EdTech 501 Reflection

I'll be honest, I normally hate introductory courses. I usually feel like I want to just get going already. 501 was different, though. I felt like so many of the projects were directly applicable to my work. However, there were challenges.

I recently changed positions from the Technology Coordinator at an Arizona school district to the K-12 Special Projects Facilitator at a software company, BoardDocs. In my new position, I still work directly with school districts. My office is located in a school district office and I spend almost all my time working with teachers and administrators (I'm just paid by a software company). However, the focus of my work shifted from educational technology to computer science education. While these topics are many times discussed in the same forums, they are actually distinct. They are distinct like educational technology is different than science or math or ELA. This didn't mean 501 would be a waste of time. I would simply approach it like many other educators do: with a focus on a single subject area. I've noticed in my classes that many of my peers are English, math, or science teachers who are majoring in EdTech because they want to improve their own classrooms and practice. In comparison, while I was a Tech Coordinator, I was viewing each class through the lense of helping all subject areas and grade levels improve through technology. It was challenging to make this shift. However, it was extremely rewarding because I was able to achieve more depth in my area.

My favorite artifact this semester was what I made for the Tech Trends assignment. The Tech Trend I focussed on was coding education. For the project I made a visual annotated bibliography where each citation refers to research on coding education (site: http://codingresearch.blogspot.com/). I like this artifact because it was something directly applicable to my work. In fact, since turning in the project, I have continued to add more resources to the site. I have proudly shared the site with colleagues and the coding education world.

One thing I have already started to apply to my work as a direct result of 501 is that I am now obsessed with research. Between the Annotated Bibliography, Tech Trends, and other assignments that required research, I have really become obsessed with backing statements up with research. Now, when I give presentations for work, I try to cite at least one source per slide to give credibility to what I'm saying. I was also recently invited to submit some of my own research as a chapter in a book about coding education. Research has become my best friend.