Instructional Technology Ed.S Final Blog: A Reflection on My Professional Growth

In this final blog post, I have chosen a few professional activities to highlight even though many other people and events have played a part in helping me grow throughout my career and especially during my time in the Instructional Technology Ed.S. program at the University of Montevallo. As a part of my district’s instructional technology department, I often have a leadership role in professional development and teacher training, but in most other areas, I participate in planning and implementation under our Technology Coordinator’s direction. Many times when it comes to the information and technical side of technology, I am an observer of our network engineers and technicians who ensure that our infrastructure is secure, safe, and efficient.
CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) has developed the CETL Framework of Essential Skills - a comprehensive list of areas in which education technology leaders provide various levels of support for all stakeholders. This Framework is an outline of what successful education technology leaders need to know and do.


LEADERSHIP - Instructional Focus and Professional Development

One of my main responsibilities as an instructional technology coach is to provide training, support, and professional development for certified Personnel across our district. During the past six years I have served in this role, I have presented sessions at State conferences, local conferences, and District workshops and meetings.

Based on the professional development goals, I work independently or collaboratively to prepare, plan, and develop my session to include speaking parts, interactive components, and reflection or feedback from the participants. I have co-presented at least one session at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference (AETC) in Birmingham for the past 5 years. Last year, I co-presented at the Annual AETA Fall Symposium where I teamed up with a colleague to share our experiences and efforts to support teachers as we have moved toward a BYOD system. At AETC in June 2016, I will present 2 one-hour concurrent sessions on technology topics that are aimed at guiding teachers toward best practice in the implementation of technology in their classrooms.

PARTICIPANT - Strategic Planning

Every year, our district and individual schools each submit a Technology Plan to the Alabama State Department of Education. In the past, I have worked with our District Technology Coordinator to develop certain parts of our district tech plan. I also serve on our District Technology Action Committee which meets a few times per year to discuss the state of all things technology in our schools. This committee also reviews how certain policies support or possibly hinder learning.

In the spring, each school works to develop their individual technology plan, and I often guide and support the Local School Technology Coordinator (TC) in this process. We have two formal meetings with all of our local school TCs, but I often work individually with them to ensure their plan meets our district expectations and their school vision and goals.

OBSERVER - Information Technology

In most cases, I am not directly involved with planning tasks related to our network infrastructure and the management of devices. Once a year our technology department holds a “tech road map meeting”, that I attend as a representative of our instructional staff. Keeping abreast of all the new technologies we will use for filtering, firewalls, and even wiring and wi-fi increases my ability to provide the highest level of support for administrators, teachers, and students. For example, over the past two years, we have replaced old equipment in each school building with brand-new wireless systems. Throughout the process I was able to accurately update both administrators and teachers on the latest information and give them tips on what to expect as far as how to prepare and what interruptions they could expect.

As I evaluate my experiences in each skill area, I realize how much I have grown professionally and how much I have yet to learn. I also recognize how valuable every member of our department is in making sure every student and employee in our system has the safest and most efficient technology available on a daily basis.

References

CETL Framework. (2016, Apr 27). CoSN. http://www.cosn.org/Framework

Image retrieved from AETA: http://www.go-aeta.org/

Image retrieved from COSN: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRnTJuUg_95nnu293ll9LAlmXbO5XAJgp84U05b3tyydW8jxbf2MA

Connect and Engage with Effective Online Design

“Distance education is easier for people who have some degree of ability to direct their own learning” (Moore & Kearsley, 2012, p. 115). When designing online learning materials and activities, deliberate planning for interaction is essential. An appropriate balance of synchronous and asynchronous communications between teacher and students and among students is more likely to engage distance learners. In my experience, those courses with a combination of assignment types, instructional videos, and a social media component have been the ones I preferred and enjoyed the most. 

Throughout the ten Ed.S. courses I have taken, the ones I have found to be the best examples of good design and the best quality instruction are those that included instructor-created video clips or multiple opportunities for interaction, either live or asynchronous. When learning completely online, these types of interactions provided the humanizing factor that “emphasizes the importance of the individual” (Moore & Kearsley, 2012, p. 137). I found the online trainings we did using Periscope to watch each other present to be one of the most engaging and unique activities because it allowed us to share a tool or do a training with a potentially global audience. 

Image retrieved

from: http://tti.montclair.edu/instructionaldesign/img/Capture.JPG

Another example of an effective online training was a 6-week long MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) I took in the fall of 2014. The course was Virtual Instruction Training offered through UC Berkeley to anyone in the world and had around 1200 students. The instructor recorded and posted a series of 3-5 videos in each module to deliver content and share her experiences with us. She used a program that recorded her screen, which was usually a slide show, and a smaller window that showed her webcam recording herself on it. When watching the videos, it felt more like being in class and having a personal connection with the teacher because periodically she would ask a question. The video paused and a question popped up so I could respond either by choosing a response or typing out my answer. Adding to the personal feel of the course, her cat was almost always somewhere on the desk or shelf behind her while she spoke to us in the recording. The instructional strategies she used to engage and interact with us made the class enjoyable, and overall the content and experience were excellent quality. This course was for my own professional growth and not for credit as most of the courses I have taken. 

I have also experienced a few not-so-effective online modules, one activity that comes to mind was a series of cases from a textbook that I had to analyze. The course had other well-designed components, but the time and effort required to complete this particular assignment did not match with the points available and there was limited feedback given. The design of this particular activity was flawed, but it could be adapted better for online learning so that it is more effective next time.To improve this activity, the point value needed adjusting to match the time involved in completing the questions. Another option might have been to divide the cases up among each student or pair to make it a collaborative cases project. To bring an interactive component to the activity, it could have a synchronous, web-based conference to allow students to present and discuss each case. 

In all of my online experiences, those courses that included more teacher instruction using multimedia (not just text) and a variety of student interactions were most effective. Activities that required hours of reading and answering end of chapter questions for minimal points were least effective in my opinion.

References

Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2012). Distance education: A systems view of online learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.