Flight Path Precis
Although I pursue teaching for the sheer love of it, I have also always envisioned myself working within urban public schools and kept this as my goal throughout years of preparation. Now, 7 years after I received my certification, I have not taught a single day within any school board. However I consider my time within a small International private school in Mississsauga as fortunate, indeed, as it has been some of the most grueling work I’ve ever done. I’ve been able to grow as an educator, leader, and collaborator in a way that may have otherwise been restricted to me if I had immediately gotten into the public system.
At the beginning of this course, what I most hoped to learn was how to best use technology to guide students in their learning in ways that teaches them not just course content, but skills like inquisitiveness, constructive collaboration, independent problem solving, and ‘grit’. At the beginning of this course I was unsure that I needed to learn yet another LMS platform, despite knowing that a moodle was likely in my future, and thought instead that I would like to sharpen my skills in discerning the best tools to choose. What I have found, and will discuss in this reflection, is that by making my way through the challenging process of creating an online course through an LMS like moodle, I have indeed sharpened the skills I had hoped to – I would say that I am now better at selecting, evaluating, creating, and shaping learning technologies to ensure that they meet my pedagogical goals.
Substantive, comprehensive and detailed reflection about overall ETEC 565A experience:
Module 1: Selecting & Using Technologies
Prior to taking this course I had completed ETEC510 “The Design of Technology-Supported Learning Environments”, which had within it many of the elements of this course, taught through a different lens. I believe that taking 565 prior to that one may have been beneficial, but both have been highly instructional through constructivist techniques and have left me feeling highly comfortable in choosing and creating digital spaces. The concept of “Technology as Lever” introduced by Chickering & Ehrmann (1996) was made explicit through both of those courses, but I think that the concept really ‘clicked into place’ in 565, perhaps because of the repetition, perhaps because it was taught in such a transparent fashion.
I returned to the Bates (2014) and Nel, Dreyer, & Carstens (2010) readings from this Module throughout the course, because although both were reviewing concepts I had been previously introduced to, they did so in new frameworks that I used more than once when justifying my own work choices. The SECTIONS framework clearly structures the considerations needed for the kind of teaching studied in this course, and I appreciate how it could be used within professional development contexts, to help teachers newer to educational technology begin reflecting on necessary considerations to take action.
Module 2: Presentation Tools: Spaces, Places and Platforms for Learning
What I appreciated most about the content and activities of Module 2 were the small-group case studies, wherein the tasks were contained and therefore more intimately collaborative. Having to decide on a reasonable time frame to create and implement a course through an LMS was an excellent exercise in practicality, and when I look back now, it helps me understand why creating my moodle – at only a quarter completion and borrowing from one of my past WikiClassroom sites – took as long as it did. Spiro’s (2014) article expouses well-founded threats to the future of LMS, but so far it appears that students are integrating those ‘threatening’ eLearning techniques into the requirements of online courses – at least that is what I have done, myself. I capitalize on my own mobile technology and personal curation of sources to better understand the course material I’m assigned, and I’m fine with still following ‘the rules’ of graduated education. That said, I’m of the generation with my foot in two camps, both swept up in but not quite part of the digital revolution to education, so students coming behind me may indeed wish to take learning into their own hands and skip the rigors of institutional learning.
Week 5’s topic allowed me to thoroughly reflect and organize my past endeavors with using mobile technology in the classroom, and I enjoyed the chance to retroactively apply the excellent reading by Ciampa (2013) to my past practices. The four criteria for intrinsically and extrinsically motivational activities are ones that I will bear in mind for future design, as they are succinct reminders of what I have found necessary to make effective tasks for my students. At this point in the course I began to fully understand and appreciate technology’s capacity to meet the needs of my students, and hopefully surprise them with how engaged they can become in their work when courses are designed with so much consideration.
Module 3: Interaction and Assessment Tools
In the school where I last taught, assessment was a major focus of many professional development sessions, and thus the content of this module again felt like a review and building-upon of previous knowledge and experience. Implementing technology as formative assessment was something we had been trying to do school-wide, and some teachers had joined me in providing digital options for summative assessments as well, although it was often a choice students could make, rather than a mandate. If I was in a school situation where technology had been effectively integrated throughout my course, I believe I would be more comfortable now in making a summative task exclusively digital, as I could better choose the most effective platforms to channel students’ energies. The educational interaction framework in Anderson (2008a, p. 58) beautifully illustrates effective relationships within learning, but when integrating technology we must thus consider the model of online learning provided on page 61. It is certainly a more complicated looking approach, but as Anderson explains the autonomy it affords allows for “particularly rich…learning of social skills, collaboration, and the development of personal relationships among participants” (p. 61).
Prensky’s idea of shifting focus away from “how students learn” to “how do they learn what?” (as cited in Anderson, 2008a, p. 62) is an important one when considering effective assessment, as Gibbs & Simpson (2004) explore in the reading for week 8. Their thorough categorizing of conditions that best support learning (p. 4) emphasize the unfortunate stress that is often put upon conventional grades, and how that can take away from the process of learning itself. The hope when using well-integrated technology would be to make more tangible the relevant and real-world application of a course, and better facilitate feedback that both peers and an instructor can offer that can be so vital in creating a learning community.
