Reflections on, "Blended Learning in Action" by Catlin R. Tucker.

Blended Learning (BL) is an intriguing concept in education. I consider myself a novice when it comes to knowing what makes BL successful, however, I look forward to learning more. The Digital Learning Team will embark on a book study so that we will be able to learn more about blended learning from this book.

In chapter 1, Shifting to a Blended Culture, a poignant question was posed by one of the authors, "How do we create quality education at scale that works for every student and honors their individuality as learners?" (Tucker, Wycoff, Green, 2016, pg. 3). As a teacher of 15 years, the struggle to create a classroom that answers this question, and honors the individuality and learning preferences of all my students is one that I agonized over every year. I admit, that despite my very best attempts, I regrettably failed to create a system that was 100% effective in my estimation. The author wrote that he grappled with that very question for almost 20 years so I don't feel too bad, and I am happy that I think I may get to learn how this is done in less than 20 years. I hope to be able to teach others for the benefit of their students! Tucker et. al. (2016) wrote that when implemented well, blended learning environments create the possibility, not the guarantee, for every student to experience precisely the learning he or she needs.

I am excited to learn more about BL and to have resources available to assist teachers to integrate and sustain BL environments.

References

Tucker, C. R., Wycoff, T., & Green, J. T. (2016). Blended Learning in Action: A Practical Guide Toward Sustainable Change. Corwin Press.

I never knew that coding could be so easy.

I had the pleasure of attending a Coding Academy given by RePublics CS using the free web based software Scratch created by MIT. RePublics created lesson plans for teachers to implement a skills based and best practice pedagogy. The training itself was an amazing two day training where were leaned both the scratch and RePublics CS platforms. For the rest of this post I would like to focus on the Scratch platform.

Scratch is a free web based coding platform that was created by MIT and designed for students age 8-16 but can definitely be used for ages outside that range. I have very little experience with coding before I attended this professional development. When day two of this two day training had concluded, I was so much more confident and at ease about the entire process of coding. Here is a snap shot of an artifact that I created.




I will leave you with this thought, coding is something that you can do, and scratch makes it easy!

Doctorate in Educational Technology- My Journey Pt. 2, Leading Change

I am currently enrolled in a course, "leading Change", which has been enlightening and exciting to learn about. One of the most informative modules we have begun is focused on charactistics of an effective leader. What does it take to lead an organization or team to accomplish a goal? We began with this questionaire to find out our personal leadership preferences, try it here, and the leadership skills questionaire here. Once you find out more about your own personal leadership, you can determine which of the other aspects you might want to learn more about in order to integrate them into your current style.

Here is my take on the most important leadership skills and how technology affects a leaders style. According to the Conceptualizing leadership questionnaire by Sage (2016a) I rated ability and relationship as the highest characteristics for how I define and view leadership. I was not surprised by this outcome since I believe that forming relationships is the most important component of leadership. Yammarino (2013) wrote that leaders are both born and made, and Northouse (2013) wrote that leadership is not a trait or characteristic but a process which utilizes the influences on others to accomplish a mutually beneficial outcome. Leadership is a process and one that involves exerting influence on others to accomplish a goal.

            The definition of leadership that I agree with most was written by Yammarino (2013), Leadership is a multilevel leader-follower interactive process where all share a purpose and jointly accomplish things willingly. This definition encompasses the people who will share in the process and the process itself. In contrast Northouse (2013) emphasized that leadership is a process and in my view, is shortsighted. Based on these definitions I would contend that the definition of leadership is both a process an emergent trait involving both leader and followers who work together to accomplish a mutually beneficial goal based on interactions that flow from mutual influence from the leader and followers.

            Technology has made the process of leadership more efficient for those who have the capacity to utilize it. Northouse (2013) wrote that organizations have management and leadership kinds of positions. Both management and leadership style positions can benefit from the integration of technology. Under the management style creating agendas, timelines, budgets, resources allocation, communication all lend themselves well to increase efficiency with the use of technology. On the leadership side communicating vision, the larger picture, collaboration, team building are easily aspects that can be enhanced with the use of technology.

