CatherineMurphy

Reflections
September 13 | September 27 | October 11 | October 25 | November 8 | November 22



Reflection One
Embarking on this project has been a whirlwind experience so far! I started thinking about what I wanted to do before the semester started. The idea to create an online professional development network came about through casual conversations with my boss at Instructional Support in the College of Education, professors, and other graduate students.

I'm responsible for training faculty and students in the college and I often get questions about using technology, such as web 2.0 tools, hardware such as SmartBoards, and Blackboard. I wanted a way to broadcast information about technology through one central location. Since we don't have a webmaster for the college and there have been a few snags with getting training videos made and uploaded to our website; I also wanted a place to share other information to faculty and students that would help them as current and future instructors.

I told faculty and doctoral students around the college about my ideas whenever I got the chance and many talked my ear off with ideas of what they'd like to learn and about how great it would be to have one place to go for professional development and to get to know their colleagues.

Originally, I wanted the network to be for faculty and students in the college. However, I was encouraged to start smaller and focus on just doctoral students. They are the ones who will be taking the Carolina legacy with them as they move forward with their careers.

My hope is to start something that will continue to grow and help our current and future educators embrace technology and become more connected. So far, the process to get this thing going has been slower than I thought. I didn't factor in the "hurry up and wait" time that goes with getting things done. Finding a mentor, waiting for her to be available, then finding the right people to communicate with the get the network setup and students enrolled in Blackboard has been a headache.

Now I find myself agonizing over the little things and tweaking constantly rather than just settling on something. The design and development phases always get me! Other than my perfectionist tendencies sometimes being a hindrance, I am really enjoying the process and love creating something that will (hopefully) truly enhance instruction for my colleagues in the College of Education. 

Reflection Two
The network site in Blackboard is up and running, along with the Facebook and Twitter pages. So far out of the 377 doctoral students in the college that were enrolled, only 68 have completed the needs survey. Sixteen people like the network Facebook page. Three people are following the network on Twitter. When I created the Twitter and Facebook pages, I figured they would be a good place to keep participants in the network updated through social networking sites they were already using. Then participants wouldn't have to constantly check Blackboard for updates. Only a handful of participants have posted to the discussion forum threads about their program of study and professional interests. I hoped to be able to use this information to create more specific groups within the network for those with similar interests to communicate with each other.

Overall the numbers are disappointing. However, I've gotten a lot of great feedback by email and I know students are talking about it because graduate students and faculty have asked to join. They are saying this is such a wonderful idea and something that is definitely needed in the college. Right now I don't know how else to encourage participation. I feel like the horses are coming to the water, but not drinking. I do not want to overwhelm participants with emails or pleas to participate. One of the questions Dr. Smyth asked me to think about what participation percentage of the 377 enrolled doctoral students would be acceptable. Of course, I would hope ALL of them would participate on some level, even if it is just to few the tutorials, but realistically, I hope 30% is still an overly optimistic goal.

So far I've uploaded some content to the Blackboard site with "tools for research," since that was the most requested technology tool according to the needs survey. I uploaded some tutorials on SPSS (statistics software for analyzing data), iCyte (a //more than// bookmarking tool), and bibme.org (a bibliography and citation creator). I am thinking about adding some other tools such as Evernote or Symbaloo. I'm open to suggestions if any of you have any!

I've been posting to Twitter and Facebook regularly with updates about the Blackboard network site and any relevant information I find interesting. I am finding it helpful to keep interesting things in one place for myself! I just wish the participants were more on board. I am really struggling with getting more participation. I really need help and welcome any suggestions!

Below is the data collected from the needs survey so far. I'm (pleasantly) surprised by the participants' reporting of their comfort level with technology. I was also surprised at how few of them rated enhancing technology skills a low priority as far as what they would like to see in professional development. Are they truly well-versed in technology, or do they not feel it is necessary? Maybe since most of the doctoral students (at least the ones I see on campus) are relatively young, or "digital natives."

So for now, my biggest obstacle is encouraging participation. I think the ideas are coming together, but maybe I'm not really giving my audience what it wants or interpreting their needs correctly. Again, I welcome feedback! If you would like to join the network, just let me know!







