Tag: m-learning

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The Meaning of Graduating with a Masters in Technical Communication

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom
Techcommgeekmom
NJIT MSPTC Class of 2012

Today was a big milestone day in my life. Today, twenty-two years after I received my Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Mary Washington (Mary Washington College back then), I received my Masters of Science in Professional and Technical Communication from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Let me tell you, if you had talked to me at the time of my Bachelors degree and told me that a) I’d be getting a Masters degree and b) it would be in a program that involved computer related stuff and technical writing, I would have thought you were insane.

I put two and a half years of my life into this degree. There was blood, sweat and tears that were involved now and then (literally, in some cases!). My husband was a weekend widower for most of that time, and my son understood that Mom had to do her homework too, and it was way more than he had because she was anywhere from in the 17th-20th grades (compared to him being in 5th grade).

I started this program because I was unemployed. I was being laid off from a job that had certain aspects I liked, namely editing and the use of instructional design. I also had some e-learning and some instructional design from a prior job that I liked, so I decided to “work the system” in seeing if I could find some sort of coursework that would help to update my skills as job retraining through the state’s re-employment programs. By a miracle, there was an ad on Facebook–of all places– for NJIT’s MSPTC program and the grad certificates in technical communications essentials. When I looked at the curriculum, it was exactly what I was looking for, and so many of the electives that I wanted to take! I was able to complete all the paperwork and convince the state to pay for my tech comm certificate. I started with that, because I figured that it was a shorter commitment, I would still get some significant training out of it, and if I didn’t like it, I wasn’t stuck in it for the long haul. And if I did like it, I could always transfer the credits straight into the Masters program.

Well, you guessed it– I ended up loving it. The state ended up paying for my first three courses until I got a job that allowed me to pay for the rest of my education myself, which was an incredibly expensive investment.  I took as broad a range of subjects as I could, but found myself always gravitating towards e-learning and m-learning just the same. I oriented many papers to cover e-learning and m-learning topics over time, yet kept my options open so that I had more opportunities to not only expand my own knowledge base, but provide opportunities in other areas I liked in case the e-learning direction didn’t work out the way I wanted.

And now…I have a Masters degree. I think there was a point in my career that I knew I wanted a Masters degree, and that perhaps a Masters degree would help with my career– but doing what? The problem was that the kind of degree I wanted to do wasn’t around the way it is now when I first got my undergraduate degree. Creating websites was strictly for computer developers and programmers, and I wasn’t that. I wasn’t an English major who specialized in creative writing or journalistic writing either. Not that there’s anything wrong with those majors–not at all, but they weren’t me, or at least not quite me. Discovering the world of technical communication when I did and finding an educational resource when I did was purely fortuitous timing, if nothing else, but I’m glad it’s become part of my life.

I seem to recall that the advisor for the program said something about me in reference to this program to the effect of it being something where I learned about my own voice. I think this is definitely true. Growing up, and even through my undergrad years, I thought being a good writer had to do with being a “flowery” writer, someone who always included all these incredible details in their works. I couldn’t do that. Part of the reason that a History degree appealed to me was that I just had to collect and re-churn out facts in a cohesive manner. Even with that, I didn’t understand that I could do that well until my senior year of college, when my favorite professor motivated me to write some of my best work of my college career. Some of the papers I did for him that I thought were horrible were ones that he thought were my best. When I re-read them years later, I realized what he was saying– they were good. Maybe I really was someone who could write decently.

I think the understanding that I could write well was developed more as I winged my way through my professional life, but it really didn’t become clear until I joined this program. I did find my voice, and I could express my opinion, and…people listened. People understood my message. And people thought I explained myself well, and liked the work that I did.  I sometimes am still surprised that I was able to pull this off. But yes, I found my voice, and I found what makes me excited in the working world, and that’s technical communication with an emphasis on e-learning and m-learning the most. (But get me started on editing “International English“, UX or content strategy as well, and my engines get revved up as well!)

