Reflections

Discovering Instructional Technology

Glacier National Park, Montana

I used a Career Coach to help me determine which Master's program would be the best fit for me at this juncture in my life. As I mentioned before, I've done a lot of different things and have enjoyed many of them. Since returning to the Atlanta area, I've worked part-time in a couple of capacities but no full-time opportunities have presented themselves. I wanted to further my education but wanted to make sure I was going into something that would be a really good fit for me. I've worked as a volunteer for Georgia Ensemble Theater for many years and they offered me a part-time position while I attend school. I considered theater management, medical billing and coding, Med-Tech and various other degree fields. My Career Coach gave me several types of personality and aptitude tests. Then she helped me match up my skills, likes, and personal traits to career options. Instructional Technology became a standout leader.

Some of my strengths include organization and an orderly mind. But more interesting were the things that I like, that make me happy, "so to speak" - these are a love of learning, curiosity, and an appreciation of beauty and excellence. The same things that draw me to science will, hopefully, help me as a developer with the changing technology and the methodology that goes into creating orderly, well structured lessons. But there is also joy in discovery. I like to keep it fresh and new so I don't get bored and therefore those I design for shouldn't either. My love of learning will enable me to be a good student to my subject matter experts. Every project is a new and exciting lesson for me! Plus, my appreciation of beauty and excellence means that I can also see and appreciate the contributions of others. For me, Instructional Technology is like Vetruvius' firmness, commodity and delight. A good design has all the factors to make me complete. It has love of learning in that it should impart knowledge to its consumer. It has curiosity by the way a good creative design makes a learner interested in learning and it has beauty and excellence in its form and function. I believe Instructional Technology is the perfect career choice for me.

Becoming a Student Again

I was very apprehensive about going back to school after 20 years. No one even had personal computers the last time I attended class! This time I would be going to class on my computer - WOW. I quickly discovered that I really enjoyed it. I was doing well too. We started out reading mostly and writing papers. I'd done that before. When we got into learning the software, I got nervous again. I wasn't sure this would be my strongest area. Then I took my project and showed it to some people at the spring conference at Gwinnett. I was really gratified when I got some favorable comments. Now, I have some confidence built up. I think I am truly internalizing what I am learning. I am pushing myself to make each project better. I definitely enjoy the design process most. To me design and development are somewhat inseparable. I also love learning about the project - picking apart the elements during the Analysis phase to determine how it all fits together. Since I really enjoy having the conversations with the subject matter experts, this enjoyment may be directly related to how receptive he/she is to the process. To reach my goal of working in the corporate world as a trainer/developer, I feel that the Analysis and Development skills are the most important at this time. However, I want to finish the program with a well-rounded grasp of all elements of the process. I would like to be able to fit anywhere into a team or be able to stand on my own as an independant Instructional Designer should that be required of me.

Networking & Growth

I recently attended the Atlanta Chapter of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) chapter meeting where they had a speaker who related Instructional Design to Jim Henson's processes for creating with puppets. More than anything, I admired the speaker's ability to find all of the analogies she pulled out of Henson's work that related so richly to our own work as Instructional Designers. The main reason the talk worked so well is that the audience shared the experience of knowing and loving Muppets at some time in their lives. To then have some of the behind-the-scenes magic revealed to us, made us want to put forth a little extra effort in our own designing if it means we get to be magical too. Whether the listener was new to the field, like myself, or very experienced like others in the room, the lessons still resonated. Folks were called to provide examples of times when they had used a technique described in the talk. Many ideas were thrown about. I found the group to be very warm and friendly with each other and the newcomers.

Outside Glacier National Park, Montana

Other Discoveries

Arches National Park, Utah

My goal is to stay in the corporate world and work with adults. I have no experience as an educator or working with children. However, I have pushed myself throughout the program to step outside my comfort zone and attempt things I would not normally attempt. One of these attempts resulted in a most rewarding experience. I joined a group for the Edit 7550E class, Managing IT Projects that was looking at working with the Seed Life Skills project. The project is attempting to roll out a skills-based home economics curriculum into middle school classrooms. They were just getting off the ground though and didn't really know what to ask us to do for them. We ended up putting together a document to serve as a roadmap for their brainstorming session. While the project was relatively small in scope, the challenging part was actually figuring out WHAT we could do for them that would be the most useful. It took several sessions of fact gathering to iron out the format and constraints. We needed to do research about curriculum standards for middle school children to determine what level was appropriate. Now that it is done, I feel very invested. I would be interested in following the project outside of school. I'd also like to see the final lesson plans and perhaps be involved with teacher training.