A Program Outcome Retrospective

ACE Educational Technology Program: A reflection of the knowledge gained in the ACE Educational Technology Masters program

As a veteran teacher of business and technology application I originally was drawn to the program because it seemed to be a good fit with my teaching career. My expectations to the amount of new knowledge I would gain was low, but it would help maximize my earning potential in education. I quickly discovered that there was much more to learn than I expected. Though I was a technology teacher and utilize technology tools on a regular basis, my knowledge on implementation, differentiate and effective technology lesson planning had many gaps, which were exposed and addressed throughout the Education Technology program.

My goals at the beginning of the program were simple, and I feel I now have the knowledge and skills needed to achieve those goal. My depth of knowledge in the area of Education Technology has been greatly improved. I realized that I have been utilize to as a technology leader for teaching how to use a tool, but now my potential to be a true technology integration leader has opened new opportunities at the school and district level. Now that I am closer to the end of my career than the beginning, the real-world reality of needing to take advantage of opportunities to increase my earnings and retirement has now been accomplished. The knowledge, skills and satisfaction has made this experience very beneficial and refreshing.

Learning Outcome - Professional Skills and Performance

The practice of professional skills and abilities in integrating technology in educational environments to facilitate experiences addressing the divers needs of all learners (Program Description, n.d.) as described by the American College of Education (ACE) program outcomes has been enhanced in several ways, which has made me a stronger educator. Teaching at a culturally diverse school, I felt my empathy for each student was good, but as I learning more about Universal Design for Learning, differentiation and the potential impact of technology tools, I realized that there were unrealized strategies to enhancing learning for all students. Classroom layouts, opportunities to express ideas in ways that connect with different types of learners, cultural background and experiences, and the vast amount of potential technology resources opens many avenues to creating an effective learning environment. Infrastructure, technology tools access and professional development have become part of all district and school professional development days, and a major topic this year has been differentiation, which I now have the knowledge to lead discussion. My experience has positioned me to potential develop, implement and lead future professional development sessions. I was unfamiliar with APA formatting when I started the program, but the format has taught me the skill to produce quality and industry except researched work.

In Module 4 for ET 5073, Preparing a Grant Proposal, I developed my knowledge and skill to develop and locate funding for a technology project. Blair (2012) commented about 21st century learners that for student performance to approximate student potential, students need access to a constantly evolving array of technological tools and activities that demand problem-solving, decision-making, teamwork, and innovation. In my proposal, I created a way to meet this need by developing a funding strategy and implementation plan to shift the school to a 1-to-1 computing device environment. My ability to utilize a technology inventory as a tool to discover a way to move the school to 1-to-1 allowed me to create a way that the project could be financially feasible and sustainable. Research revealed potential grant and fundraising opportunities, and my improved writing style help create an effective proposal. Being able to find viable options to procuring needed funding for the 1-to-1 project and/or other project has been greatly enhanced by my new gained knowledge. Though I have a greater knowledge of the skills needed to fund projects, I feel that I would still want to take advantage of grant writing specialists employed by the district.

Theory, Standards, and Frameworks

I have gained mastery in my ability to justify the selection of experiences and assessment options using theories, standard, and frameworks which engage learners through the implementation of research-based instructional strategies appropriate for digital delivery (Program Description, n.d.) in several ways. California has shifted to Common Core content standards, which lends itself to technology integration to enhance learning. The content standards have been designed to better prepare students for college and career, and technology integration appears throughout the framework. I have the expertise to help teachers meet those standards, while utilize technology ensure all student meet those standards. Working with the technology committee and individual teachers, we can evaluate various tool, programs, perceived improvement issues to make best fit decisions that are relevant to learning and work place environments. The research and analytical skills I have developed will help locate the best uses of technology and potential make me a valuable resource to the decision making process.

In developing a Learning Assessment from ET5033, Module 4, I explored creating rubrics for technology integrated lesson plan. Chowdhury (2019) stated a rubric notifies students of expectations, provides informative and timely feedback, helps maintain grading consistency, and fosters student learning and self-assessment. Focusing on the content standard on demonstrating critical thinking to solve problems, I created a technology tool rubric to compare the critical thinking effectiveness of two different technology tools. The rubric development shows that my I am capable of creating a fair assessment tool to weigh the potential benefits and issues of deciding on the best option in technology tool implementation to enhance learning, while considering content standards. I feel my skills in developing rubrics that meet content standards are good, but my school is shift to rubrics that a content standards base, not completion quality base, so changing my thinking may take some time.

