Throughout my DLL journey, I found myself in courses that I was completely comfortable with, such as EDLD 5304 Leading Organizational Change, EDLD 5316 Digital Citizenship and EDLD 5317 Resources in Digital Environments, to courses complete outside my comfort level, such as EDLD 5303 Designing an ePortfolio, EDLD 5305 Disruptive Innovation in Technology, EDLD 5318 Instructional Design Online Learning and EDLD 5317 Resources in Digital Environments.
I’ll start with the courses I entered with excitement, knowing I had the ability to hit the ground running. Leading Organizational Change was perfect - I had inherited a full team of university student athletes on defense and everything in their athletic lives was about to change. Never mind the fact that everything in my life had changed, too. Having a graduate level course that would give me tools to affect that change in a positive and productive manner was a Godsend.
In this age of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, the Digital Citizenship course gave me incredible insight on the ways technology is impacting today’s student and the importance of using it in a positive way. Being able to talk to my athletes about the benefit of creating a positive digital footprint for the next chapter of their lives was great!
Finally, Resources in Digital Environments pushed me to a comfort level searching out and embracing additional technology options. While this course teetered on the edge of my comfort level, it was one that I looked forward to, as I realize the importance of seeking out and embracing new technologies.
Now, to the courses that forces me to grab on to “Yet” with everything I had. The idea of creating my own website and ePortfolio was not something I was at all comfortable with. I had no idea how I would be able to pull off learning something that involved during football season. Imagine my surprise when I discovered how user friendly the Google program was. That was my first introduction into the endless possibilities that existed with this little bit of knowledge. Next, Designing an Online course. And again, drifting back into my pre-Growth mindset, how could I ever pull this one off. As I jumped in and again realized how user friendly this Schoology program was, the wheels started turning again, realizing how many ways I could use this tool for the benefit of my current and future student athletes. Finally, learning that I would be expected to produce an article for a journal in my field - Wow - There are exactly two of them - Texas High School Football Coaches Magazine, and the American Football Coaches Association Journal. While my classmates were working diligently on articles for educational journals, I was having to figure out how to make this work for my class. Low and behold, I did it. I created an article about my Innovation that could benefit football coaches at every level.