ETEC 565A

Our School Board has taken on a new initiative in which parameters have been put into place to allow for handheld devices to be used at school. Hence, students are now able to connect to the internet via, Ipods, cell phone, Ipads, etc. This initiative has many positive points to it. However, there are many downfalls also.

MOBILE LEARNING PROS AND CONS

Using a handheld device to access Vista Webct, etc, works but it is definitely more tedious. It takes a longer time for the pages to load, sometimes they time out, sometimes there are issues with the network and the site does not load. The screen is small and hard to see and this makes it difficult to read larger amounts of text. This makes it harder to read other peoples posts. It also takes a long time to respond back to them thought the browser. I found it very frustrating to post, modify and access these resources from my device. I was impatient and I found that I was restricted due to the capabilities of my phone. In a lot of ways my negative reaction to the activities we were asked to try using on one of these devices is due to the fact that I am spoiled. I am used to using faster devices that are more visible and function to use. When in reality I should be amazed buy the fact that I can achieve these tasks from a portable device. The fact that content like this can be accessed and modified from a phone is amazing but I think I just take it for granted. It is a mobile means of educating individuals. That is a fabulous concept that will definitely flourish in the educational realm as devices become more and more intricate and have more capacities. Already so many applications exist that take programs and make them more functional on handheld devices. When programs such as these exist, individuals are more likely to access them from their hand held device. Our world is all about efficient and convenience. Hence, if working on a task is easier and faster using a mobile device, people will do so.

I was really happy to see that this topic was included in the tool kit. I work with a group of special needs students and I find that technology is a great way to make accommodations for these learners to help address their needs. Technology is also a good tool to help students with focus issues stay on task. The interactive components of using computers/programs as a learning tool, has proven to be very beneficial with the group of students I work with. However, as was outlined in the toolkit, not all unit/programs are created with accommodations.

I really liked the resources which gave suggestions and helped to check if learning resource are accommodating to different learns. It is good to be aware and mindful of such things. From my own experience, I have seen how sometimes learners who have different needs get left on the sidelines. As a special needs teacher, I am constantly making accommodations and altering material for my students I work with. A lot of times I have no option but to use a different resources or to create a special resource for some of my students because the ones available are not mindful of needs and do not take differentiation into account.

I had a look at my site and used the resources outlined to see if my site was accessible for all learners. Unfortunately, I found that it was not. I could have made it more accessible by adding audio and having alternate activities available, etc. It is my hope to use the resource I created with my students in the future. I want to go back and make some changes and additions to it so it is more conducive to the learners I work with. I will have to make accommodations for my learners while using this resource. For example, I will get my students to use ‘Read and Write Gold’ (a program that helps students who struggle with reading) with my site. I did not take extra measures to make my site more accessible when I was creating it despite the fact that I work with students with different needs. Hence, I am not surprised that this is a common practice. It takes more time and effort to make accommodation and that is probably why not all resources are created mindfully. However, I think this will change with time and with awareness.

I have used Wikis as a means of collecting information and for factual purposes a lot in the past. Many of my students turn to Wikis for this purpose also but I had never created one till last year in one of my MET course. I did not realize how much time and effort is need to create a Wiki. I also did not know that Wikis were based on so much collaboration and that there was policing of content that was entered in a Wiki. It is actually very interesting to see the collaborative process of creating a Wiki and seeing how edits can be rejected. When editing a Wiki you can definitely add your ‘two cents’ but that does mean your views or ideas will be accepted. They can very easily be vetoed. I think this is great because this insures that content is not misleading or inappropriate.

When I was creating a Wiki with a group member in one of my courses earlier on this year, I noticed that there was a typo in the Wiki title when we had finished the whole assignment. I went in and edited the name. When I did this, I did not realize that changing the name would result in our whole Wiki being overwritten with a blank new page. To my dismay everything got whipped. This was definitely a huge learning experience for me because the whole Wiki had to be redone but at the same time I learned more. There are many resources on the web that are helpful and give guidance on ways to create a Wiki and how to make certain components of a Wiki look a certain way. If it was not for these tools, I would have really struggled to make a Wiki.

