| Home | Reflection Letter | Matrix | Courses Taken | Contact Me | Leadership

Here is my reflection letter over my two years in the EDTC program at UTB.

Date: 4/28/2014

Dear Educational Technology Faculty,

This past two years have flown by and I am about to complete my 36 hours of Educational Technology curriculum. I have

learned so much in this short amount of time. The Instructional Design classes (EDTC 6320 and 6321) taught me the importance

of the actual design methods used in creating an instructional unit. Before I began these classes I had no idea how much planning

it took to create an instructional unit. I feel I am well on my way to mastering the instructional design systems so I can use these

processes in my classroom and hopefully one day the corporate world.

I have also taken some classes to prepare me for the Master Technology Teacher test. These classes (EDTC 6340 and 6341) taught

me how to incorporate more Web 2.0 tools into my classroom. I have taken what I have learned in these classes and taught the

skills to other teachers on my campus. I have taken my required research and cognition classes (EDFR 6300 and EDCI 6304). These

classes helped me learn to research topics online using multiple databases and how to write literature reviews.

In the second half of my instruction I finished taking my required MTT classes, EDTC 63442 and 6343. I learned what was required

to pass the MTT test which I did pass in the summer of 2013. I also learned that there was a need for more teachers to get MTT

certified. I am the only teacher in my school that is certified and I am the main teacher that is helping others. I think the

MTT program at UTB is great and I learned so much from Dr. Butler and her fellow professors.

During the summer of 2013 I took EDTC 6323 and 6325. I was able to finish the project I started in 6321 in 6323. I have started

using the lessons I created on my campus and the teachers I am helping are very thankful for the help they are getting with the training

I am providing. In 6325 I created a lesson for students instead of teachers. I built a set of lessons to help with math skills. The

lesson can be taken as a standalone course for students that do not have strong math skills or as a refresher for those that might have

forgotten how to do the skills.

In the fall of 2013 I finished up my last course work for graduation. I took EDTC 6332 and 6329. In 6332 I completed my capstone

project and have started to implement it into my school. The real test for it will be at the beginning of the school year in the fall.

In 6329 I created a Blended Physics class. This has been a dream of mine for a few years now. I created a blended physics class that

will meet two times a week and work online three days a week. My school district is very excited about this class and they have put

the class on the registration card for my school to use for next year. It looks like we are going to have at least two sections of

Blended Physics next year.

This spring semester I am taking EDTC 6358 so I can get my e-Learners Certificate. I am creating a project for the physics teachers

at my school. It is a project they have done for a while but they wanted it to be incorporated into more of an online project. I am

in the middle of creating the project now but I like where it is going.

I have learned many lessons over the past two years at UTB. One of the first lessons I learned in my Educational Technology classes

is that I never estimate time well. In several classes I needed to come up with a timeline for projects and I was never able to predict

with very much accuracy how much time it would take to create a part of a project. Dr. Pan was very helpful in giving me some

guidelines on how much time it should take to complete different parts of a project but I always seemed to struggle with that part of

the management side. I think with more practice and perseverance I will get better at this skill.

Another lesson I learned is to always get multiple SMEs to look over your work. During my courses at UTB I had to create multiple

projects and talk with multiple SMEs along the way. The more SMEs I talked to the more the project would take shape. By talking to

multiple SMEs, or other knowledgeable people, about the project I was able to create meaningful lessons for teachers and students.

Having more than one set of eyes looking at what you are creating helps the developer fix any mistakes he makes along the way.

Another lesson learned was a good design document can help guide you through a project. Creating a fully developed design document

can help the developer stay on task and see what he needs to be working on at any given time. The design documents I created in my

career at UTB have helped me see how useful they are to developing quality projects/lessons. 

One of the best lessons I learned was how to deal with collaboration. I was not sold on the collaboration part of the classes because I

never want the actions of others to impact my grade in a class. But, after going through the program and working on multiple projects with

other students I have grown to like working with others. I can see the need to work with others on projects because we will be working

with others when we get out of college. I have even started to get my students to work together on projects so they can start learning

about collaboration.

I have enjoyed all my class at UTB these past 2 years and I am looking forward to putting what I have learned to good use. I have

been approached by two different departments from my district to possibly come work for them. The first is a Design Coach position.

Design Coaches go from school to school helping teachers become better at developing lessons for their students. I would work in the technology

area for this department. Another job is to develop online classes for out Virtual Learning Academy. This job would have me creating

and teaching online classes that we develop. This job seems very promising to me and is what I really want to be doing. I really do

appreciate all my professors I have had over the course of my education here at UTB. In conclusion I would like to thank Dr. Butler for

her guidance on working on the MTT classes, Dr. Corbeil for his help with several of the Instructional Design classes and for his guidance

throughout the program. I would also like to thank Dr. Pan for his help with my capstone project. I would not be where I am today without

your help and guidance.

Sincerely,

Adam Hovde