.

That should do it for now.  Five hopefully attainable goals.  I hope I’m not missing something big here.  In my naivete, I could well be, but that’s where you get to smirk to yourself and drop me a witty comment with a hint of sarcasm that I will miss in my earnst & seriousness to try to learn stuff as quickly as I can.  And truly, there is so much I am so far behind on in the technology realm, the more you wish to tell me outright, the better.  (Besides, I’m a victim of social media.  I’m a sucker for comments & feedback… and the sideways )