Statement of Personal Learning
Capstone Concept
In every LDT course I took, we reviewed Copyright and Fair Use issues. I had to design many different things such as instructions, graphics, and videos, for my assignments. It was a time-consuming challenge to find materials that I could use liberally in my own work without having to make my own materials from scratch. In the Spring semester, I took the Educational Uses of Multimedia course, where I learned several strategies to filter my searches and was introduced to online resources that I could use when I needed open resources or Creative Commons licensed works. Although I started on my design document draft early in the Spring, by the end of the semester, I re-focused my document to address an issue that I felt was really important but neglected: teacher education in open resource and Creative Commons licenses.
DesignIn the Instructional Design course, I began to draft my Capstone while learning how to use the Dick and Carey model. Instructional design is a detailed process, and I was able to practice and reflect on its methods through discussions, assignments, group work, and projects. The most important component in my Capstone design process was Revise Instruction. All the steps are so intricately tied together that when something needs to be adjusted, taken out, or added, the designer must re-think how it will affect the other components and learners and decide if all the other steps must be changed. I know that outside of the course the Dick and Carey model might not be used as strictly, but it helped me to practice thinking like an instructional designer. The more I revised my instructions, the more I internalized the design sequence.
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Technology
Besides Instructional Design, several other courses, professors, and instructors have prepared me for the Capstone by introducing me to helpful tools and giving me feedback. In the course, Educational Multimedia, I explored different graphic design and editing programs, in particular, canva.com. I eventually used Canva to construct the graphics for my Capstone. In the Educational Uses of Digital Video course, I learned how to develop a storyboard and explored different ways to make digital videos. I used the primary video-making tool from the class, Adobe Premiere Elements, to make all the videos for my materials. New Tools for Online Educational Materials introduced me to thinglink.com, the tool that helped me bring all of my instructional materials together in one place. I did not just learn how to use tools in these courses, but I practiced how to design purposeful learning materials using them. I drafted each part of my materials, wrote storyboards and scripts, tested out different graphic programs, ran several trials, and revised my materials many times to support the instructional goal.
Literature
The Professional Seminars and Capstone Seminar prepared me for my literature review. In the Capstone Seminar, I drafted my literature review and received assistance from my partners and feedback from the professor. At first, finding peer-reviewed literature on Open Educational Resources and its related topics was hard. In Professional Seminar I – Technology, I joined a professional learning network that I was not already a part of. The network helped me to find more relevant and new resources on OERs and follow leaders in its related fields. In the same seminar – Research, I learned how to look at research on OERs critically for accuracy and reliability. In Professional Seminar II, I read literature about diverse learners, revisited advancework and planning. My Capstone Literature Review reflects all the skills I practiced in these courses.
Future Plans
Upon completion of the Capstone, I want to continue following the Open Movement. I discovered that there are a lot of online communities out there on social media that share news and announcements pertaining to OERs. I have already begun thinking about my next set of instructional materials for educators. It will be a revision of the same materials, but will only focus on making resources open or applying a Creative Commons license for any upload. In the next set, I want to focus purely on copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons licenses. After that, I want to design materials for searching and using open resources. Thanks to the course, New Tools for Online Educational Materials, I already have a blog about Web 2.0 tools in education, and will keep contributing information to the public.
The coursework and instructional design journey of my capstone has really changed the way I teach because it was a thinking process. Now, when I design something, I often ask myself how could I organize and present teaching in the most efficient and easy-to-understand way for learners? In the future I want to continue work in technology and teacher education. In Professional Seminar II – Leadership, I, I was also introduced to the notion that change happens when teachers take leadership initiatives. Teacher education can begin with oneself and spread to each other instead of waiting for top-down initiatives. Right now I’m not teaching, but I feel like I have a voice because the LDT program has equipped me with new ways of thinking and new tools to share my ideas.
The coursework and instructional design journey of my capstone has really changed the way I teach because it was a thinking process. Now, when I design something, I often ask myself how could I organize and present teaching in the most efficient and easy-to-understand way for learners? In the future I want to continue work in technology and teacher education. In Professional Seminar II – Leadership, I, I was also introduced to the notion that change happens when teachers take leadership initiatives. Teacher education can begin with oneself and spread to each other instead of waiting for top-down initiatives. Right now I’m not teaching, but I feel like I have a voice because the LDT program has equipped me with new ways of thinking and new tools to share my ideas.