Comments on Peer blogs

1. Raj Jadeja : http://exploringdigitalleaning.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/in-process-i-learned.html
2. Raj Jadeja: http://exploringdigitalleaning.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/e-portfolio.html
3. Paula Edwards: http://digitallearningtechnology.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/blog-5-1/comment-page-1/#comment-3
4. Lee gaylor: http://holyarmadillosmoke.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/81-reflections.html
5. Arun Warriar: http://digitallearningtechnologyunlimited.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/online-course-examples.html

Week 8 - Term Reflection for Digital Learning Technologies Course @ EIT, Hawke's Bay

When I enrolled for this course I, had a fair idea that this is a course that will guide me to increase my knowledge to be used in my profile. As now in my life growth cycle I am at a stage where every knowledge I gain is planned and channelized to what my future profession will be. And I am yet to reach a stage to read random library full of books and articles to enhance my knowledge. But for now my goal is a good profession. Now I will try to take you through the journey of the first term (February 2013 to April 2013) of my course name Digital Learning Technologies, from which you can make a small idea of what this course is all about.

My first idea was that this course will teach me to use advanced skills, and knowledge of use of various multimedia tools. These can be used for teaching or developing your own knowledge base. But to be true I learnt much more. May be because of the design and implementation of this course or excellent teaching skills of my professor. For now we will concentrate in syllabus wise what I learnt from this course, and what I liked about it.

We started of with learning to use blogs, micro-blogs and what is 21st century teaching is all about, and how digital learning technologies have been embedded in our daily lives. We also saw what were the challenges it faced in today's world. That made me see the technology that I saw and used form the other side of the window.  We went in depth about the various DLT's used in organisations and how o use social networking as learning tool. I had been using social media but never used it as a tool. The best thing came the later was I learnt what PLN was. It was like my plans for the future got a structure to stand on. I was now preparing to embrace technologies to enhance my learning and professional network. That was a major turning point in my career planning. After all these years of education I had never thought about the pedagogic implementation. I realised that NLP and VAKOG are the need of the future. We learnt about the four pedagogy, and made me think of all the education I had done through that spectrum. 

We learnt all about the various instructional design models, and had our first play with EIT Online (Moodle). We made a model in group within 1 hour using common Google doc. And that started the creativity end in my brain. I started to plan my final assignment of creating a online course, from there. The knowledge of using connected media and detailed use of wiki gave platform to use wiki as tool. We also researched various cloud tools and mobile learning techniques and how it can be used. 

This was just the brief what what all I learnt in just 3 months. The best parts of this course was Adobe connect providing live streaming of the classroom sessions at comfort of your home or anyplace in the world. Then the method of submitting your assessments using blogs and cloud tools like Google sites was unique. 

                                                                              They  opened me to an idea of sharing my work with the

world and receiving feedback from them. It was scary at the start but gradually developed a thought in me that the your knowledge can also be shared with your world. The effort my professor puts in maintaining his course online open and available to one and all in the world was outstanding. It portrayed a amazing ideology of sharing his work that he created with such hard-work. 

For me this kind of educational delivery was new and was a amazing journey of change of ideologies. And will cherish every thing I learnt from this course. The only suggestion I wanted to give in the start of this course almost was inculcated. That was the presentation of assessments.

One thing I would like to add is that apart from Adobe connect we also can use a back technology, just in case Adobe Connect is down. 

I will remember Associate Professor M Veehart all my life for his unique thought of imparting and sharing his wide knowledge. The effort you put is herculean and many teachers and even your peers can learn from that. If in future such efforts are made common education for all will not be far fetched dream.

A sincere thanks to you. 

Week 7 - Example of an online course

First on reading the assessment I searched a lot of online training courses. Then a thought came that we also as students of Digital Learning Technology @ EIT Hawke's Bay also are designing a online training course under guidance of Associate Professor M Veerhart.

So in this blog of siting an example of online course, instead of siting a well established online course training course, I decided to share my online course with the world. As it is meant to be free and accessible without any log in's, I can always use feed-backs on my site. 

The motive of my product is to educate students with basic knowledge of MS Word and MS Powerpoint, how to use these software’s to make the task of making a research paper, written assignments and presentation easier. As this course ware should be available to one and all, the course has to be laid out on a web with free access.

The site: Prashin's Research Tools

P.S. This site is still under construction and is expected to be fully ready by end of may 2013, but will be shared with public as feedback's/comments will be appreciated.

Wiki Page (wiki page where I, added the link)

Week 7 - e - Portfolio

If we speak in general terms it is the collection of all the work that one has done till date in a showcased manner. The work can be files, blogs, sites, CV. We can also adjust the access of different audiences in some but most allow you to collect all your work and share what you want to show and in what template.

In today's world most of us have some or the other form of online social presence but all these are informal way to showcase their work and success. E Portfolio gives  formal platform to share their work, blogs, to showcase what they have done or as a record of what they have achieved till date. It can also be used to create online learning learning communities, career development by setting goal plans. It can also be a showcase of your PLN. Instead of a plain CV paper or pdf file it can be a media enriched showcase to portray your work achievements, co curricular achievements, with proof in the form of photos, graphics, files, reports, spreadsheets, web pages etc. And the students can take this information to be shared with friends and family and most importantly employers and higher study institutions. 

One can gain feedback from the learning community, and also from self evaluation and action planning in a learning process spread throughout you life. One can accumulate all the multimedia profiles and work and show case it in one single platform. This could never have been possible with the paper based old school CV, which would not have been enough to sell yourself in this competitive market.

One of the most followed and simple form of e portfolio is linked in. It is modern method of CV which is been used by many job aspirants and closely followed by employers all over the world. It has some features like joining some professional group and also of getting feedback on the submitted work. But as it is strictly customized, one cant showcase all the things in their own planned manner.

My Linked in Prashin Poovelil 

Another method to make a very vast e portfolio is Google Sites. The best thing is you can just keep adding all you want and only share what you want. Google with is vast family and all supporting apps, if used smartly can provide huge database for all your work on one of the most reliable servers in the world. There is is no doubt it needs a little learning curve before one can use it as a professional e portfolio, but once that learning curve is achieved the vastness of the Google ecosystem can be exploited to create a free but yet most versatile e portfolio.

My CV on Google Sites: Prashin Poovelil CV