Fait Accompli

Holly, Thomas, myself, and Zoe - Team Digital Horizon rocks!

After a year of rigorous online instruction, we finally reached our goal - graduation. Well, really there is more to it than that.  Each of us has things we want to do with all of the skills and knowledge we gained during the Education Media Design Technology masters program through Full Sail University.

Holly's position at her school has been expanded to allow her time for teacher training. She is sorting out which professional development to do first!  She is the consummate researcher and will do an excellent job of assessing the needs of the teachers at her school and devising training opportunities for them.

Thomas also had a positive impact at his school and will be able to build next year upon the research he did in the EMDT program. I loved the commercial he made to introduce his high school English students to their unit on Gothic writing. Eventually I think he will end up back in his beloved Hawaii. He will have a lot to offer them when he does take that step.

Zoe is our world traveler. After a visit with family in England she will be off to Turkey. She has been invited to present at a conference in Malta in a year or so.  I knew her interactive e-book was a winner, but her research really illustrated its impact on kids. They loved it! Maybe Holly and I can go see her in person in Malta!

As for myself, I really want to use the experience and training I have in educational technology in a larger setting. It is true that at my current school we are designing a project-based program for next year that will also use a blended approach - mixing live classes and online learning opportunities. The teaching staff in my program is great and we really became a team last year. Still - I'd like to have the opportunity to show other teachers how to integrate technology into their classrooms. We'll have to see where that leads me.

 After working our tails off for a year, I could hardly let graduation go by without attending in person!  Part of our visit involved a tour of Full Sail University.  My original undergrad degree in Speech featured an emphasis in theater, so you can imagine how much I enjoyed seeing the tech at Full Sail. This photo is of an area where set pieces are built. Yes, when I was 19, I was doing that sort of thing. The smell of fresh pine really brought me back to NMU and Forest Roberts Theater.

  And yes, when we got to visit the studios used for filming various types of programs, I was really geeking out.  Lighting is my favorite thing, of course. I wouldn't mind learning to run one of those cameras, either!

Ok, so I am not skilled at running a sound board, but that doesn't mean I can't covet this one! Too bad I can't be two people and leave one of my selves at Full Sail for awhile.






Was it worth it? Yes.  There was so much - I will be re-reading my books on using game design to create classroom instruction. I will even be going back over ADDIE!  I intend to audit some of the courses in the future, so that I can improve my skills and keep up with changes in technology. Filmmaking, the Flash course, and game design are 3 I will revisit for sure!
That's the cool thing about Full Sail. We can audit classes in the program for free for the rest of our lives. Awesome!

In the meantime, I have also been looking into PhD programs.  If I want to instruct teachers in ways of integrating technology into their classrooms, and do it at a university, I have to have a PhD. Other opportunities may also present themselves. I would love to work as a Director of Educational Technology for a school district.  Before Full Sail I was already using the Learning Management System, Moodle, doing digital storytelling, and showing my students how to create their own blogs. I want to take the next step, including teaching students how to create their own Personal Learning Environments online with iGoogle.  It will be interesting over the next few months to see where this will lead me.

Congratulations to my fellow Full Sail graduates!  I look forward to seeing what you do, as well. It is bound to be awesome.