Evidenced-based Learning and Assessment

I have gained mastery of evidenced-based concepts and principles by designing, developing, and implementing technology-rich programs which model best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment through the demonstration of various strategies in which technology can be integrates into learning (Program Description, n.d.). Choosing an area that I no longer teach, I felt I had to expand my approach to implementing technology into a unit plan. Though I could rely on prior knowledge, I was required to develop a stronger skill base to create technology enriched content for a classroom outside of my subject area. The research and creation of multiple learning style activities, formative assessment via web based application and summative projects, which invoke higher order thinking, can be utilized to better help any teacher build technology enriched content in any specific subject area.

Capaldi (2019) stated that for those that do not continue to college and/or a STEM field, knowing how to calculate the rate of change of a function is not essential. But to be able to understand the data, graphs, and analysis that are reported in the news, media, weather, sports, or business is an indispensable skill. In Module 3 in ET5042, I experienced the learning potential of virtual field trips and developed a game with questions challenging students with lower through high thinking level question created using the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide. Though the topic of sports does not connect with all students, the NBA in partnership with Discovery Education guides viewer to find about how many jobs associated with the NBA utilize mathematical statistics to be effective in impacting the organization success. The virtual field trip’s connections to the real world provides students with more relevance to the purpose of learning classroom concepts. Gamification is an excellent way to engage students. The experience with creating a simple game, demonstrates my ability to create a games style activity, which is effective as technology teaching and assessment tool. I feel there are no gaps in this outcome, except increase curiosity to developing the potential of technology for interacting places and topic without leaving the classroom.

Leadership

My masters of Education Technology as trained me to a technology leader at my school or the district level and an accomplished outcome. I feel confident in my ability to demonstrate leadership capacity, including the effective utilization of resources, to conduct and apply research, promoting continuous improvement at the organizational or program level to establish a culture of learning for diverse learners (Program Description, n.d.). Every course in the program has had the same underlying purpose of creating strong technology leaders to better serve their school and adapt the expansion online environments and the needs of 21st century learners. Leadership can take many forms, and it should be a group effort from all parties who are potential impacted by a technology integration decision. Research, analysis, evaluation, best use of resource, and procuring new technology, and creating an environment in which staff and student have the confidence to effectively utilize new and relevant technology tools need to be address. A technology leader can be a major asset to ensure the successful implementation of technology that enhances learning.

My paper, Evaluating the Current State of Technology Resources from ET5023 Module 4 demonstrate my mastery of the leadership program outcome. This analysis looks at many of the aspect of evaluating the strength and weaknesses that are present in my school and district. Factors, such as learning environments, access to technology at school and home, depth of professional development, current direction of technology leadership, types of technology-based assessment, and development of best practices are assessed. Though I work in technology driven school district, I feel there is still room to improve district wide. My technology leadership skills have the potential of helping the school and district take the most effective path to creating the best teaching, learning, and technology rich environment which will be relevant to 21 century learners and required skill in the professional world. Though I will never stop improving my technology learning skills, there are currently no gaps in my knowledge base.

Civic and Global Learning

There is a responsibility to ensure that student, staff and parents are provided with the skills and knowledge they need to function safely and responsibly when utilizing technology resource. Even though I teach technology application classes, I have increase my depth of my ability to model safe and healthy, legal, and ethical uses of digital information while effectively demonstrating approaches to civic and global accountability (Program Description, n.d.). I have personally shifted more emphasis on digital citizenship, computer protection, personal data protection and copyright considerations. Though many students are digital natives, it does not mean they know how to safely and responsibly navigate technology. The diversity of students with different learning styles and experiences equates into various level of understanding of function as a global digital citizen. The increase knowledge I have gain about digital citizenship, and Internet safety and responsibility allows me to transfer my knowledge to students and staff.

Though I feel a better example of my mastery of the safe, ethical and legal digital presence can be found in ET5013, my paper on from ED5123 Module 3 titled Researching Diversity identifies gaps in student learning by specific diversity group. Though the research discovered a gap in mathematics, the assumption can be made that similar gaps may exist on the topic of digital safety and ethics. A gap may exist that is caused by gender and/or cultural stigma on the use of technology. A student, who is not a digital native or has had little exposure to computers, will need more support to develop an understanding of the digital behavior concepts. Differentiated activities to address the broad range of level of digital safety and ethics and the broad range of cultural background. Since this is an area of my teaching expertise, I feel the there is no gaps in my learning.

