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The Journey from Tech Guy to Educational Technology Expert
James Locklin
Azusa Pacific University
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The Journey from Tech Guy to Technology Expert
History of Coursework
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Areas of Growth
Personal Growth. During my time in the Educational Technology (EDTC) Masters
program at Azusa Pacific University I have experienced great growth personally. I have
explored deeply being made in Gods image and the impact of that personally, gained confidence
in communicating my thoughts and ideas, and grown into an organizational master.
The classes in this program dove straight in on serious spiritual issues, forcing reflection
that not only revealed things to myself, but also allowed others to speak into that area of my life.
The assignments often pointed us to our Faith in Action Study Bible (Zondervan, 2005) to read
scripture and associated notes that spoke deeply to issues we were dealing with. In EDTC 521
with Doyle Potter we focused on being made in Gods image (2013) and those reflections and
notes from the scripture readings led me on a journey that helped me to discover that as a result
of being made by a creator God, I too should be a creator in some form. I never thought of
myself as an artist or creator before this but since have come to see that my artistry is in websites
and creating engaging professional development sessions. I may not paint, write, or sculpt but I
can create engaging digital materials, websites and presentations that God can and will bless!
In addition to spiritual growth, I have also gained an enormous amount of confidence in
communicating my thoughts and ideas, especially in digital forms. From blog posts and forum
posts, to creating websites and interactive, organized PDFs, I have grown from a beginner to an
expert in expression of well-organized and thought out responses.
The last major area of growth has come with organization. The requirements of the
courses in this program forces organization and planning without which one would never achieve
the end goals of this program. Having access to Google Apps for Education pushed me into
using Google Calendar to not only coordinate my own school assignment schedule, but also to
help organize and schedule assignments with my peers in the program.
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Personally, the growth in my self-image spiritually, confidence in self-expression
digitally, and overall organization are all areas that I did not understand the EDTC program
would impact, but I am forever grateful that it has.
Professional Growth. The amount of professional growth since beginning this program
is staggering when reflected upon. The EDTC program has impacted my actual job position as
well as promoted me professionally in the world of education technology in general.
At the beginning of this program I was a 4
th
grade teacher who, upon enrollment, was
promoted to an Instructional Technology Specialist. As the program continued, and my learning
skyrocketed, so to did my demonstration in the classroom with my learning and just one year
into this program I found myself interviewing and being accepted as a Digital Learning Coach.
That acceptance was only achieved on the back of the work from this program including my
Global Learning Project from EDTC 518 (Bacer, 2013) and my Technology Bingo (Locklin,
2013) project from EDTC 517 (Bruzzese, 2013). The demonstrated ability to not only curate
resources but also group them in efficient and effective formats has been an incredible boost to
my career.
In addition to job promotions, the skills gained in this program gave me the confidence to
submit proposals and be accepted to lead conference sessions at two different conferences in the
summer of 2014. One session titled, iPad 201: Beyond Basics to Practical Classroom Uses was
presented at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2014 conference in
Atlanta, GA. The other conference was in Galveston, TX where three separate sessions (iPad
101, iPad 201 and Google Hangouts) were all smash hit successes as hundreds came over the
two days in Galveston to hear and ask questions in my sessions.
The end result of all of these professional growth moments is that I have risen in the
education technology world to the point of being considered an expert. I find myself able to hold
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conversations, as a peer, with those who I once had on a pedestal far above my level of expertise,
which has opened, and will continue to open, many doors to amazing opportunities.
Technical Growth. Technical Growth for me had the most impact over any other area of
growth in the EDTC program. I entered this program as someone who considered himself at a
level of novice to moderate in terms of the actual technology, and a definite novice in
terminology in communicating about technology. I exit this program now as not just an expert in
technology, but as an expert in such a wide array of programs like iMovie, Google Hangouts,
Photoshop, website creation, Adobe Acrobat Pro and more.
The ability to sit with a professional group of peers and rattle off terms like backwards
design, web-based apps, What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) editors, podcasts,
embed codes, white-balance, cloud sharing, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD,) Bring Your Own
App (BYOA), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), the flipped classroom, the blended
classroom and more in conversation without being lost is worth the price of the program. This
foundation in terminology has allowed collaboration with respected peers and experts that came
off seamlessly. This is truly a credit to the entire EDTC program (Bacer et al., 2013), in that
people often do not realize I am brand new into the technology side of teaching.
The technical growth in terms of actual program knowledge is amazing. Leaving this
program I can actively teach someone how to effectively communicate through video using
iMovie or photo using Photoshop Elements along with the right ways to light a room for post-
production effect along with the camera angles due to EDTC 521 (Potter, 2013). I have become
an expert in web-based web-design using WYSIWYG editors like Wix.com, Squarespace.com,
and Weebly.com and the ability to add widgets and embed videos and other rich media as well
learned in EDTC 523 (Silva, 2013). I have also become a recognized expert in Google Hangouts
as my use in the program lead me to lead a conference session to show others the best practices
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for use in their classroom. And none of that mentions the amazing things I can now do with a
PDF document in terms of organization, collaboration, linking, and more.
