- What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?
I was a bit apprehensive when I began this course, as with any other course that I have taken when I working on my undergrad at Sam Houston. This is mainly due to my previous experiences as a student; you never really know what to expect in terms of your professor’s teaching style, the level of communication in between the professor, and fellow students, workload, subject matter, and the amount of time spent every week doing all of these items. I knew that the one outcome that I envisioned was getting a solid introduction and gain a pretty good foundation in the framework of Educational Technology. I feel like I did achieve this outcome, because as a “non-teacher” I was thoroughly introduced to important items such as the Texas Long Range Plan, and the State Technology Standards; as well as other very useful tools I did not expect to learn about such as blogging, using a wiki and successfully participating in a web conference (which I really enjoy).
- To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?
As I am not actually employed by a school, but rather an Education Service Center in the Safety Education and Training Department, the outcomes of this course are probably not quite as relevant to the work I do currently as much as it probably would be for somebody who teaches on a campus. I am a firm believer that knowledge is power and to always continue to be a life-long learner, even if it does not directly apply to your current position. However, in my department we do offer Virtual School classes, which involve Educational Technology and has to align with the State’s Technology Standards as well as the Standards set by the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN). I feel like it is always helpful to be knowledgeable in the future of Technology Education as well as becoming familiar with using Web 2.0 tools to assist with educating other employees and possibly be able to assist other departments with Technology Professional Development.
- What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?
I honestly cannot say that I feel like I did not achieve the outcomes I wanted for this course because I have learned so much information (that it is border line overwhelming), but still very retainable and applicable. A personal outcome that has nothing to do with the actual course materials that I wanted to achieve was to actually work ahead and stay on top of my assignments very well, however I do not feel like I achieved this personal outcome to the point that I wanted.
- Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?
I absolutely feel like I was successful in carrying out the course assignments, even though some of them were very long, daunting and much more time-consuming than I had budgeted my time for. Every assignment I turned in was 100% complete and for the most part, I was very satisfied with the work that I turned in. If I was to consider myself “unsuccessful” in any area of the assignments, it was definitely in respect to budgeting my time for the school work; readings, videos and the end product—the assignment. I did get a bit discouraged and overwhelmed with some of the assignments because I am not a classroom teacher and I had to struggle a bit more than I think my peers did who are classroom teachers in relation to applying technologies and lessons incorporating technology into day-to-day classroom instruction (of which I have no experience in whatsoever); and to the infrastructure of technology they have on each of their respective campuses and districts to draw on for course application.
- What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?
This course was a great learning experience for me, especially in learning what technology skills I am proficient in and those that I will need to work on. I did discover that I am pretty resourceful in finding the answers to my own questions and self-teaching myself to fix technology problems that I have encountered along the way via Google and other internet resources (for example, I randomly have issues with my internal camera and microphone of which I taught myself how to fix without having to ‘bug’ anyone else about)! I enjoyed doing the self assessments and seeing what the assessment said my strengths were (my top three intelligences, my technology applications inventory, etc). I also learned that no matter how hard I try to stay on top of the assignments, I really am one of those people who works well under pressure, which in turn means that I tend to put items off until I absolutely have to get them done (which is not always a good thing and moderately stressful). All in all, I have learned so many valuable items from this class and I am looking forward to the rest of this degree program!
