EDTC 6332 Practicum

Reflections One

Before Practicum class began, I sought the advice of my professor to help me understand what this assignment consisted of. I felt I had to select a first-class project that would meet all requirements and also serve my potential customer to its fullest. I decided to brainstorm on what kind of project proposal I could do that would be adequate training.

I then sought an informal interview with Mr. Raul Ibarra, Lead Teacher at Ignite Public Schools, Brownsville. I asked him questions regarding the charter school, students, teachers and obtained information about what teaching issues were most pressing in terms of educational technology. His answers were straight forward and to the point. The Ignite Brownsville teachers want to utilize more technology in their classrooms; however, they have not received adequate training on interactive social media like blogs. From that moment on, I knew I have to develop a project plan to train teachers on how to integrate Blogger.com into their daily lesson plans and in communication between teachers. 

Thus far, I have accomplished a needs assessment and determined needs in the following areas. Teachers want to:

·         Collaborate more effectively

·         Improve academic performance
·         Establish online professional development trainings
·         Implement online teaching strategies

Those are great and encouraging performance objectives for them to learn with my project. However, the challenges presented to create a program are: the teachers’ tight academic schedules, two-out-of-six teachers have no teaching experience and the school has a high turnover in teachers and support staff.  Indeed, those are challenges, but doable. As their project manager and instructional designer it is my duty to create an online multimedia blog training suitable to their requirements.

As for my plan to achieve all four performance objectives is to first research how I would create a Camtasia video for these objectives. For the first two objectives, I would demonstrate how to use the blog software to be able to create a pleasing and navigational design; upload images and videos, create a school teacher blog by customizing features and procedures. In the last two objectives, the teachers would demonstrate online hands-on activity and workshop training. The hands-on activity is for teachers to evaluate their blog, embed media and links, add pages, and secure access. The workshop training is for teachers to create their own blog consistent with their campus improvement plan, desired functions and design, and finally their teaching goals.

Since the beginning of this project, I have learned that this assignment would be interesting but challenging. Nevertheless, I do not despair and concentrate on the task at hand, to deliver an adequate training Blog. If given a second chance to develop this project, I would have selected training module via Educational Technology Program Moodle site on all four performance objectives. However per Mr. Ibarra, the Moodle site has been removed from their school’s website. Although I would have preferred Moodle site over putting the training on YouTube or a private Internet Account; today, I can honestly say I'm comfortable enough with Camtasia and how to put up the materials to keep them available to the teachers to complete the project.

My only advice to fellow classmates, and me included, is not to procrastinate starting the capstone course. I cannot speak for my classmates, but I feel overwhelmed and stressed if I procrastinate and it makes matters worse. Some students work best under pressure; however, I cannot. I believe in being mindful and serious about this project and not lose sight of the project timelines.