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Caitlin Maynard

ITEC 7500
Reflection – Standard 6.3

6.3 Field Experiences - engage in appropriate field experiences to synthesize and apply the
content and professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions identified in these standards
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Field experiences are a requirement of the Instructional Technology program at Kennesaw


State University. A student should complete two field experiences, one structured through
coursework and one unstructured, for most of the ITEC courses. The unstructured field
experiences gave me an opportunity to decide what was needed at my school or how to help my
colleagues, gaining experience in coaching. The unstructured field experience I have included
for Element 6.3 is the work I put into our school’s website and social media accounts for the start
of the 2020-2021 school year.

The final element of Standard Six, Candidate Professional Growth and Development,
focuses on field experiences and the ability to synthesize and apply content and professional
knowledge, skills, and dispositions. As seen in the collection in my Weebly portfolio, I
completed six structured and six unstructured field experience assignments, totaling in 140 hours
of work. Throughout each experience, I was able to use what I had learned in my coursework to
create productive outcomes. Since the Spring semester of 2020 was interrupted due to COVID-
19, we were allowed to create an unstructured field experience as part of ITEC 7305 when we
were able. I chose to complete the assignment as we geared for the 2020-2021 school year and
whatever it may bring. During the month of July, my Principal and I stayed in contact to keep
the school website and social media accounts up to date. This process included updating the
faculty and student Google Calendars, creating graphics in Canva and posting to the various
sites, and learning the Campus Suite website platform. I also led a Technology Orientation for
our new hires, showing them our Digital Coach Dashboard and other helpful resources. At the
time, I did not realize all that a school’s Digital Coach was required to do. Therefore, I am
grateful that I had the prior knowledge, appropriate skill sets, and the correct mindset and
dispositions to complete the job, synthesizing and applying what I had learned in the ITEC
program, specifically in my training session. I was able to talk to our new hires about why we
use technology and ways to effectively use it in their lessons.

As mentioned before, I learned that there is much more to the Digital Coach position than
just helping a colleague share a document with their students. The field experiences allowed me
to work on my communication skills through one-on-one coaching and tutoring help and group
professional learning sessions, my ability to create concise and engaging websites, graphics, and
other digital content, and meet the needs of all students including those with limitations due to
disabilities, language barriers, and the digital divide. If I could have done anything differently
during the field experience process, I wish that I had shadowed or interned with my district’s
Instructional Technology Coordinator to see more of the big picture and how Instructional
Technology affects the district’s work as a whole.
I believe the “Back to School” preparations unstructured field experience, impacted school
improvement. Before the 2020-2021 school year officially started, there were already many
changes to the proposed calendar, thanks to COVID-19. One of our consistent school
improvement goals deals with family and student engagement and making a stronger connection
between the home and school. Since there were so many unknowns for the upcoming school
year, it was important that we established a clear line of communication for new information,
especially as things changed in such a short amount of time. Whenever anything changed, I had
to post it on the website and all of our social media accounts, ensuring we had reached all of our
stakeholders. This impact was immediately assessed through the feedback from students and
family members through comments, likes, and emails of appreciation and it is something that we
continued to receive praise for throughout the district.

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