MEIT - Instructional Technology Program Completion

Looking back over the almost two years of blogging has been interesting. I didn’t know much about Web 2.0 when I started this degree program (actually, I had no idea there WAS a Web 2.0!). The beginning courses where great as they opened our eyes to the ins and outs of our computers and the tools that are available to us online. We learned about online data storage and took our machines apart... great stuff. We tackled several courses on implementing these tools in our classrooms (including the designing of courses as well as the type of leadership and buy-in necessary to move forward with a technologically new idea. We even took a statistics course… whew, made it through, again!

This has been a great course of study and has really showed me what the teaching profession could be heading towards. The idea of distance learning is not new (we had it in my backwoods little high school… so it can’t be all that novel!) but the use of the internet to create a more rich learning experience as well as to foster an environment where instantaneous collaboration and feedback are possible is pretty amazing.

As one of the few non-teachers in this cohort, it was great to be able to listen to the success and troubles of my classmates when it came time to implement some of the tools that we were discovering. There were the inevitable snags of funding, buy-in and technology capabilities (which was where my inability to fully implement anything in my current professional world would continue to be a source of minor frustration). But the instructors and my fellow classmates were very supportive as well as highly interested in hearing about the technology issues of the Military organization. This was a great course of study and I look forward to the time when I may be in a position to implement the learning technology tools that we all learned about.

Thank you all for helping me along throughout this program… it has been a blast!  

CEdO599 - Culmination of the Culminating Experience

Moving – Completing a final project/portfolio during the moving of your household form the Midwest to our Nation’s Capital is not an easy task. I haven’t had reliable non-caffeinated internet in two weeks and I only recently was able to gain access to some of the offline product that I have created during this cohort. Enough sob-story from me. The move has gone well, the weather is great (albeit, a touch warm for my blood, and skin, and mental state…). So I have met with Louis and it seems that I am tracking well with my ongoing final project. I was given a couple of pointers on ways to improve (I did add a google form to the comments page) and was informed of the need to button-up the portfolio that was created in a previous course (I had forgotten all about it!).

Well, I have finished the Portfolio and the Final Project... so I guess that I am done! Just need to complete the evals and the tech knowledge survey... 

So then, I’m off and running again… the finish… sooo close!

CEdO599 - Weeks 1 and 2

So then... time to get out from behind the eight ball! NATO's over and I am sitting here in a folding chair with my wife's laptop on a bookshelf typing away with a cardboard box (that contained my new bass case, by the way!) as my keyboard/mouse support structure... short story - all of my household goods have been packed and shipped towards my next duty station in DC. Proper excuse for being slack in the culminating course in this degree pursuit... most definitely not!

So then... I've been busy at attempting to catch up with all of my more experienced counterparts in this cohort (my thanks for all of the help from the actual professional teachers/administrators in this cohort, by the way!). To that end, I have created a portfolio template that I believe to be a good starting point for people working for me to use in order to organize and transmit their Evaluation supporting documentation to me. Mind you, this exercise is strictly theoretical (though I believe that Louis will require me to have at least one person try it out) due to the fact that my Organization is not open to Web 2.0 at this point. Something about informational security or something like that!

My portfolio template is accessible at: OER Portfolio Template.

Please feel free to give me some comments on my proposal to this point... although, I guess that Louis may still tweak it if he doesn't like the direction that I am attempting to go.

Best of luck to all of you. See you in the Discussion Boards!

CEdO565 Week 6 - Leadership and Change

For the final week of this course (our last actual course in this degree track) we are asked to "reflect on these questions:"

How has your definition of leadership altered or been reinforced? Your definition of teacher leadership? I will start with the former first... I had no preconceived notion of what a teach-leader was before this course. therefore, the definition was all brand new to me. I knew that some teachers were leaders (I mean, I've seen "Stand and Deliver" after all!!!) but I haven't been personally exposed to very much innovation in my schooling experience. As far as my definition of leadership... I don't know what to say on that one. I've been through so many different versions of leadership (just within this tour!)... we've seen Intrusive Leadership come and go, followed by Involved Leadership... and the associated leadership philosophies of each Commandant, District Admiral and Commanding Officer (basically, repackaged and reworded from the previous regime!).  

