Sound Strategies for the Integration of both Open & Institutionally Supported Technologies in One’s Teaching
Sound
Strategies for the Integration of both Open & Institutionally Supported
Technologies in One’s Teaching
How to effectively use both types of technology together
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano
Monday, August 24, 2015
Twitter: @jonacuso
Post 186
“How do you effectively use both types
of technology together?” As an educator working with F2F and online
teaching/learning environments, the use of both open and institutionally
supported technologies is a challenge. And it has been a provocation for not using open educational resources due to the
lack of a manual for integrating them within a learning platform such as
Moodle, Blackboard, or others. Though the task to integrate both types of
technology is not meant to be easy, here you have some simple but effective
suggestions I have found useful for my language and university teaching within
a hybrid learning environment.
First,
it is a good idea to check whether your Web 2.0 tool allows you to produce an embedding code. Embedding codes will
allow you to display material from an open technology available on the Web onto
your virtual space in the LMS such as Moodle. Take the case of Prezi; it is a
good example of an open educational technology that is commonly used by
learners and instructors to create presentations for class content. By means of
its auto generated embedding code, after being used in class, the teacher can
have it displayed in their virtual classroom for students to see the presentation
again. Viewing the presentation may help newly-acquired knowledge consolidate
and become real deep learning.
Second,
something to always bear in mind is the control
you must exercise over those open technologies. By control here, it must be
understood the instructor’s ability
to use the tool confidently. If such control is absent, desist from trying to
use that open educational technology till you become an expert; you can
experience lots of problems and/or embarrassing situations. But control also
must mean the educator’s regulation
of his/her own account for that open technology. Using somebody else’s account
does not sound like a “sound” idea.
Third,
exchange of ideas, practices, and
insights with other colleagues is as important as knowing how to use an
embedding code or having control over an open technology. Talking to partners,
or even to students, can be a highly satisfying “ritual” for a community of
practice. Keep in mind that you are not alone in trying to integrate open and
institutionally supported technologies; other partners can have insightful
notions of how open educational resources could be used within a synchronous or
asynchronous teaching environment. Talk to peers and strengthen your community
of practice to grow professionally.
Four,
try to get a complete guide of the LMS
your institution is using; that helps a lot and saves tons of time. Oftentimes,
especially after an LMS training session usually led by an IT worker with no
teaching background, we forget what we have been shown or demonstrated. A
complete guide of all functionalities for teachers is really important to have.
With it, you can start exploring what you are entitled to do within the LMS and
on online forums you can see how that platform tool can be used and combined
with open access technologies. Tutorials on video can also be tremendous
assistance for us to comprehend what we can do and how we can do it.
I am sure that any reader can continue
to add more and more points to this short list of strategies to combine the use
of open and institutionally supported technologies. It is our professional
expertise in their educational usage that makes us better users of them to
benefit students and help us foster deep learning among our learners.
Monday, August 24, 2015
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