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Artifact #2: A Different Sort of House

From the foyer, we realize that the era represented by this house is in many cases past. Just as actual funhouses have changed to move visitors through and back to the midway quicker, literacy is changing too. Preserving what is important requires evaluation of what this change...

Artifact #1: Fun and Frustration in the Foyer

Like the early challenges of spinning tunnels and shaky floors in a funhouse, ETEC 511 threw me around. It was a struggle to get my bearings and balance as I faced the constant cognitive challenges the unfamiliar domain of technology presented. I was in no way a 'techie' or a...

Artifact #3: Bearings and Balance

As I stumbled through the spinning barrel onto the shaking floor, it was important to establish my balance by reviewing not only literature critical to my interests and students, but also other research studies - with my evaluative and analytic eye on...

Artifact #4: Momentum

Toddling off shaking floors onto undulating staircases produces an adrenaline and momentum that can only lead forward. Reviewing research entices me to produce my own. This works well with the objectives of ETEC 500, which require composition of a research...

Artifacts #5 and 6: Playtime!

ETEC 565 was my time to play. Making it past the initiation stages, I rewarded myself with some practical web2.0 explorations, much like the extra time we give ourselves in the funhouse to laugh and play in front of the distorting mirrors. Somehow, those mirrors always offer something...

Artifacts #7 & 8: Technology and the Arts

Classic funhouses usually had some version of a dark hallway where technology was applied for specific but perhaps atypical applications: gusts of air, illusions, maybe a prop pseudo-falling on the guests. ETEC 532, Technology in the Arts and Humanities, explored technology in these less...

Artifact #9: I Need a Map...

...And so I shall make one. We are less likely to be foiled by the nooks and crannies and clowns in the corners if we have a good sense of direction, purpose and awareness of pitfalls. ETEC 512 demanded a close and critical look at learning theories for the purpose of bettering...

Artifact #10: Finding My Way; Finding My Theory

A key artifact coming from the CMapping and theoretical explorations of ETEC 512 is my Personal Learning Theory. Re-reading it again now, I smile to think that exploring a funhouse with a friend - colleagues, co-learners - may enable unexpected learning opportunities much like how we...

Artifacts #11 & 12: Knowing Our Larger Objectives

Of course, part of the fun of a funhouse is knowing that it is all for fun. What is education for? We micromanage our lessons just as students - we hope - micro-attend to the details of their work. But for what? What is the greater purpose in good penmanship,...

Artifact #13: Behind the Firewall...

We find our digital module for English Language learners, a collaborative effort of mine, Tamara Wong's and Naomi Robins' from ETEC 510. From behind the firewall, we stumble into a maze of glass, the maze of WebCT Vista where we negotiated the turns to apply our learning for the benefit of...

Artifact #14: I Can See You, But You're So Far Away!

And that's ok. Our wiki projects of ETEC 510 had a more independent feel to them. I could see my usual collaborators and fellow classmates, and the evidence of everyone having a great time stumbling through, but like the glass maze, there was decidedly more that feeling that...

Artifact #15: Re-connecting

That is, re-connecting as the paths of the maze converge, re-joining collaborators, re-connecting with prior learning, and re-connecting with past tools. Here, where our paths re-joined in the maze of glass walls in ETEC 531, we compiled all we had learned thus far to create a new...

Artifact #16: Exhilaration! It's all coming together.

Spend enough time in a maze of glass walls and even the youngest will begin to figure it all out: you notice the framework, you learn to see the glass and keep your hands out - just in case. You trust where your helpers are and that you will be able to get to them when you need to, but...

Artifact #17: This is it!

And so as I negotiate those last few turns, mindful of toes and clowns, I emerge with my colleagues, classmates, collaborators, with a sense of accomplishment, competency, and joy. I'll never know it all, but I can handle it... and I know, pedagogically, why I need to. As...

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