In the course Concepts of Educational Technology, I had envisioned learning the basics of what was involved in the educational technology field. I did not have many expectations of detailed material. This course proved to be very detailed in the areas that it covered. I learned that there are a lot of aspects involved in this field. There are many technology plans on the federal, state, and local levels that influence educational technology, and many ways for schools to evaluate how well they are doing in this field. I learned much more than I had envisioned learning, and at times I felt overwhelmed by the amount of material that was covered. I was already familiar with most web 2.0 tools, but this class allowed me to put them to practical use. I, also, got a lot of resource information that will be helpful in my professional future.
Since I am not a teacher or currently employed, these achievements are not relevant to my life at this time. However, in searching out an intern position in my local school, I found that there is a great need for people with this sort of knowledge. The school is understaffed in the educational technology area and needs a lot of help to reach the goals set forth in the technology plan. My mentor was incredibly concerned with the areas of legality, ethics, and student safety. She expressed that, as the only educational technology person that is not also a teacher, she had so much work to do that these areas were not always a top priority on her task list. I felt that this class did give me some basic knowledge so I can begin helping in this area. The information that I learned in this course is extremely relevant in my internship and professional future.
I think I achieved all the outcomes in this course that I thought were necessary at the beginning of the course. By the end of the course, I was hoping for more detailed instructions on the internship program, but I have found the instructors to be very informative when I have had specific questions. I was a little disappointed with the assignments on ethics and copyright issues. This is an area that was covered in several of my undergraduate computer classes. I would have expected that a master level course would have been more in depth on these issues than the undergraduate courses were, but the information was mostly the same. This course covered how these issues directly affect schools, but none of it was new to me. I am not discouraged by this, because I am sure the subject will be addressed with more depth in a future course.
I was successful in carrying out the assignments in this course. During the first week of class I thought it was going to be difficult to keep up with the assignments because the first assignment was so long. After the first week the assignments were not as long, and it was easy for me to break them into manageable parts. I was able to complete a portion of the assignments almost every day. The most difficult part of completing the assignments had nothing to with the coursework or assignments themselves. The difficulty was in adjusting my schedule to make the time for the work. I, also, had trouble getting a meeting with the school’s educational technology coordinator. Her schedule was extremely busy, so I had to wait almost two weeks, from my first contact with her, until she could meet with me. Once she realized that I would actually be able to help lighten her load instead of adding to it, she was very positive about working with me on my internship.
In this course, I did not learn anything new about myself. I already had a lot of technology skills, because I had been working in the technology field since shortly after I graduated from high school. When I returned to college, I took classes that helped me complete my skill set. There were some areas where I had felt I could benefit from further education, so I took every opportunity to pursue classes that covered those areas. I had already developed some leadership skills by leading small groups at my church. I spent years volunteering in my church and became the leader of the media team. I know I can develop these skills more, but this course did not have the type of content to help me with that. I learned about my temperament when I took premarital counseling years ago. Our counselor administered Keirsey Temperament sorter to my husband and me. He then explained all the different temperaments to us. This information has been invaluable to me ever since. It has helped me to understand myself as well as others and is part of the reason that I wanted to teach.
