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Description:
Highly technical course uses principles of designing environments for technology-based teaching and learning with hands-on field experiences for planning, purchasing, installing, maintaining, and assessing hardware, software, and network configurations. Letter grade only.
Competency:
Standard 2: Digital-Age Learning Culture
Technology Directors create, promote, and sustain a dynamic, digital-age learning culture that provides a rigorous, relevant, and engaging education for all students. Upon completion of the program:
Standard 2, Element 2.1. Digital Tools and Resources Candidates assist district and school leaders to identify, evaluate, and select exemplary digital tools and resources that support learning goals, incorporate research-based instructional design principles, and are compatible with the school technology infrastructure.
Standard 3: Excellence in Professional Practice
Technology Directors promote an environment of professional learning and innovation that empowers educators to enhance student learning through the infusion of contemporary technologies and digital resources. Upon completion of the program
Standard 3, Element 3.1. Professional Learning Programs Candidates design, implement, and evaluate professional learning programs (face-to-face, blended, and online) that help educators integrate technology effectively into all instructional and business practices— including assisting program directors in infusing technology into all professional learning initiatives.
Standard 3, Element 3.3. Communication and Collaboration Provide technologies to support effective communication and collaboration and model their use among colleagues, parents, students, and the community.
Standard 3, Element 3.4. Current Research & Emerging Technologies Maintain in-depth knowledge of current educational research and emerging technologies and evaluate potential benefits and implementation requirements (purchase cost, training, human resources, installation, maintenance, compatibility).
In this class, we looked at Open Network Learning Environments (ONLE) and compared them to Personal Learning Environments (PLE).
Personal Learning Environments are created by users / learners as a place to consolidate input from a variety of resources to allow them to monitor new developments and postings. Examples of these include Web 2.0 tools such as Netvibes and Symbaloo.
With these tools you can link content from websites such as Gmail, Twitter, Diigo, Google Calandar. Some PLEs show links to various platforms such as Symbaloo, while others actually embed feeds and content such as Netvibes. Both place content where it can be easily viewed in one place either through a web interface or a mobile device app.
In one of our assignments, I started the process of creating a PLE on both Netvibes and Symbaloo in order to compare the two platforms. I created the above diagram to illustrate how the two compared as I built the website.
PLEs can include content from Learning Management Systems, which are created by businesses and institutions to provide training. LMS content is controlled by the organization. In addition, the PLE can include elements selected by the student and created by their peers or other entities outside of the organization. This is what is described as an Open Network Learning Environment (ONLE). In an ONLE the users often integrate content for themselves and may also disseminate content for others based on their own expertise, this is the network part of ONLE.
One way to disseminate content on line is by using social bookmarks. Tools such as Diigo, allow users to capture web content, annotate, bookmark, and organize it. You can then share your findings with groups that you form on the site.
An example of how ONLE can be used for Professional Development
In the past, I have combined the resources of YouTube, Google Sites, and Twitter to create educational materials on how to use the audio and video production resources at one of the schools I worked at. I produced a set of training videos for various functions that a user might need to perform using the control room equipment and posted these to YouTube. Next, I set up a webpage on Google Sites and embedded the YouTube videos in the web page by topic. In addition, I uploaded PDF versions of documentation that might supplement the training in the video. Things like owners manuals and step by step checklists. Once the site was finished, I posted the link to my professional Twitter account, which my colleagues were already following. In addition to providing a professional development resource, the site was available to users at any time if they needed to refresh their memories after they hadn't used the facilities for a period of time. Because the training was broken into multiple topics, they could find the specific information they needed quickly and easily. Because they were posted on line, they were available to the staff and anyone else using the same software and equipment that we used.
In fact, the third video in the series on the lighting software we used has been viewed 1164 times as of this writing, obviously by a number of people from outside the school district.
Reflections:
One of the assignments in ETC 655 was to create and present a professional learning assignment on a Web 2.0 tool as part of a group project. Our group chose to present a demonstration of Padlet. Using Google Slides, we collaborated on line to create a presentation with each of us preparing a portion of the show.
This was later presented on Blackboard's Collaborate Ultra to an audience that included our class, other students in the NAU education program, and even teachers from the Flagstaff school district where NAU is located.
One of the handy features of Collaborate Ultra is the ability to export video files of live presentations afterwards. This has allowed me to upload the video to YouTube and share it here.
There were two main challenges with this assignment. The first was an appearent compatibility issue that prevented me from presenting. We were the first group scheduled and I was unable to connect. The other members of the group were able to carry on without me.
The other issue was one that is common to all online classes, and that was the logistics of people coordinating with each other from different time zones.
In addition to the technical materials covered in this class, there was an extensive look at instructional strategies comparing ONLE / PLE Strategies with Online Constructionist Instructional Strategies.
One of the assignments was to create a diagram of these strategies.
In reviewing the descriptions of Online Learning Instructional Strategies and Open Network Learning Environments, it doesn’t take long to recognize that the two are in many ways intertwined. I tried to show that in my diagram. It isn’t always a one to one match, some categories over lap with more than one of the other. In other cases, the match is almost an exact one to one, with the definitions being almost identical.
For my diagram, I tried to show the different instructional strategies in both Open Network Learning Environments and Online Constructivist Instructional Strategies. I also wanted to give some examples of the tools used in the different ONLE strategies since they were such an integral part of the definitions.
I also chose to show Open Network Learning Environments and Personal Learning Environments as 2 separate items connected by a heavy line. I was trying to reflect how most PLE content is often driven by the learner while the ONLE content is more likely to have come from others.
I have used solid lines to show direct connections between things like ONLE strategies and specific apps. To show indirect connections between ONLE strategies and Online Instruction Strategies, I used dotted lines to show that while they aren’t direct, they are implied by their definitions.
Lastly, I wanted to depict the connection from PLE environments NetVibes and Symbaloo to the Diigo platform which could in turn be used to share and publish information, creating a sort of community-community interaction loop.
The nature of this assignment forced me to consider these theories and strategies in more detail than I have before and try to find a way to visualize them. This class has provided confirmation of several of the techniques I have already used, in some cases it has provided me with terminology for approaches I have already been using. It has also provided me with some new techniques to include in my future instructional work.
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