Steve+Lusher,+Reflective+Essay

So now we are approaching the end of what, for me, has been a fairly difficult semester. It's been tough to stay on track in an online program with so many other things going on in life. Unexpected travel (tons of it in fact), multiple family funerals, and recently a bout of bronchitis that has lasted about three weeks. Hectic, as you can see! All is not dark however, as I did manage to find a job this fall that I really enjoy. Although the time commitment to the new job has been another bump in the academic road. Aside from merely reflecting on the fall as a whole though, let's take a look at this class this semester.

I've noticed from reviewing my minute posts that a lot of my thought this semester has really been about the expansion of technology and its applications to education. Even above and beyond application though is the way in which technology growth has implications about the structure of education and the meaning of what we are all trying to do. There's a new form of literacy, perhaps several in fact, and that combined with new and emergent economic realities requires a fundamental reshaping of the way that we as a culture view learning. Fortunately, the very technologies that cause us to reflect on the nature of education are also the tools that we can use to innovate and keep pace with the needs of both learners and institutions. I for one find this to be an incredibly optimistic circumstance, and I have seen through this program that there are many dedicated researchers and future practitioners who feel the same way.

That said, let me take a look at my technology integration project this semester and the substantial changes it has gone through over the course of this fall. In the beginning, I conceptualized an instructional design for one of my primary interests, which is teaching graphics and web creation software such as Adobe products to community college and undergraduate students. It's definitely a project that I'm interested in pursuing in the future, specifically in reference to designing this type of instruction to be delivered in an online environment. However, in the context of this course I began to realize that adding an additional level of technology and attempting to integrate that into what was already a class based on learning a piece of software just didn't make sense in reference to what where obviously the goals of this course.

So really, what I am trying to say is that my project did not so much evolve as it completely regenerated itself from the ground up. Perhaps a bit of background might help explain this as well. I consider this program in IDT to be a sort of third academic life that I've experienced. My degree programs have varied pretty widely and my intentions in pursuing each degree have definitely changed throughout the process. I started in IT, moved into Design/History/Political Science, and now into Instructional Technology. The current focus of my project, in light of this, relies on the thing that stands out the most to me when looking for technology integration opportunities.

I'm sure Charles can back me up on this, but I see the field of History as being a primary area that can benefit immensely from the integration of appropriate technologies. Understanding history, in a sense, requires the ability to visualize and experience the progression of historical events in order to effectively discern the layers of causality that lead to an outcome. The time in which we live in, and understanding that time, cannot escape the reality that understanding how we got to where we are is essential to getting to where we want to be. So when looking for a technology integration project I turned to a previous life, and chose to examine what technology could do in a history context.

You'll see all of this as an outcome and result in my final project next week, but let me briefly describe what it became and the why of that fact. As a lifelong West Virginian and one who identifies strongly with the concept of Appalachia as a distinct American subculture, I truly enjoyed a course I once took on West Virginia history. During this course, one of the reading assignments concerned a reevaluation of the historical interpretation of an important event. One of the first expeditions of Europeans to cross the Blue Ridge mountains was led by two men, named Batts and Fallam. Based on their journals during the expedition, a longstanding interpretation of their ultimate destination was that they reached the New River before turning back. However, a more recent examination of their journals determined that the explorers in fact reached the Tug River on the present WV-KY border. The expansion of technological means is one of the factors that allowed for a demonstration of this updated information. There is more within my project on why this reinterpretation is important. In fact, those levels of importance are among the primary learning objectives.

To sum up the history of my involvement: When I first encountered this debate, I went to Google Maps and followed the landmarks of the expedition as I read. This inspired me to attempt to integrate a Google Earth project into the study of this expedition for students in a classroom environment. Rather than merely read the primary or secondary texts on the issue, why not give students the chance to follow along with the expedition using available technologies, thus achieving a higher level of visualization and understanding of the subject at hand? Then, when combined with further learning about the implications (of, for example, English territorial claims on the Ohio River valley) the students have a visual and contextual basis for understanding the ensuing events.

Hopefully this has been a decent reflective essay. I see it as a chance to review where I've been this semester in a big-picture sort of way. Now it's time to take a look at putting the final touches on my project, and crossing my fingers that I've overcome the hurdles to complete another semester!