ADL Journey Synthesis

My journey in the ADL program started in March, 2022, when I took the Developing Effective Professional Learning course. You may be wondering why my journey started with a course that is not the first one in the ADL program. That would be because I actually started working on my M.Ed. in Educational Technology Leadership in the summer of 2021 at Lamar. That program had six courses focused on leadership and principal certification and the remaining four courses were pulled from the ADL program. After that course in March of 2022, I realized that I was much more interested in the educational technology side of things than I was becoming a principal. I changed my major after that summer to the M.Ed. in Applied Digital Learning and I haven't looked back! Going forward, I only took 1 course a term instead of two and I took the summers off. I already had the position I wanted at work (Technology Integration Specialist) so I did not feel the need to hurry through the program. I wanted to have the time to focus on one class and topic at a time. This led me to another two years before I would finish the program. Looking back, I realize I have learned quite a bit from each of my courses and had some stumbles along the way.

Developing Effective Professional Learning - EDLD 5389 (Spring 2, 2022)

It was no surprise that this was a course I really enjoyed and had a lot of good information for me. I am our district's only District Technology Integration Specialist and part of my job is to create professional learning for our staff throughout the year. While I had been doing this for a few years already, this course really opened my eyes to how to do it better. Since I took this course before actually being in the ADL program, my professional learning that I created in this course does not completely match up with my current innovation plan, however, I like the work that I did and I wanted to keep it for use in the future. All of my work in this course is linked here on my ePortfolio.

Disruptive Innovations in Technology - EDLD 5305 (Fall 1, 2022)

At this point, I had changed my major to ADL and this class made things make SO much more sense with the program. I was a little confused and lost at some things in my professional learning course and it made more sense after I took this course here. This course also pushed me outside of my comfort zone, making me think about things I never had before and coming to the realization that my grade would not be, and should not be, always 100%. There was always going to be room to be better. In this course, we created our innovation proposal, our outline, and a literature review (all of that can be found on this page in my ePortfolio). The literature review had me almost pulling my hair out but in the end, I really enjoyed the process and what I learned. In addition, we also created a video to use as part of our proposal. While I had made videos in the past showing people how to do things online, this was different. It took me a while to complete it, but in the end, I was proud of what I had accomplished in it.

Concepts of Educational Technology - EDLD 5302 (Fall 2, 2022)

In this course, we studied growth mindset and how it impacts how we learn. In addition, we looked into how we learn and our learning and how we learn. In this course we created a Growth Mindset Plan and a Learning Manifesto. Not only did I enjoy looking into my own processes and why I do the things I do, but I was happy to not have a Literature Review again in this course. While that Literature Review was eye opening and interesting, I knew a second one was coming and I was glad it would be later in the program.

Applying Educational Technology - EDLD 5303 (Spring 1, 2023)

This is the course where we were expected to start putting everything into our ePortfolio and adding links for our assignments. While it had been recommended and encouraged to post in the ePortfolio in the previous classes, it became mandatory in this course. I struggled with creating the ePortfolio at times, but once I got it going, it was much easier. This blog post discusses most of what I did in this course.

Leading Organizational Change - EDLD 5304 (Spring 2, 2023)

This course took a shift into the leadership aspect of what we do instead of just what we are creating and why. As I mentioned previously, I started my journey at Lamar in the Educational Technology Leadership program and I enjoyed those leadership courses but I decided not to continue that program. Due to my interest in the leadership aspect, I enjoyed this course. Not only did we look into how to lead others by creating an influencer strategy and a 4DX model, but we looked closer at our why and how that matters in leading others. This course felt as though it had a lot of information packed into it but it was all very helpful to how people think and learn. All of my work is linked on this page of my ePortfolio.

Resources for Digital Environments - EDLD 5317 (Fall 1, 2023)

After taking a much needed break over the summer, I went into EDLD 5317. This was probably my least favorite course but that was only because I do not have intentions at this time to publish. However, I did thoroughly enjoy the fact that this course took us step by step through the process in case I ever did want to publish. My publication outline, rough draft, final draft, and reflection can all be found on this page of my ePortfolio.

Creating Significant Learning Environments - EDLD 5313 (Fall 2, 2023)

In this course we revisited growth mindset and learned about Understanding by Design. We updated our Growth Mindset Plan from 5302 and created a UbD template, a 3 column table, and more focusing on our innovation plan. We also wrote our own learning philosophy. All of my work in this course is also linked in one page on my ePortfolio.

Assessing Digital Learning - EDLD 5315 (Spring 1, 2024)

WooHoo, I'm entering into the last year of my courses! The end is getting closer and closer. I'll be honest and say that I was dreading this class only because I knew it had the second literature review in the program. However, this quickly became one of my favorite courses and almost had me convincing myself to work on my Ed.D. next because I absolutely loved what I learned about action research. I believe this was the course that I put the most time and effort into because of the fact that I was so interested in what I was doing. I created an action research plan outline, an action research plan, and completed my second literature review. All of that work can be found on one page in my ePortfolio. And notice how I said almost had me convincing myself to pursue my Ed.D? Well, that is still on hold. It was at the end of this course that I got my first grandbaby and this new grandmother has decided she wants to focus her time there for a while. But, the Ed.D is not ruled out for the future.

Instructional Design Online Learning - EDLD 5318 (Spring 2, 2024)

This was another favorite course of mine. We took the entire course to design a course. I pondered up until almost the last moment that I could on what I wanted my course to be. Part of me wanted to create a course that was directly linked to my innovation plan but I also wanted to start working on some courses that I could house in Google Classroom for our staff. In the end, I decided to build a Google 101: Mastering the Basics course. We took the time to make an outline, 3-column table, syllabus and the course itself. This was also the only course I had that required videos to be created with each assignment. All of my work on this course, and the videos, can be found on one page in my ePortfolio.

Synthesis Digital Learning - EDLD 5320 (Summer 2024)

I made it! I'm ALMOST done! If you notice, I am taking this course in the summer even though I decided when starting this program I would take no summer courses. This happened by mistake because they registered me for it and I decided instead of waiting, I'd just get it done. I'm glad I decided to go forward with it. In this course, I've had the opportunity to look back at all of my work in the program which is something that I haven't done up until this point. I've had to look at different things in courses, but never everything at once. It was enjoyable to reflect on the journey and see how far I've grown and how my work has evolved. In this course, we had a COVA reflection and an update on our Innovation Plan. I also had a contribution to my learning post that discusses more about the struggles I had staying motivated to finish this up, even though I knew I was at the end. This current post is the last assignment where I pull everything together in one place.

There you have it, the written recollection and review of my work in each course. Below, you will find a video that discusses more about how I felt and what I was able to accomplish while in the program. Please visit my ePortfolio where you will see not only all of the work that I linked above, but my blog posts throughout the program as well. This has been a journey that I am grateful I went on and while my formal college education is coming to an end for now, I do believe that an Ed. D. is in my future at some point...after I've had the chance to soak up all the "new" that comes with being a grandmother.