By: Veronica Balli
EDLD 5303 94
EDLD 5305 46
Until October 18, 2021, I had been out of college for 18 years. I had pursued my Master’s program once before, but life happened and I made the decision to withdraw. A decision I have always regretted, but now I have my second chance thanks to two amazing women and friends, Erika Peña and Ileana Reyna. Fast forward 18 years, and I am about to complete my first two courses in Graduate school. I was initially motivated to start because the last two years I felt I was professionally stuck. I wasn’t too sure of the direction I was going in, but when Covid disrupted the way I had been teaching the last 18 years, I knew I needed to make some changes.
Deciding to enroll in the Accelerated ADL option was not an easy decision. I knew it would be a challenge, but I am thankful for the challenges and how I have grown professionally. The first two courses were, EDLD 5303, Applying Educational Technology: e-Portfolio, and EDLD 5305, Disruption Innovation Technology. Having these two classes paired together made for more powerful connections. EDLD 5303 guided my self-growth and the beginning process of setting up an e-Portfolio and EDLD 5305 challenged me on how to learn again.
I remember feeling nervous and apprehensive to join the first Monday Zoom class for 5303,
my nerves faded as others who were already further along in the program shared their e-Portfolios links as reference guides. I was doubtful I could design a website. The only experience I had with website design was with Weebly and Google Sites, but it was very basic. I viewed examples shared through Dr. Harapnuik’s e-Portfolio. I met with my collaborative team, and read articles such as, Getting Started Tips and What is an E-portfolio and watched videos, which helped shape my ideas. I started creating my own e-portfolio, shared my link, reviewed feedforward, and revised, reflected and reviewed. I began making true connections to my learning and to the importance and value of having a personal webspace that developed my ownership. Although creating the e-Portfolio was challenging and frustrating, I am thankful to my core collaborative group and learning community. We all helped each other with navigating through the Wix platform. The pages I have created so far are a Home, About Me, Blog, ADL Program Map, Innovation Plan, and Contact Page. I am so proud of the progress I have made so far which makes all the long working hours worth it. I still find myself revisiting and revising weekly. I find myself changing photos that better match or colors that are more engaging to the eyes, and fonts that work to the way I feel. My collaborative group and I all spent a lot of time reviewing each other’s e-Portfolios and applying feed-forward given. After reading, Who Owns the e-Portfolio? I shifted my thinking from this is NOT possible to actually appreciating it as an investment in myself. Reading Making Meaningful Connections in An Eportfolio, also helped me connect the dots.
In 5305, Disruptive Innovation in Technology, my learning world was flipped. The first introduction to Feedforward was refreshing, it was a new way to listen to advice. Dr. Harapnuik’s Screencastify videos were great because I was able to revisit my work and make revisions on specific sections and not have to hunt through my projects. Reading the first few chapters of COVA, also allowed me to reflect on the students I currently serve. Reading personal accounts from D. Harapnuik, T. Thibodeaux, and C. Cummings made me aware there are multiple ways to connect learning. COVA helped solidify what my goal was; implementing a blended learning environment. The COVA book was a staple in my literature review and innovation plan. Disruptive Innovation, ePortfolio, and blended learning, where are all words that were new to me, so I made sure to attend the live Zoom sessions and was prepared with my assigned readings in order to participate actively in the breakout rooms. Contributing to weekly discussions threads allowed me to view others’ perspectives on topics and captured my interest to learn more. I had always felt organized but I was quickly challenged, which caused me to reevaluate and reorganize myself and value my minutes. The amount of articles and videos to view and discussions to write, comments to make, collaborative meetings became all too much, but I put in hours of work and gained valuable knowledge. I relearned to manage my time and re-evaluated my WHY. Carols Dweck’s TedTalk reminded me that I am in control of changing my mindset, so I began to understand that I was learning how to learn and my best work is YET to come.
I joined a collaborative group on the GroupMe app which has been extremely helpful. The group's questions are always answered within minutes and everyone has always been so supportive. It was great because our GroupMe group was also the familiar faces that would attend Monday classes with. Besides the GroupMe collaborative group, I was also a part of
core collaborative group which consisted of Erika Peña and Ileana Reyna, who are also my coworkers at Victor Fields Elementary. Once Dr. Harapnuik read our Innovation proposals. he granted us the opportunity to truly work in a collaborative team. It was an amazing opportunity because we all shared the same vision and goal for our campus. Our first collaborative project was our Literature Review. The amount of respect, creativity, and passion in our group was amazing. We met daily and weekly, on Microsoft Teams, and in person. We all understood the amount of work and helped each other by proofreading papers, brainstorming ideas, discussing articles, and keeping each other accountable. We also made sure no one was left behind. We all took on different leadership roles throughout the semester with our Implementation Outline and Call to Action Video. It was phenomenal to see what could be done when three amazing brains came together to make a cohesive and synergistic team.
As my journey in Graduate school continues, I am eager to continue this professional transformation. One thing is certain, some components will be easier to navigate such as Blackboard and turning in assignments and discussion threads now that I have some k
nowledge about how things work. Recently I have been looking through the ADL Map, which is exciting because I can see the project as a whole, which means our Innovation Plan will no longer only be a proposal but will also be implemented. Studying the ADL Map also provides me with insight into the preparation and organization I need to plan for. There has already been a disruption within me. I am beginning to reflect more on lessons, the classroom culture and the environment students are currently working in. I know now that I need to provide my students with an authentic voice and meaningful connections. The work I have put into this program so far and the work to come will definitely help me and my students, and that to me is a win-win.
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