Identifies and participates in communities of practice within the field of Educational Technology

Artifact: Member of Northwestern Wisconsin Association for Talent Development

Northwestern Wisconsin Association for Talent Development Website

As a local member of the Association for Talent Development, I have been able to attend presentations including “Credible Coaching with Jim Negrini” and grown through the local community of practice.  I have included the above image of the confirmation email from my registration with this association and the link to the association website.

Artifact: Workshop for Elementary Educators: Formative Assessment Tools

I had the opportunity to participate in the field by presenting to a faculty group of PreK-8th grade teachers regarding the benefits and uses of formative education and some formative education tools for the classroom.   The above artifact is the Google Slides presentation that I used as I presented on the educational technology tools, Kahoot in the Classroom and Socrative, and their uses as prospective formative assessment tools for teachers.  Through the presentation, the teachers learned about a few tools they could use, but I also learned from the experience.  The adult learners ranged from being able to easily navigate a new educational technology tool to struggling to login or even type on a computer.  A formal learner analysis may have prevented this from becoming an issue during my presentation.  If I had been able to do a learner analysis, I would have discovered the wide range of abilities and planned my instructional activities accordingly.  I learned through leading this workshop about this potential for complications during face-to-face workshops.  This also allowed me to further develop my educational philosophy, upon later reflection, regarding situated learning theory (Wenger, 1998).

Plans for Future Growth

My future plans to build on this competency include acquiring a professional position in the field, continuing to participate in the communities of practice I subscribe to via social media, and blogging about my experiences in the field on a professional portfolio site I plan to develop following the conclusion of this program.

Reference:

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice : Learning, meaning, and identity (Learning in doing). Cambridge, U.K. ; New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press. P. 4.