My first semester for my Master of Educational Technology has come to an end. Now it is time for me to reflect on how the semester went and think about the future.
From the beginning of this journey, I felt a bit overwhelmed. I fondly remember my years in university. Meeting people, making friends, learning with others, it was great. This was different. All online and fitting school into my life while continuing with everything I already do. The first part of the semester took off like a rocket on a collision course with my usual school start up. Learning multiple new programs and technologies forced me to make sure I was scheduling my coursework time. From Brightspace, to WordPress, Zotero and Mattermost these programs were all going to be important. And the different video lessons I have watched have made this term possible.
The readings have been interesting but was difficult at first. The first set of readings Media Will Never Influence Learning (Clark, 1994), and Will Media Influence Learning, Reframing the Debate (Kozma, 1994), was unexpectedly difficult. It’s been 25 years since I have read academic text. I ended up googling the debate so that I would be more fully prepared for our breakout rooms, and I was glad I did. Putting my readings into my Zotero has become easier and I have been able to learn a lot as you can read in my last post here.
The meetings have been a good way to talk with classmates. Finding out that the first assignment was going to be a group project was a surprise. I wasn’t fond of group projects as a university student, and I struggle with assigning them as a teacher. However, it did have some benefits. Having a group to do the first assignment with made it much easier to focus my time because there were others depending on me. It also made the presentation seem less daunting. I have never done a literature review and being able to discuss the expectations with others was helpful. I am bit of an introverted person so being able to present with someone I was already comfortable with was invaluable.
Mattermost has been a great way to connect with the others and it has helped me to stay o track.
Having to blog about my experiences has been weird for me. I am a reflective learner and teacher but never out loud. Having to put my thoughts out there has been out of my comfort zone.
I have felt a bit disjointed at times. I have a very vague idea of where I want to go for my final project. I would like to focus on math in elementary grades. Whether it will be about learning more about different software, platforms or apps that can help with that. I look forward to figuring out what it will be.
As we continue, I hope that I am able to improve my scheduling. Keeping track of everything from multiple sources was not my forte. I need to make a solid schedule. Not track different programs, apps, and websites for information. I hope that I can get more comfortable with the technology we are learning about and extend into learning even more. I hope that I can learn to be better sharer. I am anxious and excited for the next steps. Figuring out what my research project will be. As I have been exploring the library, I’ve found so many articles that I am connecting with and I am getting ideas for my class. But no matter what I am happy to have made it through the first semester and I am looking forward with a positive attitude.
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