1. Synthesize Knowledge

Competency 1: 
Synthesize Knowledge

Synthesizing knowledge requires a deeper dive and research into literature to learn about and apply knowledge to areas related to Educational Technology. Using research, I was able to formulate a better understanding of educational problems and achieve a better understanding in theories of how humans learn.

Narrative

Sub-competency 1: 
Demonstrates ability to read and understand educational literature related to 
Educational Technology

I have best demonstrated this competency in my EDCI 51300 Foundations of Educational Technology course. In this course, I wrote a paper titled “Connected Learning in the Connected Age”. In this paper, I researched challenges many teachers and educators are facing with distracted and disengaged students and how the effective use of technology and digital media can help create highly relevant and meaningful learning experiences. In my readings, I found an article written by M. Roc who outlined four principles of a connected learning approach:

     • The Learner is the focus
     • Learners connect to their interests and feel supported by their peers
     • Learning is lifelong and continuous
     • Learners become the makers and producers.

These four concepts demonstrate how a connected learning approach is effectively reshaping education and engaging learners by aligning educational goals with their personal interests all the while building real-life skills (Roc, 2014).

For additional research, I researched learner engagement statistics, trend reports, and educational programs that are using connected learning techniques effectively. I applied this knowledge to identify four real-world examples where connected learning is making a difference. This paper effectively demonstrates how I am able to research a wide variety of educational literature and synthesize it for practical application.
EDCI 51300 Final Paper

Sub-competency 2: 
Demonstrates ability to describe fundamental theories of 
human learning

Human Learning Theory is a very interesting subject area and was best demonstrated in a training package I created in EDCI 53100 Learning Theories and Instructional Design for the Tennessee Robotics Club, a FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team I have mentored for eight years. This competency demonstrates my ability to apply learning theory in one of my eLearning course designs and apply it in a real-work setting to benefit others. This training package was about The Engineering Design Cycle which also included how the learning theories are applied to the training package. I discussed how the program and training materials are influenced by constructivist and situated cognition learning principles. I found that understanding these theories affected the way I designed my training materials as I gained valuable insights into how my student team members learn best which is authentic learning in complex, realistic, and relevant learning environments (Driscoll, 2005). Because of the knowledge I have gained in human learning theory, I am better at designing relevant and meaningful training materials which are demonstrated in this training package.
EDCI 53100 Training Package

Sub-competency 3: 
Applies knowledge of human learning, diversity, and effective pedagogy to a solution 
of problems

In my case analyses from EDCI 67200 Advanced Practices in Learning Systems Design course, I was able to practice analysis of a real-world problem and apply a learning design solution to correct the issues facing the organization. For demonstrating this competency, I chose the Natalie Morales case which takes place in a manufacturing setting of a large semiconductor business called Chipex (Ertmer, Quinn, & Glazewski, 2014). Natalie is an IT Instructional Designer tasked with helping ChipEx solve their certification strategy and training problems their leaders are experiencing. Through my experiences in technical training and networking certifications, I was able to better understand the challenges that Natalie and the organization were facing and propose viable solutions that were relevant to the case based on my own past experiences. I was also able to formulate recommendations that were based on achieving a rapid stabilization to the business.

My final recommendation involved incentives and motivational program changes that were diverse and equitable for all involved in the training and certification process. Even though the case studies were difficult to interpret at times and incorporated many challenges facing the Instructional Design, I was able to effectively apply instructional design recommendations and human performance solutions to help solve problems facing the Instructional Designer and the business by carefully following a pedagogical case study method taught to us in this course.
EDCI 67200 Case Analysis

Competency Reflection

Looking back, I feel that I still have room to grow and improve in the area of synthesis and research. There is such a wealth of information about educational technology and learning theory. The real challenge for me is finding an area that is interesting so I can continue growing professionally. One area that I am interested in learning more about is Multimedia Learning theory and the practical application of digital learning. My first goal is to continue reading about learning design and human learning theories especially as it relates to e-Learning and digital media. In the future, I would like to revisit my own learning theory and apply it to future learning designs.

References

Driscoll, M. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Ertmer, P. A., Quinn, J.A., & Glazewski, K.D. (2014). The id casebook: 4th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Roc, M. (2014, Mar). Connected learning: harnessing the information age to make learning more powerful. Alliance for Excellent Education. Retrieved from: http://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ConnectedLearning.pdf
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