Travel Diary - Final MET Reflections

Planes & Trains!

Below are my reflections about what struggles, pitfalls and challenges that I have encountered in the MET program, similar to the challenges I’ve encountered while traveling.

I never thought it would happen to me.  The airline lost my luggage on the way to France in 2008. There I was in France with a group of 30 teenagers and no luggage – what now?  I instantly learned that my reaction and attitude towards the situation would set the tone for the trip.  I could complain, freak out and scare my students who are already nervous that they are in a strange country or I could use this as a learning experience to pack my carry-on bag differently and more purposefully and be positive, mature and calm in a difficult situation.  So I decided to go with the latter and it made a huge difference in how my students interacted with me from then on. 

So when the first train strike in years, in France in April of 2010, detoured our plans to taking a 16 hour bus ride versus a 5 hour high speed train from Paris to Nice with a group of 25 teenagers, I was more prepared to handle this kind of stress having formerly been through a variety of mishaps in my travels.  Instead of “Oh no – what now?!” it was take charge “who do we talk to so we can adjust our plans and change the ticket dates we had for different events”.  Although the tour director was fantastic and took care of most of it, I still felt more equipped to handle the challenge.  We were used to the packed metro cars in Paris by now and riding the TGV would have been a nice break with room to sit, tables and a food car.  But, I refused to see the strike as a setback; instead I made sure we had fun on the bus.  I bought balloons and rented movies (luckily the bus had mini TV’s & a movie player).  We made the best of riding the bus! 

Similarly, I never thought I would lose my data or saved files.  But yes, it happened to me!  So, I decided to take the minor glitches I encountered along the way in my MET courses with the same maturity and positive drive.  This was not easy as lost or corrupt files, uncooperative code, program limitations and computer glitches were more common than I had anticipated.   Fortunately I save in multiple places so I was able to retrieve an older version of the file.  Finding the positive, I was thankful that I do save in multiple places and since I make sure I do now! 

Each challenge has been a learning experience and guide for future courses and trips I would take which has taught me how to avoid and prevent that situation in the future.  Problem solving through these issues adds to my toolkit of knowledge and skills, enhances my efficacy in these situations and has helped me grow as a person.  I have used these experiences to help others too as other MET Mentors have aided me along my journey plenty of times.  If there were postings online about issues that I’d encountered and rectified I took this opportunity to reply and post what I had figured out the hard way so to save others the same headache, time and trouble. 

Favourite Memories – My MET Reflection

Just as I have many favourite memories and places traveling, I have many favourite instructors, peers, cohorts, memories, learning experiences, projects, websites, videos and tech tools in the MET program.

Throughout my MET experience, I’ve taken 1 blended course (half online and half face-to-to face), two face-to-face and 11 fully online courses (including this one).  They have each been unique and rewarding in a variety of different ways.   The biggest difference that I’m noticing in the courses though is the balance and range of interactions that are: learner, knowledge, community, assessment-centered (Anderson, 2008). Overall, the courses have varied the most in instructor interaction and feedback.  The UBC courses have been more balanced as the 2 that I took from other Universities definitely had balance issues in their delivery.  The UBC courses have also been consistent in providing clear expectations, timelines and schedules to help students gain a clear picture of what each course entails.

Until having traveled to a few different places, I had no idea the routine of traveling or what to expect traveling like: airports, customs, baggage claim, meeting new people, finding transportation to my accommodations, language and / or cultural barriers and all the other exciting adventures that would I would experience. Likewise, until having a few courses under my belt, I had no idea that the teaching strategies that my MET professors used were constructivist or social or deliberate.  Scaffolding and supporting community knowledge building just seemed to be the norm in a MET course, I really didn’t think much more about it until I took 512, Learning Theories.  It all became clear to me – there was a meaningful purpose behind every activity, every discussion and every group project.  This reminds me of Vygotsky’s assertion of how scaffolding techniques are useful in presenting new information including new vocabulary, technical language and social constructs. Scaffolding may also be necessary to support learners to undertake complex problems that may otherwise be beyond their proximal development. (Barab & Duffy, 2000).  Vygotsky (1978) defined the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ (ZPD) as “the distance between a child’s independent, problem-solving level and that obtained under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers”. 

MET introduced me to myself as a learner and student.  I was learning to understand myself as a learner and how I learn.  I was also learning what it was like to learn in cyberspace and at the same time, I was observing how learners interact in cyberspace and how instructors teach in cyberspace – I was in my ZPD!  I realize how important the communities of practice (CoP’s) we foster with our cohorts really are to our learning and I am so very thankful to have collaborated with some amazing people on various projects!  It is because of these learning experiences that I have learned as much as I have!

Terry Anderson's book, Theory and Practice in Online Learning (2008) acted as a guide of sorts for me to use as a student, a teacher, educational technologist and designer of online learning. The links from theory to practice and clear guidelines set out by Anderson continue to be crucial to my development and I referenced chapters from this book several times during my Masters Program.

Anderson refers to online learning mentioning that it “will enhance the critical function of interaction in education, in multiple formats and styles, among all the participants.  The task of the online course designer and teacher now, therefore, is to choose, adapt, and perfect, through feedback, assessment, and reflection, educational activities that maximize the affordances of the Web.”(Anderson, 2008, p.68)  Similarly, Bates & Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS model will forever be a part of my toolkit to guide my technology decisions and choices to ensure I integrate technology in meaningful ways into various contexts.

Throughout my MET program, I’ve reflected on my thinking in various contexts.  I’ve analyzed how I think, how I learn, how I believe others learn, how I teach, how I create lesson plans, how I assess learning, how I mentor, how to learn online, how to create engaging and interactive online learning activities and environments and how to teach online.  I’ve also had opportunities to analyze my philosophies of teaching and learning as well as education and technology in the Digital Age.  Creating with technology has made me realize another artistic and creative side I never knew existed.  I’ve been impressed with how much the program has taught me in such a short period of time.  My colleagues and administrators have noticed as well and I can thank the MET program and my newly acquired skills for a new role I was awarded last year: Technology Integration Leader for my school.  I support teachers and other staff members with their technology skills and purposefully integrating technology into their classrooms.  I aim to help them improve their digital skills, guide them and empower them to self- sustainability where they no longer need my help as much.  This role is evolving this year but we are a small group of a few technically qualified teachers in each school that meet regularly to address technology integration issues, celebrate successes, present and/or attend technology workshops to share or enhance our technology skills.  Ironically, most of these workshops over the past couple years have not been new to me due to my experience in the MET program.  Instead, I’m now one of the people that our district office asks to present at these PD Day workshops so that in and of itself is kudos to the MET program! 

I’ve immensely enjoyed and benefited from my MET journey and I’m glad it’s not entirely over as I think I will be in temporary shock and withdrawal when it is all over.   I’m so very appreciative and truly blessed to have been a part of such a dynamic group of individuals in the MET CoP.  This program has made me a better person and a better teacher!  What I have experienced along my journey over the past couple years will stay with me forever and has altered my knowledge base and perspectives of the peoples and cultures I interact with whether it be face-to-face, online or a combination!  I can’t wait to start putting theory and research into practice in my classroom!

References

Anderson, T.  (2008). “Towards the Theory of Online Learning.”  In Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F.  Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University.

Barab, S. & Duffy, T. (2000). From practice fields to communities of practice. In D. Johassen and S. Land (Eds.), Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bates and Poole. (2003) “A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology.”  In Effective Teaching with Technology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pages 75-105.

            Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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