My Journey Through the EDTEC Program, and my AD Hoc Master's
My journey through the Edtec program is one of unexpected discovery, self-realization, and one that was originally began as an Ad Hoc Master’s. My story begins as a first year credential student. I had just been admitted to the San Diego State University (SDSU) Credential program, and was looking over the classes I’d have to take and one stood out to me, EDTEC 470, Technologies for Teaching. When looking further I had initially thought that I could test out of this class as I had already been fairly computer saavy. Luckily, the deadline to test out had already passed and I was “stuck” taking it in the fall. Little did I know when I started that class that I would be introduced to more programs then I knew what to do with. As time in the class had already started, I had also settled into teaching Full time with San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) teaching math. I knew from the start that in order for me to really reach the top salary scale, I would have to get a Master’s right after my credential so that I could move on the furthest column as quickly as possible. Not knowing much about Master’s programs, I naturally thought about a Master’s in Education, but I knew that I personally wouldn’t really utilize that Master’s to its full potential. Fortunately, Professor Ritchie had just recommended my name to go to a small group meeting about a Master’s in Educational Technology (EDTEC). I went to the meeting hoping to learn more, hoping that maybe this could be a Master’s program that I could really enjoy this Master’s program or at least move on the column scale for teacher salary. After the meeting I applied for the Master’s thinking, at least after completing this program I will have a Master’s.
My first EDTEC class was EDTEC 540, Introduction to Educational Technology with Dr. Allison Rossett. Part of this description was that we would be able to “speak and do educational technology,” reading it then it didn’t make too much sense, but I was in a for a big surprise. Still being relatively green to this Master’s course I was expecting to see more ways to use technology, but this course put me in my place quickly. For many EDTEC students being in an Allison Rossett class meant spending the first couple classes just trying to stay afloat, taking notes, asking questions, but still feeling lost, as if her words were in a different language. Until one day, it clicked. I was learning about the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate) Model for good instructional design. Then we discussed the ABCD’s of objectives; Audience, Behavior, Conditions, and Degrees. All of these objectives had to be measurable and be clear enough to identify. She then lead into different approaches to learning, whether it be constructivist, behaviorist, or even cognitivist learning, all of these had learning theories had to a place one way or another in our learning.
This all lead into doing our first project, Performance Analysis. Being a relatively new teacher, I knew some of the staff didn’t use or like using the program we were forced to use for our attendance and grades. I wrote a survey to help me determine the optimals and actuals for why our staff didn’t use the program Zangle. I analyzed the data that was collected to determine what would be the appropriate steps moving forward, and came to the conclusion that a job aid would be the most appropriate. Teachers weren’t using Zangle for a variety of reasons, the main one being that it was far too difficult to remember all of the different steps. The job aid turned out to be successful and was a my first step in the right direction of designing learning that was based off of data rather than intuition. The next step in my journey through the EDTEC program was EDTEC 544, Instructional Design with Dr. Jim Marshall. After surviving Dr. Rossett’s EDTEC 540 class, I had to learn to adjust to rapid prototyping, working on case studies I had no familiarity with, and even work in a group. All of these things were things that I wasn’t accustomed to, but I am sure they had to have been in my zone of approximal development if I was to be emerge from this class successful.
Our first case study was to work in a group of 3-4 people to develop a rapid prototype for an iPhone application that would help learners go to the tidepools in San Diego and learn in the three main learning theories; cognitivst, behaviorist, and constructivist theories of learning. Each of the three rapid prototypes meant that we had to create this application to be run three different ways so that we would really be able to distinguish the various learning styles and how each style could benefit the various learners that might have.
The second phase of Dr. Marshall’s class was to work in a team to design a project that is supposed to meet a selected problem. The problem that my partner and I selected was the fact that teachers in Math specifically weren’t designing effective math Podcasts. Our product goes through and walks the teachers through the process of designing an effective Math Podcast which includes the appropriate objectives, and whether or not the podcast will address a more cognitive, behaviorist, or constructivist approach to learning.