Nadia Williams

ITEC 7500
Fall 2015
Standard 6.1 Reflection

Standard: Candidates demonstrate continual growth in knowledge and skills of current and
emerging technologies and apply them to improve personal productivity and professional
practice. (PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b)
As an artifact reflecting Standard 6.1, I chose to include notes from my attendance at the
Georgia Educational Technology Conference (GaETC) in November. I created these notes on
my own while attending the conference as part of my job duties and originally stored them in the
cloud via Microsoft 365.
My notes demonstrate my commitment to my continual growth. I included notes from two of
the sessions I attended, one was called Flirting with Film and the other was called Going
Digital without Devices. In Flirting with Film, I learned how one Technology Training
Specialist, named Aubrey, in Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools was harnessing the power of video
in order to provide training and support to teachers in his district. For example, he and his
colleague produced a weekly iPad app review show that was less than ten minutes long. He
also created a show called a Tech Minute in which he showcased a useful app or digital tool
within a minute. These videos were respectful of teachers time constraints, while also providing
support for their technological needs. As a result, I made note of a few ideas that I wish to
implement within my own district that were inspired during this session. Thus, I have made a
few such videos since as I work to improve my personal productivity and professional
practice. In the other session, Going Digital without Devices, I learned how to rethink my
approach to instruction with digital tools. Jennie Margiera, the presenter, who also works as the
Chief Technology Officer for a school district outside of Chicago, illustrated the importance of
realizing that quality teaching and training can come from creativity instead of being so highly
reliant upon devices. More importantly, as is reflected within my reflection is that she illustrated
that teaching digital citizenship and literacy can be done without having to have devices in every
students hands. This has also helped me rethink and adjust parts of my professional
practice.
While creating these notes at GaETC, I learned how to employ the use of smaller tools to yield
large results. For example, I learned how video, an easily accessible tool, can be used to
provide professional development support to my colleagues. Furthermore, I learned how to
maximize the use of digital devices so that students are learning with a deeper quality and rigor.
While I was also able to present at GaETC, where I discussed the use of digital tools such as
TouchCast as a means for teaching literacy skills while engaging students, there were aspects
of my experience that I would have liked to have changed. I would have loved to have attended
more sessions or that I had acquired more information from other presenters. This way I would

have been able to have acquired more nuggets of wisdom and inspiration in order to augment
my professional knowledge and skills.
While I was not working in a specific school at the time I attended GaETC, I am glad that the
information I gleaned while attending and taking notes on GaETC was immediately applicable in
my work at the District level. For example, I was recently invited to co-facilitate a group debrief
discussion at the Cobb County Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Innovation Academy. From what
I learned in Going Digital without Devices, I was able to share quick tips and strategies on how
teachers in that discussion could embark upon PBL that is digitally-enhanced without feeling as
though they needed to have a device for each student. This impacted the viewpoints of a
variety of teachers at at least three different Cobb County middle schools. The impact of this
could be assessed in the session feedback that was submitted at the end of the Innovation
Academy to the academy organizers. From this feedback, I have come to learn that the debrief
sessions were one of the participants favorite parts of the day.