Summary
This week, you have learned about many different tools and technologies – including social media – that can be used in online education.
Next week, you will look at another side of social media’s role in online education – the role of facilitating the creation and development of your own networks.
While you contemplate all the tools and technologies covered in this week, let’s see how Rita has been coping with all this useful information.
Activity 4.6 Reflecting on progress
Timing: Allow about 20 minutes
Watch the video or read the transcript. In it, Rita reflects on Week 4 from her perspective as an educator. Take some time to make notes on the following questions:
- How does what you have learned this week relate to your own role?
- What changes, if any, could you make to your practice or to the wider practice at your institution as a result of what you have learned?
Transcript
RITA:
I must admit that I am a little bit daunted by all of the different tools out there. But I am also quite excited at the prospect of doing some very different things with my teaching than what I have been used to doing. I think I’ll experiment with a few different tools first. Start with small steps and work up from there.
I really like the idea of screencasting – that looks very effective, both for demonstrating techniques and showing learners how to navigate my course materials. I am going to investigate the tools that are out there over the next couple of days.
I have already been thinking about repurposing my slide presentations, so that was already on my ‘To Do’ list. I think I might also try recording some short video clips, just using my phone or maybe my webcam, so the learners get a more ‘personal touch’ – they will know what I look like, they will hear my voice, so it will be less strange for them if they have not worked online before.
Next, what I want to do is work through the table of technologies that might be used for various learning outcomes. Please bear with me for a while …
[CLOCK TICKING]
… Hello again! I am delighted that you're still there! I’m really pleased that I tried to use that table of technologies; it has proved to be a very helpful exercise for me. My learning outcomes for this course are a mixture of self-directed learning, co-learning, giving and receiving feedback, collaboration, and oral presentation and communication skills. So I can see from the table a range of relevant activities I could try, and tools that I might use.
Although there are a lot of options, I feel less overwhelmed than I did, and I can start investigating some of the possibilities now.
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You can now go to Week 5 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .