Daniel Patrick Ward

As an Education Technologist and Assistant Director of Online Learning with over 13 years of experience in the field, I’ve been exposed to numerous technologies and best practices for incorporating technology in educational environments. I’ve been a member and leader of various committees and task forces that addressed the needs of instructors and students in higher education. With these experiences, I realize a need to increase my knowledge in the field of Educational Technology, specifically, as it relates to leadership roles and practices.

 

In May of 2015, I received my Master’s degree in Educational Technology from New Jersey City University. With this credential, it became clear that I was on a track approaching bigger and better professional opportunities. My daily interactions with college instructors involved deeper conversations about implementing research-based strategies for improving online learning environments with appropriate educational technologies. Faculty were attending more professional development sessions which I facilitated and were more engaged in the training activities, concepts and with the technology. It became apparent that due to my credentials and knowledge, faculty had increased respect for me and saw greater value in my insight and assistance.  

 

With my involvement in committees and initiatives outside of my expected primary job responsibilities, I realized that furthering my education and credentials would open additional career opportunities and other professionals in the educational technology field would hold me at a higher regard. As Morella (2014) explains, “never be too busy sawing; take time to sharpen your saw. You've got to renew yourself” (pg. 1). A doctoral degree in Educational Technology Leadership will equip me with the necessary knowledge, experience and credentials to become a leader in the field. My professional initiatives, proposals and research-based evaluations of educational technologies and pedagogical practices will be more credible and likely to be considered by faculty, staff and administration at institutions of higher education.  I will be more successful when proposing the adoption and inclusion of educational technologies.

 

Through my doctoral program studies, I learned methodologies to effectively research educational technologies for enhancing traditional face-to-face, blended and online learning environments. With the acquired knowledge from research, I am able to enhance the educational environments for students at New Jersey City University, the population which is the main focus of the institution’s mission. As Andriole (2007) explains, “leaders exploit the operational/strategic distinction; they also track technology trends, especially trends that really matter to the business, that is, all technologies that can impact business, not technology ‘concepts’ or even ‘prototypes’” (pg. 68). With the appropriate knowledge in these areas, I will be able to address and improve the quality of online learning environments, attrition rates of online learners and student learning outcomes.

 

I intend to focus my research on online learning best practices. As Blomeyer and Cavanaugh (2007) explain, “Online learning is a type of distance education, or formal study, in which teacher and learners are separate in time or space. Distance education may be electronic, such as online or video-based study, or non-electronic, such as print-based independent study” (p.5). Training and advising teachers on utilization of online learning technologies is essential for student success in these environments.

 

I exercise a Team Leadership approach as I develop, design and facilitate professional development sessions for online instructors. Northouse (2012) explains that the team leadership model places a team leader in a position where he/she monitors a team and take necessary actions in order to ensure team effectiveness (p.289). I initiated and currently facilitate professional development sessions for online instructors at New Jersey City University. These sessions, including Quality Matters workshops, address the educational and pedagogical needs for effectively designed online courses. Sessions are designed to encourage members of the workshops collaborate and discuss various approaches on how online courses should be designed in order to meet the needs of learners. I monitor and guide the participants to ensure that they are communicating effectively so the main objectives of the workshops are being met. I have also employed this approach in committees and projects which I have led throughout my career in order to delegate tasks and meet common missions and goals.

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                                              Professional Goals

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Goals completed by the end of Year 1 of the Educational Technology Leadership Doctoral Program:

 

• Attended five conferences relating to Educational Technology best practices (NJECC, Online Learning Consortium, Quality Matters, AASCU, Frontier Set AASCU)

• Co-Presenter at the New Jersey Educational Computing Cooperative (NJECC) Conference. Session Title: "The Student Website as a Digital Portfolio: Video Introductions, Blogs, Goals, and Accomplishments" (1/9/18)​​

• Co-Presenter at the Online Learning Consortium Innovate conference. Session Title: “Promoting and Supporting the Use of Social Media and Digital Technology in English Composition” (4/18/18)

• Published an article for the Academic Journal of New Jersey City University

• Facilitated three professional development sessions on Quality Matters for faculty

• Served on two professional committees (MSEIP and Frontier Set) to further/advance educational initiatives at New Jersey City University

• Taught a college-level Computer Science online course (Computers and Information Technology)

• Completed a series of 5 Quality Matters courses in order to become a certified facilitator of the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric and Improving Your Online Course workshops.

• Presenter and Facilitator for Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program's (MSEIP) Faculty Development Session titled: "Active Learning Approaches with Educational Technology" (7/24/17 and 7/31/17)

• Poster Presenter at the Ningxia Province Academic Leaders’ Professional Teaching Capacity Training Delegation. Poster Title: "Accessibility Best Practices in Online Learning"  (11/15/17)

• Presenter at the New Jersey City University Adjunct Faculty Welcome Receptions (9/13/17 and 9/14/17)

• Presenter at the AASCU Winter Conference in San Antonio, TX.  Session: "Overview of Frontier Set Grant Project Accomplishments" (2/7/18-2/10/18)

• Poster-Presenter at the Frontier Set Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA. Session: "Digital Learning Initiaves at a Minority-Serving Institution" (3/19/18 and 3/20/18)

• Quality Matters Workshops Facilitated to NJCU Faculty:

  • Applying the Quality Matters Rubric – 10 participants (2/12/18-2/26/18)

  • Applying the Quality Matters Rubric – 20 participants (6/11/18-6/25/18)

 

Goals achieved by the end of Year 2 of the Doctoral Program:

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• Taught a college-level computer science course that I have not yet taught (CS107 - Computers and Information Systems; Spring 2019)

• Published in the August 2018 Issue of the Magna Newsletter: “The Website as a Digital        Portfolio: Social Media and Digital Literacy in the English Composition Classroom.”

• 2019 CODiE Awards Judge for Summative Assessment Solutions

• Presented the "Topics in Educational Technology: Using H5P to Incorporate Active Learning into Online, Blended and Web-Enhanced Courses" webinar for the Educational Technology Doctoral Webinar Series at New Jersey City University (Recording link)

• Presented as a panelist at the Frontier Set Winter Conference on the topic of Digital Learning (Click here for topics covered)

• Quality Matters Workshops Facilitated to NJCU Faculty:       

  • Improving Your Online Course (Quality Matters) – 10 participants (7/23/18 - 8/6/18)

• Presented to doctoral students at the Educational Technology Leadership Summer Institute (2018) on: "An Overview of the Quality Matters Organization for Online Course Design"​

• Successfully completed my term as the Co-Director of Technology for the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program (MSEIP) Grant.

• Co-Authored Paper Accepted by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Paper titled: "Application Process of a Learning Management System for Academia" (6/3/19). The paper will be presented at the Global Conference on Learning and Technology in July 2019. ​

• Became the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) Coordinator for New Jersey CIty University.

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Goals to be achieved by the end of Year 3 of the Doctoral Program:

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• Successfully defend my dissertation

• Present at the 2020 ISTE conference

• Publish research in the Current Issues in Emerging eLearning journal

• Begin working on a book pertaining to best practices in Educational Technology

• Begin researching possible employment opportunities in Educational Technology leadership positions

 

 

 

References

 

Andriole, S. J. (2007). The 7 habits of highly effective technology leaders. Communications of the ACM, 50(3), 67-72.

 

Morella, M. (2014). Revisiting habits for success. U.S. News Digital Weekly, 6(1), 15.

 

Northhouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.