Module 4: Social Media
What I enjoyed so much about module 4 was the important distinction that ‘interactivity’ can mean the simple act of clicking around, but that this is not what engages and inspires students. Social media is so often demonized by the education community as a mere distraction from our purpose, and a venue for grandiose vanity. While it certainly can at times feel that way, when a student is taking selfies or Snapchats in class instead of staying on topic, it is also be the site for immeasurable constructivist opportunities.
I had been exposed to the work of Alan November prior to this course, and his work has been a huge influence in my understanding of my role as a teacher. In his book (and subsequent keynotes and YouTube videos) Who Owns the Learning?, he outlines the role of the new learner as “a contributor, collaborator, and leader in the learning culture” (2012, p.6). In the week 9 reading by him, where he outlines the potential Twitter has to encourage these skills in our students, his belief that “the most essential skill of the 21st century is knowing how to ask the most interesting questions” (p. 5) is clear.
I was glad that we spent some time explicitly addressing the issue of copyright, as this is a topic that has felt overlooked or glossed over in so many other courses. How to best impress upon my students the importance of academic integrity is something I continue to struggle with, as with every new class it feels like a fresh battle. Perhaps the key will be in finding a way to teaching it alongside the importance of digital citizenship and issues around privacy and rights, as we all continue to live in both physical and digital spaces.
Module 5: What’s on the horizon?
As I wrote in my reflection for week 12, I believe that the most progress in best serving the needs of our students will come through the proactive, rather than reactive, use of technology. Instead of discerning a ‘problem’ and then looking for the best app or LMS to solve it, if a teacher designs their course so that technology is integrated from the beginning, many of the benefits I have already addressed will be able to grow organically. If adjustments need to be made or direction slightly changed, that is obviously acceptable, but if the culture of growing as a community is already in place the students will feel part of that process rather than removed from it, waiting for their teacher to ‘fix things’.
My thoughts on this were encouraged by the vision presented by Alexander (2014), which imagines a future where medical specialists are revered among us, as our needs as a population disconnected from death grow ever greater. Although I seem to live in a culture addicted to ‘quick-fixes’, what I have learned from this course is the importance of taking the time to objectively assess my needs, my present capabilities, and the best course of action in order to meet whatever goal I have therefore set. This can apply to physical health, financial stability, or of course – educational practice. There is a wealth of resources that anyone can tap to help them effect a desired change, but careful discernment based on the principles within this course will not only save on time, but help provide critical frameworks with which to assess its effectiveness. For what is on my own horizon, I will go into that with further detail in the last section of this reflection.
Assignment #1: Rubric
This assignment was my metaphorical ‘wake-up call’ for the purposes of this course, although I entered into it knowing that my ability to fully apply myself was compromised due to the goings-on in my life at the time. I was leaving my job and doing all of the work that such a transition entails, as well as trying to manage another course, and I made the conscious decision to put in less of an effort to this group task and accept the consequences. That said, I found communication was difficult within my group and my role was so small that my final mark for this task reflected it – and I was not content! The activity itself was a sound one, but at the time I found it difficult to wrap my head around it and this was evident in how I was able to contribute to my group’s attempt at a rubric. Discerning necessary criteria to build a rubric that would help select an appropriate LMS was a relevant task, but challenging to do in a collaborative way. All of this said, what I learned the most from this activity was that this course would demand my full attention and energy, and I have not been proven wrong since.
Assignment #2: Introductory Module
When the time came to take on this assignment, I was determined to redeem myself (if only in my own eyes) after Assignment 1, and do the best that I could. I logged onto as many of the example moodles as I could as a ‘student’, and made use of as many YouTube tutorials as needed to wrap my head around this new LMS. I decided to create a moodle for a course I have taught twice before, most recently in the fall of 2015, that had blended both face to face and online learning with the use of a WikiClassroom. So while the content of my moodle was mostly taken care of, the big challenge was in choosing how to best tailor it to an online-only environment.
The greatest change I had to make was in providing more detailed expectations and more sophisticated infrastructure than would be needed in a blended environment. I would not be able to rely on ‘checking in’ with students during class time, and thus has to predict what their needs might be and how they could communicate those to me. The quiz I designed for Unit 1 posed one of the greatest challenges at the time, but I later understood that it would provide important formative assessment for both the student taking it and myself, as it was built around reviewing the entire unit prior to engaging in a larger summative task. The readings around this time were related to assessment, and the criteria from Gibbs and Simpson (2004) was fresh in my memory, reminding me that students prefer course-work to examinations (p. 7) – something I knew from my own experience but was bolstered for having read. When I have taught this course in the past it too was without an exam, but rather many smaller tasks that would hopefully be cumulative in both knowledge and skill, to prepare the students for one final large summative assessment with a long time-line and many parts.
