I have been fortunate to have been involved in education either as a student or educator for the majority of my life. I studied Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge and I was accepted early to the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) to study Chiropractic prior to completion of my undergraduate degree. While studying Chiropractic in Toronto, I took on the additional task of completing my undergraduate degree via online learning with Athabasca University. I strongly believe in the value of education to transform lives and I have demonstrated in my personal and professional life that I will be a life-long learner.
In 2010, I began working as a part-time contract lecturer and curriculum developer at a small college in Calgary. I was responsible for the creation and optimization of a number of college level courses. In 2011, I transitioned away from clinical practice and began working as a full-time instructor with in the department of Massage Therapy. During my five years at the college, I gained valuable experience as an educator and team leader. I developed critical leadership, communication, technical, and interpersonal skills. With any student I have had the pleasure to work with, I emphasize the necessity of effective communication and practical workplace skills. Just as communication skills are vital as an educator, I have found that they are critical to impart on my students. My personal philosophy is that if a student is capable of articulating a complex topic to another student, they are far more likely to be able to fully understand they material they are learning.
In 2016, I decided to pursue my Bachelor of Education degree with the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Through this program and I gained valuable educational and practical experience in the field of K-12 education. I was fortunate to begin a full-time career as a math and science teacher directly upon graduating from this program and I have had the pleasure to be working in this field for 4 years. In August 2020, I continued my education in the M.Ed Educational Technology program at UTRGV and completed this degree in June 2021. I was able to align my courses to complete graduate certificates in E-Learning and Online Instructional design concurrently with the master's degree.
Below the main body of this letter, I have included a description of several key courses in this program and what I learned from them. The goal of this section of the reflection letter is to highlight specific artifacts that demonstrate my personal and professional growth throughout the program. My projects represent a moment in time during this educational journey but they are also representative of reflective and adaptive practice. I have demonstrated an ability to incorporate feedback into my work and rather than being a fixed artifact, my projects represent iterative work that is malleable to change during the learning process. This section is also intended to synthesize my experiences in the M.Ed program and serve as a point of reflection for myself (or others if they happen to be interested) in the future.
After completing this program, my goals are to leverage what I have learned and continue to expand my skill set in the field of educational technology. I hope that I will continue to apply principles of self-direct and lifelong learning. When I entered the program, my hope was that the door would open to additional opportunities in the field of educational technology or instructional design. Before completing the program I wanted to pursue specialist opportunities within the board that I currently work for or perhaps leverage this credential into adult or higher education in the future. Additionally, I found that through my time working at the college I have a passion for curriculum development and instructional design. I now know that I have gained the skills necessary to potentially advance my career in this field as well, however an opportunity presented itself which has guided my career path (at least in the short-term). This program has helped me to achieve my goals as I was lucky enough to secure a job as a Product Manager and Educational Technologist (even prior to completing all program requirements!). In this position, I am responsible for the success of a highly specialized competency base learning management system. I advise internal and external stakeholders on best practice for uploading an optimizing instructional content. In addition, I make strategic recommendations to enhance the user interface based on industry research, data analysis, and client requests. This program has opened doors in my career that I did not initially think were possible. I hope that as I gain industry experience, I can become a thought leader in the field of Educational Technology by providing mentorship to those that are new to the field. I would also like to give back by participating in and contributing to academic research and collaborative groups (right now I'm particularly interested in groups such as IMS Global and C-BEN). I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to complete this program, it was truly a rich learning experience.
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During the 30-hour Master of Education in Educational Technology program, I learned different approaches and strategies for designing instructional material using technology. This e-Portfolio not only showcases my work but demonstrates both progress and growth of my academic and professional development. The six key assessments that will be evaluated for graduation have provided me with the following learning experiences:
EDTC 6320 Project Description: Collaboratively, we designed an instructional multimedia solution to help educate prospective students and employees about the field of Educational Technology.
I learned about the professional standards of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) and I learned about the expectations and opportunities of an effective educational technologist. The Cooperative Project allowed me to work with colleagues in the M.Ed program to explore and promote the field of educational technology to a specific and well defined target audience.
EDTC 6321 Project Description: Following the ADDIE Approach, I developed four Instructional Design Units for a course on how to identify basic components of spinal osteology. The Instructional Units include the following information: IU1: The Learners, Their Environment, and the Instructional Goal, IU2: Task Analysis, Performance Objectives, and Assessments, IU3: The Instructional Strategy, IU4: The Formative Evaluation.
I learned how to develop an entire Instructional Unit using the ADDIE instructional design model. The instructional units build upon each other and resulted in an a fully developed plan to teach university anatomy students how to identify bony landmarks of the cervical spine. I had never worked with any formal instructional design model previously, so I learned how to plan for an instructional solution from beginning to end. This course has provided me with the knowledge and skills to develop instructional solutions independently while utilizing best practice.
EDTC 6323 Project Description: I demonstrated the ability to develop an interactive instructional solution by utilizing audiovisual technologies and computer-based/Web-based technologies in a meaningful, educational context.
I learned how to create an interactive reusable learning object to teach students how to convert between fractions, decimals, and percentages. I created a website to host the content, instructional material, a video module, and assessment content targeted to specific instructional goals and performance objectives.
EDTC 6325 Project Description: I created an e-learning module in Canvas to address numeracy gaps related to operations with fractions for grade 7 and 8 mathematics students (specifically subtracting fractions with uncommon denominators). This e-learning module will serve as one of several tools as part of the School Development Plan (SDP) with the purpose of improving educational outcomes, reducing time required for individual teachers to create instructional tools (reusability), and will reduce resources required to close gaps for learners that require remediation.
I learned how to develop very specific learning objectives (each included subgoals for clarity) to support the instructional goal. I created a 5 module course that covered a very specific concept in mathematics that can be used by a variety of teachers with very minimal modifications. This course can be copied and adapted by teachers at my school to support the concept of fraction subtraction or used as a stand alone unit depending upon the needs of each class.
EDTC 6332 Project Description: I created an instructional solution to help close the performance gap for grade 7 and 8 mathematics students learning multiplication of fractions. The intention of this instructional solution is to address numeracy gaps specific to operations with fractions. The instructional solution consists of a 4 module e-learning course hosted in the Canvas LMS. The project culminated with a formative evaluation of the instructional solution from a subject matter expert and peer-evaluator.
I learned how to incorporate interactivity into my e-learning courses. I was able to utilize four different multimedia activities to support learning objectives and enhance engagement of learning content. I learned how to use a question bank to enhance the assessment process for e-learning courses.
E-Portfolio: As a Capstone project, I was provided with an opportunity to create this e-Portfolio in lieu of a final examination or thesis. This e-portfolio is a showcase my work and learning journey throughout my Master of Education degree at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
I learned how to articulate and document the iterative process of creating engaging e-learning content. The projects and content I created in this program were always works in progress. Rather than simply uploading my work as a final product, I was able to demonstrate reflective practice by being open to feedback from my instructors, making changes to my work, and documenting those revisions to support my own learning.