Final Blog - LTEC 647E
“Learning with Emerging Technologies - Critical Trends” That is the UH Manoa Course Catalog title for 647e. The brief description does not begin to explain what Dr. Bert has ready to unleash upon his students. The semester was a surprise from beginning to end. The expanse of course material, the resulting inter-connectedness of it all and the amount of work required - all a surprise. And although my personal performance in the class was markedly below my usual ability to complete requirements, I still learned about many new ideas and technologies. The class was a valuable addition to my CV in these studies.
The first real surprise was the tasks we students were given in selecting the case study material we would collectively pursue during the course. My initial reaction was that we were taking the class to learn about about emerging technologies that we know little or nothing about. Are we really the best decision makers for the class curricula? (As an example, at the time, my imagination could not see the nexus between learning technologies and machine learning - why was it even on the list? (Now, I think I am beginning to see. Let’s combine big data with computer driven course curricula adaptation to modify subject matter delivery in a student customized manner.)
The next BIG surprise was the amount of classwork due each week. Knowing that the semester was my busy time at work - I mean, my REALLY busy time at work, I cut back to just this one class. I still couldn’t manage to keep up with the blog postings, reviews, readings, etc. I focused on the group work and then the individual work. I admire my fellow students who were able to keep current. I honestly don’t know how you did it. Kudos to you all!
There are two modifications to learning activities that I would make. I would remove the requirement of the video introduction. I did not fulfill this requirement, initially because of time. But ultimately because of my personal aversion to making these type of bios/intros. Anyone who looks at my profiles on FB or Twitter will see that I submit very little personal information. [I was appalled to see that my Resume, a part of my digital portfolio from an earlier class, is now a permanent part of the internet which I can not remove] I don’t mind a conversational introduction, but I really don’t like the written ones. I only write resumes because I need to work and don’t have a choice!
The other change I would suggest is that we present our artifacts in class. I think it would be worth the time and the effort to allow the groups to explain a little more in-depth what their findings and conclusions were. Many groups put on 2-3 minute limits for the artifacts. That constraint was counterproductive often times. The artifact requests from the teams were inventive and imaginative and I wish that we could have shown them a live demonstration also.
I would recommend this class to my colleagues. In fact I have done so already. The recommendation comes with a warning regarding the amount of coursework involved. But the class is well worth the effort and in the end I look back at what I learned with a great deal of satisfaction.