Instructional Design and Development
I entered the Instructional Technology program at George Mason University in the Fall of 2009. This is a year-long, team-based program through which I earned an MEd. in Instructional Design and Development.
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| I led the development of our team web site using Wordpress |
Each year, students in this program work with real-world clients to solve instructional design problems. My team worked with Defense Acquisition University (DAU), an organization which serves the training needs of the Department of Defense's acquisition workforce. We were tasked with examining how DAU can best utilize the latest learning technologies in their assets.
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| More about the solution we developed for DAU. |
We performed an intensive performance analysis in our first semester, resulting in three research reports and two briefings. Through this analysis, our team was able to determine two key areas of need at DAU: how to select the most appropriate technologies to support desired learning outcomes and how to implement these technologies. In the Spring semester, I conducted research on the uses of social networks in education while I helped develop a prototype of our proposed solution for DAU.
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| I also developed my Graduate portfolio with Wordpress |
We used a number of tools throughout the year for our project. The team site on PBWiki was used to share resources and utilize collaborative workspace. I led the development of our external team site which was created with Wordpress. I also created my graduate portfolio with Wordpress and provided help to team members to do this as well.
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| Virtual Lithuania, my online language learning prototype. |
In my courses, I explored the use of social media in education and developed a social network to support a DAU course. My big project the fall semester was Virtual Lithuania, an online language learning environment utilizing situated learning and an immersive virtual world. This project allowed me to combine my knowledge of language learning and linguistics with constructivist learning principles. While my prototype is for Lithuanian (which I learned in the Peace Corps), the environment is suitable for any language.
I did a lot of writing throughout the year, including a Front End Analysis Report, a Briefing Report, and a Needs Assessment Report, which I completed with my team. I also wrote a white paper, Social Network Use in Government, Business, and Higher Education: Recent Research, Current Practice, and Considerations for Use, which was included in our final prototype for DAU.