Reflection: Visionary Leadership

 

          Standard 4 states “students continuously improve their professional practice and model lifelong learning and exhibit leadership qualities. Students take initiative in providing instructional technology leadership in their schools and/or job site and engage with other professionals through participation in local state and national organizations.” Through the M.Ed program with an emphasis in Instructional Design at Iowa State University, I have been prepared in the foundational knowledge I need to be a leader in the field. I came into the program with limited knowledge about education in general, and I am very thankful to have the opportunities to learn so much from the beginning of the program. This is a continuing process and I hope to keep growing my mindset, my skills, and my professional work in the field of educational technology.

          The project in CI 501 helped me to develop the ability to apply educational technology in everyday work. This was my first graduate course when I started my master’s program, so I was very excited to learn many new educational technologies and different learning theories of how people learn. Since I work for the International Students and Scholars Office, I chose a topic for my project in CI 501 that related to my work, with the hope that I could contribute to the changes or start a conversation with the office to see if anything could be improved. The office has current online training for incoming international students, but it is very basic, with PowerPoint slides and a quiz at the end of each module. Compared to on-campus face-to-face orientation, there is so much information left behind and I don’t think the students can get the full view of what Iowa State University has to offer. My purpose in improving this online orientation is to transform and create a richer experience for international students who cannot attend the campus visit and check-in due to the late visa approval from the government or personal issues. To improve the current situation, I added tools to help online orientation be more engaging and interactive. Flipgrid is added to the online course so students can introduce themselves to other students and create more interaction between peers. Twitter Chat and Discussion Board were added to create more interaction between international advisors at the office who know lots of regulations and students. A virtual tour or live-stream tour of campus would also be beneficial for students. In addition, artificial intelligence is very common now where we can set up virtual assistants who can answer common questions from the students. Overall, this project helped me to open my eyes and apply what I learned in class into daily work. Especially with the current situation of COVID 19, I quickly helped the office to set up their face-to-face into online classes with the addition of learning technologies such as Zoom, Webex, Padlet, and Canvas Studio.

          The course CI 504 Evaluate Learning Environment prepared me to evaluate the learning environments and tools, such as rubrics, lab teaching, a lesson plan, and training programs. I can see the importance of this skill set not only in Educational Technology but also in my daily work. Nowadays with the popularity of online courses, continuing to evaluate the digital learning environment will ensure the students get the best education, while at the same time helping educators improve their teaching quality. During my internship working in Training Solution at a financial company, I saw that having the knowledge of evaluation is very important for most of the projects that I worked on.

           In leadership training, self-awareness is one of the most important elements for developing a good leader. It is helpful for not only the individual but also for the growth of the company, according to authors of “How to Become a Better Leader” from MIT Sloan Management Review. I believe the course CI 533 Educational Psychology Learning has prepared me a strong foundation in my major as well as the understanding of leadership mindset. We learned about how people acquire knowledge, process information, understand, and interact with the information. Through this course, I become more understanding of my own learning styles and aware of many other learning styles. In this case, this helped me to be unbiased if there is only one solution to the way we learn. As a future instructional designer, it is important for me to know different learning theories, analyze what works best for each type of learner, and motivate students. This course helped me connect the idea of self-awareness in leadership which means knowing yourself and knowing others. Additionally, CI 510 game-based learning course opened my eyes to new opportunities for learning. This is a growing field and there is a lot of evidence to show its effectiveness. I would like to continue studying how technology, such as Virtual Reality, Artificial Learning, Machine Learning, and game-based learning, fit together to create new learning opportunities for people in the 21st century. As an educator in educational technology, I will continue to develop and connect with current and new growing technology, so I can bring the best learning experience to the students.

          The social justice course was also a very important course that I believe everyone should take, especially if you work in education. I benefited significantly from this course because I acknowledge how a teacher should be and how to lead our future students into the world. At the beginning of the master's program, I have limited knowledge about empathy, ableism, prejudice and discrimination, gender and sexuality, or curriculum design. However, after taking this course, I learned that no matter what field you are teaching or how teaching career life gets busy, I should always remember what I learn in this course to create an equal learning opportunity for students. For example, with educational technology, we are concerned about whether everyone has equal access to technology or not. Overall, this course prepared my internal mindset of how I should present myself as an educator. Moreover, I should be ready to prepare the education for the students when they attend school and outside of the classroom.

           In summary, the master’s program has strengthened my professional career as an instructional designer/educational technology. I have been learning about internal mindset such as how to be a responsible educator, knowing about myself and others through educational psychology classes. In addition, I learned about external skills such as technology skills, instructional design model, course evaluation, game-based learning, and many others. To continue developing my professional career, I would continue to connect with other professionals through conferences, social media, take professional training certificates, and take courses to advance my knowledge in this field. As an educator, I continue to advocate this field by finding where technology can appropriately fit into the teaching curriculum, presenting ideas through conferences and meetings, and finding new ways of teaching with technology.