Talk about putting theory into practice! This class session was exactly that for me.
Overall, I’ll grade myself the following:
5317: Resources for Digital Environments – 93/100
5304: Leading Organizational Change – 95/100
My core group was amazing. I’ve called them my small group, my learning group, my accountability group, and now my counseling and expert group. I joined in discussions and offered suggestions and advice. As a former journalist and writing teacher, I felt my strongest contribution in 5317 was giving feedforward on Publication rough drafts. I gave input on articles by all members of, “The Best Group Ever,” the official name Lauren Blasdel gave our group. Other members are Shaneigh Smith, Mattheiu Brooks, and Lance Moran. I was happy to also review classmate, Rebekah Ard’s article, as well when she asked.
I felt that I was a solid contributor to this session but took a backseat in leading activities. Matteiu, again, updated this shared file to help keep us on track and accountable for all assignments, discussion posts, and meetings. My linear brain works best seeing everything laid out as he’s done for us, so I’m grateful for his efforts. At the onset of our classes, Shaneigh created a Zoom link for core meetings, so we continue to meet this way.
I benefited greatly as a consumer in 5317. I tend to stick to what I know and explore other options only as needed. My group made me crawl out of this comfort zone. Shaneigh took the lead in finding the platform for our Empowering Learners Podcast, creating the initial script for our discussion, and editing after recording. She shared a time-stamped script that I was able to update for our group to make navigating our podcast easier. Lauren was usually first to complete assignments, giving the rest of us examples to follow. She is fabulous with quick feedback and reminders on upcoming events and assignements, plus sharing class announcements that the rest of us may not have seen. When I needed work-related guidance, Mattieu stepped up with several options I was able to share with school partners.
In 5304: Leading Organizational Change, I spent more time living what we were learning, and I was better able to contribute to my group through my experiences. I moved into a director role at work this past October and have had to be an Influencer for product changes. At the same time, I’m holding some difficult, crucial conversations and read and listened to all readings at least twice to assist in these discussions. I found 4DX especially helpful as we are rolling out new professional development and training offerings at work, plus onboarding new teammates…all process that will be enhanced using what I’ve learning in 4DX. I have no doubt I’ll continue to revisit these resources often. I joined all class sessions, although I was traveling for one and had to join as a listener-only.
I greatly appreciate the planning and spacing provided for those of us participating in the Accelerated program and taking both classes this session. Thank you to Dr. Grogan and Dr. Padovan for ensuring our virtual classes and assignments were spaced in a less-stressful manner than previous sessions. Their knowledge and guidance was invaluable and our readings, discussions, and activities seemed to fall right in line with experiences I was having in my career. My goal in joining the ADL program at Lamar was to further my knowledge to enhance my professional life. These two classes have more than exceeded my expectations and given me real-work & real-world knowledge that I’ve been able to apply immediately.
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