            The five characteristics that I feel are most essential for leadership are derived from McClesky’s (2014) four factors of transformational leadership: ability to influence others in a positive form, is inspirational, is intellectually stimulating, and uses individualized considerations when making decisions. The fifth and most important characteristic that I feel is most important is an ability to encourage others to co-create and work towards realizing a vision and is organized to be able to develop a plan to implement it.

            I am curious about one aspect of leadership that has not been addressed. I believe that a true leader is one who first is willing to serve. The term servant leadership as discussed in the article, “Servant Leadership and the effect of the interaction between humility, action, and hierarchical power on follower engagement” by Sousa and Dierendonck (2017). The most effective leaders are those who are willing to lead from behind.

Reference

Hechanova, R., & Cementina-Olpoc, R. (2013). Transformational leadership, change management, and commitment to change: A comparison of academic and business organizations. Asia-Pacific Education Researcher (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.), 22(1), 11–19.

McClesky, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117–130.

Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Sage. (2016a). Conceptualizing leadership questionnaire. Retrieved from http://studysites.sagepub.com/northouseintro2e/study/resources/questionnaires/89527_01q.pdf

Sage. (2016b). Leadership skills questionnaire. Retrieved from http://studysites.sagepub.com/northouseintro2e/study/resources/questionnaires/89527_05q.pdf

Sousa, M. m., & Dierendonck, D. d. (2017). Servant Leadership and the effect of the interaction between humility, action, and hierarchical power on follower engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(1), 13-25. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2725-y

Yammarino, F. (2013). Leadership: Past, present, and future. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 20(2), 149–155.

Doctorate in Educational Technology- My Journey Pt. 1

EdD, Educational Technology

If someone were to ask me if I were interested in earning my doctorate a little more than a year ago, I would have responded in a resounding no. I already had preconceived notions about graduate work let alone advanced graduate work. My masters was a program that was fairly rigorous, so I made the assumption that a doctorate would be just as rigorous if not more. So, what was the reason that led me to climb up the mountain?

My hope is that once I am finished with this process I will be a competitive applicant for a leadership position in my district or that I find opportunities to teach in higher education. I am hoping for these doors to open much later in my career because there is still room to grow in my current position as a digital learning coach. Recently, I was able to earn the Google for Education Trainer Certification. This process involves first earning level one and two, passing a total of three exams and an extensive application process that includes a video demonstrating how you innovatively use an app to transform learning. Now that this process is complete, I feel a deep sense of accomplishment, and confidence that I have demonstrated mastery of the skills necessary to be sanctioned by Google to conduct training in my district and in others as well.

Infographic: eLearning

I choose to pursue a doctorate in educational technology because I am passionate about good teaching. I have dedicated my life for the past 15 years to be the best I can be for my students and now for the teachers I work with. Being an effective teacher in today's classroom also means being an  effective facilitator with the ability to leverage, and seamlessly integrate educational technology. When I bought my own iPad and brought it to my class for my kids and I to use, the engagement level was off the charts! At that moment, I knew that I wanted to harness the power of technology to create an environment that tapped the innovation and creativity of my students s they could demonstrate their mastery and express their thinking in a variety of ways. I will eventually seek to lead decision makers and stakeholders to continue to garner more technology for our students and support teachers in every way possible to integrate it effectively into the curriculum throughout all content areas and grade levels.

Graphic Representation of my Professional Learning Network

The program that I decided to enroll in is an educational doctorate which is designed for those that wish to continue to be a practitioner rather than a researcher. This program in educational technology will prepare graduates to lead, research, and to design systems of integration, implementation, and program evaluation within a program, organization, district, or institution.

I began the climb up my mountain in May of 2016. I am currently one year into the journey and I have four courses to go before I can begin research. I anticipate that research should take another year  or so and then I can graduate in the spring of 2019 if everything goes well. The following are the notable and tentative decisions I have made so far in anticipation of the research I will do.

Topic: The pivotal moment of inspiration for teachers to fully integrate educational technology.

Research method: Qualitative field research using interview.

Conceptual framework: Constructivism

Here is an example of a multimedia project that I created in one of my classes. It culumnated from all the modules in the couse put together. It took a lot of time and effort, but I am very proud of it.