Everton Walker
My Flight Path
May 22, 2011
The ingenuity of a good strategist lies within effective planning; and this is the mindset I have established as I venture into the realm of ETEC 565. I am a self-motivated college instructor in Literacy Studies who consider myself an advocate for instructional technologies. My years in the teaching profession spanned from 1999 where I have worked at all levels in the education sector as a classroom teacher. During my early years, I was not privileged to have technologies at my disposal so my efforts were based on the traditional methods of teaching. However, since my elevation to the college level, I have been exposed to several tools and applications and have even started a site at http://evertonwalker.literacystudiesja.info.
Having being apart of the MET program has really opened up my eyes to instructional technologies and ETEC 565 has concretized that claim. My goal for this course is to fully master and develop a high level of competence in technological presentation tools. The fact that I don’t have access to these tools in my present classroom has given the drive to maximize on this monumental learning opportunity. In addition, I am keen on getting myself acquainted with all the theoretical frameworks and principles through rich discussions and participation in the course. This is critical as without these principles and frameworks, I will not be able to implement the afore-mentioned presentation tools effectively in my classroom.
Despite the knowledge I will gain from the tools presented and the necessary principles, it is imperative that I also learn about the necessary platforms and attachments that accompany them. Therefore, knowledge of the features of an LMS, how to set up the perfect LMS and how to use it for instructional purposes is crucial. Equally important, finding out how these cutting-edge tools and applications can be used for assessment also tops my agenda of curiosity. It’s only natural that this assessment process would include online communication through audio and videos and other social means. Therefore, my interest is piqued in getting ideas of the various social software that would be required to power my LMS of choice and its overall effectiveness in teaching digital natives and empowering digital immigrants. Coupled with those software, it would be mandatory that my content will have to be presented in different forms. As a result it is imperative that I gain a good knowledge in multimedia formatting, applications and the ethics governing online materials usage. I also need to get an understanding of how to integrate such forms in my LMS so that it will be of value my students.
Mastery of such cutting edge technologies requires significant financing and appropriate infrastructure; which includes reliable Internet network server, software and computers. Human resources are also needed to provide further training and continually replace and update network which is even more important than the physical infrastructure, Bates (2000). Maintenance and training are also critical if I expect optimum performance. This is deliberate as some schools have struggled to unlock the full power of their LMS systems, (Panettieri 2007). He also further emphasizes that LMS prices vary and can cost about $224,000 for 10,000 students during a single year. Based on the economic climate in my country, this will be a challenge and finance is essential if instructors are to be skilled and experienced in e-learning design and application ( Bullen & Janes, 2007).