CEdO599 Week 4 - My Final Post!!

This is it. My last blog posting for Instructional Technology. I cannot believe all the skills I have learned throughout the last 1 1/2 years. Too many technology skills to name...the many Web 2.0 tools I learned is out of this world! I have applied almost all those tools into my curriculum and also shared them with other teachers in my district. I value all that I have learned in this program, but even more so because Iwas able to share my new knowledge with other staff members!

I believe the Leadership class helped me grow as a person. As the district LMS and Technology Facilitator, I am in a leadership position. However, I've always felt that I'm not as vocal as I should be with my opinions regarding district technology. After taking the Leadership class, I became much more of a vocal advocate and am not afraid of disagreeing with someone on issues that before I would have just gone along with. Also, I am much more aware of what good leadership skills look like and can definitely see that some administrators that I work with could use a leadership refresher course!

Something I wish I knew more about that we didn't really touch on during class is Project-based Learning (PBL). However, this is what my CE project was completely about and now I can say that I have a much better understanding of project-based learning, developing authentic assessments and using technology to integrate PBL skills into curriculum.

Completing this course has been a huge accomplishment for me personally and professionally. I am the only person in my family to obtain at Bachelor's degree, now I can say that about my Master's degree as well! I was afraid that when this class ended, the opportunities for learning new skills would be scarce. But, that is not the case. I have joined many Twitter and RSS feeds that allow me to follow the technology guru's of education and have learned a great deal more digital tools through following these people. The Instruction Technology class may be over, but it has opened to the door to continuous, life-long learning opportunities that I otherwise may have never found. A huge thank-you to Louis Loeffler and all the other professors in the program!!

CEdO599 Weeks 2 & 3

The process of developing my Culminating Project was very challenging. My main goal was too big and I had to shorten it by narrowing my specific objectives, then determining if the objectives would meet the goal. Because I had some pieces already done this summer, I didn't think I would exceed the 30 hour timeframe. Boy, was I wrong! I can definitely say that more than 30 hours was spent in developing the project. Even though I went over my budgeted time, I am happy with the end result and excited to start implementing my project in January.

CEdO599 Week 1

I can't believe it's almost over! I'm going to miss this class...what will I do with my Wednesday nights?? Anyway, my CE project is about developing a coaching program within our district to assist teachers with integrating PBL into their lessons via digital technologies. I started to lay the building blocks last school year, but never got the project up and running, so I decided what better timing than to make this my CE project! Incorporating PBL into our curriculum is part of our district's tech plan and while "PBL" has been buzzing around districts for a while, it's been my experience that many teachers don't know what it is and how to get the essential critical thinking skills into their lessons. I have some experience with PBL and am excited to get other teachers familiar with it and hopefully have more teachers willing to become coaches next year.