Overall, I think the concept of Wikis are great. I really like that this is an open, collaborative resource that can be added to and adapted. This way everyone benefits because a Wiki is not based on knowledge from one person. Rather, it is based on knowledge from more than one person. As they say, two minds are better than one and this holds true for resources such as Wikis.

My experience with Blogging has mainly been through the MET program. Before I started the MET program I had made a website but I had never made a Blog. Hence, I did not have any experience working with a Weblogging tool. My first experience with Weblogging was using UBC Blogs and I found it to be very user friendly. It took me longer to figure out all the features because it was my first time using it, etc, but it was not tedious by any means. It was just a matter of devoting some time initially to learn how to use the built in features that were already pre-existing. Creating my ePortfolio blog for this course was so much easier due to the exposure I have had to Blogging from previous course. I find this is the case with any online program. Once you have used it once or twice, you become familiar with the components and it takes you half the time to create something new. I also found that once you have used one Blogging program and have some exposure, it becomes easier to use other Blogging programs. I had not used some of the programs that were present in the toolkit so I enjoyed playing around with them and gaining some experience. I can see how some of these tools would be beneficial to use in a classroom but I am still apprehensive to use some of them because of the fact that students could be put at risk when using these blogs.

It is ironic that when ever we join a social forum such as Facebook, etc, we are presented with terms to read but for the most part, I do not think any of us actually read them. I just click agree and ignore them because reading them seems like a tedious process. This is the first time I actually read the terms and in all honesty I was a little taken aback by some of the things I realized I have agreed to. The terms and process of agreeing to the terms are put into place for a reason yet they are disregarded by most people. This is a scary notion considering the fact that these terms are to protect out privacy and rights. We end up sharing a lot of personal information about ourselves through these social software and do not even realize we are the ones who are making ourselves vulnerable.

As an educator I as already weary of using social software with my students due to all the potential risks and I am more so now. I am glad I completed this tool kits because it has resulted in me being more aware of this issue and I will definitely be more mindful in the future.

The MET program has given me lots of opportunities to work with synchronous chat tools. This has been a new but interesting way for me to communicate with my peers to discuss course content and to work on group projects. I have had the opportunity to use Skype, Vista chat tools, MSN, Wimba, etc, for chatting with my peers. I found MSN to be very frustrating as a chatting tool in a larger group setting. Skype is good but it can get confusing with more than one person and the quality of the calls, etc, can be problematic. The Vista chat tool is down on many occasions and can lead to a lot of frustration when working in a group setting. Out of all the tools I have used, I found Wimba to be the best. My initial exposure to Wimba was in my previous course. I had used it to have group discussions and really liked that voice or text could be used as well as the whiteboard. Through this course I got the opportunity to use it for a group project as well as to use it in the group chat. I thought the group chat was great because all of us could be present while content was shared with us. Playing around with this program was interesting. I like the different features it has and think it was user friendly. I have seen the benefit of using tools such as these and would be very interest in using a tool such as Wimba to teach with. The only concern I have is that it does get a little confusing when there are lots of people present in a chat setting. When people speak it is hard to follow who said what and sometimes the things people type may not be acknowledged due to the amount of info coming through. I think this is a good tool for smaller group setting and is great for instructor demos and for working on program projects.

I enjoyed creating a website. I have made a couple of websites in the past and I remember the trauma I had gone through. I particularly remember the first website I ever created about 9 years ago for a university course I was taking. I did not know how and I could not get the content I worked on to publish to the web. Thinking back to then and comparing that to the tools we can use now, makes me think that creating a website is not as labour intensive anymore. Of course it does take time but I think my level of computer savviness has increased over the years. I also feel like the process and tools are easier to use now. After creating my site and cross checking with the checklist, I found that my website did suck!!! Which was not a surprise to me because I knew my simplistic website would not be of the highest calibre. I thought some of the questions from the checklist were interesting and they really got the wheels turning in my head. I think these checklists are a great tool. Many people may discredit such tools because they require more time to be put in but they are beneficial if the overall product turns out better.

