12/01/23 –
When I began my “expedition” in the ADL program, I expected what a traditional Master’s Degree program was with the typical textbooks, lectures, tests and essays along with a Master’s Thesis. Instead, I quickly came to realize that this was going to be a different learning environment and opportunity. It became a significant learning environment to me when I understood that I would be creating an ePortfolio to house my work and my learning.
As I experienced Online/Blended courses in this program, I proceeded to think on how to create my own as I developed my Innovation Plan to bring Blended Learning to my district’s teachers of ESL and their Emergent Bilingual students. The research into Learning Theories to create my initial Literature Review paper also influenced my own Learning Philosophy to move from a strictly Behaviorist viewpoint to embrace more of the Constructivist viewpoint with learning.
In order to implement my Innovation Plan in the Online/Blended ADL Program, I had to rely heavily on Self-directed Learning to get the most out of my coursework. This work included learning the strategies behind Organizational Change whether it was the Influencer model or the 4DX model in order to bring about innovative change on my campus and in my district. I had to be able to understand Instructional Design/Backward Design by keeping the end in mind (the desired result). The UbD model was very insightful for this work.
Then, I had to learn about various Measurement strategies to develop an Action Research Plan to assess the effectiveness of my work – the results from my Alternative to Professional Learning Model in particular. To implement my Innovation Plan and make my Alternative to PL Model work, I designed my own Blended Instructional course in my district’s LMS. I have used presentations and pieces from my ePortfolio inside this course. This Instructional Design is being vetted by my coaching colleagues and my teachers in the Pilot of my Innovation Plan. I will use their “feedforward” to improve my course design.
Just like the ADL program courses, I have my own BHAG which is that learners (fellow educators in this learning environment) will have their Emergent Bilingual students (EBs) grow in language proficiency in each of the 4 domains of Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing beginning in 2nd grade in order to be on track to Exit out of state testing after 5th grade through the utilization of Blended/Personalized Learning.
Through all of this work to achieve my M. Ed. Applied Digital Learning, I have created a Personal Learning Network consisting of my core collaboration team from the beginning of the ADL program, fellow classmates in the various courses, a Facebook group of ED tech members, professional educator groups, and the KDP society.
Most importantly, I am finishing the ADL program with an ePortfolio that expresses my own voice and choice in an authentic learning environment that I can take with me and build upon through continual lifelong learning.
Wings and a Wand 