The ION course taught me how to incorporate technological tools that have been proven to increase students' interest and engagement in the learning materials. Throughout the course, I had a few challenges learning how to use the technology (the learning curve was sometimes very steep) , but I was happy to be able to find and upload the following tools to this site:
Youtube Videos (eg. the One World is Enough for All of Us video by the Police)
Learning: It takes a great deal of time to find the right video, and the content can sometimes be removed without any prior warning. It is important to keep checking your Blog to ensure the content you've uploaded is still viewable.
Podcasts (eg. "How to Be Happy" broadcast)
Learning: Not all podcasts are free and not all podcasts are interesting. It takes time to sort through all of the podcasts and it is important to listen to the entire broadcast before uploading it onto your site in order to ensure the content is appropriate.
Prezi (eg. "How to Manage Stress")
Learning: As a loyal PPT user, it was not that difficult to learn how to use the Prezi tool. The only real challenge I had was learning how to include music in the presentation and accepting the fact that the extra 'bells and whistles' were not available on the free download.
Ready-Made Content (eg. several inspirational quotes by Aristotle, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Edison and even Dr. Seuss).
Learning: The internet provides thousands of inspirational quotes but only a handful were appropriate for the online course that I was developing. Although I was initially impressed with the amount of quotes that were available, I was ultimately surprised by how much time it took to find the quotes that I required.
Twitter (eg. Sir Richard Branson link)
Learning: I wanted the followers to want to follow someone that would inspire them, so I selected Sir Richard Branson who is an afluent philanthropist and also a high school dropout. It took time to find a Twitter link that met this particular need.
Survey (eg. online Personality Test)
Learning: I learned how to create my own quiz during this course using SurveyMonkey but the 'free' download did not allow me to provide feedback, so I found a ready-made survey that I believe students will find interesting and fun and that will also provide them will instant feedback on what types of personalities they have.
Asynchronous Communication (eg. Google + account and e-mail)
Learning: I realized that I had to provide personal contact information for followers of the site to contact me if they had any questions, comments or concerns, so I set up a Google + and e-mail account. I had to learn to accept that this digital scrapbook was a BLOG and that people from all over the world would have access to it and that I could not control who viewed it and who wished to comment on it. As a very private person, this was a difficult challenge to overcome.
My goal is to continue to add content to the site and to try to find a time that coordinates with the learners' schedules to set up a synchronous discussion about what ultimately inspires them.
This has been a very interesting, challenging, fulfilling and inspirational course. I hope my courage as a non-techie encourages others to be inspired to also be courageous.
"Believe you can and you're halfway there". - Theodore Rosevelt
