Below are two sets of future plans. The first is the set that I submitted for my 2019 CMALT portfolio. The second is the 2020 version – reflecting on how things have changed in a year!
1. Future Plans 2019
In the spirit of trying out new digital tools, I return (after 3 years away) to the new and improved Padlet.
On the Padlet link I briefly outline four directions I hope to go in the future:
a) To continue to make online courses and attract over 1,000 students by the end of 2019.
b) To continue to learn how Moodle works to enhance learning for my students and to be able to help colleagues also make the most of the site.
c) To expand my use of Twitter and Research Gate to network professionally.
b) To continue to learn how Moodle works to enhance learning for my students and to be able to help colleagues also make the most of the site.
c) To expand my use of Twitter and Research Gate to network professionally.
d) Collaborative research on the use of technology for the Model United Nations (MUN).
2. Future Plans 2020
I will comment on the four plans above (a-d) and add two more plans (e-f):
a) Last year I wanted to continue to make online courses on the Udemy platform. I have made two more (presentations and academic writing) and there is another one (team building) in the pipeline. However, the number of students has not grown as much as I would like (now about 650). In the Specialist option section I outlined how we have tried to make videos more engaging and have done research into that process. I will to continue to do that.
b) I have a much better knowledge of Moodle than in 2019. This is due to my school moving online in response to the Covid-19 emergency and requiring all teachers to use Moodle as an LMS. I have helped colleagues use the site as I described in the section on collaboration. My school also now has Microsoft Teams so I am trying to understand how that platform works and relay that to my colleagues in the future.
c) I have not explored the use of Twitter very much at all but I do keep ResearchGate up to date and have continued both to respond to requests for papers and to ask for papers myself.
d) I have been involved in two online MUN events in 2020. They were originally supposed to be face-to-face. I have not done any collaborative research yet but I have been a mentor to a colleague who has taken over my teaching role. I have attended all of her online classes as a participant. We are currently writing a joint journal to reflect on the mentoring process.
e) I have been asked, as a result of involvement in the ASCILITE Mobile Learning SIG, to be part of a research grant bid in 2021 for a project involving Virtual Reality (VR) for language learning. If this bid is successful this will be an exciting challenge to conduct VR lessons and establish training materials for faculty colleagues.
f) As I mentioned in the collaboration section I have been asked to work on a university committee to create a digital technology strategy.