Bringing About A Change Journey

E-Learning Day Plan 

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1. How has the process been? Most positive aspect; the most negative/challenging (if any)?

My pilot for the Technology for Leaders course was a positive experience. I developed an E-Learning Day plan for my school to use in the event that the school building has to close  due to an emergency. I developed an entire plan listing the responsibilities of the school, teachers, and students. Implementing this entire plan for this course would not be possible, but I needed to develop the entire plan so that I could share it with my school's faculty in order to receive their feedback. I also had the opportunity to create some sample lesson plans for an E-Learning Day with the 6th-grade teachers. My plan was positively received by the faculty, and the lessons I created with my team are a good starting point for other teachers to see example lessons that may inspire their own. I am happy to hear that a majority of the teachers at my school are in favor of a plan. It definitely helps to have their support in order for a plan like this to be successful. 

The most challenging part of the experience was making sure I was being thorough and detailed in explaining all aspects of the E-Learning Day plan. Since it is a large plan, explaining what parts would be implemented during this pilot was challenging as I wanted to make sure I communicated myself clearly. As I stated, in order to get faculty feedback and create lessons, I needed to develop the entire plan.

2. Are you still excited about your topic and believe in its potential?  

I am still excited about my E-Learning Day plan. Having a technology plan like this is important. I shared a presentation explaining my plan, and someone from my course commented that E-Learning Days can also be used if a school had to close for an extended period of time due to illnesses. I believe more and more schools will establish plans in order to utilize technology to continue learning and instruction at home in order to prevent days from being added onto the school year. I think my plan is effective since not every subject needs to have lesson for each E-Learning Day, which will make the day less overwhelming for students.

3.  How has the pilot experience enhanced your growth as a future Technology Leader/Change Agent? 

I know that it is especially important to get buy-in from the personnel involved in changes. In my case with the E-Learning Day plan, I need support from most of the faculty in order to implement the plan successfully. I know that a technology leader needs to provide examples and support to help the faculty and staff with changes. Furthermore, a technology leader needs to keep their eyes towards the future in order to sustain the school to keep up with  technological advances and changes in society.

4.  Now that you have completed or almost completed your Technology Specialist Endorsement program journey, what do you believe is your next step(s)? 

My next step after earning my Technology Specialist Endorsement is to see what opportunities are available for me to use my degree as a technology specialist at my current school. I would really enjoy working with my school's current technology coordinator as a technology coach. I feel that I could learn even more under her guidance. Besides my current school, I plan on looking for other opportunities elsewhere where I could be a technology coach in order to provide support to classroom teachers with using technology in the classroom. I am excited for the future to see what opportunities are out there for me to continue my work in education with the new skills and ideas that I learned from my coursework.
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Technology Leader/Change Agent

EDU 781 Blog Reflection 1

Technology Leader/Change Agent 

During the first four weeks of the course, we have been discussing some of the roles a technology leader will have, especially the role of change agent and manager. How has your perception of being a technology specialist changed this term based on what you have read/learned? What aspect of being a technology leader do you perceive as being most challenging? Why?
 

From working with my school’s technology coordinator over the past several years, I have observed the many roles she has in this position. Even though I have been aware of many of these responsibilities, I have not given too much thought into how I would lead if I were in a position like hers. I really enjoyed reading the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath. From this book, I learned good strategies that change agents need to do in order to be effective leaders. One of the main takeaways was the idea that change agents need to “Direct the Rider,” “Motivate the Elephant,” and “Shape the Path.” Individuals need to understand a clear plan in order to go through a change. They need to understand the purpose of the change and be inspired by it. Motivating the elephant is key, and I was really inspired by some of the examples in Switch that described how motivating people’s emotions helps to move them into action. One example from the book involved someone trying to get his manufacturing company to save money on gloves by collecting all the different gloves used by the employees and pilling them up onto a table during a meeting. This act stirred the company leaders to start making some purchasing changes (Heath & Heath, 2010). Change agents also need to provide support to the individuals involved in the change. This is especially important for technology coordinators because they need to help faculty members with using new technology to ensure they are using it appropriately and effectively. Teachers need to see examples and receive consistent professional development to help them with implementing changes in the classroom. While these are good strategies to keep in mind when leading change, I think that some of these strategies may be difficult to do depending on the change. I think it is not easy to get everyone on board with changes, so dealing with resistance is a concern of mine. I know it would be rare to get everyone motivated to change, but it definitely helps to get a good amount of support. Supporting teachers through change is important, but since it seems like technology professional development is lacking in many schools, it might be a result of the technology coordinator having too many other responsibilities that there is not enough time to provide coaching to the staff. However, coaching is very important, and it would be the part of the job that I would be very interested in doing. I hope that when I am in a technology leadership position some day, I will have the time to provide coaching to the staff.

