It is hard to believe we are at the end of our ETEC 565 journey. John- If I could afford to hire you on a retainer to be an ongoing consultant I would do it in an instant. The lay out of this course really forced us to think and figure out the answer. You provided us with the right amount of guidance to get us to where we needed to be. We are all much more competent than when we started this course.
Flight Path: I should have checked in with my flight path each week to ensure I was on course. Somehow I never felt off course, perhaps times of turbulence, however I always seemed to have the final destination in mind. That final destination really consisted of what I hoped to accomplish by taking this course. One of my primary goals was to learn Moodle. I can happily say that I LOVE Moodle. I didn’t hate it at first, however didn’t really like it either. Now I can see from an administrative perspective how easy it can be to work with and how inexpensive it is. With a little know how thrown in it can also be incredibly user friendly and present content in a professional manner. All you have to do is check out some of the great courses created by my peers to see the potential of this system.
I was disappointed that I didn’t nail the LMS assignment portion. I thought I had the splash page GUI, yet didn’t seem to. When I was working in IWEB I couldn’t quite figure out how to activate the ‘buttons’ to make navigation easy. I also perhaps did not spend enough time working on the curriculum content for each module. I have never really enjoyed content creation and curriculum development. When I started building my Moodle Site, I was really stumped on creation of webpages and hyperlinks. I also didn’t have a clue as to the development of quizzes. I am pretty comfortable with both of those now except for a few advanced things.
Thanks to my peers I have come away from this course with more ways to leverage web 2.0 in the classroom. I have seen great examples of digital stories, and learned about new free web based applications that can be used in the class.
I also think the experience of using this blog to communicate has taught me an effective medium to use with my students. Creating a blog and using it as a reflective tool could be highly successful with my group. In addition to this using WIMBA was a fantastic experience. It would allow those who crave more personal communication in a distance setting to feel a better sense of connectedness. I just need to find out if the college can support this technology.
Reflection on E-Learning toolkit:
I really like the idea of Wiki’s. So much information cobbled together from so many different sources laid out in such a friendly educational way. I also think wiki creation for the hospitality industry is currently lacking. We could create them as a learning tool for the class and for the greater benefit of the industry to share and collaborate on ideas.I also quizzed my students about wikis and many of them were leary about using these tools. Something else that seemed curious to me. It almost sounded as though in high school they were taught to avoid wikis as an unreliable source for information. That can be true, however, what this course has taught me is the power of a wiki to assist you in finding sources of information in a collaborative setting. I have also been involved in courses where wikis were built by the students.
I spent quite a bit of time on the web design portion as it fascinates me how web sites are created. Sure i’m a user but have never understood html(still don’t really) or the ‘back of house’ design work which goes into creating sites. I enjoyed looking through examples of really poor sites. I also liked learning about NVU and Iweb. I found once I started creating my Moodle site IWEB just couldn’t be beat for ease of use. I was very thrilled to be using my Mac for more than just surfing and word processing.
After spending time on the blog sites, I decided to randomly quiz my students as to who has blogs. Surprisingly, very few of them actively keep blogs and even fewer have ever had to use them in education. This seemed odd to me as they are a powerful communication tool and great for reflections ;).
Overall: ETEC 565 has empowered and enabled me to see the tremendous possibilities afforded to us by technology. It has shown me that you really don’t require massive investments in technology infrastructure or complex support mechanisms for faculty and students. You can incorporate technology into the classroom in surprisingly easy ways.
It has also humbled me as many times throughout the course I simply wasn’t able to provide the necessary feedback and communication which was part of the initial commitment to taking this course. Much of the learning in this course took place in the forum. Questions were thoughtfully posed and critiques were tactfully added. This communication was much richer than I expected it to be. Everyone seemed to find the time to contribute in meaningful ways. As I move forward and perhaps one day teach online I can only hope that I can inspire my learners to contribute and be engaged to the same level. Although, this may be reflective more of graduate level students and their commitment and choice to be here. A certain level of personal responsibility for others learning permeated this course. I congratulate those around me who were CONSISTENTLY able to be there.
I almost forgot to mention probably the most important part which may not have been the most exciting. Learning the process for selecting learning technologies was bland and not nearly as fun as actually just using them. However, the importance of this step is not lost on me. My career goals include moving into administrative positions. I think when one is in a decision making role such as this the process followed is almost more critical than the outcome. Learning about the SECTIONS and Seven Principles frameworks puts some weight behind decisions. Learning the theory and application of each tool helped to know which situation it would best be applied to desire the greatest learning outcome. No one really likes theory, however when it has such practical far reaching implications on teaching we really need to know that a thorough and exhaustive process was followed to get to that happy place.
Moving forward:
As mentioned above the college is currently engaged in a strategic planning process. I hope to become more involved in this process from the perspective of pushing for a proper process in discussing the role of educational technology in the future of the college. With my new found knowledge I think I could assist with this important endeavour. I also hope to work closer with our Centre for Instructional Technology(CID) to see how I can help engage the community in learning about EdTech.
On a micro level I plan to incorporate some of these new technologies into learning exercises within the classroom. I particularly enjoyed the digital story component and will look at how best to leverage it. I will also look at setting up my own industry blog to keep students apprised of current events and ongoing issues facing the industry. One in particular that I follow and really enjoy is a blog I might aspire to. It is linked here Daniel Craig Hotel blog
Moodle: My experience with Moodle is only just beginning. I hope to become a resource for my colleagues who are looking to incorporate Moodle into their teaching. We are really just scratching the surface of how we can distribute learning within our program at the college to better meet the needs of our students and attract a wider range of students who may need more flexibility within their learning environment. I may also press to blend the learning in my current courses away from the lecture model. I would propose that an online component be used instead of the traditional lecture component by requiring students to spend an equal or greater amount of time online.
I plan to create an entire site on Moodle in preparation for moving to an online delivery model. To do this I will need to become more comfortable with the web design aspect and ensure the course is easily navigable. Hopefully I can convince my department head to provide some development funding and time to make this transition easier.
Professional Development: Once my Masters is complete I am keen to continue my professional development through attending a Moodle MOOT or an EduCause event. Both of these would be tremendous forums to learn even more in a collegial and content expert rich format. If there are any other suggestions for professional development I would definitely be open to hearing about them.
I also hope to gain more understanding of technologies such as Wimba classroom to see if the college can support something like this. Overall, this course has raised the confidence I have to take on a greater technology role within the department and the college. It has been an exciting start to a perpetual learning experience.