I really liked how our instructor asked us to finish up the course in the same way that we started it; with a video goodbye. After 13 weeks of hard work, it was nice to be able to reflect upon our own learning and to share our last comments with our classmates in this personal way. Although not all of my classmates took the opportunity to post their final thoughts, it was a neat process to go through and I really felt like it helped me to reflect upon my own progress in the course, while providing some closure too. Unfortuately, I did not keep this video after posting it for the course.
When I began the school year, I planned on using a blog format to track my learning experience for the four courses that I will be taking in the 2014-2015 school year. Three weeks into the course, I feel like I am doing everything twice. A big part of this particular course, is creating an ePortfolio that will both document my weekly discussion participation, as well as serve as a means of submitting the various course assignments that I will be completing throughout the term. Rather than posting all of my work twice, I will stop blogging here and add in my weekly participation to the ‘Home’ section of my ePortfolio. This way, I still get to explore with blogging while meeting the course expectations too.
Here is the link to my ETEC 565A ePortfolio. Well, I am two weeks into ETEC 565A and as is my usual feeling at the beginning of new course work, I am feeling like the learning curve is particularly steep. Although I am loving the course content thus far, the set-up of this course is quite different from that of the other MET courses that I have taken in the past. First of all, I am having trouble with the fact that the course modules are time released and consequently I am unable to take a long term look at the entire course other than through the posted course schedule. I am also struggling with the fact that I have not been provided with an all-inclusive reading list for the course. In terms of time management, I like to get ahead by printing off what I will require for the course ahead of time. I like to be able to write in the margins of the page and highlight portions of the text that really resonate with me to aid me in posting about the articles later on, so printing the required readings is a must for me. This gradual release of information is a big adjustment. The other aspect of the course that has posed an immediate challenge is the format via which we will be ‘handing in’ all of our assignments. Although there are threads pre-set up on the discussion board for posting our thoughts, much of what we will be sharing will be done through our own ePortfolios. I am not unfamiliar with the idea of an ePortfolio, I have been working on the one you are currently reading for a year. I am however completely unfamiliar with the platform that we are using to create our ePortfolios; wordpress! Due to my current job situation (I am currently teaching in B.C., so my school year has not actually started yet due to the ongoing labour dispute between the BCTF and the Liberal government), I have been able to devote an unusually large amount of time to my course work and thank goodness that I have been able to do so. Honestly, I have changed my design theme literally dozens of times and it took me until about Wednesday of this week to really be satisfied with my theme and site layout. There are so many things to consider! It took quite a bit of playing and finessing to determine how to work with images and how to organize my site content overall. I feel like I am getting a handle on things, but I am also painfully aware that I have much more to learn. I am appreciative of the fact that our first written assignment is to create and post our own ‘Flight Path’ for this course and post it in our ePortfolio. I am constantly telling my own students that they need to know where they are going in order to actually get there, so it was beneficial to go through this process at the outset of this course myself. I enjoyed the reflective nature of this task and I am really looking forward to being able to take serious action to work toward meeting the goals that I have set both for this course specifically, as well as those goals that I have in regard to my own instructional practices in the classroom. I have attached a copy of my Flight Path assignment below, as well as provided a link to my ePortfolio.
I made it through a year of the MET program without having to purchase any new devices, but today I had to purchase a webcam. For this course, we were required to film our introductions and post our intro videos for our instructor and classmates to view and respond to. My initial reservations were not about the technology at all, but were instead about my reluctance to put myself out there in a video. I am very comfortable posting and replying to communicate in our discussion threads, but doing so via video made me feel vulnerable in a way that participating in written form never has. It was an interesting experience and was nice to know that I was not alone in my feelings of discomfort regarding the video posts, as some of my classmates shared similar feelings to my own in their videos. Despite my initial uneasiness, it was a much more intimate way to become acquainted with my new classmates for the term. I am glad that I was ‘forced’ to complete this task, as it pushed me to take a risk that if given the option, I would not have taken.
Unfortunately, I did not keep this video after posting it for the course. |
ETEC 565A
Learning Technologies: Selections, Design and Application. ArchivesCategories |