Has your opinion of your leadership potential changed? Somewhat... Maybe?!?! By that I mean that I have been aware of my ability to get people to follow me and also of my ability to make fairly sound decisions for the group based on listening to my knowledgeable personnel. But, I seem to lack the desire to seek out change. I am happy to change in order to follow along with the changing regimes and new priorities that are thrust upon us. I just haven't been the tip of the spear on anything meaningful. My leadership style appears to be more of a sheltering style of deflecting the majority of the weirdness from above while allowing my people to actually get the job done. So, has my opinion of my leadership potential changed... not really, I guess!  

Do you agree with our textbook's assertion about "improving education from within"? If so, what will you do to help? From the outside looking in... it would be difficult for me to answer this question with any sort of authority or conviction. I would like to think that it lies with the motivated teachers to improve education and that the majority of teacher would have some good ideas to present on the second portion of this question. However, I think that a portion of the burden of improving education lies with society at large. I would think that there would need to be a pretty big reinvestment in our education system and an increase in participation by more parents in order for significant system-wide change to take hold. (But really, I'm just one of those that blames society a lot of the time!)

All in all I really enjoyed this course. I liked the simulation exercise... it definitely drove home the importance of communication and knowing your peers when you are attempting to institute a big change.

Thanks for a great course!

CEdO565 - Week 5 - Part 2 of Simulation

This week we finished the second two years of the simulation... my highly competitive group seemed to grasp the concept and quickly formulate our preferred way forward with very good results. I'd give us all A's for awesomeness for the activity!

The solo work was pretty straight forward and had us look back on the path that we attempted to take in the simulation (it also showed a template for the right way to get there!). In our group we looked at one question and answered it individually.

Our lengthiest assignment for the week was to create a Google Doc detailing the process of change in our organizations and share it with the teacher. I spoke on a recent change to my personal work status and how it continues to affect my work-life.

CEdO565 - Week 4 - Simulation Starts

This week's synchronous activity was fun, interactive and interesting. It showed us that to make change certain steps need to be undertaken in order gain but-in and opinions from all levels of the organization.

The solo and group work outside of class involved reading the text and discussing the importance of climate and morale in an environment of change. We also filled out a form discussing the good and bad parts of some example change of our choice. We also discussed this document with our new simulation based work-groups. 

I can see how some of this week's ideas could be applied to the "real world" but I don't see much hope for it in the top-down driven military world that I currently live in. In a world without the need for buy-in it doesn't seem to be worth the time to ensure that you get it!

CEdO565 - Week 3 - the long week of much doing!

So this was one long week in terms of time elapsed between synchronous sessions... but it was a much longer week in terms of life! During this time period I went to DC in an attempt to find a place to live (and a used car to buy - struck out on both fronts!), Went to Charleston, SC for my Brother-in-Law's wedding (good time, Charleston Tea Plantation is a pretty cool spot!), sat for my second attempt at the Professional Engineering License (fingers crossed!)... oh yeah, and had a fair amount of homework to do for this course (thank you Group 3 for a great meeting).

This week was about the transport of cultured dairy product (that being both a good and bad thing, I suppose). I am forced to contemplate about my own cheese and how that cheese has changed over the years. I guess that I've been pretty lucky in choosing a military academy and then becoming an officer in the USCG... the movement of cheese has been steady but expected for the most part. 

We viewed a few videos on leadership and systems thinking. It made me want to run out and but some sweet sweaters, but alas, that season has gone! Our homework on these topics is fairly wide-open and I am often left wondering how to approach the assignment... do I attempt to morph this concept into my current profession or do I attack it for my hypothetical teaching position that I created for this course (nearly all of my faux students are meeting the standards... Yes, you know who you are! Man, these millenials are an interesting bunch.).

That's all that I have to report at this time. My brain is mush from my test and travels... I hear some hops and grains calling me (more hops than grains, thank you very much!).