In Educational
Computing (ETAP 526), I had an opportunity to discover a variety of new
tools that I will be able to use in my professional work as an
Instructional Designer as well as for some personal interests I have.
As a class we were able to explore the many facets of educational
computing. One way was to look at technology to enhance communications
between people - a parallel of the myriad ways in which people talk
with and listen to one another. In order to experience what we were
learning, we participated in several online discussions. Through this
mechanism we experienced the technology as well as discussed how
technology would influence the people we encountered in the classroom
and the larger world. Discussions helped me have a greater sense of how professionals in similar fields are experiencing technology and the struggles they face. Most are educators, at public and private institutions and organizations, teaching an age range from birth to death (well, almost...)
We also had the opportunity to look at technology as a tool to engage
the world in order to learn, seeing that there are many possibilities
as well as pitfalls. Our readings helped us understand our roles as
informed consumers and cognizant educational practitioners. We were
able to connect with other educators who had tread the same path of
technology as we were now on.
Additionally, we observed technology as tutor, understanding how it can
act as an aid in the classroom, opening wider the door that a
teacher alone may not be able to do. Some of the tools are nascent,
awaiting greater creative agents to come along and make them better.
While some may question the usefulness of "computer as teacher,"
there's no doubt that it is a part of our collective future.
Lastly, we took our theoretical understanding and put it to work to
build lesson plans that incorporated the use of the technology we
studied, culminating our activities by building a WebQuest and pulling
it all together in an electronic portfolio - the results of which you
see here.
Below is my narrative on the different activities in which I
participated and a reflection on the growth I experienced both
professionally and personally.
Telecommunicator
Here I began my investigation by experiencing some of the Web 2.0 tools that are useful in education: Yahoo! instant messaging; Google email and calendar; and Synaptic Leap - my blog on Blogger.
While I have used some of these tools before, I had not looked at them with the thought of how each one might be used in an educational context. By reading about how important it is to have a solid rubric for evaluating websites, I was able to put my mind to creating one that I thought would be useful for faculty - whether for themselves or to share with students. One of the ways in which I tried out my rubric was to use it to evaluate a "webography" (like a bibliography but web-based). Several of the sites I chose met the standards I set forth in my rubric. I'll likely give this rubric to faculty with my permission to alter it as necessary. You'll find my rubric and webography under Artifact 1 (through Googledocs).
Although I've tried out a blog before (using Blogger), I didn't put any effort into it. I'm finding that it might come in handy for communicating ideas with faculty. We used to have a newsletter we published every semester, but I'm beginning to see the significant advantages of using a blog instead of printing something! Although I'm quite a novice in the field of learning and teaching, I think that if I'm honest and sincere in what I'm learning, I will have a few of the faculty here interested in reading about what technology is worth trying out. I know I have to get a better handle on the focus or angle I want to take, but it is coming along.
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Technology As...
Tool
In this area, several things were new to me: voicethread - an Interactive Multimedia album; Inspire - Concept Mapping software (from Inspiration Software); Googledocs (Web-based PowerPoint presentation); and Web-based Surveying using SurveyMonkey.
The most impressive tool I found was voicethread. I can imagine so many educational uses for it and found that it was easy to use (minus a few minor web-related glitches). The ease of which one can upload photos, images, and (now) video makes this a fairly quick to learn tool. I know many faculty have been hunting for a "virtual field trip" tool - this will definitely be one I share with them. I have seen many K-12 groups using it, so I know there's many soon-to-be college students who will be familiar with voicethread. Maybe they'll help me get their instructors to try it too.
I also found Inspire to be helpful, but I think it might be a hard-sell at my college because there's a cost involved and many faculty are not particularly willing to move away from paper-and-pencil concept mapping, especially to something that might cost them. I'd like to think I might be able to convince them otherwise - so time will be the ultimate judge. I've shared my concept map under Artifact 3.
Googledocs, if it stays free of cost, will likely be the spoiler in the software wars. I certainly hope so. It makes a level playing field in some ways and I have always been in favor of that! I'll probably need to do some convincing of my coworkers because Googledocs could easily compete with some of the features in our Course Management System. Of course, there are some security issues that would need to be addressed before it could replace our CMS. Good alternative for some things though!
I didn't spend much time with SurveyMonkey (you can see an example of it's use on my blog), but I think that some faculty might use it. We have other software applications on campus that provide a similar service, so it might not get much use at our college. Our IT folks are working on getting tools through the college web server working to the same ends as what SurveyMonkey offers. However, I'll keep it in mind if I hear of instructors who have students (team projects, perhaps?) who need a survey tool.
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Technology As...
Tutor
In this area, there were four types of software I read about, reviewed, and tried my hand at:
- Drill and Practice - Typing of the Dead keyboarding skill development
- Game/simulation - Econ 201 online course at the University of North Carolina
- Simulation - EdHeads.org: Crash Scene Investigation
- Reference - Anatomy.tv: an online reference for the study of anatomy and physiology
The Microeconomics 201 course has been getting a good deal of press in higher education because the creators took the time to actually talk about the pedagogy of the game and of gaming in general. Convinced me!
EdHeads I found while looking for information about knee surgery. They have a virtual knee replacement surgery (also hip replacement) link and I got quite a bit of information from it. As for the Crash Scene Investigation link, I found the "emotion" of the witnesses (to the crash) entirely compelling. I looked at some of the information about how the scenario was developed and there appears to have been a great deal of input from those who have seen such real sites - the Highway Patrol of the Ohio State Police. It was reassuring to know that the creators had really extracted the important information from the experts.
Anatomy.tv is fascinating but too expensive to do much more than a 24-hour trial. However, I think that it would be quite useful to students, and perhaps for some colleges that can afford it. At our community college, it is pretty much out of our price range. Although I am not a medical professional, it seems that the 3-D imaging is very exact and the descriptions are thorough.
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Technology As...
Teaching Asset
This website and all linked documents are the culmination of the use of technology as a teaching asset - it is my ePortfolio. Through the WebQuest I show additional skills I am developing in my study of educational computing. I have also created a Lesson Plan to go along with the WebQuest so educators may understand the pedagogy I was aiming for.
The ePortfolio I plan on using it to help teaching faculty develop their own and for my own professional development. The WebQuest and Lesson Plan I plan to share with faculty so that it can be tried out in a classroom. The WebQuest centers on a carpooling project that several of us having been talking about doing on campus. My plan is to use Googlemaps in order to use a flexible Web-based tool to accomplish this goal. I think this WebQuest will be truly useful, but first it may need some adjustments and I will be excited to work with teaching faculty to see that it is actually used in the classroom. Perhaps I'll consider submitting it to MERLOT to see if it might be shared on a larger scale.
I've not had much experience building web pages, although I've used DreamWeaver at work. But in order to learn something new, I'm trying NVU. I've found it quite easy to use, even though some things are labeled differently than in DreamWeaver. It still makes intuitive sense when navigating in NVU, which makes life so much easier.
This is a brief summary of the many things I've learned during the time I've spent in ETAP526. I've also gained invaluable insight by participating in discussions and working with Dr. Sabrina Johnson-Taylor.
Revised: May 5, 2008