A Final Reflection: I can't believe it's time to say good-bye!

It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the course, and even harder to summarize all that I have learned over the past few weeks. I have learned so much about how technology is changing the face of the library, the way students behave and the skills that they need to learn. On top of that, I have learned about a myriad of Web 2.0 tools, which has helped me to form an understanding of the tools that my students, as digital natives, have grown up with.

I have learned so much, yet, of course, there are still questions that will need to be explored as I continue in my teaching career. Learning how to teach students the skills necessary for this world of technology will be a continuous journey. Already, questions constantly arise: what are the ethics involved in encouraging students to participate in social networking sites? How can we teach students what sources are reliable or not reliable? How can we teach students to sift through all the information on the web accurately? Questions will continue to arise as my position changes at the Vancouver School Board and I am put into different teaching situations. The most important point to remember is that I need to be aware that these questions will continue to arise, and that I have the power to think about them critically.

As always, it is important to examine how what I have learned will effect my teaching practice. I am extremely lucky because I have a brand new course to play with: my summer school English 12 course. I am lead teacher this summer, which means that I get to design an entire course from scratch, in any way that I want. As a result, many of the tools that I have learned about in this course can become part of my summer school course, and I will be able to experiment, evaluate and discuss how these tools work within an online course. Three targets that I have for summer school:

1) A collaborative wiki: one unit in English 12 is a short story module, and to have a collaborative wiki would be a great experience. It would allow students to interact with each other, hone their writing skills, and evaluate other students’ writing.

2) Podcasts: During this course, I created a podcast for one of my English 12 assignments. I would like to continue using podcasts as a tool for teaching my students.

3) Media collections: I learned about the variety of media collections available to teachers online: TeacherTube, Youtube, Google video, etcetera. I definitely plan on using these collections to expand my summer school course.

This course has truly made me aware of changes that are taking place in education. Though I have made three specific, immediate goals for the future, the awareness and understanding of Web 2.0 and how it is changing education is even more important. Thank you to everyone: Joanne and my classmates, for guiding me and joining me on this journey through Web 2.0!

Week 13 Evidence of Learning: A tool not yet explored - downloading a podcast via iTunes

Today I subscribed to Mark Kermode's film reviews with the BBC. I know it may seem like an unusual choice, but in the English 12 course, students review two versions of Hamlet, so I wanted to try out different film reviews to expose them to. In my previous posts, I have talked about wanting to experiment with different types of assessment for learning, getting away from so much writing, writing and writing in the course. Listening to a podcast as a model for an assignment is an idea worth thinking about. Students could then create their own faux radio show reviewing a film and then post it on the discussion board to be marked.


Subscribe to Mark Kermode's film review at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/kermode/. Reel Reviews Radio has interesting alternatives - not so British and still PG; its podcasts are at http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id73330500.

Week 13 Evidence of Learning: A tool not yet explored - Ning

In these final posts of my e-portolio, I wanted to explore any tools that I have not tried yet. Today I thus created a Ning for anyone who attended the Overseas Chinese Youth Language and Study Tour (aka the Loveboat) in 2000. I thought it would be a good network to create as there are people both locally and internationally who were on the trip, thus spreading the "net" of the network wider than just Vancouver. People attended this trip from various parts of the northern hemisphere: Canada, the United States of America, Britain and France.

I regularly meet up with a group of friends from this trip, but I have lost touch with anyone who lives outside of Vancouver. This would be a neat way to get in touch. As you can see though, I am yet to invite anyone. I think I should consult with my group of friends when I see them next - I think they would be puzzled if I did something like this without them. However, I have a feeling that I will be explaining to them exactly what a Ning is!

To think about how this tool would play out my teaching practice: I have to admit, I am not too sure. There are interesting features of this network, but being able to chat, add videos, content and events are things that I can already accomplish in our learning management system; it would be redundant to use two websites for the same thing. I also understand the idea of having a network with your students, but as I said before, teachers are already piloting having a facebook group for our student population. As a result, the addition of Ning seems unnecessary as of right now.

Week 13 Reflection: The Future

What does the future hold for teachers, learners, libraries, schools, and education as a whole? How will Web 2.0 continue to transform the tradition role of both the library and the school? This week's videos had a variety of perspectives on the topic.

Two videos really struck me: Ken Robinson's talk on schools killing creativity and Gever Tulley's presentation on five dangerous things for kids. Let me explain why these videos connected with me: a few weeks ago, near the beginning of this course, I mourned the loss of the simple (see my Week 3 post on finding that middle ground). I wrote about the idea that in this world of digital storytelling (not just storytelling), flashing lights and instant technology, the younger generation are losing an appreciation of the basics, and are instead demanding that everything be digital, bells and whistles included. This is the reason that I enjoyed Robinson's talk: he focused on the importance of simple, wonderful, creativity. His point was not about statistics, about catching up with the younger generation, about adapting or changing; rather, he spoke about the wonder of imagination and creativity. The same can be said about Gever Tulley's Tinkering School. I agree with his idea that children can learn through these hands-on, "old school" methods, of building, playing, and experimenting. Developments in the world of technology should not mean that basic methods of education are forgotten.