Midterm
Please visit my wiki for the midterm report. Also, please view the draft of my annotated bibliography. 

Reflection Three
Well, the past two weeks have been much quieter than the previous weeks. I have heard some more feedback from users of the network with positive reactions about the presentation tools and tools for research. I uploaded content for the third module: Teaching Online. That was the third most popular tool participants wanted to learn about according to the needs survey.

Over the past couple weeks, I have developed some key points for teaching online vs. classroom instruction, some basic information on ADDIE, UDL, and instructional design for the network. I listed the ISTE and NEA standards for teaching online and integrating technology into instruction. Finally, I included some information on popular tools for creating content and fostering student - instructor, student - content, and student - student interaction. I used a few external sources, but also some content I developed myself, such as a demonstration on using Adobe Presenter. I am in the process of changing over to a new web host, so I was unable to link to the Camtasia tutorial site my team and I developed in EDET 703. As soon as I get my sites transferred, that will be uploaded and posted on the network. There hasn't been much of a change in the amount of interaction doctoral students have with each other on the network.

I'm trying not to beat myself up because of the lack of participation. I think members are viewing content and using information that pertains to them. I hear about this through verbal feedback from participants in the network. I know doctoral students are busy and don't have much spare time to interact on the network. I wish there was a way to track data of how much traffic the site gets. There may be a tool like this in Blackboard, but I am unaware of it. Facebook does have a track of how many times posts have been viewed, but no specific data. Please take a look at the site and tell me what you think and let me know what I can do to improve it. 

Reflection Four
Things are moving along. I have created a new training module on Creating and Editing Video over the last couple of weeks. I have uploaded information on using Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, Flip Video Cameras, and Camtasia/Jing. Dr. Smyth and I discussed opening the network to all graduate students in the College of Education. I spent a good chunk of the last week trying to get that in order. You all should have access to the network by tomorrow! Please take a look when you have a chance. Feedback is much appreciated.

The network has allowed me to do some networking of my own. I have received a significant amount of training requests because of the network. Most of the requests involve SMARTBoard, ePortfolio creation, Adobe Presenter/Live Meeting, and video creation and editing. This is great because the network was also supposed to be an outlet for COE students to see that they do have resources in the college through Instructional Support. I am somewhat anxious about opening the network to all graduate students in the college, but I think this will foster more dialogue between users on the site. Again, if people aren't using the site to communicate with other users, they are learning about instructional technology and resources for teaching and research.

I'm following my intended schedule pretty closely, but I've been burning through the hours. I'm sure I will go over the 100 hours at this pace. I am feeling more enthusiastic and changing my way of thinking about what I would call "success" in this endeavor. Maybe aren't exactly flowing as I thought they would, but I am providing support and resources, which is the ultimate goal for this project. 

Reflection Five
The network is now officially open to all graduate students in the college. Have you taken a look? Again, I've been getting some verbal feedback, but the discussion board remains pretty bare. I expected a lot more with 900+ students being enrolled. Several more people did "Like" the Facebook page - I now have 23 fans. Twitter stands still at only 8 followers. Still, I know it has been a big help to some, and that's all I can ask. I also added a link to the project my group did for Dr. Senn (Creating Accessible Instructional Materials) and a few other resources and links to articles over the last two weeks. I did not have time to add a new training module. I honestly didn't do much with the site over the last two weeks with lots of other projects and papers being due.

The next module will be creating wikis. I'm excited about this one! Even though I've already reached the 100 hour mark, I will continue to work on the network as part of my job in Instructional Support in the College of Ed until I graduate. I hope people will continue to stop by as needed. One thing I have noticed is that when I send out email notifications of new announcements, I get a lot of undeliverable messages in return. I wish I had a way to notify users other than through email. I have also considered moving content on to a wiki (wikispaces) instead of Blackboard. I'm always open to suggestions!

I am enjoying seeing my group members' projects take shape. It really is neat to see the entire design process unfold. Happy Thanksgiving, all!