Synthesis

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” Greg Anderson

My MET journey has come to a gratifying end.  An end that I will never forget, and will certainly put into practice almost immediately what I have learnt.  I recall when I registered for ETEC 565A (Learning Technologies: Selection, Design and Application), a colleague of mine who had completed the course, told me that it is a very good course and that I would enjoy interacting with the content.  I can therefore agree with her that every moment of the course has indeed been a fulfilling, enjoyable and empowering one for me.  The various units with the various activities, tasks and readings were indeed engaging.  Collaboration with all members of the class was indeed an example of what a learning community should look like.  This community provided much content through comments, ideas and experiences.  The facilitator was at a level that at times made me do much reflection but made me realize that he was indeed modeling for us the characteristic of what a great online facilitator should look like. He has indeed made an indelible mark on my teaching career and has motivated me to move into being an online facilitator and an instructional designer.

In my “Flight Path”, I used the analogy of a flight as a basis for explaining what I hoped to gain from the course.  I assigned John Egan as the FAA, my colleagues in the course as the dispatcher, the computer as the course materials and I as the captain.  As we took off for the course I mentioned the fact that I was qualified for the flight, especially in using Moodle.  I however felt that there was more for me to learn as the flight would possibly take me places that I had never been before and there could be disturbances.  This therefore means that if there are any eventualities then I would be better equipped to handle the various situations.

On this flight I wanted to have a better understanding of how to effectively design and implement an LMS, select, design and utilize assessment tools, utilizing social media effectively and also to incorporate multimedia in teaching as a means of enhancing the teaching and learning experience.  MET has certainly opened by eyes to online teaching and learning, to the point where I am ready to change from face-to-face to online.  From this flight I hope to gain additional insights that will enable me to be more knowledgable of using learning technologies with my students.

The eLearning Toolkit was designed to provide many different resources along with information on many emerging E-Learning Technologies, links to additional information, examples and activities to support the course.  It was successful in providing that support for me for the course and beyond.  Unfortunately even though I went through each item in the Toolkit I was unable to give it the attention that was required.  This was due to my feeling overwhelmed with so many things to do in the course along with everything else in life, hence had to prioritize and focus on the more critical ones.  I however found the design of the Toolkit informative in terms of the links provided, and more so as questions, activities and issues were provided for us to interact with so that learning would be more meaningful.

As I went through the Toolkit, I was able to explore all of the sections but was unable to test MLearning, which I believe would have been a stimulating experience for me.  This has however been placed on my agenda of things to do to enhance my teaching and learning experience.  Overall, the Toolkit has opened my eyes to other tools that I can utilize to enhance my teaching and learning experience, also it has provided much information that I can utilize and additional tools that can be added to my own repertoire of tools.

At the commencement of my synthesis I placed the quotation, “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” Greg Anderson. This quotation is quite fitting to describe my experience in ETEC565.  Even though I am joyful that the course had ended and also that MET has ended, the journey has been wonderful for me.  Every moment of ETEC 565 has been rewarding and I know that I have achieved much and I am a better-quality educator as a result.

In the course different aspects made varied levels of impact on me.  I was fortunate to have wonderful colleagues in the course that provided much collaboration and interactivity through the sharing of ideas and experiences.  It was interesting that we were from varied countries, institutions and career paths.  This diversity made the interactions even more interesting and fulfilling. We were indeed a great example of a learning community and helped me to recognize the need to help my students to embrace the idea of a learning community.  I saw many benefits that can be derived from being a learning community, especially when you were unsure of how to perform a particular task; a colleague was able to provide some assistance.

The readings that were provided were not only appropriate, but also provided much reflection for me as I seek to be an exemplar facilitator for my teachers in training.  It is important for me that they not see me, but rather to see what they ought to be.  In each Unit I liked the varied activities and tasks that were given.  It was not merely reading articles, but interacting with cases, audio, video and other exciting course content.  This all provided a great example for me that in preparing for my students, there is need for variation.

In knowing whether or not your students have learnt, one has to assess them to ascertain their level of competence.  The designed assignments achieved this and were stimulating and brought me to a higher level in terms of my knowledge of using technology in education.  Each assignment utilized Bloom’s Taxonomy which focuses on utilizing higher level skills.  The Flight Path had me reflecting on what I wanted to achieve from the course, the LMS Site Proposal had me reflecting on the courses I teach and how I would want to improve them.  Writing a proposal for an LMS made me realize the importance of doing this, especially if you wanted to get other members of faculty to “buy in” to your ideas.  Creating an electronic portfolio was not new to me and I think it is useful, but needs time in doing the various postings.  I had hoped that I would have been able to do more reflections and thus more postings, unfortunately that was not possible.  I loved the idea however and learnt from it in terms of doing the RSS feeds so that I am notified when someone adds information to their blog.  This again has given me some ideas in making improvements to my courses.  The creation of a Quiz or Exam for my Learning Management System was new to me.  Even though I have used Moodle before, I have never created a Quiz or an Exam.  This was indeed another one of those fulfilling experiences for me that I will definitely utilize in the courses I will be creating.  The creating of Digital Stories is not new to me as I teach my students how to create such stories, but the fact that I learnt many other tools was again another empowering experience.  As I explored the various tools so that I could select one, there were some that I was familiar with and some I was unfamiliar with.  I decided to use ZooBurst, a simple but effective tool once well designed.  Again another tool I will be utilizing with my students and also my own children.  Creating a LMS site in Moodle was a fulfilling experience for me, even though Moodle was not new to me.  The requirements given to us in designing our LMS and my desire to do more than I am accustomed to in Moodle, helped in expanding my Moodle skills.  Using Dreamweaver and Fireworks in preparing images and pages for Moodle, allowed another change in my learning curve that has enhanced my abilities in designing LMS.  I am hooked on it to the point that even the image for this synthesis was prepared using Fireworks.  Finally, having us reflect on the course is another great task to help to identify what students learnt, if you have been a good facilitator, if there are segments of the course that needs to be changed and just to have a overall idea of how your students feel about the course.

