CEP811 Final Thoughts...

Adapting Innovative Technologies to Education (aka CEP811) has been a very interesting course.  I come away from this course with a wide range of ideas and tactics to apply technology in the classroom.  I thought this course was well designed and particularly suited to my needs with a large dose of theory at the beginning, and a litany of applications and projects during the last ¾ of the class.  The lecture and readings on the scholarship of teaching and learning, instructional design principles, and Universal Design for Learning gave me the theoretical framework to understand how specific technologies can be used in the classroom.  I feel like this foundation will give me the ability to help teachers calibrate the application of technology in a way that is authentic to their teaching process.

Using web-based technologies in this class really stirs the imagination for interesting classroom applications.  While some of the web-technologies we used and evaluated are a little dated (Webquests, powerpoint StAIRs), the principles behind using technology for learning are clear.  Instructional design and UDL, when applied correctly, turn a web resource into an instructional material.  I was introduced to a fantastic repository called MERLOT that contains a huge amount of instructional materials that span all subject areas and grade levels.  The community aspect of MERLOT means that many resources are peer reviewed, making it easy to identify well designed and useful materials.  Although I don’t plan to contribute content to MERLOT, I envision using it when I am working with teachers who need resources or ideas on how to integrate technology into the classroom.

My main goals for this class were to absorb any instructional and design theory on offer, and to glean ideas for interesting uses of technology in the classroom.  The theory is very important to me because I am mainly a technologist, not a teacher. I work with teachers to help them integrate technology, but I do not have a lot of direct experience teaching.  The theoretical frameworks that many teachers take for granted represent a dark art to me, and I strive to understand the process of teaching and learning from the outside looking in.  As for the particular technologies demonstrated, I had heard of Webquests before but not investigated their use any further.  I think webquests can still be fun and interesting for students if used with updated technologies and multimedia.  If a webquest can operate at the intersection of collaboration, multimedia, and role-playing, I believe students stand to gain a lot from a diverse activity.

Looking toward the future, I would like to spend more time learning about UDL to make the interaction with technology more accessible to a wider array of learners and learning profiles.  Our introduction to UDL seemed really to just scratch the surface, and I’m certain that I have much more to learn about these design principles.

Online Learning Experiences

By reading the Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Learning companion document recently, I was able to investigate several web-based tools.  Through the lens of the core principles of online learning, many different tools are evaluated: wikis, LMS systems, blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts & vodcasts, e-portfolios, and more.

I would like to begin using a wiki (or Google Sites) in my Robotics class.  I think the collaborative nature of a site works towards students building knowledge together.  I can envision using this type of activity over the course of the class.  Instead of individual student blogs, I would have each team create a collaborative Wiki or Site to post writings in text, diagrams programming flow charts, and videos of their robot performance challenges.  They could also use it to document links they found useful or interesting relating to the subject matter.  By the end of the course, each student has a dynamic online “poster board display” of their team’s work.

I think the web-quest would be a tricky activity to weave into the course.  The performance challenges in the class already have a fictional setup/introduction; often framing the student teams as NASA researchers trying to work out issues with a “planetary rover.”  I did employ the Moodle LMS one semester, which was not well received by the students.  I used it primarily for document distribution, worksheet collection, and displaying diagrams they needed to consult for various building techniques with the LEGO robotics parts.  The LMS was not really engaging enough for them, and they complained that it was cumbersome.  Ultimately, I moved to Google Docs to distribute and collect documents.