In the fall of 2016, I began a journey that many have taken…that will take me a few years to complete…that will enrich my life in multiple ways.
I began my Master’s Degree.
After many years of debating, I started my Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology (with certificate!) that I feel will help fill in the gaps of my knowledge, and having moved to a new job (tech coach from music), I have more than one gap.
Mind the Gap in my mind
I realized that with the courses, job and family, I had not posted here since June, so I decided I would write about my courses and my journey into being a digital learner.
The truth is, I was not a good student in my undergraduate days. I loved college and would not change my experiences for anything, but if I was applying for a job in 2016, it would be tough for me to get past the pre-screening process with my grades. The moral is go to class…most of the time, but do your work all of the time. The idea of online courses, which is what I am doing, was interesting to me as I didn’t have to go anywhere, but when could I get the work done? My wife and I came up with a plan that worked with our schedules and with our childcare schedules, and off I went.
I started with 2 courses and they took more time than I thought they would, although not as much as the instructors said they could. The courses focused on networks/operating systems and digital technologies. I had to rent a textbook for the Operating Systems course (SO EXPENSIVE) and had to add a Windows partition to my MacBook Air, but other than that, I was ready to go. This was the course I was most concerned with, as I have very little knowledge of how the network at my school worked. After the course, I realize my district is lucky to have the IT staff that we do. They have created a solid wireless network that allows our staff and students to use the myriad of tools at their disposal.
The other course was a course in Using Emerging Digital Technology. This one served as a great reminder of the tools available to us, although I thought some of the resourses were a bit dated, but I was reminded that I am an early adaptor when it comes to tech (joined twitter in 2008, my socrative classroom number is 2485 and I had an angelfire page in college) and to relax. The discussions in this class were great. All of the students participated and I learned a lot.
Next up in the winter is Media Design. Should be fun!
