When I was first given the topic of eBooks (which I chose) I was actually a little disappointed in my choice. I felt this way because I thought eBooks weren’t new and exciting. How was going to compete with the topic Wearable Technology? eBooks seemed so boring compared to Google Glass! Everyone has heard of eBooks, everyone has probably read and experienced one and how was I going to make this seminar engaging for my participants? My instructor knew how I was feeling and was kind enough to encourage me to find a topic that made me excited. I decided to do a little research on eBooks before I threw in the towel and I am sure glad I did! When I planned my seminar on eBooks I knew I wanted it to be clear, concise and meaningful. I had it set out as three tasks and the final assignment. I wanted a nice mixture of reading, video, and “hands on” creative experimenting. I believe I accomplished this and I hope my participants do as well. I did receive a comment at the beginning of the seminar that left me confident that my participants would feel like they knew exactly what was needed from them and they could dive right into the material without trying to muddle their way through instructions. Laura wrote: “I like how you have organized the seminar, Tracy! It's very clear, easy to follow and super engaging. Looking forward to digging in more deeply as the week progresses :)” Being the seminar leader I knew I had a lot of information that I had gathered prior to the week of learning and sharing and I had to remember not to bombard my participants with all of the information. After all, a part of their tasks was to seek out information regarding eBooks and form their own opinions regarding eBooks in learning. If I shared everything it would have been like the teacher telling the students all of the answers before they even had a chance to try it for themselves! I found myself pacing my release of information and being more of a facilitator than a participant. I struggled with this notion as facilitator vs. participant because I felt like I should also be doing the activities. I eventually had to let this go, as a participant wasn’t my role for this seminar leader activity. I was there to share information about a topic that I had become versed in prior to the seminar. I was there share information, facilitate conversation and encourage further thinking and questioning. I did my very best to keep up with commenting on the posts, and while I didn’t comment on everything I did make sure to lurk often and read all posts. I also know it isn’t necessary for a facilitator to comment on everyone’s posts when you have such an interested, keen group of participants that carry on in depth educational conversations. The sharing and deepened thought of eBooks in the educational world that occurred this week in our group surpassed my expectations for this seminar. I know on several occasions this week I shared information I learned in this seminar with colleagues at work. I actually sought out those teachers that I knew would be extremely excited about my “finds” and they often had something to share with me in regards to eBooks! Overall this experience was a very rewarding one and in the end such a useful seminar to have created. I now have started using eBooks in my teaching and I know I will continue to explore the use of them. I’m glad I followed through on the topic and I hope my participants are pleased I followed through as well. I know this seems like such an obvious choice of wearable technology, but I really wanted to explore Google Glass, as I have never taken the time to learn what it really does. I also wanted to know how it could benefit education and teaching. After watching the video on the Google Glass homepage showing how it enhances teaching and learning online I started to understand how it is useful to online teachers. This technology was able to take an online group of students around the world on a virtual field trip. At first this may sound like something that could have been achieved by simply watching a video on the place visited, however it is not. With Google Glass the wearer was able to show specific items and places while answering specific, real time questions from his students back home. Imagine real time learning that is not confined to a home base such as a desktop or laptop and using such programs as Collaborate? What the wearer sees is what the students see. The students can also direct the wearer to explore a particular area they are interested in and want to see more of. Now you may be thinking that this sounds a lot like Skype or Face time, but this is where it differs… Google Glass can also share and display facts about relevant pieces that are being viewed. So while students are on a virtual field trip, taking in the sights, listening to the guide giving a tour they can also be reading the facts popping up that are not being shared by the guide. I imagine something like a scroll during a newscast that shares breaking news. This type of wearable technology would be amazing to a student that is hospitalized or homebound. Imagine attending field trips with your class while you are out of commission? Or even simply not missing out on key lessons in a f2f class while you are home sick? Teachers, both f2f and online would be able to offer their students so many more opportunities for learning and exploration through the use of Google Glass. One of my favourite things that Google Glass can allow students to do is send questions via text SMS to Google Glass. This is amazing for those too shy to ask questions. I was one of those students in my grade school years and this would have allowed me to have a voice. So while these are just a few of the very cool aspects of Google Glass there are many more and I’m sure many more that have not even been discovered yet. I guess the only obstacle in using Google Glass would be the difficult task of getting a pair. One must submit an application to “Google Glass Explorer Program” to then wait for a buyers code to purchase them. Then there is the price; at $1500 USD they are less attainable for school districts as well as a teacher purchasing them with their own money. I look forward to seeing how far Google Glass has come in a few years and if it really does change teaching and learning in a positive and influential manner. After participating in the seminar this week discussing tablet computing I spent some time thinking about how I choose apps to use with my students. I know when my students see the iPad they often ask if I have a particular game that is usually a popular, un-educational game that they have at home on their own device. I will then respond with, “no, that’s not an educational game”. “But they sure are fun to play at home!” So obviously I have some set criteria in my head when I choose my apps for learning, but what is that criteria? While there are many different aspects to consider when choosing an educational app, I have focused on a few of the main ones. First of all I usually have a learning