Goal 5: Demonstrates professionalism and effective collaboration.
Many courses throughout this program have required collaboration. I have experienced collaboration over a distance and in person. Both require flexibility and the willingness to listen to others' ideas while extending professional courtesy and respect.
My first course in the Instructional Technology Program, EPFR 515, in the summer of 2007, I was introduced to the term collaboration and what it meant to work with another peer over a distance. As a requirement for this course, I was assigned to create a class presentation and a brochure informing the class about a chosen topic. We were to create these materials with a partner from our class. I quickly became friends with another classmate of mine and we decided to collaborate together on this project. Our topic was problem solving. She was a preschool teacher. I am a fourth grade teacher. We agreed to tackle this topic from both angles and create a presentation informing our audience of ways to teach problem solving in early and late elementary classrooms. Although we lived quite a distance apart, we made time to meet and communicate through the research and design process. I found this collaborative project very worthwhile. I learned to work with another over a distance, collaborate with another to create materials for instruction, research appropriate materials from the library, and become more flexible with my time. My peer provided the guidance I needed through my first course at SIUE.
Problem Solving
Brochure
While designing my website in IT 481, I found that peer reviews helped me during this process. We were asked to frequently evaluated others' website designs and provide suggestions for improvement. I found that many times others' suggestions were very worthwhile and helpful. I believe that their perspectives help me build a better website and final product. From these peer reviews I learned to compress pictures, add video, add flash buttons, and create an online survey. On the other hand, I found the peer review process helpful in becoming more of a professional. I took each peer review seriously and tried to take the latest research presented in class to help others improve their design. I was careful to be respectful with my suggestions. I would be sure point to the positives of each design first before suggesting areas of improvement.
Review
In order to complete the technology plan as a course assignment for IT 560, I was given the chance to collaborate with three other classmates. During this process we used the file sharing and private discussion board components of Blackboard in order to collaborate and complete our assignment. We would also meet once a week on campus throughout the semester. We first had to agree on a school district to research. We agreed that Collinsville would serve best due to one group member working in that district. Our next step was to write a vision statement. Next we carefully analyzed the district's school report card data. Our next task was most difficult: design a survey instrument used to survey parents, teachers, students, or administrators of their technology skills. We agreed to what type of survey each of us would create. The difficult task was waiting for each student in the class to complete our online surveys once they were created. We could not analyze our surveys until each student completed the surveys. After analyzing each survey we could move to the next step: designing an action plan for the school district to address student needs and improve achievement scores. While designing the action plan, we each decided to approach a different area of school improvement. This seemed to work best and equal out the work load. Since we chose to write a plan for Collinsville School District I felt that our group member that worked in the district did a majority of the research, as far as what programs the school already had in place. One member seemed to rely on the rest of us to complete the action plan. She would frequently miss our weekly meetings on campus. I found this frustrating, but realistic. I felt that we handled the situation professionally and asked her to complete other tasks on her own to contribute to the project. When collaborating with others, I have found that sometimes one or two group members will do more work than the others.
Technology Plan
Technology Plan Slide Show
For IT 571 I wrote an NTeQ Unit Plan for another colleague. My assignment was to assist another teacher in implementing and using a technology tool in order to improve student performance. After discussing this assignment with my colleague, I first surveyed her students. I wanted to see how "tech savvy" her students were before we introduced a new technology tool. My colleague was interested in using a technology tool in order to increase the comprehension of her students. After surveying her class, I realized that many of them were not familiar with technology tools such as blogs, wikis, or chatrooms. We decided to introduce her class to a wiki. Before I helped her teach her students how to use the wiki, I began by teaching her how to set up a wiki. I created a wiki in order for us to collaborate and discuss issues throughout the unit. I titled this wiki "collaborationproject". This wiki would be a great tool for my colleague to practice using some of the features of a classroom wiki. We then used the discussion feature in the wiki in order for her to reflect each day on student progress in using the wiki. I also linked Google Docs into the wiki. One Google Doc was a checklist used to assess students, another was a rubric, and the other was the unit plan. By using Google Docs we could easily edit and make changes as needed. My colleague's fourth graders are now successfully using a wiki to edit pages, participate in discussion forums, and email each other. She continues to use her wiki as part of her instruction today.
Wiki
In the Spring of 2009 I was privileged to have the opportunity to visit the Center for Online Learning located within the Federal Reserve Building in St. Louis. This was a wonderful opportunity to meet with other instructional technology students, faculty, and continuing professionals in the instructional technology field. I found the presentation very informative as to the ways the Center for Online Learning designs online instruction to meet the needs of businesses and corporations in the United States. It is important, as future instructional technologist, to be aware of what others are doing in the field.
The evening of May 3rd, 2010, I had the privilege of attending the Spring Symposium. During this evening two senior students presented their final research projects. This symposium was an interactive experience. After students presented their projects, the audience participated by asking the student presenters about their project design and instructional theories. The audience was also asked to reflect upon and connect the presented projects to their own course work and current projects. I found this experience very beneficial, especially as a student myself looking to graduate in the near future. I now know what to look forward to when preparing my own symposium presentation. This experience also allowed me to look at the Instructional Design program from a different perspective. Both presenters were in a different tract of the program. I, being a student in the educational technologies tract, was interested in how instructional design is used outside of the classroom.
Email communication verifying attendance
My future goal is to become a media specialist within my school district. Until this goal becomes a reality I plan to continue integrating technology tools available to me in my school building into my fourth grade classroom. I plan to attend the 4th Grade Conference this April in Chicago, Illinois, attending technology and science workshops. I will continue to learn from other professionals best practices and latest tools available in the classroom. I plan to continue assisting with technology as the Technology Assistant in my school building. Along the way, I plan to share with other colleagues knowledge that I have gained through my studies at SIUE. For example, the unit I developed for IT 572 involving the use of flip cameras will be used by my colleagues when implementing this technology tool into their classrooms.
