EDTECH501: Wrapping It Up

It’s difficult to believe that seven weeks is already over, and I’ll be starting my second semester in Boise State’s EDTECH program in just over a week. This summer has just slipped through my grasp, and it’s going to be a scramble to get ready for the next school year in only a few short days!

We were asked to reflect on our EDTECH501 Introduction to Educational Technology course in a final learning log post, specifically focusing on four questions. Here are my thoughts:

Educational Technology Graphic Definition

For our final module in EDTECH 501, we read the first chapter of our course textbook, Educational Technology: A Definition with Commentary (2008), and were assigned the making of a graphic to represent our interpretation of that definition. As I took notes and wrote down the key phrases of the chapter, the cyclical nature of edtech really asserted itself and helped shape my graphic.

21st Century Learning

For Module 5 in EDTECH501, we were asked to evaluate our institution’s technology use plan. Since I did not have access to this document (if indeed there is one!), I chose to complete an alternate assignment instead on the (very broad) topic of “21st Century Learning.” For this assignment, I used Kereluik, Mishra, Fahnoe, & Terry’s (2013) article “What Knowledge Is of Most Worth: Teacher Knowledge for 21st Century Learning.” In it, the authors identify three overarching types of knowledge that are important for students to gain mastery of in order to meet 21st century needs. The three knowledge areas, Foundational, Meta, and Humanistic, were then broken down into 3 subcategories each for a total of 9 core competencies for students. 

Horizon Report: Learning Analytics

For Module 4 in EDTECH501, we read New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report 2015. I chose the one for Higher Education since that is where I currently work and wish to stay. Reading through the report was fascinating–while I found some information to be familiar, much of it was new to me. I had a hard time choosing a topic to create an artifact on since there was so much I wanted to explore! I eventually narrowed it down to three areas: digital literacy, badges/microcredit, and learning analytics. I chose the last, learning analytics, because this is something that we will soon be adopting at my institution and I wanted to know more about it. (In hindsight, I might have chosen a smaller topic!) Even though this assignment ate up my entire weekend, I was glad to have delved into the subject and gotten a better idea of the process, usage, and ethical issues surround predictive learning analytics.

Annotated Bibliography: ePortfolios

For the end of Module 3 in EDTECH501, we were asked to create an annotated bibliography on a topic of our choice in technology-supported instruction. Not being very familiar with the types of and trends within educational technology, I relied on an excellent idea paper, The Technology Literate Professoriate: Are We There Yet? by Dan Madigan, to help frame my options, especially since I knew I wanted to focus on higher education. I decided on looking at the research surrounding ePortfolios for two reasons: 1) It’s somewhat personal as I am required to keep an ePortfolio as part of Boise State’s MET program, and 2) a colleague of mine and I have decided to require students in our Interdisciplinary Program degree to keep an ePortfolio throughout their tenure in the program. I felt that looking at the research would help guide us in this implementation.

RSS in Education

For the first assignment in Module 3, we were asked to create a Feedly.com account and subscribe to various RSS feeds. While I have some experience with RSS (“Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”)–I even used the now-defunct Google Reader for a while–it’s not something that I use in my every day life. While I can absolutely see the benefit of amalgamating everything into one site and deleting all of the email alerts I get, I use those email alerts to help remind me to check the websites I visit. I am afraid that I will not check Feedly as often as I should, and some important information could fall to the wayside. Perhaps being “forced” to use Feedly will help alleviate the issue and I will get into the habit.

Digital Divide/Digital Inequality

For the final assignment in the module on ethics for EDTECH501, I was asked to create a presentation on the digital divide/digital inequality and address three issues that I see in my institution, as well as identify feasible solutions. Because I am not fully versed in all of the issues on my campus, I chose to survey a handful of faculty, staff, and administration for their input, and received eight answers that helped shape my presentation. 

Code of Professional Ethics in Educational Technology

Module 2 in EDTECH 501 is all about professional ethics. For this assignment, I had to identify an ethically dubious scenario at work or in my community and link it to one of the AECT Code of Professional Ethics standards. After surveying some administrators, faculty, and instructional designers at my institution, I decided to write about the gap in faculty use of the campus learning management system, Canvas.

Ethics scenario: Let’s Not and Say We Did

Here is the second of the two ethical scenarios I analyzed:

Summary:
Three people, Lisa, Val, and Jonathan, are charge of initially reviewing conference session proposals for a regional instructional technology conference. They have been told that “some proposals ought to be rejected this year” and there has been some negative feedback about strange and pseudo-scientific sessions from past conferences (Yeaman, 2014, p. 5). Past reviewers have also complained about there being too many proposals to read. Jonathan is late to the meeting, and while he is away, Lisa and Val start looking through the proposals. Val suggests that they proactively weed out the odd or inappropriate ones before they even get to the official reviewers, and Lisa agrees. When Jonathan arrives to the meeting, he is informed of the new strategy but still asks to see the two rejected proposals. When he is done reading, he tells Lisa and Val that “We just can’t do it this way” (p .5).

Ethics scenario: To Be an Early Adopter

For one of this week’s assignments in EDTECH 501, we were asked to read an ethical scenario posted in TechTrends and write up a response to both the scenario and the published analysis. This is the first of the two scenarios I choose:

Summary:
Henry, State University’s Coordinator of Instructional Technology, has been approached by DCH Learning to switch over the institution’s learning management system to their software. However, DCH’s LMS is more expensive and appears to have less tech support than State’s current system. Jane, DCH’s sales representative, has offered to sweeten the pot by including a monthly stipend sent directly to Henry to encourage him to be “an early adopter in this market to show others the way” as well as to “consult” with DCH’s developers (Martin, 2012, p. 10). Henry has always felt underpaid and undervalued and has convinced himself that the stipend would be an “honorarium.”