M.E.T. Program Begins
Starting Monday, August 26, I'll begin graduate coursework in Educational Technology at Boise State University. I've decided to combine the 33 credit Master's program with an graduate certificate in Online Instruction. The program will prepare me to take on projects such as developing Learning Management Systems (LMS) and designing online courseware. Although the program is designed to develop educational technologists for all levels of education, both youth and adult, my program of study will prepare me to work with adult learners.
My goal? To obtain a position as an Educational Technologist or Instructional Designer at a college or university by the Summer of 2015.
Much of the program's information is available freely online, and after some weeks of digging around, I now have a decent idea of what to expect. I've poured through syllabi, viewed the portfolios of program graduates, and browsed through the books and software programs required for the courses. The instructors and the material they have chosen to cover appear thoughtful and organized. In other words, so far so good; it appears to be a nice blend of the theory and practical applications of educational technology in the K-16 environment.
However, I'm concerned about the "practical applications" element of the program. When I begin to seek out a new job in edtech in the Spring of 2015, I will need not only a theoritical grounding in edtech, but the basic required skills for the position. So, I put on my imaginary "I just graduated hat" and attempted to find a job with what I imagine will be the skill set I've just aquired through the M.E.T. program.
While browsing postings on higheredjobs.com (keywords = "educational technology," "instructional design"), I found that my program will only go so far in transmitting practical, workplace skills (i.e., Courseware design specifically using Adobe Captivate and knowledge of at least one server side and one front end programming language). To be fair, the M.E.T. program at Boise State needs to cover a lot of ground for a diverse group of students (I am just as likely to take classes with gradeschool teachers as I am university ET hopefuls). However, It's clear that at the end of the program, I will not have all the required skills needed to be highered as an educational technologist or instructional designer in a higher education environment.
So what to do? First, identify gaps. Second, fill in the gaps on my own. Third, find some way to legitimize or otherwise demonstrate proficiency in newly aquired skills.
Back in early July, I started myself on a plan. It's ambicious, but not impossible.
- Formally learn HTML5/CSS3
- Learn JavaScript programming
- Learn Ruby (on Rails) programming
- Learn the fundamentals of databases
- Design a course in Adobe Captivate 6
- Take at least one course through Coursera
- Find a way to get more experience managing LMSs (Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle)
- Design a mobile app
So far, I've used my resources and connections to take a few courses and begin the process. Codeacademy and Codeschool were great starting points for languages, and Adobe Captivate is very intuitive (thank heavens I have a strong background in the Adobe Creative Suite, because the Captivate official tutorials are disorganized and not always helpful). I am knocking down two goals at once by taking a Coursera course on databases. Later down the line I'll try to find developer info on LMSs and then attempt a small mobile app using Rails.
I'll be sure to keep the blog updated with my progress! Feel free to send me words of encouragement or direct me to resources.