You have begun implementing your pilot experience this week. What has your impression of the planning and implementation steps been?

After spending time writing up an implementation plan for an E-Learning Day plan at my school, I have begun to put some of the plan into action this week. An E-Learning Day is a day when students are given work to complete electronically at home in the event that the physical school building has to close. While I spent time thinking through all the steps involved in implementing a plan like this, I will only be able to really implement some of it for my pilot. While I foresee it being a challenge to get the students on board with this type of day as they would rather just have a traditional snow day, the main people that I want to focus on for now are the teachers. If the teachers understand the importance of a day like this, and if they have a structured plan to follow, then the plan will have a greater chance of being successful. This week I developed questions about my plan that I will ask several teachers at my school from different grade levels. I want to get their feedback in order to see if I will get support for the plan and if I need to modify any parts of it. I enjoyed going through the steps of implementation. When developing a plan like this, there are a lot of components to think about, but it is important to consider all these before sharing the plan with others. Developing a plan is important, but getting feedback about the plan is equally important. I feel good about the work I have already completed for this plan, and I am eager to share it and make improvements to it.

Reference:
Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to change things when change is hard. New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group.

Coding I Reflective Blog Post

Introduction to Coding-EDU 774

What are 1 - 2 programming apps, tools, or resources you learned about in the course? How have you already used these in your educational context or how do you plan to use these in the future?

Prior to taking this Coding I course at Dominican University, I had no background into programming/coding. I had never heard or used Scratch or Python before. I am glad I learned about these tools in order to become more familiar with coding. I think Scratch is a great one to use in order to introduce coding to elementary school students. The “building blocks,” colors, and visual scene students can create are helpful for beginners to visualize what they are coding. My school has an after-school coding club offered to students in grades 5-8. I know that they use robots called Dash and Dot, but after talking with my technology coordinator (the moderator of the club) about coding more, I discovered that they also learn Scratch during this club.  Even though some students are familiar with this tool, I want to introduce and use it in my classroom. I think students would like to use it to create scenes in history during Social Studies class. I would like to use Scratch in Science class as well. Although it seems like coding would fit better into that subject compared to Social Studies, I have not found too many ideas that will work for me in my grade's Science curriculum just yet with Scratch, so I plan on investigating more in order to find ways to incorporate it into that class. Overall, I think Scratch will be very engaging for my students to use, and it will help them to think critically in order to plan out the necessary steps in a process.

In addition to Scratch, I was also introduced to what a Raspberry Pi is. I think that’s a neat inexpensive little computer that can be used to help students learn about the parts of a computer. I like the idea of having students use a Raspberry Pi for robotics. If my school were to get a set of Raspberry Pi devices, I think programming robots would be an engaging and challenging STEM-aligned project for older middle-school students. The students would have to learn the Python coding language in order to program these robots, but if they spend time in previous years learning Scratch, they will have the background to learn a more advanced coding language like Python. Exposing students to coding will allow them to be better prepared for the future and the various skill-sets needed in careers where technology has become so ingrained. 

   What was something you found surprising in this course? Was there something you wanted to learn about in this course that was not covered?

            I was pretty nervous about taking this course since coding was so new to me. Although I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to work both Scratch and Python, I felt that I picked up on quite a bit faster than I thought. I understood the logic behind the different coding projects like the Scratch Virtual Pet one where I had to create a Hunger variable to feed an owl, and the Python project where I had to complete the code for a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. These coding projects really stimulated and exercised my brain, and I felt a great sense of accomplishment after completing them. At the same time, they kept me disciplined, but I also had fun. I kept thinking that my students would enjoy creating an assignment like these, especially a project like the Virtual Pet one on Scratch. 

