EDLD 5398 - The Final Course

I have just finished up my coursework for graduate school.  I have mixed feelings as it comes to a close.  On one hand I am looking forward to having some free time and to read a book or two for fun.  On the other hand I have enjoyed the challenge of learning new things, having to write and proving that I am capable of earning a master's degree.

This final course brought the pieces together for the administration part of the degree.  I have a better understanding of the domains and competencies of the administrator.  I do wish some time was spent on the Educational Technology side of the degree, as that part was largely ignored in this coursework.  I do know that the technology side of things is my strength and I am confident in those abilities.

I am not sure what the future holds for me with my soon to come degree.  I know that as the mom of a 5 and 7 year old I have a long haul ahead of me as "mom" that I am looking forward to. I am proud of myself for starting this program and seeing it through, so a life goal is accomplished.  I will also continue to work within the Instructional Technology Department to provide leadership when needed and keep my eyes open for opportunities.

EDLD 5364 - UDL Lesson Builder

This week we were to create a lesson using CAST's Universal Design for Learning lesson template.  The template was familiar in the form and basic content, but I did find it challenging to figure out what was wanted in each area.   I also found it challenging to narrow down what I could focus on into one lesson template.   The model lessons proved very helpful in answering my questions and overall I felt that I did develop a solid lesson that I would share with teachers on my campus in teaching hurricane development.  I used resources from my districts aligned curriculum to help me focus on unit and lesson goals, as that would be required when working with staff members if actually developing a lesson.
What I did like about the UDL template is that it made me think about differentiation for students.  I was concerned with finding and using multiple methods to represent the information being presented and to  provide options for students to present the information to the classroom.  I also liked to focus on having flexible tools and teaching methods in order to meet the needs of the diverse classroom.  The real classrooms of my school mimic the one in the scenario and as educational needs vary and teachers need to be equipped to respond to the needs of all learners.

EDLD 5397 Web Conference Week 5

I was able to listen to the recorded web conference this week and found ti very helpful to my understanding of the program as a whole.  Dr. Cortez-Rucker provided links to study for the LCE and highly encouraged everyone to take the test as soon as possible, while the ideas were still fresh in our minds.  I am planning to attempt the LCE during the week break between classes.  Questions were also asked about TK20 and what was required in different parts of the program.  I had the same questions as well and was very appreciate of his efforts to explain the different pieces of each part and also his sending out those requirements in the announcements the next day.   I have printed this information and will be referring to it often.  Overall this web conference help me gain a little bit of confidence in my ability to successfully complete the program without a huge deficit at entering the last course.

EDLD 5397 - Week 4 Web Conference

This week’s web conference was a short one that answered all questions that were asked.  Dr. Cortez-Rucker explained that we can take the LCE at any point now instead of waiting for the 8^th course to begin.  This will help us take advantage of the review materials provided in this course for the exam.  The other discussion centered around finishing our action research papers as the last course will require different sections to be turned in each week so anthing that we can get done early would be beneficial in the end.  I plan to try to have mine completed and written by early summer as my project will conclude in May. I did not know exactly what to ask, but would love to know exactly what documents should be where.  A check list would help so I know I am on target.  I might work on developing that for myself this week and then ask questions to fill in the gaps when needed.  This would help with my feeling of disorganization.

Week 5: PSA Reflection

Our PSA is complete other than a few minor tweaks.  We seemed to be a team in crisis with one member about to give birth, the death of my grandmother, and another team member with a critically ill family member.  But that is life and especially life as adults.  Even with the emergencies and full time careers, we were able to work together to create a video that gets it's message across.  We began collaborating on a Google doc and kept that document going throughout the three weeks.  The chat feature was extremely nice as we used it to discuss decisions as we met through the Google document.  The downside of using the chat is that there is no record of what we discussed in those sessions.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wTv2Zq-8UIDAMyLp_oZ5Q2RLFSY1jVc60gIPK_OXjhc/edit

We quickly narrowed down to what topic we wanted to cover and began throwing ideas around on how to present it.  We decided upon a series of scenes that could be divided up among the group and then turned in using dropbox.   We gave ourselves all of week 4 to get the filming done.  The last week has been spent editing and making adjustments as various members of the group gave suggestions.

Working with a team was daunting at first.  My partner and I from the first 2 weeks wanted to stay together so we threw a call out on the discussion board to find other members to join us.  We found several willing people in a matter of a hour and were in business.  The group worked well together and I was reminded about the process of give and take when producing a group product.  We also all live in different parts of the state and so relying on web 2.0 tools to get the project done was an interesting experience.  I've used those tools before but not to work with people from different areas.  Overall this was a good experience and I liked building relationships with folks in the program that until now had only been know through postings on discussion boards.

I will use the skills, tools and resources I have learned in this class as I continue to work with teachers on campus to create their own digital stories.   I will remind them about the process of having clearly defined tasks, assigning roles so all students are accountable, and the importance of having a good story or message to tell.  All things this course has taught me.

 

Think Before You Link by Pam Mahalec, Robin Young, Casey Smith, Ana McKinney is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Web Conference - Week 4

I attended the web conference on Sunday, December 11th. The conference began early in the chat section, which was helpful to read through. The technical issues were the most frustrating with audio and video cutting out consistently. I found myself distracted by the technical issues and the lag in the chat section from when someone would type in a comment about the lack of audio and the time the professor would read that comment. It is hard to troubleshoot issues in this situation when you are 5-10 minuted behind in the chat conversation. I was glad to hear live about the changes in the assignment. With EPIC losing documents it is very confusing to know what to turn in. I am actually still a little unclear, but am using the email sent out by my IA. I do find the conferences helpful as members of the class help each other work through different questions and concerns. I wish there was a way to keep the conversation more focused and ensure everyone got the main information at the beginning with time at the end for personal questions. Overall I find about 5 minutes of information helpful to me from each web conference. I will attempt to watch at least one more of the conferences to make sure I have everything completed for this course by Friday.

Action Research: BYOT Presentation

I was finally able to present BYOT ideas to teachers on campus as a session during their off periods. I had about 20 teachers attend and all were excited about some of the options available through texting, emailing, and apps. I am including a copy of the presentation i use to explore some of the options with the teachers.

 

I am looking forward to implementing these ideas in the Spring Semester.