Flight Path Precis
Before beginning the MET program the majority of my technological education has been self taught. I am fairly well versed in a number of computer programs and applications though I am aware there are many tools that I don’t know with as well as many other ways of using the technologies that I am already familiar with. My primary goal in ETEC 565 is to find a way to successfully merge education with technology. One of the things that motivates me to work with technology is that it mirrors my educational philosophy. I feel that it is critical for professional educators to model life-long learning. Just as technologies grow and evolve to meet certain needs so too should teachers be constantly looking for ways to improve their craft.
My goals for ETEC 565 were to gain experience with the following: LMS platforms, assessment tools, social software and multimedia. Though each of these tools are distinct, they are all necessary components to a complete and functional online educational experience. Proper integration of all of them will be vital to the success of my Physics AP course.
e-Learning Toolkit
I found the e-Learning toolkit to be an extremely helpful resource as well as an efficient way to structure the resources for this course. The toolkit pages cover a range of useful topics and the pages themselves have a great deal of information from background to descriptions and examples to additional resources. Though full of information, what I liked most was that each page was concise. The important material was front and center leaving you to choose whether to go into further detail by following links. The structure of the toolkit also allowed me to focus my time where it would do the most good, perusing topics that I was already familiar with but digging deeper into ones that were new.
The tools that were most relevant to my desired path were the LMS, Web Design and Social Software. With no real experience working with and LMS before ETEC 565 I had a great deal to learn. While I was surprised to learn how much functionality (student records, communication, assessment etc) some of them offered I was equally impressed to learn how affordable some of them could be. For my needs, moodle offers an incredible versatility for a great price. My experience with it has convinced me that open-source software is the way of the future of educational technology
The web design and HTML authoring toolkit was perhaps the most impactful. I wish that this was because this toolkit was the largest and most comprehensive, but in reality what it did was show me how much some of the websites that I have made suck. Though I am by no means an expert, I had made a few websites with various programs (such as Dreamweaver) and so I was unsure how much more I had to learn from this toolkit. Well it turns out that other than fingding out that I am the author of some sucky websites there was plenty more to learn. This toolkit was a great example of layered information that allowed me to follow my interests while learning along the way (the 149 Mortal Sins alone provided hours of delving…).
Social software has long been something that I have observed from afar. Other than an occasionally accessed Facebook account I have shied away from social software – until now. Since completing this unit I have signed up for flickr, delicious, picassa, stumbleupon, minimobs, digg and reddit…and I haven’t looked back. Flickr offers up some incredible images for use in the classroom, while delicious helps me to organize my many educational bookmarks. While many of this sites are handy, I simply do not know what I would do without Digg or Reddit. Each night I find a cool or interesting science story to share with my classes the next day. This has made an immediate impact on the amount of discussions that I have had in my physics classes, which is something that physics classes are not always known for.
ETEC 565
I have to say that ETEC 565 has been a very rewarding experience – by far my favorite course since starting the MET program. So many courses are supposed to give insight on how to effectively deliver courses online but they simply don’t practice what they preach. By contrast ETEC 590 is set up with clear and concise constructions. While readings are an important part of the learning, activities and discussions play a more central role. I was encouraged to learn by guided inquiry, not hand-holding or being left without direction. Best of all this course not only has us plan our path, but actually follow it through to create a course that is ready for delivery. This has been the first time since starting my MET that I have put work into something that has an actual application in the real world, and I was grateful for the experience.
The Future
My immediate future will see me finishing to develop my Physics AP course. I feel like I have been able to create a good framework for 2 out of 4 modules. My immediate goal is to finish modules 3 and 4. This will likely take me the remainder of this school year. Later this year I will work on fleshing out details and fixing problems that have arisen from this year’s pilot run.
It is difficult to know exactly what my future educational goals will be. Considering how much technology changes it is unrealistic to predict exactly what I will be working towards even a few years from now. My long term goal is more general – to continue to find and investigate new educational technologies. I am certain that if I come across new technologies that I will find the time to explore and implement them into my teaching. I foresee that the real challenge will be discovering these new technologies.
I think that come of the technologies that I have discovered in this course will help me to stay on top of things. Stumbleupon, Digg and Reddit all have technology sections that contain a wealth of current innovations. Delicious (and similar social bookmarking sites) will allow me to connect with some of my peers to see what technologies they are following and vice versa. Ideally I will be able to build my own little network within the network that will ensure that I stay on top of current developments.