EDLD 5317 Contributions to my Learning Community

EDLD 5317 has been an absolute blast! When I read the coursework and saw the media project, I was excited to show my skills. I currently teach Digital Design and all media forms to middle school students. I am also a former podcaster, so creating a mini-podcast episode to promote our publication was a great use of my skills and blended learning. We used Zoom to record the audio, and I used iMovie to separate the audio from the video and added some intro and outro music to add some razzle-dazzle. The end product was a short but fun episode with a few awesome Urban Educators in a Digital Age.

What Worked

Working in learning communities or small groups has become the norm in the ADL program, but this is the first time I have worked in a group where all members were middle school teachers with the same innovation plan. Tonya, Chris, and I worked seamlessly together on all projects. Even with Tonya in Dallas, Chris in Maryland, and me in Houston, we managed to meet weekly, keep each other posted on missed class meetings, and collaborate. We used Google Docs to compose, collaborate, and edit our publication. We used the comments feature to suggest changes and collaboratively write. We split up publication sections to research and write, and revised as a group. It was easy to work with Tonya and Chris, resulting in great work.

Collaboration

Collaborating was easy with my group; even when life events and surprises pushed our meetings late into the night or the next day, we always found a way to make things work. Tonya was our in-house editor and played a major role in ensuring our publications and podcast scripts were grammatically correct. She also provided encouragement to Chris and me as this is her third Masters's program. Chris made the podcast recording easy because he has a voice made for Audible, lol! My contribution was all things media and recording. I created the podcast cover art, recorded and edited the audio, and shared the files to our shared Google Drive folder. This group has been the easiest to work with and a needed shift in demand compared to EDLD 5315.

Reflection

This is my last 12-hour semester as a grad student, as I'll only be enrolled in 5389 in the summer, and it has been a struggle, to say the least. When I started this program, I was fueled and ready to attack anything in front of me. But this most recent term has been a struggle. Rolling out my eP project to my students has been a fulfilling yet overwhelming experience. I planned for my students to build their ePs in Wix and write their reflection blogs using the blogging add-on, but I was told my students could not use the blogging add-on on Wix, so I had to move our blogs to Google Docs. Using Google Docs still allowed my students to write and collaborate, but I wanted them to execute all their tasks on one platform. Although my initial roll-out is not going according to my original plan, I am still excited to see my students build, create, collaborate, and reflect on their work this year. As an 8th-grade CTE teacher, it is my hope that by introducing them to graphic and web design, they choose the Business and Industry endorsement and continue to learn more about digital art and design.

Self Grade

Course Grade 95

I completed all discussions, assignments, and required readings on time. I contributed to my small group and large ADL cohort. I was available to my group and anyone in my cohort to help with all things Wix and design. I am proud of the work and overall contributions during this course.