Personal Introduction
Paint a "word picture" of who you are by telling us about your professional background, especially as it pertains to this course (e.g., Tell us about your current situation. Besides your current position, what else have you done/taught in education or elsewhere? Other jobs?). Also, indicate:
1. Your personal objectives for taking this course. What do you hope to get out of this course?
2. Any questions or concerns about the course or using this online medium to take a college course?
3. Ever take another online course? If so, please describe your experience (good/not so good aspects).
4. Describe your previous experience with "evaluation."
5. Other information you could include:
- What's your geographical location? Where's your hometown?
- What brought you to Boise State?
- What are your academic goals? Job goals? Life goals?
- Anything we should know about your hobbies, interests, etc.?
Greetings everyone! I'm writing from my new home in Sheboygan, WI -- about 45 miles from where I grew up near Milwaukee. We moved here this Fall from Bermuda, and I've taken on a new role as Technology Integration Coodinator for a small, quite rural public school district. It's a new position for the school, so there have been a plethora of initiatives and projects on the go! For example, the district chose to use this year as a tech device piloting year whereby interested teachers wrote internal grants -- leading to a collection of LearnPads, Chromebooks, iPads, and laptops to manage throughout K-12. I work closely with the IT manager, and our two-person team handles pretty much everything from district website design to teachers' troubleshooting questions (a la "what does this message mean?") to "how can I integrate Google Apps with my flipped learning ideas?" I know I don't have all the answers, but having the time to brainstorm, research, and plan alongside my new colleagues has been a rewarding experience. A lot of the tools the MET program has offered have come in handy as well. (I found Boise State's EdTech program simply through a Google search of reputable, affordable, and fully online EdTech programs (which was especially important to me while working in a country without the infrastructure for higher Ed.))
Prior to becoming a tech-focused teacher/admin/coach, I was a classroom teacher in a variety of age groups and subject matters. Until this Fall, I have been living abroad since graduating college (UW-Madison), so have had a sampling of international, government, and private schools. I completed my student teaching in Ecuador, taught grades 2&3 as well as middle school Math and Science in Venezuela, and was a combined grade 1-2 teacher, elementary music teacher, 6-12 computer studies teacher, and grades 5-8 multi-aged teacher in Bermuda (work permits and immigration were tough in that country!). I've always tried to stretch the limits as much as possible with technology available in my classrooms. My time as a computer studies teacher fomented my desire to pursue this field as a Master's degree. I knew it would lead to increased professional opportunities and make me a better teacher.
My personal objectives for this course are quite practical. I hope that learning about program evaluation will improve my effectiveness as a Tech Integration Coordinator. There are indeed many programs and initiatives the teachers and I are juggling this year, and I think that a systematic approach to analyzing their components and assessing their viability/products/success will lead to a more informed, fair, and objective conclusion. This decision will help drive our next steps about purchasing certain devices and/or embracing certain apps/method. My previous experience with "evaluation" has always been as a classroom teacher, but in retrospect this was an assessment of my students' learning more than of my program or methods. It was much less formal and systematic than the evaluation required for program management or Instructional Design, and took place on a much smaller scale. The closest I have ever gotten to this kind of evaluation process was my evaluation of my middle school Scratch programming unit I conducted in the EdTech 503 course. All in all, I hope to apply the skills, theories, and best practices I learn in this class directly to my job.
As I've taken several online courses in this program already, I don't have any specific questions or concerns at this point. I am quite familiar with the format and have gotten used to text-based, asynchronous discussions. I do miss the "vibe" of a face-to-face class and buzz that can generate with interaction and shared space. Sometimes I get frustrated with group work online because of scheduling issues, unfamiliarity with the person, and shared grades -- however, I've had good experiences overall in that domain in my MET classes so far. My favorite part of online classes is working at my own pace/time and being able to use a variety of multimedia to communicate my thoughts.
In my free time I enjoy doing creative and artistic projects and spending time outdoors. I love music as well, and hope to find more time to sing and practice the piano again. On the whole, my husband and I are getting used to our new neighborhood and life in the US. It's definitely an exciting new adventure! I look forward to meeting you all online throughout this course.
No comments:
Post a Comment