      Since I knew about the robots Dash and Dot prior to taking this course, I thought they would be involved somehow in this course. I am assuming they will be in Coding II since that class seems to focus on robots. My technology coordinator will start up the coding club come January, and she invited me to join her to observe her class. Since she primarily uses Dash and Dot, I hope to observe her class and learn more about these robots. I also would like to find other resources that can help me find ideas to incorporate coding into the curriculum. Overall, I am glad that I took this course as now I am more aware of the world of coding and the benefits it can have on students.

 

        

EDU 792 Video Production Reflective Post

Video Production Course Reflection 

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What I Learned:

I am really glad I took this course on Video Production. I learned a great deal about making videos and have gained an appreciation for individuals who edit videos and documentaries. I now know more about all the components involved in editing a video and how challenging it can be even if the video is only a few minutes long. Being able to cut and merge components of footage together while setting it to music and incorporating special effects and transitions is not an easy task. I am happy that I can use some of the videos that I created in this course for my 6th-grade classroom, and I plan on making more to help engage my students in the topics we will cover in class.

First off, I feel more comfortable using Powtoon, and feel that my 6th graders will enjoy using this tool to create videos for assignments. I am planning on having them use it for this upcoming school year. Additionally, I even learned more about the animation and transition features on PowerPoint by creating videos for this class.

I also learned about Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and how to use it for both streaming and green screen videos. I know that streaming is very big, especially for gaming, and I am aware that several of my students use it for this purpose. I am glad that I created a streaming video because now I am more aware of what it is, and I can connect more with my students who use it. In addition to streaming, I really enjoyed making green screen videos through OBS. I learned that chroma key is  the process used to make green screen videos. Furthermore, by participating in a class discussion post, I learned about the app called DoInk which allows for users to create green screen videos using an iPad or an iPhone. From what I read about it, this app seems to be very user-friendly and great to use in the classroom with students. I hope to use this app this year to have my students create green screen videos for presentations. I think they will really enjoy making these as a change from mostly using Google Slides for presentations. 

I used VSDC to edit most of my videos in this class, and I am feeling more comfortable using it. Moving forward, I hope to take some of the presentations I have recorded in the past and make them more engaging by editing other features and special effects into them. I also want to use green screen to create class lectures for my students. 

I have also learned how important it is to write down a script before recording. This strategy helped me greatly when it came time to record my videos. The more I planned out my script, the less rambling I did, which made the video easier to listen to. Creating and watching myself in videos also made me realize that I am more engaging to listen to when I smile, so it made me more cognizant of my presentation skills and how I need to be aware of my mannerisms and facial expressions in order to avoid having them be distractions.

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What I Need to Learn Next: 

Going forward, I want to share what I learned in this course with my administration and the technology coaches at my school with the hope of getting permission to use some of these tools in my classroom. I will need to come up with lesson ideas and make a plan to teach the students how to use the various tools for different projects. As I mentioned previously, I want to make my science and social studies presentations more engaging by using green screen. I made a green screen for this class using green posters that I attached to a trifold board. If I start making more green screen videos, I will want to purchase one that will stand better and be easier to use so I don't knock it over. 

Additionally, I need to spend more time learning how to improve the audio in my videos. I need to practice speaking more clearly as I think that has been one of the weaknesses in my videos. I sometimes could hear an echo in some of them. I think investing in a better microphone will help to  make the audio more clear. At the same time, lighting is something that I need to work on by possibly purchasing better lights, or by practicing with lights more to see what would look better when I am recording myself in videos. I don't want to look so pale!

Lastly, I often have my students watch a lot of short educational video clips that I find on YouTube.  With the knowledge I learned from taking this course, I want to spend time analyzing features in these videos in order to observe what worked and what was distracting. I also want to observe special effects so that I can learn other ideas that I can incorporate into videos that I create. 

Overall, this was a great course to take. I feel confident that the things I learned in this course will help me greatly as a future technology specialist.