Jon Gill

AECT Reflection
Oklahoma State University
 One way of learning that has always appealed to me is experimentation or trial and

error. This is what made the educational technology degree interest me as I took the course as

an undergraduate. As an educator it is important to try new things and see if they can enhance

the learning that is occurring in the classroom. The students still learn most of the same material

over time but the methods for which we teach the material must always be open to adjustment

and investigation. The technological changes in the world have greatly impacted the way that

we live and how people access information. The younger generation are usually the first ones to

pick up on this change and accept it because the old ways are not as ingrained. This is why it is

important to be more on the early adopter side of innovation and new technology rather than the

laggard side who is hard to change. It is equally important as an adopter to make sure that the

new technology is being used effectively and efficiently rather than just using it to be cool. I have

learned the foundations of educational technology which help me see how the field has evolved

and where it might head into the future. The courses have also taught me how to design an

online course using the ADDIE theoretical model. I have also learned other important aspects

such as creating a positive learning environment for online learning. Lastly, the courses have

taught me about professional learning and different ways to continue my growth as an educator

in the field of educational technology.

The first concept of Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)

is content knowledge and this makes me think about several of the courses but most specifically

digital media production and advanced computer applications. During my digital media

production course, we were able to show off our content knowledge through building various

technological pieces that would fit within a classroom. For the final assignment, I created a unit

that used many of the digital tools that we became familiar with over the course of the class.

One of the tools that I included was the augmented reality app Aurasma which allowed me to

insert help to students by them scanning an image on their phone. In advanced computer

applications in education, we evaluated and critiqued various technological apps. We had to

learning experience for the students. Some of the areas that we evaluated the apps on were

things such as the level of thinking that they required and the state standards that they met.

The other course that shows off the content knowledge would be the final project that we

did in the digital games and simulations course. We had to come up with a final project that

incorporated items from digital games or gamification in the classroom in order to engage the

students and enhance the learning. I created a unit that focused on a gamified world where the

students were time traveling through history and managed their learning through the use of

badges. This created a learning environment that made the students more engaged in the

content knowledge while also having more fun. This also made me assess the unit to make sure

that I was still teaching the standards that needed to be covered in the lesson. Gamification can

only create a good learning environment when the educator effectively incorporates technology

into their pedagogy.

The course that most effectively looks at implementation of content and content

pedagogy is the introduction to instructional design course. This course uses the ADDIE

theoretical model to look at the instructional design process. In the course, we had to create a

course proposal using the ADDIE model for a potential online course. This proposal forced us to

evaluate the technology integration at many levels including the current learning issue, the

learning environment that the course would create, how the students would be assessed, and

development of the course, and how an instructor would actually implement the course to the

students. One of the areas that I focused on was the management of the online learning

experience through the LMS that the instructor would have to create because it was the

foundation for the online section of the course.

My foundations of educational technology course were also important in learning

standard two of content pedagogy. The class helped because it made me look more about the

background behind educational technology and the reasoning behind using technology. It
looked at where the field of educational technology started, how it is defined, and where it fits

into today’s education. It made us think about the various learning theories and how educational

technology can fit into those learning theories and enhance the learning rather than just being

used. The course made us evaluate research over different current event topics that are

impacting the field of educational technology. The course also made us reflect on our learning in

the course and how we implement the newer teachings into our curriculum. One technology that

stood out to me because it could be effective assessment and reflection were the word clouds

that we created. The word clouds allow for the instructor to create a formative and summative

assessment for the students while they can also reflect on their growth.

For our facilitating online learning, we had to come up with a proposal for an online only

or a blended course that we might teach in the future. As part of that assignment, we had to talk

about how we would create a learning environment for the students, which is the third AECT

standard. I created a Learning Management System (LMS) for a potential world geography

class that I would use for high school students. This showed the learning environment that I

would want to foster with my students. I selected this method because it had a solid structure

that the students could navigate easier and have a lot of confidence with. The course proposal

was for a blended course that utilized the LMS as an extension to the face-to-face course. I

wanted to create the same feel of community that would be in the face-to-face part of the class

in the online section which also includes making clear the expectations of how the students

interact online towards each other.

Another course that shows the creation and management of a learning environment

would be the digital games and simulations course as one of the major components was

gamification. As part of the final project, I gamified a unit of a U.S. history course where the

students were in a more engaging learning environment. The learning environment was more

engaging for the students because it was more student centered and they were more in charge

of their learning. Another way that we were able to assess that learning environment that was
introduced to me in the course was the octalysis model. This model looks at the core drives that

make people want to play games and accomplish the goals within the game. With a strong

gamified unit, there will be a motivated classroom environment with few distractions because of

the student ownership of their learning.

One important way that I showed the fourth AECT standard, professional knowledge and

skills, was through the discussion boards that almost all of my courses required. The discussion

boards allowed all of the students in the class to share and discuss relevant ideas in the course.

The courses also required us to collaborate on group assignments. One memorable assignment

was in my mobile learning course where our group had to create an app that would benefit the

learning of a group of students. We had to collaborate and discuss how the app would appeal to

our group of middle school geography learners and which standards that we were going to

meet. The instructional design courses also showed that we are able to evaluate and reflect on

the course as we went through the five stages of the ADDIE model. Digital games and

simulations was similar in that we had to use the octalysis model to evaluate the lesson plan

that we came up with. This is important because it makes you reflect truly on how engaging your

lesson is. The first time I came up with an assignment and evaluated it with that model, I

realized that what I came up with was not as effective as I initially thought it was. The items

learned through the courses in the educational technology program also allowed me to share

them with colleagues through professional learning networks such as Twitter.

Research, the final AECT standard, is a very important skill to have not only to enhance

your own learning but also to teach other how to research. Research has changed drastically as

technology has advanced and more and more resources are shared online. This is why the

library databases and course was so important in showing us how to be effective researchers

and how to use various databases. The REMS course went further into the actual research as it

taught me how to analyze and evaluate the credibility of the research. It also taught us how to

create our own research proposal as we look at the field of educational technology and try to
explain some of the questions that we have about it. I explored the impact of blended/hybrid

classrooms on learning for my research proposal. I had to make sure that I even assessed my

own research proposal and acknowledged the limitations of my proposal to make it more

credible. Finally, the foundations of educational technology did a good job of looking at the

theories that back up using the technology in education. The course explored what makes up

the different components of educational technology in today’s world and how they fit into various

educational fields. By having this foundational knowledge, it helps guide the research of where

the field is headed and how to continually improve as an educator.

Overall, the educational technology master’s program at Oklahoma State University has

taught me many skills that will help me not only be able to effectively implement technology into

my teaching but also how to be a better educator. This journey has been a long two years that

has broadened the way that I evaluate how I implement new things into my teaching pedagogy

and philosophy. I have learned a lot through my peers who have gone through the process with

me and this program has set me up to be a continual learner with the focus on creating

professional networks and research.