outcome I am trying to re-enforce and have my students get extra practice with so I’m basing my selection on a learning outcome connection. Since I work with different levels of learners I want to know that the app I choose will meet the needs of several learners. This also fits with inclusion and the amount of participants the app can handle at one time. I am also looking at how user friendly the app is. Are students able to navigate successfully and follow the instructions? And lastly I want to know if there is student motivation to use the app? If the student isn’t intrigued by the tasks given in the app and they don’t seem keen to use it again then it’s not a good fit for that student. When students remember a particular app and ask for it each time they are using the iPad then it is clear that the app is a success! When this happens it means I have found an educational app that fits my criteria and the student is enjoying learning through the tasks of the app. It’s a win-win for both! I have created a checklist to use when deciding which educational apps meet my criteria for use. Please find it here. How can you inspire others to initiate and implement sustainable integration of powerful emerging technologies? Being in OLTD has opened my eye to a whole new world of technology. I thought I was tech savvy and technologically creative before I started this program. Now I realize I wasn’t that at all. I have already learned so much from our course work and instructors that it makes me want to share my knowledge and inspire others to embrace emerging technologies. Through my own experiences with implementing emerging technologies and reading the experiences of others it has made me keenly aware of how to encourage others to be successful when implementing a new technology. I have found that having a set plan and goal in mind when working with others or alone in trying a new technology with students will help give purpose to the endeavor. Support from specialists in the area of focus and time to explore, experiment and learn the new technology before implementing it is also a key factor to success. Once an emerging technology has been implemented it is imperative that feedback from all involved is given. In our case as teachers this mean that not only our feedback, but also feedback from our student’s perspective. This is where drawbacks can be found and fixed as a group and will hopefully help in the avoidance of frustration and abandonment of the technology from teachers. As long as there is an ongoing conversation with all participants – even once they think it is mastered – there is a much higher integration success rate for emerging technologies! I found the link from EmergingEdTech very interesting as it provides “8 Engaging Videos Advocating Better Integration of Technology in Education”. The videos are meant to encourage and motivate educators to implement emerging technologies into their teaching. About five years ago my former university instructor asked me if I wanted to participate in the creation of Notebook lessons for Smart Boards. I would be using Critical Thinking Consortium’s (TC2) paper based lessons and transforming them into interactive Notebook lessons. I thought this sounded interesting, as I was familiar with Critical Thinking Consortium, Notebook and Smart Boards. I worked with a few other teachers in the Cowichan School District and there was a bit of a learning curve in transforming these lessons. I felt right away we were not given a clear vision or guidance in what was expected. So after two meetings with our leader, one in person and one via Collaborate we set out to create a sample lesson. During this experience I was excited and thought this was a very interesting way to take a lesson that was traditionally a paper and pencil activity and turn it into an interactive lesson. However, that’s all it was… putting a paper and pencil activity onto a Smart Board. Knowing what I know now from my OLTD course this was clearly not engaging or transforming at all. Simply putting colourful buttons to press to choose an answer from instead of writing doesn’t constitute a new age way of learning. According to Siemens and Tittenberger “planning the effective use of technology for learning requires a careful evaluation of context, determining depth of technology integration, attributes of technologies planned for use and suitability to subject matter and evaluating planned technologies against principles of learning (Siemens & Tittenberger, p. 35-36, 2009). During this process nowhere did I feel we had any guiding research, knowledge or skills to base our creation of Notebook lessons. After creating a few lessons with my teammates our leader gave us some feedback, which I am unclear whether it was her personal thoughts or coming from the TC2. Our leader was then away on a holiday and while we received a few vague emails from her regarding the project nothing ever came of the project. It was almost like the project hit a wall. I never found out what the TC2 did with their paper-based lessons if anything at all. Something positive I did get from this experience was learning how to create lessons in Notebook. I learned how to use the tools and build my own creative lessons. Unfortunately I was a TOC at the time so there was little to no chance of implementing my newfound skills. I think some of the barriers in this implementation were the lack of communication and training for those transferring the paper based lessons to Notebook. There was absolutely no research to base our lessons on and zero follow through on implementation. After making a visit to the TC2 today (January 4, 2014) I discovered they do indeed have Notebook lessons to offer their subscribers. Without a license I am unable to view their sample lesson so I cannot determine if they have expanded their creativeness in the interactive lesson department or what, if any educational theories they have based their lessons on. I would have to advise when implementing any new technology that there be a clear and concise focus and goal in mind. If communication is not made a priority the “implementees” will become discouraged and potentially abandon the technology. Resource Siemens, George & Peter Tittenberger. “Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning”. March 2009. http://elearnspace.org/Articles/HETL.pdf. |
AuthorTracy is a teacher in School District 79 (Cowichan Valley) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She graduated from Vancouver Island University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Physical Education and English as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Education. She is currently completing an Online Learning and Teaching Diploma and a Masters in Leadership. Archives
November 2014
Categories
All
Voices of OLTD 505
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. |
Learning Blog
Here you will find a blog of my learning that is happening in the OLTD program at VIU.
Photo used under Creative Commons from jillyspoon