Educate your mind and your soul!
Capstone Course
EDLD 5320- Dr. Dwayne Harpnuik
COVA & CSLE Reflection
Through the Digital Learning Leadership and Applied Learning Leadership programs, CSLE+COVA (Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning) are concepts that are central to Lamar University's curriculum. From the start of the program, we begin to use the very ideas and concepts being taught to us. It is kind of like, here is the assignment (minimal detail), any questions, and then we were expected to have something ready to go by Sunday at midnight. I will say that even though I allowed for student choice in my classroom, it was way harder to take on the concepts myself. I guess I like a little more structure than I realized.
In the podcast that my classmates, Talor Kinzy, Kristen Paterson, and I recorded we discussed the idea that rubrics were nice, but a checklist of sorts would almost have been more helpful. That is just one of many ideas mentioned in the podcast. Our reflection was authentic which aligns perfectly with the ideas of COVA. We did not hold anything back when talking about what worked and did not work for us during this program. Talor, Kristen, and I talk about how things are going with our innovation plans and projects and I think that anyone that listens will thoroughly enjoy our conversation.
All in all, we decided in the end that we might continue to record an education podcast to discuss current topics in the 21st-century education world because we had so much fun with this one.
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Resources:
Harapnuik, D. (2015). Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE). Retrieved
from: http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=849
Harapnuik, D. (2015). Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE).
[Video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4&t=235s
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Harapnuik, D, (2017). CSLE-COVA Explained. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lby4-CQhIvI&feature=emb_rel_end
Harapnuik, D. (2018). COVA. Retrieved from:
Synthesis and Project Update
Being open to change and having a growth mindset are two key factors needed when completing the Digital Learning Leadership or Applied Digital Learning program at Lamar University. Already having a master's degree has afforded me those imperative attributes and assisted me the opportunity to be successful with the program. One thing that one never gets used to though when completing a master’s program is the quickness of the classes and managing your time in order to not turn into a ball of stress and give up. The last year or so has shown me that I have not only a growth mindset, but the strength to get through anything. In addition to attempting to implement something new on campus during a pandemic and leading other educators to take on one more challenge, I switched programs more than halfway through. Looking back through my ePortfolio I am able to see all the amazing ideas that I came up with and the projects I was able to create.
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While I have always considered myself to be pretty technology sound, I can say that I have not always known all of the technical aspects of the different terminology. As I worked through my assignments and created different outputs, I gleaned more knowledge about COVA + CSLE and advanced my skills in instructional design. With any skill learned, I still have a long way to go, and being someone that loves to learn, I will continue to gain more knowledge on the topics within the tech world.
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Making changes on any campus, in any district, is going to cause a stir and one can only hope that amid the negative Nancys that there are more positive Peters to help lead the change and create a culture of learning. In my plan for leading organizational change, I go over the importance of my innovation plan and how it can help streamline student learning, reflection, and ownership on our (data-driven) campus. Looking back at my proposal and timelines, I see that these innovation plans need to be flexible and most likely will change in some form or fashion during the process. It is kind of the idea (in my opinion) and that change can lead to other great ideas.
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Starting this school year with a new position in leadership led me to one of the first major changes in my innovation plans. I would not even call it a change, but a metamorphosis if you will. Not being in the classroom and having a completely different role made it a little difficult to go with my original plan and luckily I was able to adjust with ease. As I stated earlier, my campus is very data-driven and it shows in our rankings. The teachers use data as one of the many ways to plan lessons and interventions (for when things don’t go as planned for students not gaining concepts) and our students are immersed in a curriculum that allows for them to see their data at any point in time and then learn where to go from there. With this being said, we have a VILS (Verizon Innovative Learning School) digital learning coach on campus and she took the initiative to create a data-tracker for each student. It is was accessed through our LMS, Canvas, and then housed in the students’ Google Drive for easy access. They enter data for each class, even their electives. They are able to set goals, reflect, and discuss each subject. It is a campus expectation, therefore it made it easy to implement. The DLC consulted with me on different ideas for the tracker and it is also the topic of my podcast from 5317.
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All in all, I have enjoyed learning about COVA + CSLE and realizing that I was actually already doing a lot of what we were being taught and did not even know it. I will continue to implement ideas learned from the DLL and ADL programs. I also know that I have several items that I need to go and adjust on my website. All in good time...all in good time!
Contribution to Learning
My innovation plan was to implement ePortfolios in the secondary classroom to help students become more organized and learn to reflect on their learning. With a new leadership position to begin the school year, I made one of the first major modifications to my innovation goals. I wouldn't even call it a major change, but rather a transformation. It was a little challenging to stick to my initial plan because I wasn't in the classroom and had a completely different role, but I was able to adjust quickly. As I previously indicated in another assignment, my campus is very data-driven, which is reflected in our rankings, so the transition to the new innovation plan (data-tracker) was easy.
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I gave myself a 90 because I completed all of my assignments and contributed to each discussion in a timely manner. I was not able to attend all of the class sessions due to prior commitments, but I did check in with my group members several times a week in order to stay on track with our learning and to see if there was anything I may have missed for the classes I was unable to attend. This was the second eight-week class I was in after switching from the Digital Learning Leadership program to the Applied Learning Leadership program. The Digital Learning Leadership program was five-week courses so it was definitely easy to stay on top of things because you had such a quick turnaround time for completing discussions and turning assignments in for grading. My group consisted of Robyn Tompkins, Jennifer Turnbow, Kristen Patterson, and Talor Kinzy. We have been working together and supporting each other for the entire program. I can not thank them enough for their support and newfound friendships throughout the program. We have all been here for each other and helped each other through some of the good and bad times.
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Although we have stuck together throughout the program, this class made more sense for Talor, Kristen, and I to split into a group and Robyn and Jennifer to be a partnership due to our content areas. The three of us worked together really well and were able to complete two podcast episodes together, and in my opinion, they turned out really well! I did tend to take the lead in this area due to my experience with podcasting. Now, I would not say it was a high level of experience, but I had my digital learning coach to lean on (on-campus) if I needed to ask any technical questions. Talor, Kristen, and I had a lot of fun recording our podcasts together, and our friendship grew deeper as we progressed through the semester and discussed our innovation aspirations and journeys through the Lamar University program.
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I was able to give my opinions on the COVA and CSLE, as well as how I expect to apply them in the future, for the first project for this course. I had never really heard of these phrases before entering this program. Talor Kinzy and Kristen Paterson, two of my classmates, and I collaborated on COVA and CSLE reflection podcast for this assignment. We talk about our experiences learning and implementing these concepts in this episode.
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This course also provides me an opportunity to discuss my progression on my innovation plan, where I started to where I am now. I struggled a little bit on that assignment so I combined it with the last one because we discussed it in detail in our final podcast. I will say that (and I think I mention it in one of the podcasts and/or surveys) these classes tend to have, what seem like, repetitive assignments so they tend to become confusing, but maybe it is just my “busy” brain. That leads me to a loss in some of my points. I did, as you stated in one of your reviews of my work, that I missed explaining some of the processes of the assignment. Even after reading through the instructions several times, I tend to still find them confusing, but that is where I should ask for clarification, and that is my fault.
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All in all, I enjoyed this class and being able to be creative with the assignments. I love that we were able to use what we learned and put it into action with our assignments. I have found a new love for podcasting and Talor, Kristen, and I plan to continue our podcast, 21st Century Lit, to discuss current topics in education.