
It has been a very challenging but productive semester with technology for me. Creating this ePortfolio alone was challenging but I did the "try, fail, and try again" approach for countless hours. One day, I asked my coworker a question and in less than 3 minutes she gave me enough insight on how to fix a problem I had been working on for no less than 20 hours. I absolutely had failed at utilizing all my resources. It was a hard lesson but
I think I probably would not have appreciated just how simple it had really been if I had not tried and failed so many times. I realized at about hour 19 that I had pretty much decided that I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't see the forest for the trees. I gave myself and pep talk and then remembered that I had collaborators and resources available. Now I know that I learned the process because of all the experience I had just trying to get things to work correctly. I had to get my mind around the fact that I could figure it out if I just kept at it and not to be afraid to ask for specific help not just general feedback. What an incredible lesson of having to do to understand but also that if you believe you can still learn, you will.
Next, I added all my previous assignments from Concepts in Educational Tech regarding Growth Mindset and Learning Manifesto (https://www.stephanie-wells.com/items) As described in this very blog post, the frustrations I had in working through my issues of creating this document has likely taught me more than anything someone could have lectured about. Running into the wall until I made a window has taught me than any student can learn if given the relevance and motivation to make it their own work.
The many pieces of the Disruptive Innovation plan (www.stephanie-wells.com/disruptive-innovation-1). have also been added here. It has been a wild ride seeing how the elements of COVA have affected the many pieces of this puzzle. It has been very interesting to see all of my classmates ePortfolios and their incredible creativity but also how each is so unique to them and the plans they have for their innovations and how they wouldn't work for me and my situation. It is hard to not compare myself to them and their technical abilities. However, I see the massive amount of improvement I have made in this process of discovery and implementation and I am really in awe of myself. I've come a long way!
I have also discovered that it takes me multiple times through every reading and class recording to grasp the full concept of how to rewire my thinking to authenticity. I'm still always looking for a rubric despite my understanding of the COVA process and how we are making the learning our own, the formatting our own, the process our own. It has to be relevant or it is just another assignment.
I had more than a moment that I felt I was hitting a wall. The greatest validation for this process has been it was after the many, many, many hours I had used trying to work out my issues that I realized that I had never wanted to quit. The hours just went by and, although I had some frustrations, the desire to get to the finish line successfully was the bigger motivator. The entire process mattered to me, the quality mattered (I'm still not close to being done) and the satisfaction in the painstaking process of figuring it out was PRICELESS! Don't quit but don't overlook the resources that are available to you. I would also say that knowing it can be figured out because it is just about the learning and the mindset, has made me realize that no one should be afraid of technology. The comfort comes in the actual discovery and that the type of technology is not what matters but the process of figuring it out is where the learning comes. MIND BLOWN.
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