We have now completed CEdO525 - Enhancing Learning Materials Through Technology. So this post brings to an end one more course on the road to a Master's of Education in Instructional Technology.
Our final project for this course was to take an lesson plan or unit of teaching (or for us non-teachers, some unit or function in the work-place) and use the tools that we studied in this course to improve the current effectiveness. I chose to discuss the current state of the Coast Guard's Marine Safety training and qualification systems and how it could be improved upon through the implementation of several technological inititives including online storage, wikis for sharing of ideas and intelligent assignment, tracking and management of the various qualification programs.
As I attempted to show in my final project, the Coast Guard presently has many databases for tracking various important information about its members (medical readiness, mandatory training accountability, weigh-ins, flu vaccinations, etc.) as well as a separate database that tracks completed training (TMT), evaluations (Direct Access), etc.
I believe that my final project showed that the qualification program would be more straightforward and independently tracked with the use of technology. Setting up wikis for each major qualification would allow for the interactions between qualification seekers from around the country to link-up and bounce questions and ideas off each other and off of Master level qualified individuals. I also liked the idea of creating an online question bank that could be used for study purposes and for generating pre-board tests.
I really enjoyed this course. The text was the most interesting and informative one that we have had so far in this cohort. The text provided numerous examples for each topic and contained a plethora of links to online content/examples throughout its pages.
Maybe the only thing that I am walking away with a less than crystal clear understanding of would be the difference between Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition. It all seems to be about complimenting someone on a job well-done!
I think that the best part of this course (and of the cohort as a whole, thus far) has been the group work. I have enjoyed coming together with my group to discuss the reading. Getting to hear from people who are actually able to take some of the concepts that we are learning and immediately implement those concepts into their classrooms has been enlightening.
The presentation created by my classmates were excellent and really showed that these concepts can be implemented in a variety of grade levels and subjects.
My thanks to Kris for making this a great course... and also for recognizing that we weren't all classroom educators and amending the final project accordingly.
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