It’s hard to believe that we are already at the end of the semester. The end of my EC&I 834 class means the completion of my Educational Technology and Media Master’s Certificate. Now I am half way in my graduate journey and will continue on to complete my Masters of Education degree. Having the opportunity to participate in the EdTech program with Alec has been an incredible experience. I am so grateful for the online community I have built and for everything I have learned. I know I will leave this experience a better educator and life-long learner.
This semester has allowed me to wrap up my program in a remarkable way. I was able to design and create my own course prototype and share it with my classmates. I have been able to build new connections and hear other perspectives. I have also found so much joy in meeting every week and staying extra long after class just to hang out and share ideas! There have been so many learning opportunities and fulfilling conversations. It’s hard to summarize all of the knowledge I have gained this semester, but it was important to attempt it in the final Summary of Learning.
Catherine and I sought out to create a Summary of Learning that encompassed our experience from not only this semester, but this whole year. Since the pandemic began, we have had to shift our teaching and learning to an online and blended format. There have been a lot of challenges because of that, but also incredible learning opportunities. It was important for us to reenact that in our project. In a timeline format, we used technology tools like FaceTime, Zoom, Flipgrid, and TikTok to display our honest reactions from the year. We called it a “Year in Review” so that everyone could see the progress that has been made with online teaching and learning since schools shut down last spring.
Even though there was a lot of time and planning that went into this project… it still felt seamless and enjoyable. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with Catherine each semester. We have our project planning and creating down to a science! We planned our project on a shared Google Doc, met over Zoom, and shared most of our ideas with each other through Snapchat. Since we couldn’t physically meet to do our filming, we did everything online. All of our video editing was done on WeVideo through the real-time collaboration feature. The last scene in the video took the longest to edit and create, but it was worth it because it featured our amazing classmates (and a few other special guests).
The biggest take-away from this class, which is displayed in our Summary of Learning, is how valuable community is. None of this learning would be possible without the online community we have built in our classes. As I wrap up my EdTech program, I will always be reminded of the lessons I learned and the experiences I shared with my online community. To each and everyone of you… thank you! I hope you enjoy our final Summary of Learning from this course: “Online and Blended Learning: A Year in Review.”
edtechendeavours.com 
WOWSERS Amanda & Catherine!!!
YOU NAILED YOUR SUMMARY OF LEARNING VIDEO!
From the beginning, you had me hooked with the texting back and fourth. Then you continued with dialogue throughout and it made your video that much better!! I am amazed at how creative both of you are! The way you incorporated the Tiktok videos was mind blowing!!! I can tell that there was a lot of pre-planning that went into this and the hours/ days of work is evident, also. I was also not aware that it is not allowed to record myself reading and then upload it.. thanks for the heads up, as I continue with remote learning this upcoming week. Also, I agree that our LMS and tools that we choose for our students and their families needs to be consistent and easily accessible for all.
Thank you for sharing your learning adventure with me and I LOVED how you ended it with all of us in #eci834!!!
Congratulations ladies, you have done an exemplary job!
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Thank you SO much, Jillian! There definitely was a lot of planning that went into it, but it made the creation process much smoother! I am so glad you enjoyed it. It was great taking a class with you this semester. Also, congrats!!
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Great summary as always!!! How did you create the video of the “live” text messages at the beginning? I really enjoyed how you guys covered a year of online learning and how much things have changed since we first went onto remote learning a year ago. So many great points and a wonderful job highlighting and using all the tools out there. Well done ladies! I have really enjoyed learning from both of you over the course of the last three classes. Best of luck!
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Thanks so much, Jocelyn! The text message template was actually from the stock footage on WeVideo! It took a long time to create though because we had to add text to the message bubbles, but the bubbles moved every couple of seconds! There was a lot of editing that went into it. I am so glad you enjoyed it!
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A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, once again! You two killed this. I like the way that you did an overview of the year, and it was fun to follow. This will definitely be a great memory of the days you taught during a pandemic! I will definitely miss the after-course chats and all the topics that are covered! Thanks for helping me learn how to make and edit a video… that was something else for sure!
But I have another question for you, did you figure out what you are doing with your certificate or merging it into your degree? I am curious to know what you chose!
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Thanks so much, Kelly! It was so fun taking a class with you this semester! I am laddering up to get my Master’s degree now 🙂
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Catherine and your video is once again amazing. I especially love who you used popular social media/tech tools to help you emphasize points. You make so many great points and references to how this course has influenced your own teaching. I was definitely one of the teachers last spring who wanted to explore all the free teaching tech tools. It is definitely better to pick a few tech tools and use them well then use a bunch ineffectively.
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Thanks so much, Erin! Me too! I totally agree!
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Excellent Summary of Learning. The TikToks are fantastic. Congrats as well on the fellowship. Can’t wait to see how it goes!
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