Amber D. Wolfe

Competency 4: Think Critically and Reflectively

                           

Critical thinking is a skill that I try to use in everything I do, but I recognize my lack of aptitude in this area at times.  The situation itself, external factors, and even past experiences tend to influence my ability to think critically.  However, on a positive note, I feel that I have had several experiences in the LD&T courses that have allowed me to grow in this area.

 

Develops a personal vision of inclusive educational practice

 

Artifacts- EDCI 660b Career Pathway Group Report and PowerPoint, and Personal Career Reflection Paper

 

Competency- The three artifacts above display situations where I was to identify a career pathway that was appropriate for me based on my skills, knowledge and attitude.  Because I am a professional (graduated with my B.S. degree in 2003), I am not a newly-graduated student that needed help in determining my career path.  However, these assignments were able to help me apply project and group management skills throughout the completion of the reports and presentations.  I realized very early on in the LD&T program that my education background would allow me to bring a new set of practices to any groups that I might be a part of, potentially consisting of other members from the corporate side of instructional design.

 

Describes the relationship between Educational Technology and the broader field of Education

 

Artifacts- EDCI 513 Definitions of Instructional Design and EDCI 564 Discussion Comments

Quotes from A. Wolfe personal statements:

• “Authentic and valuable instruction”

• “Technology-rich learning environment”

• “Varied approach to understanding the inner workings of educational technology”

• “Delving deeper into the design and development of teaching and training tools”

• “Educational technology takes the form of the most needed resource that is needed at the time, and changes with the resources that are already available”

• “The needs of the audience and the evaluation of the teaching instrument also need to be taken into consideration”

• “Ethics and standards are issues that need to be at the forefront when considering the overall picture”

 

Competency- I had the chance in two separate courses to create initial definitions and thoughts on instructional design and educational technology.  Researching these topics gave me the opportunity to look into the history and foundations of the field of educational technology, and also provided the opportunity to distinguish between the areas of instructional design, instructional technology and human performance technology.  This background information, along with my own experiences and views on the topics induced personal growth in becoming a professional in the field.

 

Critically evaluates theory and practice

 

Artifacts- EDCI 531 Case Studies

• Youth Learning in a Structured Setting

• Community Health Education Programs for Rural Aging

• Maximum Learning in a Horticultural Science Curriculum

 

Competency- For this course, my selected learning theory was Situated Cognition.  Because of my experiences in teaching agriculture and vocational topics, the area of active engagement in this learning theory was of most interest to me for my case studies and discussions.  In addition, when discussing Constructivism and Behaviorism, I decided that I (and any of my former students) would be labeled as “contructi-haviorists” because we can fit into both behaviorist and constructivist categories.  This fits with the overall hands-on and relevance-based learning styles that work best in vocational agriculture instruction.