My name is Kevin Wilnechenko and I have taught math and physics for 11 years.  These years of teaching have been in both private and public school settings and the instruction has been solely face-to-face.  One year ago I decided to embark on a journey of professional growth by enrolling in UBC’s MET program.  Prior to this I had essentially no online learning experience, as a teacher or as a student.  Now that I have completed five MET courses, I have a better sense of what is possible in a virtual environment.  In the future, I hope to incorporate much of what I have learned in a more blended learning environment.

The MET courses that I have accomplished thus far have exposed me to a variety of social software that can be used to create a community and I now have a greater understanding of the importance of assessment. Chickering’s (1987) seven principles speak of the value in giving prompt feedback and I am interested to see if online instruction will help or hinder my ability in this area.  I have heard of automated marking features with Moodle and I am eager to see how they work and how effective they will be in measuring my students’ progress.

I chose to take ETEC 565A not only because it came highly recommended from many of my fellow MET students, but because I have heard a lot of good things about Moodle and Learning Management Systems (LMS) in general.  I am eager to learn more about them and have looked forward to this course for some time now.  As I construct my own virtual classroom, it will be very important to me to incorporate the second element in the SECTIONS model (Bates & Poole, 2003).  That element is Ease of Use, and I will make every effort to ensure that students will be able to navigate through my LMS with limited confusion and maximum fulfillment.  When building my LMS, I would also like to be conscious of the interaction between the student, content, teacher, and overall community.  These four attributes, as described by Anderson (2008), need to be present for online learning to be effective.

My only interaction with LMS to date is with Vista in the MET program, which makes me a novice in this area.  I aim to familiarize myself with many of the features in Moodle, such as online quizzes, asynchronous/synchronous forums, and interactive modules.  I also hope to take advantage of different multimedia like Jing where I can take screen shots and record short lessons that students can access when and where they want.  I also hope to strategically embed other engaging video into Moodle to enhance the learning experience.  These skills will no doubt assist me with my digital story assignment to some degree.  In terms of social software used in ETEC 565A, I hope to take the knowledge I have already acquired with my e-portfolios in past courses and find ways to learn even more.

References:

Anderson, T. (2008).Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.). Theory and Practice of Online Learning, Chapter 2 (pp. 45 – 74).  Available online at: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008_Anderson-Online_Learning.pdf

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7.  Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm