Course Reflections: Concepts of Ed Tech

Course Reflections

5306 Concepts of Educational Technology

As we reach the end of our first course in Lamar’s online Master’s program, it is time to stop and reflect on what we’ve learned. I know that for me, although I consider myself a constant, life-long learner, it was an adjustment to adapt to the demands of formally being a student, while also working (more than) full-time as a teacher and coach. I wasn’t sure what would be expected of me, or how much time would be required. At the same time, I was excited to start on this new journey, and was looking forward to the opportunity to learn new things. My initial perceptions were based on the title and the time frame. I was expecting that a course entitled Concepts of Educational Technology, that only ran for five or six weeks, to be a survey-type of course, touching briefly on many topics without delving very far into any particular one. What I discovered was that, although the time commitment will be substantial, I am really enjoying taking time out to focus on my own learning. This initial Concepts course did cover a great many topics, but much more in-depth that I had imagined.

One of the reasons that I enjoyed this course was that so much of the material is directly relevant to what I do on a daily basis in my current job. Much of what we learned is either directly applicable in my classroom, or has helped me better understand the environment in which I work. I have a new appreciation for the legal and practical challenges of managing technology in a school environment. I also had the opportunity to set up a blog and a wiki, and play with some fun web applications, all things I had been wanting to try, but had never taken the time to learn on my own. I thoroughly enjoyed the reading assignments, because most of them were related to subjects that I am very passionate about. I did find that many of them, although still worthwhile, were 5 – 10 years old. I wonder if there is more current research available, and look forward to finding it, or maybe even participating in it!

I think I achieved all the outcomes that were expected. Ironically, even though I am a technology teacher, I struggled with the technology in the first week. Everything was new, and in addition to adjusting to the demanding pace of being a student for the first time in many years, I was also faced with a learning curve for every aspect of the course. The sheer number of different logins and passwords required to get started was intimidating. I also had to learn how to be an online student, how course software functioned, how to retrieve and submit assignments, how to get questions answered, and an entirely new vocabulary. All of that was in addition to the actual course material and assignments.

I would have appreciated more support during the first week.  Although options were available, the technology help desk phone number was not correct, the help desk was not available in the evenings (the only time I have available), the associate did not seem to understand my questions via email, and I didn’t feel comfortable asking individual/personal questions on the public discussion board. In the first week, I struggled with getting my account set up (the system couldn’t verify my identity), accessing and printing assignments, downloading readings from the library, and accessing the links to some of the surveys. Nothing seemed to work as expected, and I didn’t know how to get help. Somehow I made it through, but I had to get special permission to resubmit my assignment. I still feel like my week-one assignment grade suffered unfairly due to circumstances beyond my control. After overcoming the first-week hurdles, I was able to carry out course assignments for the following weeks with much less difficulty. I did, however, continue to have trouble getting the readings from the library. Some articles would download quickly and easily, and some would never download at all.

Overall, I really enjoyed this course. I loved the opportunity to learn new things in new ways! I appreciate that the course itself is modeling the use of technology, and I am inspired to incorporate some of the things we did in my own classroom, and to continue to look for new ideas and technologies to apply. I learned how uncomfortable it can feel to be thrown into a strange, new environment, and I will actively try to keep my students from experiencing the same discomfort, although today’s students will probably always feel comfortable in technology-rich environments!