This assignment proved to me that if I put in a strong effort, reached out to my peers (thanks again to Victoria and Colleen), and took risks, I would be able to meet my own exacting standards.
Assignment #3: Content Module
For Assignment 2 I received feedback that a more detailed explanation of the online behavioural expectations was missing at the time of my submission, and after having some time apart from the moodle I came back to it with fresher eyes and realized this was indeed a hole in the LMS. Thus my first steps were in fixing up the moodle as per the feedback I had received, and then looking for other opportunities to stream-line the experience. I was of course responsible for creating a full content module, but as previously stated I was able to greatly benefit from work I had done before and thus this part did not feel too difficult. While working, I kept in mind that I wanted this course to be designed and guided by me, but require that the students show a high level of autonomy and collaboration in order to really succeed. With each lesson I decided to incorporate the use of discussion forums, and make it a requirement that they critically reflect and comment on each other’s work. I found it helpful to stipulate what this would mean in a ‘Course Conduct’ page that I added to the introductory module, and borrowed from a document called How to Prepare and Moderate Online Discussions for Online Learning (2013). My other course, ETEC532, leans very heavily on participation as a course requirement, and the supplied criteria for it seems to be borrowed from this document – at least according to a Google search – and I feel that it lends itself well to my own online course.
Creating a course (or at least much of it) in this style was a true exercise in designing backwards. The only thing that I chose to exclude was the final culminating activity, because of my own time constraints and the fact that this depth of work was not required for Assignment #3. Despite missing this element, I attempted to build a course that would provide students opportunities to learn through as many of the demonstrations as possible, as postulated by Prensky in Anderson (2008a, p. 18-19). Even speeches and performance-tasks can be required through the use of video, these days, and the assessments I did include provided that as an option for students to choose throughout the course. What I would hope, should this moodle actually be executed, would be to provide students a learning experience that would feel diverse, dynamic, supportive, and ultimately in their own hands.
My Next Steps
“[e]ducation is not preparation for life; education is life itself” (John Dewey, as cited in November, 2012, p. 5).
When I was acting as a department head in my last school, I felt strongly that I had to lead by example, and could not expect anything of the teachers under my charge that I was not willing to do myself. Obviously the same must be true of my students, especially if I plan on asking them to embody the above quote. My experience in the MET so far has shown me just how much learning is, and is going to be, impacted by the integration of technology, and that for every teacher bemoaning their students on a cellphone in class there is another voice lifting up the world of possibilities held within that device and that same student.
At present, my greatest goal as an educator is to figure out how to best teach so that my students feel empowered, and where possible I know with certainty that thoughtful design and use of technology can play a huge role in this process. However my largest question at present is how technology can be used in under-served classrooms and communities, and my hope is to get the chance to take what I have been learning in this program and apply it to challenging environments. My experience in the private school sector has not been easy by any means, teaching is never ‘easy’, but having a 1:1 device:student ratio and reliable wifi has allowed me to see the benefits of technology with clear eyes and few challenges. In comparison, how can voices that do not have the same privileges benefit from all that we discuss in this program – this is the heaviest question on my soul.
At the very least the open channels for communication that social media (including YouTube) provides is one of the teacher’s greatest allies, if used correctly, and at most having technology that allows students to create and collaborate within technology-integrated learning environments is the hope. Going forward as a life-long learner and lover of education, I want to keep my eyes open for relevant and dynamic resources that can be used not only by instructors but students as well. My favourite discoveries are always apps, site, or platforms that I can put into my students’ hands with the instructions to ‘go, play, share what you learn!’ What I am learning and want to continue to learn is how to best focus mine and their attentions to be critical of the world as it is presented to us through media and digital venues, and how to take advantage of everything that helps us connect with each other, the planet over. If I need to figure out Twitter, or moodle, or YouTube first before I can channel it for best practice within my classroom, then that’s exactly what I’ll do, but the end goal is to always have students see their own power and potential within these learning environments.
‘Education’ is not about what happens in the classroom, but rather how we approach all challenges in our lives as they present to us or as we seek them out. We take risks, look for help, hope wildly, and reflect for next time – that is education, and that is life well lived.
References
Alexander, B. (2014). Higher education in 2014: Glimpsing the future. Educause Review, 4(5) Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/higher-education-2024-glimpsing future?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email+marketing&utm_campaign=EDUCAUSE
Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F, Elloumi (Eds.),Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf
Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S., C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples.htm
Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation.Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcal.12036/epdf
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf
How to Prepare and Moderate Online Discussions for Online Learning (pp. 1-13, Publication). (2013). Contact North: Ontario’s Distance Education & Training Network.
November, A. (2012). How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool. November Learning [Weblog] Retrieved from http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/how-twitter-can-be-used-as-a-powerful-educational-tool/
November, A. C. (2012). Who owns the learning?: Preparing students for success in the digital age. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Spiro, K. (2014). 5 elearning trends leading to the end of the Learning Management Systems. Retrieved from http://elearningindustry.com/5-elearning-trends-leading-to-the-end-of-the-learning-management-system