Finally the facilitator and his assistance were indeed wonderful in carrying out their task.  I however have to make special mention of the facilitator who was a great exemplar for us in terms of providing quality online learning.  He did not only provide the content for the course, but modeled it so that we would connect the content with the practical components.  I have gained much from him in that regard and know that it has left an indelible mark on my career.

As mentioned in my Flight Path, that from the course I wanted to have a better understanding of how to effectively design and implement a Learning Management System (LMS), select, design and utilize assessment tools.  Also I wanted to have a better understanding of utilizing social media effectively and also to incorporate multimedia in teaching as a means of enhancing the teaching and learning experience.  This was important for me as even though I utilize some of the tools in my teaching and learning experience, I feel that there is a more effective way and I wanted to know how to do that.  Bates and Poole (2003) mentions, that students will have different preferences for various kinds of technology or media, hence the design of teaching should cater to these differences.  I therefore want to be that difference and the course has certainly equipped me in that regard.

My first impressions in designing LMS and more specifically in using Moodle, was about placing Course Outlines, Readings, Links to Websites and Images.  From designing my LMS site and interacting with ETEC 565, my thinking has changed.  This motivated me to utilize as many of the different tools as I possibly could, and I still recognize that there is more to learn.

The course has allowed me to do some introspection of myself as an educator and made me realize that I am knowledgeable of using technology in education but need to revisit my methodology.  Chickering and Ehrmann (1996) provided some sound ways in which this could be achieved.  They suggest seven principles of good practice to enhance teaching and learning.  The principles –

1. Encourages contacts between students and faculty
2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students
3. Uses active learning techniques
4. Gives prompt feedback
5. Emphasizes time on task
6. Communicates high expectations
7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning

I will therefore be using these principles as a guideline as I enter the new school year and have as my goal to make adjustments where necessary.

From ETEC 565 I have gained much and it is my aim to utilize what I have learnt to improve my pedagogy thus providing an enhanced learning experience for my students.  It is not my aim to merely introduce new tools to my students in the technology courses, but to show them the process that they need to go through in doing so as stated by Bates and Poole (2003).  Also I am aiming to utilize the various, tools, ideas, methods and activities that I have learnt to enhance the teaching and learning experiences in my non technology courses.

Using Moodle to create courses is definitely on the agenda and I will be exploring it some more.  In doing this however, I recognize the need to work more at understanding Dreamweaver and Fireworks as there are some things I wanted to do but did not possess the skills.  The use of video in my classes is another activity that I would love to utilize just as Dafna did with her students.  I have never given my students such a task, but think they would enjoy doing it.  My major challenge just as Dafna faced is resources.  I hope therefore to find a way to make this possible.  I also recognize that in utilizing media there is need to evaluate rather than merely selecting, and I will draw on the process as suggested by Siemens (2003).  He suggests that we should:

• Determine the outcome
• Rate the outcome
• Determine media characteristics
• Select media

I want to ensure that in utilizing the media that learning is indeed meaningful for my students.

In my wanting to utilize technology more in the teaching and learning experience, I know there will be oppositions which I have faced before by my colleagues.  It is therefore my intention to utilize the view of Roblyer (2005) as stated in Janson and Janson (2009) that fundamental research on the potential impact of technology on school life must be conducted.  He goes on further to state that, this line of inquiry needs to offer a clear research agenda and provide evidence that will help drive effective classroom practice, and that only when the impact of technology on school life is clearly articulated and demonstrated that educators will start to adopt technology widely.

It has indeed been a pleasure for me to have done this course which has once gain stirred my interest to get involved in instructional design.  I will therefore be exploring this possibility, but just as was suggested that Raj takes his project in stages, I too will take projects I plan to embark on in stages.   Overall I have gained a great deal from this course which will be used in some way to enhance my delivery and to model for my students just as John did with us.  I have not been disappointed but enlightened and empowered.  I have focused on the journey and not the destination; hence my joy has come not in finishing but in doing.

References:

Bates, A., & Poole, G. (2003). Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. New York: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated.

Boyes, J., Dowie, S. & Rumzan, I. (2005).  Using the SECTIONS Framework to evaluate Flash Media.  Innovate 2 (1). http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol2_issue1/Using_the_SECTIONS_Framework_to_Evaluate_Flash_Media.pdf

Chickering, A., & Gamson, Z. (1987).  Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.  American Association for Higher Education Bulleting, 39 (7), p. 3 – 7.

Chickering, A., & Ehrmann, S. (1996).  Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever.  American Association for Higher Education Bulleting, 49 (2), p. 3 – 6.

Janson, A., & Janson, R. (2009).  Integrating Digital learning Objects in the Classroom: A need for Educational Leadership.  Innovate 5(3). http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol5_issue3/Integrating_Digital_Learning_Objects_in_the_Classroom-__A_Need_for_Educational_Leadership.pdf

Siemens, G. (2003).  Evaluating Media Characteristics: Using Multimedia to achieve learning outcomes.  Elearnspace.  http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm