This adventure to achieving my Master of Education degree is winding down. I invite you to watch this visual representation of what I've learned and accomplished while achieving a M.Ed. in Applied Digital Learning and how I've applied it to my professional life.
While the discussions, assignments, and due dates will be ending soon, the continuous learning, application, and reflection are in full swing! As I reflect on my time as a student in Lamar University's Applied Digital Learning Program, I'm so proud of what my classmates and I have accomplished. At times it seemed it would never end, and other times everything was coming fast and furious! To recap and tie it all together, I'll share some highlights here:
About Me:
Each class started with an introduction to our coursework, our instuctor, and ourselves. My professional intro changed a bit over the course of the program as I was a Sr. Implementation Specialist for Waterford.org when our program began. In October, I moved into a new role as Director of Educator & Family Partnerships, supporting a team of professional learning consultants working with schools and communities across the country. I travel quite a bit for work, but always try to make time to explore the communities we serve, especially learning any historical significance of each location.
Personally, I'm grew up in Sanderson, Texas, a small town in West Texas, about 20 miles from the Mexican border. My parents are now retired, but Mom was a lifeling educator and our town's English and Spanish language arts teacher. Dad was the first Hispanic County Sheriff of Terrell County. They taught me the importance of equality, equity, education, and family. I grew up in a home that served others, loves God, and the Dallas Cowboys...all of which I practice today. These early lessons and my own experiences as a Bilinugal and ESOL teacher have helped shaped My Learning Philosophy, posted below.
Main Interest:
My goal and motivation in starting this program was to gain broader knowledge about the edtech landscape. I've worked for Pearson Digital Learning, Waterford.org, ParentGuidance.org, and Learning.com. I have a strong professional development and partner success background, but lacked in evaluation and program/product marketing trends, and organizational psychology and leadership. There are still pockets and pieces I need to explore further, especially in Assessing digital programs, but overall the skills I've gained in the Applied Digital Learning Program have greatly influenced what I do and how I work and further solidified my Why and provided great lessons in grit and persistance.
CSLE+COVA & Learner's Mindset
Speaking of grit and persistance, our program's designers knew exactly what they were doing to build in specific lessons on Growth Mindset (Dweck, 2007). From the beginning, my Fight or Flight instinct was triggered. I questioned my time, commitment, need, tech skills, people skills, and return on investment. With each successful assignment, though, the intrinsic rewards, benefit to my profession, and positive feedback from professors and my collaboration group were motivation enought to continue on. This, coupled with learning the CSLE+COVA approach (Dwayne Harapnuik, 2018), helped me to dig deep, become comfortable asking for help and accepting feedforward, and also approach my work requirements differently.
Projects (Innovation plan)
Part of the new approach to my work, meant learning to reverse course as needed. Initially, my limited scope at work, led me down the path of my first Innovation Project idea. Once I moved into my new role, with a broader scope, I realized my plan wasn't feasible with the resources and current capacity of my team. Just as scaffolded intervention (Education, 2024) can help learners to find success, I knew a scaffolded approach was needed as I explain in My Innovation Project Update blog post
My Learning Community
My amazing learning community was right by my side through all the highs and lows. We kept in touch via GroupMe and kept organized via a shared Google Doc created by Matt. My core collaborative group was invaluable in this program and daily endeavors. You can learn all about my lifelines at their ePortfolios:
Lauren Blasdel- https://www.learningin3withmrsb.com/about-me
Mattheiu Brooks - https://free-3976142.webador.com/contact-me
Shaneigh Smith - https://wyndee0924.wixsite.com/shaneighsmith/about-9
Beyond my classmates, my professional network has been very helpful and supporting. My team has been very understanding about my classwork and even know our Summer Learning Series described in the video above, is a part of my Innovation Plan. The response has been positive, although I have used several strategies learned in Grenny et al. (2013).
My ePortfolio:
I've kept all my course work and thoughts in my ePortfolio: https://digitaldeena.wixsite.com/my-site-1
My first category is the Home Screen where I share several of my favorite work-related videos, a brief welcome message, and an invitation to subscribe to my site. There is also a link to my About Me section, which has had to be updated twice during the last year. The My Blog and ADL Program categories containg the bulk of my coursework, blog posts, and additional musings. I've included a Search section to allow my audience to search for keywords and additional resources on my site, and I've linked my Facebook and Instagram pages, although I'm debating leaving them as I tend to keep those mainly for family and friends and less for professional work. I'm not hugely active on LinkedIn, but have linked it as another way to contact and connect. I did not include my direct contact information, but I do have a Connect with me form at the bottom of each page and a chat button enabled. In August, I will share an overview of my coursework with my supervisors, so I'm leaving it in "school mode" for now, including course numbers and descriptions.
Closing Thoughts:
As I close this chapter of my educational journey, I am filled with a profound sense of personal growth, pride, and gratitude. Reflecting on my time in Lamar University's Applied Digital Learning Program, I am excited about the broad range of knowledge aquired, and even more so by the growth mindset, grit, and feedforward that will continue to carry me through life and work challenges. I am immensely proud of the progress I have made, both personally and professionally. I saw each project and challenge as a stepping stone paving my path to becoming a more confident and capable individual and leader. I am grateful for the unwavering support of my family, classmates, professors, and core collaboration group who have been my pillars of strength throughout this adventure. This degree is not just a testament to my/our hard work and perseverance, but also a tribute to everyone who believed in me and understood each time I had to decline a social event or cut a phone call short to focus on and complete projects. As I look to the future, I carry with me the lessons learned, the connections made, and the unyielding drive to continue growing and making a positive impact in the field of education and the educators and families I serve.
References:
Dweck, C. S. (2007). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books.
Education, J. S. B. S. E. (2024, July 16). What is scaffolding in education? A guide for teachers. We Are Teachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/what-is-scaffolding-in-education/
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, second edition. McGraw Hill Professional.
Harapnuik, D. (2018, February 14). COVA approach [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ft__0LE3qQ
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