I decided to write a story about space travel that incorporated some factual information in it. The reason I chose this topic is because the unit I am creating is about space. I thought a story that relates to the unit I am creating would be a great tool that I could use in the future with my students.
There are so many different options for creating a digital story. I enjoyed exploring and learning about these tools. I even began creating my story using a different tool but in the end, I ended up creating a digital story book using the tool TikaTok. I chose this tool because I wanted to learn to use a program that I could teach my students to use in the future. My students already write stories and illustrate them. They even type their stories out on the computer and find pictures on the internet that they paste into their stories. I felt that this program was a good transition from what they are already doing to a more sophistication program for creating a story book.
TikaTok tool has templates and some pictures that can be used but the story has to come from the imagination of the writer. It is based on written text because the program does not include an audio component. I found that the photo gallery had some great pictures that I could use in my story. However, I was not fully able to express what I wanted using those pictures. Hence, I had to look for images that I thought would go well with the picture my story was trying to paint. For example, I wanted my main character Raaheen to be able to have different expressions in the story. In order to do this, I had to use Windows Paintbrush to create and edit pictures of Raaheen with different facial expressions.
I believe the mixture of the text I had written with pictures I chose and created, resulted in a good combination of imagination and information. Hence,when using this program the author is able to share his or her vision but the readers can still look at the pictures and use them to weave different understandings of the story in their minds.
After using this tool I realized it is fairly time consuming and it may be a little frustrating for students. Students would have to find pictures and upload them. They would have to copy, paste and format text. They would also have to make sure that everything fit nicely on the template. Although this may be a frustrating task to work on, I do not think my students would be incapable. In fact, I think they would do a great job. The main thing about using programs such as these is to play around with them and learn through trial and error and net generation children are great at this.
Now that I know how to use this tool, I would definitely use it as a means of creating visual and engaging stories that could be used to tech my students’ concepts. This program allows for flexibility in the teaching setting. It is great because the link to a story can be emailed or it can be embedded in a website. Hence, my students could have access at school and at home. It is pretty simple to sign up for an account on Tickatok. Once a teacher signs up s/he can get his or her students to sign up. The teacher can even have access to the sotries students are creating.
I see how engaged students are when they are using the computer. I have also seen how excited they become when they are allowed to jazz up their stories. Hence, I have no doubt in my mind that this tool would result in heightened engagement with story writing and a desire to make the best final product as possible.

Link to my story: http://www.tikatok.com/view/shared/168cee3e176ec2b67c82cee05b3db564

I thought there were many differences between group discussions in the discussion forum and on a Wiki. In a thread discussion each individual is responsible for a response and this allows for many differing or similar ideas to be articulated in different ways. In this format everyone has a chance to read other individuals ideas and then respond to them. I think it is more of a reciprocal exchange. Whereas, the Wiki exchange is more of a collaborative process. It allows for individuals to build on one another’s ideas. Hence, not everyone will articulate their ideas but instead will read other’s ideas and then adds to or adapts them. This type of collaboration may not result in as much information but it does allow for an exchange of idea. It also allows for a group of people to work closely with a similar goal in mind. It is a form of ensuing that individuals will work together.

Today I worked on my Moodle site. I created a welcome webpage and a discussion forum. The directions provided for this activity were pretty straight forward and the Moodle site was pretty user friendly. I had some problems signing in initially but once I got going I thought it was pretty simplistic. I am sure it would become more difficult if I was to add text, videos, audio, etc. I enjoyed working on this activity and though it was not too labour intensive. However, I am sure it would be much more time consuming if I was loading more information that had different formatting, fonts, etc, and that included images, audio and video.

Oddly enough I did not have problems with the activity but I had problems with my internet connection. It kept getting disconnected. This resulted in this activity taking much longer than it should have. I guess this is a lesson in itself. When working with technology it is not always the tool that may cause frustration and be time consuming. Sometimes there are other unexpected barrios that may make the task more time consuming than anticipated.