There is no doubt that my technical growth in terms of program and software knowledge,
as well as in technical terms knowledge is the largest contributor to my recognition as an expert
in the field of education technology and is irreplaceable.
Life Long Learning Plan
In his online article 10 Reasons Training Is Good, Doug Fields makes the statement that
Leaders are learners and when you stop learning youll eventually stop leading with
strength (2014, #6). I could not agree more with this statement. My plan for learning is ever
expanding and ever-changing week by week. From RSS readers like Feedly to Twitter,
Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+ my knowledge-base and Personal Learning Network (PLN)
are a massive source of collective information that is growing and changing me.
Feedly is an RSS reader that I use on a daily basis. Feedly allows me to subscribe to RSS
feeds that then push to me the content from (currently) nearly 100 educator blogs and education
websites so I have one spot to go and look at for this content. The ability to curate this content
through Feedly has helped me to spend more of my valuable time reading information rather
than seeking out the information. Additionally, Feedly allows me to turn around the content that
I find valuable so I can push it out to my PLN on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+.
Speaking of my PLN, they are my literal plan for life-long learning. I am participating in
Twitter chats by following hashtags such as #iPadEd for iPad learning, #TXed for learning from
peers from within the state of Texas, #edchat for general education topics, and so many more.
My PLN is not just limited to Twitter anymore though. Throughout this program it has
expanded and now includes connections on Facebook, as well as a growing connection through
Pinterest boards, and more importantly Google+. The addition of Google+ to my PLN has
boosted my expertise in terms of education technology. I have joined and actively participate in
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the Google Hangouts in Education group, Google Educator Group for Central Texas, Googles
Connected Classrooms Workshop, ISTE Mobile Learning Network, and many more.
The combination of curating professional information through Feedly as well my
connections in my expansive PLN will ultimately help me with my major future goals. My first
goal is to move into a more direct professional development role at the district level of a school
district, including but not limited to the role as a Director of Technology. An alternative to this
goal is to move into an outside company as professional development specialist within the next
two years. My second goal is related to, but in addition to the first goal, and that is to gain a
teaching position at a university or community college, maybe even online, to help prepare
educators for using technology in their classrooms within the next two to five years. My last
goal is to network myself through my own website as well as my PLN to gain access onto the
travelling conference presenter lists. This goal would see me become on par with trainers who
offer conference keynotes, are paid for presenting sessions, and are sponsored by education
technology companies to travel.
My lifelong learning goals along with my strong professional resource curation and PLN
give me the confidence that I am set up for future success in the educational technology world.
Conclusion
My overall experience with the Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology
program at APU has been a wonderful one. I have grown personally, professionally, technically,
and interpersonally throughout this program in ways that I never anticipated when I began. My
learning and acquired skills have equipped me to participate in the always changing field of
educational technology as peer to countless experts in the field. The friendships and prayers with
peers and professors are irreplaceable memories that have forever changed me and I leave this
program as a better teacher, leader, father, son and person who will be forever grateful.
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References
Bacer, K., Bettger, B., Brown, J., Bruzzese, J., Potter, D. Silva, L., & Suffern, V. (2013).
Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology. School of Education, Azusa Pacific
University. Azusa, CA. Retrieved from http://sakai.apu.edu.
Bacer, K. (2013). EDTC 518: Global Learning Cross Cultural Classrooms, School of Education,
Azusa Pacific University. Azusa, CA. Retrieved from http://sakai.apu.edu
Bruzzese, J. (2013) EDTC 517: Digital Communications, School of Education, Azusa Pacific
University. Azusa, CA. Retrieved from http://sakai.apu.edu
Faith in action study bible: Living God's word in a changing world: New International Version.
(2005). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Fields, Doug. (2014). 10 Reasons training is good, In Church Leaders. Retrieved from
http://www.churchleaders.com/youth/youth-leaders-articles/159457-
doug_fields_10_reasons_training_is_good.html
Locklin, J. (2013). Technology Bingo. Retrieved from
http://www.jamielocklin.com/#!bingo/c1p4v.
Potter, D. (2013). EDTC 521: Digital Imagery for Learning Environments, School of Education,
Azusa Pacific University. Azusa, CA. Retrieved from http://sakai.apu.edu
Silva, L. (2013). EDTC 523: Educational Applications of Information Design and Hypermedia,
School of Education, Azusa Pacific University. Azusa, CA. Retrieved from
http://sakai.apu.edu