This semester I took one course, EDLD 5302, Concepts of Educational Technology. At the end of our 8-week course, students are required to reflect on our time in class and assess their personal contribution to class. For this course, I rate myself a 95 since there is always room for improvement within oneself. I believe I obtained this goal by completing all my work on time or before the deadline. I also actively communicated with classmates during our discussion boards as well as outside of our required discussions and class meetings.

 

Personal Reflection:

Things that worked for me was that I worked on my assignments ahead of time and did not wait until the last minute. I tried to make sure I had all my readings and discussions done in a timely manner. I used my class conferences, time after work, and the weekends to achieve this goal. I planned accordingly so that I was ahead of the game and not behind it. 

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On my first assignment, I scored a 100 on it. I was shocked and thrilled. I was even more shocked when Dr. Harrison asked to use it as an example for future classes. On my second assignment, our learning manifesto, I also scored a 100. I again was shocked at this score, Dr. Harrison said, “ You did a great job displaying your beliefs and principles regarding authentic digital learning. You gave excellent insight into education and the learning experience. You hit on all the elements and went deeper with your analysis. Your page layout on your website is also beautiful.” I turned both papers in on time, if not early.

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Regarding class discussion boards, I asked students thought-provoking questions and gave them praise and kudos. For example, during our “Your Perception of the Growth Mindset,” Melinda Gonzalez posted her response. I replied to her about how she had started to change her mindset to a growth one and told her she was capable of the journeys we were on together. Helping uplift others through this course was something else I was good at. When replying to students, I tried to be optimistic, encouraging, and not degrading.

 

Things I could do to improve would be to give more research-based feedback when replying to others, as well as responding to more than two people in class. Now that I know this, I can focus on it for future classes. There was also one discussion board post I was late on since my kids had RSV. In this regard, I could have planned better to ensure I posted on time.

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Core Collaboration Group:
My core collaboration group comprises Benjamin Portillo, Sonia Rodriquez, Julia Cochran, Kelsie Adams, Emily Matheny, Ayla Rightenour, Ann Zastryzny, Cristy Silkin, and Katelyn O’Quin. There were others in our group chat as well. Adaliz Torrado started a group chat in the app Groupme for this class, and 19 students from our class joined. However, the names I mentioned were those I talked to the most during class time. There were times I took the lead in our group discussions and even reminded everyone of deadlines or upcoming due dates and checked on everyone regarding assignments. The group discussions were thought-provoking and stimulating. Sometimes, we would even discuss actual class lessons regarding the teaching content in our physical classrooms. We often shared links to our web pages and assignments to self-assess if we were on the right page regarding what was being asked of us. I tried to give positive, constructive criticism to help others improve. During this time, we learned things about Wix and Canva that we did not know before. It was nice to talk with like-minded people and learn new things I did not know before.

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At the beginning of our class, several of us wanted to chat, so I created a Zoom account, and Ayla and Sonia joined. The three of us discussed this course and class material and introduced ourselves.
 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I have gained considerable knowledge regarding this course. I even learned that one of the topics we studied (COVA) was something I had been doing for years in my classroom but didn’t know there was a name for it. I have made friends in this course and grown more as a person. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course and been hungry for it. I have wanted to grow personally, and I feel I got that with this course. I’m ready for January's course and the challenges and joys that come with it.