ETEC 565M Mobile Education
Reflections
I was very excited to start this course because this was my first course in the MET program and this was the only course available at the moment I had to make my first course selection. I had very little knowledge in this emerging aspect of technology education and I was eager to learn. At the same time I started working on a Facebook marketing course project at work designing courses for mobile environment for the first time. The time for the Mobile Education course was perfect.
This course takes place on a WordPress platform, which allows everyone who takes the course to return back and review the course content and blog posts made by students in various cohorts at any time. ETEC 565M was an experimental implementation of WordPress with beta-level implementations of badges, ratings, reviews, etc, that we were exploring together. We were co-authors of the content and design of the course, as well as co-researchers into its experimental ideas and functionality. The Evaluate plugin was used to replace the traditional comment experience and allowed better forms of collective feedback and curation. This course was like a live conversation, where we constantly were reviewing, rating and recommending each other's work, and everybody's participation was timely and added value. Although I found it challenging to learn how to navigate the course, make reviews, search through multiple topics, and be constantly evaluated by peers, I found it very exciting to be a part of this course!
ETEC 565M was hands-on and exposed me to a variety of trends and emerging technology in the field. I have created my first two Weebly websites, played around with Touchcast for the group project and learned how to use Adobe Voice for video recording.
I had an opportunity to discuss a variety of trends and emerging technology in the field with my peers and explore the potential that mobile education has for cooperative, problem-based and situated learning.
ETEC 565M helped me to reflect on where I am at in the scope of 21st Century teaching/designing/leading, to challenge myself to think outside the box, and to invent plausible future tools used in mobile technology.
This course takes place on a WordPress platform, which allows everyone who takes the course to return back and review the course content and blog posts made by students in various cohorts at any time. ETEC 565M was an experimental implementation of WordPress with beta-level implementations of badges, ratings, reviews, etc, that we were exploring together. We were co-authors of the content and design of the course, as well as co-researchers into its experimental ideas and functionality. The Evaluate plugin was used to replace the traditional comment experience and allowed better forms of collective feedback and curation. This course was like a live conversation, where we constantly were reviewing, rating and recommending each other's work, and everybody's participation was timely and added value. Although I found it challenging to learn how to navigate the course, make reviews, search through multiple topics, and be constantly evaluated by peers, I found it very exciting to be a part of this course!
ETEC 565M was hands-on and exposed me to a variety of trends and emerging technology in the field. I have created my first two Weebly websites, played around with Touchcast for the group project and learned how to use Adobe Voice for video recording.
I had an opportunity to discuss a variety of trends and emerging technology in the field with my peers and explore the potential that mobile education has for cooperative, problem-based and situated learning.
ETEC 565M helped me to reflect on where I am at in the scope of 21st Century teaching/designing/leading, to challenge myself to think outside the box, and to invent plausible future tools used in mobile technology.
Artifacts
Artifact 1: Analytical Publishing Project: Piazza
This assignment allowed me to demonstrate an ability to critically examine and analyze a social Q&A Platform for mobile learning and critically assess its current and prospective value. In this assignment we chose an emerging aspect of mobility and analyzed its educational potential. I explored advantages and disadvantages of using this mobile platform that helps students to learn using the power of community. I have chosen Piazza for analysis because of my personal interest and its applicability to my work experience: one of the universities I design course for, The University of Maryland, uses Piazza in their online education, however not to its full potential. I have used the website I created multiple times to discuss what opportunities Piazza offers to students and teachers in my consultations with faculty. I have also created my first Weebly site while working on this project. This skill I used thought my MET program for multiple individual and group projects.
Artifact 2: Video Primary (OER)
For this assignment we worked in groups. Our group collectively researched, designed, built, demonstrated and published an open education resource (OER): Video Primary. This OER was designed to serve the self-guided professional development interests of a prospective global audience of educational technology professionals.
In this mobile e-learning guide we provided our peers and colleagues with the tools and resources to plan their instructional videos, shoot their own videos, share their videos and master DIY Learning with some of the leaders in the space.
We covered the following 6 topics:
- What is Video Primary and Why use it?
- Assessing your Audience
- How-To Instructions
- Peer-Assignment: Produce your own video
- Examples of Video Primary Learning
- Interactive Video
We encouraged our peers to contribute to our collaborative toolkit, which turned up to be a resource many of us still refer to.
I personally was very engaged in the Interactive Video part of the OER as I feel using interactive videos for education is such a great tool! It is engaging and fun for learners and makes the videos much more interesting and authentic, especially ones in which the learner has to use their own critical and cognitive thinking skills. Another benefit of such videos is the ability to personalize the experience for oneself: to see more or less detail, to skip areas that are not applicable to a particular learner, to switch from text/audio/video as appropriate, and to have more or less interactivity depending on learner needs or preferences. As results of our peer survey showed, some of us use quizzes built in videos for students' interactions, but there are so many other options available that we explored and presented in our OER.
As I reflect on our group experience, it was not a smooth project development, but we learned a lot. We tried multiple video recording and editing tools, and some of them did not work for our purpose. For example, we wanted to use TouchCast to create an interactive team introduction video. The tool description promised a simple way to create a collaborative product, and after trying it on different devices for a week or so, we gave up. Some of the tools I discovered while working on the project and use constantly for other courses or work are Adobe Voice and Powtoon.
Artifact 3: Forecasting Project: What is Micro Learning?
For this assignment, I authored and published a video that predicts a prospective future of micro learning that has significant relevance to the student. Research in micro learning helped me to predict a transformation of teaching practice. Micro learning is highly relevant, usable and valued in course design. It is an emergent learning
strategy known for quickly closing skill and knowledge gaps. It is an instructional approach that I use for many situations at work because information changes quickly, and people find it difficult to keep up with things.
For this assignment, I authored and published a video that predicts a prospective future of micro learning that has significant relevance to the student. Research in micro learning helped me to predict a transformation of teaching practice. Micro learning is highly relevant, usable and valued in course design. It is an emergent learning
strategy known for quickly closing skill and knowledge gaps. It is an instructional approach that I use for many situations at work because information changes quickly, and people find it difficult to keep up with things.