by: Erika Peña
EDLD 5315: Assessing Digital Learning
Dr. K. Meeuwse
90/100
EDLD 5317: Resources and Digital Environments
Dr. M. Still
90/100
My Road to Digital Learning, Resources, and Assessment
As I come to the end of my fourth set of classes for my Applied Digital Learning masters program at Lamar University, I continue to reflect on the road that led me here, the road that continued, and my road to Creating Significant Learning Environments and Professional Learning.
I recently completed my 9th year as an educator, learning and growing each year. As I have previously mentioned, these past couple of years have been some of the toughest ones in my educational career, yet. Because of the large academic gaps, lack of motivation, and tough behavior we have been seeing, I wholeheartedly believe that we need to disrupt the current educational system and make big, lasting changes.
My coworkers, Veronica Balli, Ileana Reyna, and I have created an innovation plan to initiate the change we seek on our campus. Our innovation plan, Blended Learning: Personalizing the Future of Education, focuses on creating a significant learning environment that personalizes and tailors learning to meet the needs of each unique learner. We believe that by giving students choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities in conjunction with a blended learning environment we will accomplish our goal.
Throughout these past eight courses, I have learned how to learn. I have grown tremendously, pushed myself beyond what I thought I could accomplish, and have become an agent of change, adding and strengthening our innovation project along the way. As I have in the past courses, I will reflect on and assess my learning and contributions in both classes in order to continue to grow as a self-directed learner.
Self Assessment of 5315 and 5317
Due to family commitments, work trainings, and a much-needed vacation, I was not able to attend most live classes, but I watched the recorded videos and participated in active discussions with my classmates, totaling over eleven posts and twenty-six replies overall. I also competed readings, videos, and other supporting resources, while meeting with my core group several times a week to discuss the content of the LIVE classes, discussions, readings, and assignments, cementing our new learning even further. Additionally, all my assignments were turned in by the deadlines indicated in the calendar and I was able to continuously refine my e-portfolio on the WIX platform. I not only spent hours adding blogs that reflected my learning but I also added pages to reflect each course I have completed, showcasing my ongoing learning in the ADL program.
EDLD 5315: Assessing Digital Learning
In EDLD 5315: Assessing Digital Learning, I was able to collaboratively explore action research and how it can be applied to education. Not only were my co-workers, Veronica Balli, Ileana Reyna, and I able to dive deeper into our innovation project, Blended Learning: Personalizing the Future of Education, but we were also able to focus our research on the use of adaptive digital programs within our blended learning environments. We learned how to find, review, and analyze different resources such as books, journal articles, blogs, and videos and how to collect quantitative and qualitative data to support our research.
Our first major assignment was our Action Research Outline, where we outlined and briefly discussed our topic, purpose, question, design, data collection, and the focus of our literature review. This assignment was so beneficial because it allowed us to gather all the important components, making all subsequent assignments easier to create. After creating our Action Research Outline, we looked at what the literature states about blended learning and adaptive digital programs and created our Literature Review. Our literature review explored the benefits of blended learning, specifically how the use of adaptive digital programs within a blended learning environment can impact student achievement and motivation. Lastly, we put it all together and created our full Action Research Plan where we analyzed whether the use of Lexia Core5 and i-Ready adaptive programs during the 2021-2022 school year helped increase motivation and close learning gaps.
EDLD 5317: Resources and Digital Environments
In EDLD 5317, Resources and Digital Environments, I learned about the power of educational technology and how to share my knowledge through publication. My co-workers, Veronica Balli, Ileana Reyna, and I took the research we conducted in 5315 and turned it into a publishable article.
We first created a Publication Outline, which connected our innovation plan to our proposed publication and briefly detailed an introduction, how the information can help others, examples of digital resources used, lessons learned, and guidelines to submit the article for publication. Similarly to 5315, this outline was very beneficial. It not only helped us gather our thoughts but made all future assignments easier to put together. Next, we created and submitted a Rough Draft to turn in for feedforward. After listening and internalizing the feedforward given, we revised our draft to create a final publishable article. In order to promote our article, we also created a Media Project that allowed us to hook our viewers by targeting their hearts and piquing their interest in our publication article.
Collaboration Group
Although I am a part of a larger group of students on the GroupMe app, my core collaborative group consists of Veronica Balli and Ileana Reyna. We currently work in the same school and are working on a shared vision, our Innovation Project: Blended Learning: Personalizing the Future of Education. We collaborated via text, Teams, and in-person regularly and we all took on leadership roles at different stages of our assignments. From discussing, planning, writing, and creating to giving feedback, we all participated and contributed to our learning. I have learned so much since beginning the ADL program and continue to do so because of our synergistic collaboration.
The Road that Continues Ahead
As I reflect on the road I have been on these past 8 courses, I see how beautifully each course connects and builds upon another. This semester, both classes worked in tangent with each other. In one we researched in another we published. This allowed us to really focus and dive deeper into our innovation project.
I also think ahead of me and ask myself, as I do every semester, “What can I do differently next semester?” Well, I continue to look over the ADL Program Map so that I can continue to have with the end in mind. I have also looked at the upcoming two classes on my schedule, 5318 Online Learning and 5320 CSLE+COVA Capstone, and have looked at the reading lists, the three-column tables, and assignment examples. I look forward to seeing the culmination of my work as I finish with my last two courses and as always, continue to look forward to growing and learning from my professors and my collaborative group.
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