Welcome and Introduction

This curated collection of artifacts and digital work has been assembled and organized to provide evidence of learning, growth and reflection in completion of requirements for the University of South Carolina College of Education Master of Education in Educational Technology Program.  Some of the work selected derives directly from class work; while others align with that work as testament to how that work infuses my daily practice.

Statement of Professional Goals

My enrollment and work in the MEdTech Program has been for the sole purpose of personal edification. Specifically, I entered the program in 2009 after my first year of work in the Department of Information Technology and Services at USC Upstate as Director of Instructional Technology. My intent then, as now was and is to learn and develop skills and professional dispositions to inform my daily practice. In my experience in the program, one cannot be easily separated from the other – the formal from the informal. And I am truly grateful to both my wise faculty and insightful administrator for allowing me the latitude to find relevant and meaningful points of connection between and amongst my studies and ‘real life’ all along the way.  I fully expect to continue in this same capacity all the better for having had this experience. My progress through the program has been slow, but deliberate and deliberative as I have been fortunate to be able to regularly match course learnings with matters of necessity in my work.

Dedication

I want to acknowledge important persons who were instrumental in my work process and played an integral role in its outcome. First, I should note the infinite patience of my family who have been drug along as I have tried to further my education – for more than a dozen years now. One of those endeavors did not end well. There was no completion. We all share in this achievement and celebration that I am finally completing something! Secondly, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity extended to me by my mentor and department head, Jeanne Skul. She has encouraged me to expand my knowledge and to incorporate my learning process directly into my everyday work whenever possible. To all of the program faculty, I appreciate the understanding of the students you work with and their situations ‘in real life’ and your wisdom to structure a program that is reasonable for a working adult. Dr. Cheryl Wissick – practical, positive, enthusiastic; Dr. Tom Smyth, wise, infinitely patient and encouraging, Dr. Gary Senn, who pushed me outside my comfort zone, Dr. Robert Johnson for re-acquainting me with how we know learning has occurred and why we care, Dr. Kellah Edens for reminding me of theoretical underpinnings of all we do, and Mrs. Readalot – our first instructional design client.