CIG697
Educational Technology Portfolio
Professional Standards
1) Which two standards do you believe to be the most critical to address for your professional preparation? Did your experiences in UNLV's Educational Technology Master's program prepare you to meet the standards?
The two ISTE standards that I feel are most important in my professional preparation are Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments and Standard 5: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. These two standards are important because I hope to pursue careers in the field of educational website and program development. Being able to design materials using contemporary tools and resources ensures that I am providing meaningful content that is relative to the digital-age experiences that students need to succeed. In addition, continuing my education has allowed me to expand my professional growth and widen my understanding of educational issues. UNLV's Educational Technology program has prepared me for achieving these standards.
At UNLV, I took many courses that discussed design principles and theories of learning and assessment with technology. These classes relate to Standard 2 because they gave me the knowledge and tools to understand how technology can be used to create meaningful experiences, activities and assessments. Three classes stand out as being helpful in my preparedness for achieving Standard 2 in my profession: CIT 643, CIT 653 and CIT 673. In CIT 643: Designing Digital Materials for Education, the focus was on how different design principles effect the quality of a design. This was informative in helping me understand the best ways to design content in order to ensure I reach all students. In CIT 653: Creating Digital Materials for Education, the focus was on creating materials that could be used in classrooms. This course took the knowledge that I learned from CIT 643 about design principles and applied them to content that I was actively creating. This allowed me to feel confident in developing activities and assessments on my own. In CIT 673: Digital Materials Studio, the focus continued to be on design principles. In this course I created a storyboard for a whole program incorporating design principles to ensure quality. All of these classes reinforced skills that are necessary to successfully design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments.
For Standard 5 my professional growth has expanded thanks to all the courses I took. While I was working in the district, I felt that there weren't many opportunities for me to expand and grow as a professional. Professional development trainings didn't feel applicable to issues or needs I had in the classroom nor were they trainings that I could use to further my career within education. The options I had at UNLV were the opposite of those trainings. I have gained insight into the current issues education faces and most importantly skills and tools that will further my career opportunities. Two classes in particular helped increase my skill sets and helped me grow as a professional: CIE 685 and CIT 600.
In CIE 685 I learned about the importance of critiquing curriculum programs in order to assess whether they are quality materials. Additionally, I learned about the different curriculum models that are used to design the various curriculum programs. This information enables me to be a more informed consumer of educational materials, which is important during this time when parents, students and educators are inundated with vast quantities of supposed educational apps, software and programs. In CIT 600 I learned about how games could be used as serious educational tools. This enabled me to understand issues pertaining to educational technology and gamification. Gamification and how it can be incorporated into curriculum to create more engaging experiences is of great interest to me because of my interest in educational content development. Combined with my knowledge of what quality curriculum looks like, I now have the tools to ensure whatever I do in the future is guided through sound practices resulting in quality educational materials.
2) In reviewing the standards, are there some areas in which you don't feel well prepared? Based on this, what suggestions might you have for improving the professional preparation for future students in the program?
After reviewing the standards, it is hard to pinpoint any particular standard that I felt unprepared for. The courses I took were comprehensive and covered all five of the NETS for teachers. If I had to pick one standard that I didn't feel as prepared for though I would have to say that it would be Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. Digital Citizenship is a huge issue now considering many more people and students are using internet and technology for an increasing number of things. Modeling appropriate behavior online is paramount for fostering a better attitude and climate for online environments, yet despite this importance I feel that only a couple classes touched on this idea, and not for very long. Content on Standard 5 was relegated to background knowledge and information, but not in how to apply that knowledge. Perhaps a good way to help address this issue could be adding one additional class where digital citizenship topics are the main focus of the course. This course should not only provide background knowledge on digital citizenship and the local and global issues that come with an ever-expanding digital world but also ways to implement digital citizenship within classrooms and tools that teachers can use to help learners understand the importance. Perhaps this class already exists and was just an elective course that I chose not to take, since I wanted to focus on more classes that dealt with the design and methods. Adding it to the core courses list would be just as effective.