Intellectual Processes

My mastery of intellectual process has focused on investigating problems critical to the field which apply analytical inquiry, a range of resources, and diverse perspectives to assess elements of complexity to determine potential solutions. (Program Description, n.d.). Through the program, I have continually expanded my ability and knowledge to utilize intellectual processes that make best fit decisions. The greatest increase in my process has been my improvement of starting with desired learning objectives to act as a guide to defining how to approach create a plan to integrate technology effectively. Determine the current state of technology, evaluating technology tools, considering ethical issue, and creating learning environments with technology that engages and enhance learning for all students are led by goal of getting students to reach the desired learning objectives.

Planning professional development shows my developed strengths in my intellectual process. My work on Preparing a Professional Development Presentation in ET5063 Module 4 required me to demonstrate my intellectual process mastery. Bove and Conklin’s (2019) research noted that without any ongoing formal training opportunities, faculty may not be able to become more competent or even proficient. Each step in the professional development planning focused on helping teacher build self-efficacy in their ability to utilize technology in their curriculum. By developing a clearly defined presentation, I demonstrated the steps required to enhance the available resources in Canvas by creating video demonstration lesson with Kaltura. The presentation and professional development support provide for diverse perspectives, innovation, self-efficacy and promotion of lifelong learning. Though I feel there are no gaps in my learning, I look forward to utilizing the intellectual process skills I have developed in future professional development and student learning opportunities.

Communication and Collaboration

Communication and collaboration have always been one of my strengths as an educator, but I feel I have gained enrichment in my ability to enhance leadership capacity and shared governance through the articulation of ways to establish, enhance, and expand virtual, collaborative communities, developing partnerships in diverse settings through effective communication (Program Description, n.d.). I understand of the importance of building relationships and involving all stakeholders is the key to successfully resourcing and integrating technology to enhance student learning. Working together with administration, technology experts and teachers representing a broad range of interests helps ensure that all benefits, weaknesses and other factors get full consideration. The joint effort leads to buy-in from everyone involve in a technology decision. The time, effort and financial investment has a higher chance of successful and effective integration when all interested parties take ownership.

In RES5153 Module 4, my paper titled Formative Action Research Analysis demonstrates the importance of communication and collaboration through the collection of surveyed data input from students and staff. The goal of the analysis was to determine if smart phones should be utilized as technology learning tool during class time. Baker, Lusk and Neuhauser (2012) showed that in almost every instance, faculty perceptions differed from student perceptions, with students believing that use of electronic devices is more appropriate, and less disruptive than did faculty members. Literary review was used to gather professional opinions, and surveys and focus group were use as ways to get input. The data collected would then be utilized by administration and the technology committed to determine the best policy for the school.

Conclusion

My experiences I gained throughout the program has greatly expanded my depth of knowledge in educational technology and as a technology leader. With my background in teaching technology applications, I was surprised with the amount of new learning concepts that I now understand and can utilize as an educator. My definition of the role of a technology leader encompasses much more than how to use technology. With this understand, I feel that I can be an effective technology leader and work with others to make the best technology decisions possible. With over 20 years of teaching experience, it is easy to become closed off to new idea and trends. My intellectual curiosity has been revitalizing due to my exposure the diverse aspects of the Educational Technology program. Instead of just trying new technology tools into curriculum, I have grown to analyze the technology to see how well it engages students and is effective for all learning types and cultural backgrounds. My competency in the program allows me to truly explore taking a great technology leader role at the school and/or school district. There are several opportunities to become a tech mentor, technology TOSA or have my expertise utilized, and with my master’s in Educational Technology, I feel I will be highly qualified and effective.

References

Baker, W., Lusk, E. & Neuhauser, K. (2012, Sep/Oct). On the use of cell phones and other electronic devices in the classroom: Evidence from a survey of faculty and students. Journal of Education for Business, 87(5) 275-289.

Blair, N. (2012, Jan-Feb). Technology integration for the “New” 21stcentury learner. Principal. 91(3), 8-11

Bove, L. & Conklin, S. (2019, fall). Using the technology adoption model to assess faculty comfort with the learn management system. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. 22(3) 1-9.

Capaldi, M. (2019, Jul). Mathematics versus statistics. Journal of Humanistic mathematics, 9(2), 149-156

Chowdhury, F. (2019). Application of rubrics in the classroom: A vital tool for improvement in assessment, feedback and learning. International Education Studies, 12(1)

Program description and outcomes. (n.d.). American College of Education. Retrieved from https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1620438/files/101399701?module_item_id=23485967&fd_cookie_set=1