So how does fit in with the transformation that will continue to occur in education due to Web 2.0 tools? Simply put, it reminds us to not lose sight of what is important: creativity, imagination, experimentation and play. Educators like Robinson and Tulley remind us that as we continue to adapt and change our system to meet the needs of students today, we must remember that these tools should be enhancing students' skills, not replacing them. This, in turn, is how we can construct new knowledge and develop our teaching philosophies with Web 2.0 tools. We must remember to use the tools to help students use their creativity and imagination: do not let the "gadgets" of Web 2.0 become learning outcomes, instead use them as a way to meeting learning outcomes.

Thinking about how this plays into my own practice: I still have a lot to learn about using Web 2.0 in my teaching. As I have been posting throughout this e-portfolio, I plan on piloting many tools in my English 12 summer school course: a collaborative wiki, podcasts, media collections, etcetera. In this way, I am already thinking about how Web 2.0 will change the course I have. What I plan on taking from this week's topic: to remember that Web 2.0 is a means to an end, not the end itself. As long as I stay focused on using the tools to enhance student learning and to not get distracted by the all the fanciness, I will be on the right track.

MY VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Week 12 Evidence of Learning: My adventure into Open Access

I wanted to experience open access for myself, so went looking through the Directory of Open Access Journals. I found a very intriguing article on the role Second Life (SL)in distance learning. In A Second Life for Distance Learning, Jace Hargis discusses the virtual world of Second Life, a "three dimensional virtual world entirely built and owned by its resident" (2008). His argument is that as education once changed from oral to literacy, it is now changing to a form known as "electracy", which Wikipedia defines as "the kind of 'literacy' or skill and facility necessary to exploit the full communicative potential of new electronic media such as multimedia, hypermedia, social software, and virtual worlds" (2007).

Though it sounds bizarre, Hargis's main point is that this is simply another facet in which learning may occur. His argument is that learning already takes place in many informal settings, such as correspondense, electronic, distributed, etcetera. Education through Second Life is yet another informal setting that allows people to learn. Indeed, numerous universities, one hundred and nineteen at the time that this article was written, have a presence in SL. More than one hundred islands have been sold in SL for educational purposes. Hargis also notes that there are issues to be developed in SL, such as assessment, how to maximize the positives of such an interactive learning environment, etcetera.

To not lose focus on why I read this article in the first place: I found it through a simple search on the Directory of Open Access Journals. I wanted to read about something related to distributed learning, and searching for those key words brought up a wealth of resources. It was incredibly easy to use and I will definitely continue to explore it as a resource.

Reference
Hargis, Jace. "A Second Life For Distance Learning." Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education 9.2 (2008): 57-63. Web. 9 Apr 2010. .

Wikipedia. (2007). Definition of electracy. Downloaded on January 15, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electracy .

Week 12 Reflection: Open Access

What struck me the most about this week's topic was the simple fact that I had never heard about it. Never have I heard a colleague mention open access (OA), recommend OA, or talk about OA. This is different than our other weekly topics; even though I didn't necessarily have any experience with previous topics, I had at least heard the topics mentioned before at some point (except RSS feeds and aggregators - I admit, that was a mystery as well). Open access though, is different. This is the first time that I was made aware of these huge databases of free resources, and I have a feeling that many of my colleagues are also not aware that this type of resource exists. Some comments on Alice's voicethread echoed this.

In regards to Joseph J. Esposito's The devil you don't know: The unexpected future of Open Access publishing, I sympathize with Esposito's diatribe on the economics of OA. It is a huge issue, and is completely changing the face of both libraries and publishing. However, I feel at peace with this and not nearly as torn up about it as Esposito. This is simply because so many things are changing because of the internet and, frankly, OA is just one more change. Libraries are shifting anyway, indeed, many of the articles that we have read and studied in this course are about the digitally re-shifted library. In fact, Joyce Kasman Valenza and Doug Johnson state that "the library, as we once knew it, may no longer be relevant" (2009). Surely Esposito shouldn't be surprised that change would extend to the world of journals and publishing?

To extend his analogy of the telephone: phone companies did not go out of business as the world of telephony changed. Instead, they adapted, and as he said, he actually now pays much more for his telephone that his parents' generation. Librarians, writers, and publishers will need to adapt too: OA is just one more factor in the huge change that has been happening over the past decade, and will continue to happen as technology dictates what we do and how we do it.

In contrast, it was a pleasure to read Willinsky's article. It let me know that there are also intellectuals out there who, despite the economic issues that OA poses, are still in favour of OA and extremely positive about its direction. As someone who has not used OA before, it was important to see both sides of the coin.

Reference
Kasman Valenza, Joyce, and Doug Johnson. "Things That Keep Us Up at Night." School Library Journal (2009): n. pag. Web. November 25 2009. .

Week 11 Evidence of Learning: Voicethread

I explored Voicethread as a possibility for my Vision of the Future Assignment. I opened an account and played around with it, creating a slideshow of my family photos. I like it and think that it has potential to be the tool I use to present my slideshow. I'm just worried about there being too much text on each slide: the rough draft of my assignment has quite a bit of writing for each section. I'm not sure if Voicethread is the right program for a presentation with a lot of writing. But then at the same time, I could read the text aloud - the audience could read and listen at the same time . . .