Applied Digital Learning Journal Synthesis
I started as a frustrated teacher. I wanted to change, but I needed to figure out how or what. I also needed to learn how to ask for help. I felt alone when I started this journey but I knew I had to try something. The first time I heard the professor say we needed to reach out to others to create a collaboration group and an e-portfolio, I felt like a closed book because I wanted to do something else. I wanted traditional schooling. I took a leap of faith in the ADL program, hoping to find something for myself and my students.
Instead, I put my shyness aside and reached out to random people in the zoom class. I even put my phone number and name in the chat. The universe put me together with Stacie and Lola. We worked well with each other and always strived for excellence. All three of us have a family to care for, and we are teachers working full-time. Life came unexpectedly, but we pushed through. I caught covid for the first time in the summer of 2022 while Stacie and Lola had unanticipated events themselves. We lifted each other with words of motivation and prayer. Together we are the beginning, middle, and end of the story. We’re all different, but we belong together in this program.
I learned that I need to break from my shyness and ask questions and seek clarification no matter what. Since I’m shy, I would always wait till the end, when almost everybody was gone, to ask questions. In one of the classes, I had to redo an entire assignment because I did not seek clarification. This is part of communication, and if I want to be part of leading my organization, I need to be better. I always knew I would do great on an assignment if I went back and looked at the page I designed, like a proud mother seeing her child take off on a bike for the first time.
I’ve created more than an innovation plan. I’ve recreated my teacher hopes that school is fun by Creating a Significant Learning Environment and giving students Choice Ownership and Voice through authentic learning opportunities. School is not about testing but connecting the experiences to something bigger. Teachers and students will share something with others. I have also learned how to create an effective Professional Learning Plan for educators in my organization to implement blended learning with station rotation.
I used to be unwilling to learn new things, and the willingness to try something new comes as second nature. I’ve changed my mindset to a positive one, which has a ripple effect on my professional and personal life. I’ve created an e-portfolio to show my growth and learning. My portfolio is also a resource for current and future students and other educators seeking innovation.
Although I’ve learned about growth mindset, collaboration, and communication in the ADL program, I’m still transferring these skills into my organization. One thing is for sure I can only change after implementing my Innovation plan. I’ll keep working towards a positive mindset, communicating, and collaborating.
My book has plenty of resources and experiences to implement in my classroom and share with other educators. As my journey progresses, I will connect newly acquired ideas to old ones. New chapters in my life will start as new experiences are added to my books.
ADL Journey by Letcia CortezApplied Digital Learning Program
EDLD 5305: Disruptive Innovation in Education|
This class aims to propose a disruptive innovation plan for our organization, research our plan, and make an implementation outline. We also collected an abundance of resources.
|Innovation Proposal| | Literature Review|
|Implementation Outline| |Annotated Bibliography|
EDLD 5303: Applying Educational Technologies
This class stretched my mind to build an e-portfolio to demonstrate what I have learned throughout the program. I have also learned that I can continue to use this platform to showcase my future work.
EDLD 5302: Concepts of Educational Technologies
We learned about Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset. We also reflected on how we learn and use our experiences to build new ideas and the importance of networking.
|Growth Mindset| |Learning Manifesto| |Networking|
EDLD 5304: Leading Organizational Change
We learned that change is possible, but we must be strategic because the head won’t go where the heart hasn’t—letting stakeholders know The Why, The How, and The What. Have the right people on our team and influence reluctant participants through motivation and ability. The 4Dx model guides us to stay on track, focusing on the Wildly Important Goal (WIG) and not getting distracted by the everyday whirlwind. We also learned strategies to have crucial conversations with members of our organization that will define us as self-differentiated leaders.
|The Why, The How, and The Why| |The Influencer Strategy|
EDLD 5313: Creating a Significant Learning Environment
This course taught me that students’ engagement could increase with Choice, Ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities and Creating a Significant Learning Environment (CSLE). I also developed my learning philosophy of how students learn and apply the knowledge they know based on different theorists. I used Fink’s 3-column table to align learning goals, learning activities, and assessment activities to the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). The UbD template is another resource educators can use to design purposeful, engaging lessons that show student growth. We also created a growth mindset plan for our learners.
|CSLE| |Learning Philosophy| |Fink’s 3-Column Table|
|Understanding by Design| |Growth Mindset Plan|
EDLD 5389: Developing Effective Professional Learning
In this course, I learned about the five principles of effective professional learning to develop and implement effective professional learning for teachers. I also created an Alternative Professional Learning Plan for my innovation plan.
|Professional Learning| |Planning the Alternative PL|
EDLD 5317: Resources for Digital Environments
Undoubtedly, this is the best time to be a learner because we have information at our fingertips. I did a publication outline in class identifying the essential parts of incorporating technology with blended learning using station rotation. Then I drafted my publication and created a media project with my collaborators to tell others about our publication. Lastly, we published our final publication. The biggest takeaway of this course is using technology effectively to communicate our message.
|Publication Outline| |Publication Rough Draft|
|Media Project| |Final Publication|
EDLD 5315: Assessing Digital Learning and Instruction
In this course, I organized my learning into different parts. I did an Action Research outline to show how blended learning with station rotation affects reading achievement scores in my 4th-grade classroom. Then after a lot of research, I put the final literature review together.
|Action Research Design Outline| |Literature Review|
EDLD 5318: Instructional Design in Online Learning
This course gave me the tools and support to create an online, blended learning course to implement my innovation plan in my organization using resources I created throughout the ADL program, like Fink’s 3-column table. First, I made an overview video of my online, blended learning course. Secondly, I made an implementation video to show the learners about the course. Lastly, stakeholders like literacy couches, students, and I reflected on the usability of the online course.
|Instructional Design| |Implementation| |Usability and Reflection|
References
A new culture of learning by Doug Thomas & John Seely Brown. A New Culture of Learning by Doug Thomas & John Seely Brown. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2022, from http://www.newcultureoflearning.com/
Bates, T., & here, P. enter your name. (2021, October 19). Do we need a theory for blended learning?: Tony Bates. Tony Bates |. Retrieved September 8, 2022, from https://www.tonybates.ca/2021/10/19/do-we-need-a-theory-for-blended-learning/
Dweck C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Chapters 1-4
Dweck Revisits the “Growth Mindset”: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html
Fink, L.D. (2003) A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf
Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 8). Creating significant learning environments (CSLE) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4
Harapnuik Dwayne. April 1, 2020. It’s About Learning. Creating Significant Learning Environments. Retrieved from:http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=3627
Harapnuik, D. K., Thibodeaux, T. N., & Cummings, C. D. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning Opportunities. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=7291
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 1118955153
Kotter, J. (2011, March 23). The heart of change. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/1NKti9MyAAw
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. New York, NY: Free Press.
Mertler, C. A. (2019).Action research: Improving schools and empowering educators (6th ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high. Columbus, OH: McGraw Hill.