For our final assignment in Education 3801 (Educational Media), Bill asked us to discuss and reflect on our experiences in the course, including the points listed below:
- Positive experiences
- Negative experiences
- How you think what you have learned from this course will hopefully help your instruction.
- An example of a technology that you haven't used in your instruction that you will now plan to use.
Let's begin with point #1, positive experiences:
- It's always great to learn, I find that it keeps my brain working and busy. I learned a lot from the content of the course, but as usual, I learned the most from interacting with my peers via D2L. There's great value in discussing what others are doing, or what you are thinking of trying - all you have to do is post your idea, and it will be reviewed by people who are in similar situations. So, to sum up: the best experience was learning not only the lecture notes, but taking part in discussions online, and learning from my peers who are also in the class.
Point #2 asks us to discuss negative experiences:
- I had to sit down and think about this, since overall the course was a very positive experience. But when I really thought about it, I remember thinking that although group work is great, there are certain challenges that can't be overlooked, since this is a course taken from Distance Education, rather than on campus. It's often hard to connect with everyone in a group (especially since this course is via Distance Education). But with careful planning and committed group members (which I had - my group was great) we were able to get everything done for without issue. Although my negative experience isn't with the curriculum, I think it's worth noting and getting used to, because Distance Education courses are becoming more and more popular as time passes.
Point #3 asks for some thoughts on how what I have learned in this course will help my instruction:
- This is an interesting point. Now that I have completed this course, I think my instruction would improve because I know more about the technologies available, as well as what may be coming down the pipe line in the future. For example, through previous blog postings here I learned about iPads in the classroom, which is something that I may not have thought of before. It's important to remember that different people have different styles of learning, so making an effort to integrate more technology into the classroom can only help people learn, as well as improve my lecturing skills.
Point #4 asks what new technology I have learned about via this course and would plan to use post ED3801.
- Learning from your peers is what makes this course so great. When I was reading some class blog postings for Assignment 2, I came across some very neat stuff that I would love to integrate into the classroom. One example would be Kimberly Ryder's mention of the SMART Pen (she notes it in her blog found here: www.kim-ryder.blogspot.com/ ). The SMART Pen is effective, and inexpensive as is allows pen holders to make 'pen casts', which are similar to pod casts. So, if you don't mind your lectures being recorded as an instructor, the SMART Pen may be a most valuable resource for students, as the pen can link their own notes to to the actual audible aspects of a lecture. This tool would also be great for students who miss class, as they would be able to catch up on their own time. Here's the video from Kim's blog:
That's it for now, thanks!