Today is a big day. Today is a day I realized that I can make a big contribution to global society just being myself and truly doing what I love. I know that even with a Masters degree in my hand, I still have SO much more to learn to realize my full potential in the e-learning and m-learning world, and I’m doing my best to take what I’ve learned from my MSPTC program and move forward. And I don’t mean just academically, but what I’ve learned about myself from the experience as well.

In my last post, I talked about how important it is right now in the technical communications world to keep up with skills and teach yourself new things. The world is moving SO fast that it’s hard to keep up, even with a brand-spanking new graduate degree in hand! Even as I write this, while it might seem like I’m done, I’m far from done. I’m trying to take some online tutorials in Adobe Tech Comm Suite 3.5 software, and I’m throwing myself into an instructional design project. I need to get my feet wet in the real world, and I have to keep it moving or else I’ll miss out or fall behind quickly.  Even if your goal is not getting a Masters degree, I highly encourage you to challenge yourself with something new. The ID/TC Education Resources link above is a list of programs that I curated to help others to find additional education to help further their careers as well.  I found that NJIT’s MSPTC program fit my needs at the time I started, but I’ve since learned of some other great programs that are listed on that page.  You might learn some new skills, but you might also learn more about yourself in the process.

Other than teaching myself more software, are there plans to continue with, say, a doctoral degree? While I would love to be known as “Dr. Villegas,” I think I need some time and space to still fully realize this MSPTC degree. It hasn’t sunk in that I have it. It still seems a little surreal.  I also need time to figure out, if I do go on with further education, if it only is a matter of getting another graduate certificate, or if a PhD or EdD is what I want to do. And then…in what, and how? Perhaps, like 22 years ago, the program I want or need isn’t out there yet, so biding my time will help.

Tomorrow is a new day, and a step towards a new future as a master of technical communication. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next!

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Just let me set the record straight…

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

Right now, I’m working very hard to finish up the coursework for my Master’s degree in Technical and Professional Communications. I’ve worked for two and a half years on this, studying part-time, usually taking two classes at a time, while most of the time working full-time while also being a parent to a special needs kid. It’s a lot of work, and it’s incredibly draining, but hopefully the fruits of my labor will pay off soon enough.

Part of one of my last classes is to present my e-portfolio of my professional and academic work for prospective employers.  I fought with my professor about my e-portfolio, because while I knew I needed to take the emphasis off the academic and put it in a more professional light, I really liked how I formatted it–it reflected my personality to a “T.”  She hated it, and made me reformat the whole thing. It was an incredibly laborious process, as I had to take something that took me two years to get it to where I wanted and liked it, and totally scrap it in favor of having something else together in a fraction of the time. I still wanted it to reflect my personality as well.  So, in trying to use some new software (Adobe Muse) to help me build it, I came up with something that I thought was pretty good. Visually, it was slicker looking, and while it didn’t have all the flexibility that I had in the old one, to paraphrase Project Runway’s Tim Gunn, I made it work. Even now, there are some very minor tweaks that need to be made, but I feel like I created a really good e-portfolio that prospective employers will respect and like.

Well, some smarty pants suggested to the professor that we get outside critiques for our e-portfolios before we present them for our upcoming capstone presentations and make them “public”. Sounds like a good idea in theory, but I wasn’t too keen on it. (Mine is already public, as far as I’m concerned.) I submitted mine for review. Overall, the reviews I received back were good, although it was hard to tell from the notes what was going on with some of it. First it criticized my navigation and menu choices, and then the next moment it praised it.

The part that actually stung me the most was that one critique told me to remove my blog page from the site, as the blog was mostly repostings of other articles. Yep, you guessed it, it referred to this blog. (I had also listed my academic blog, which I plan to integrate it with this one at some point.) I was royally TICKED. Yes, I know I am reposting things from other sites in here, but there is some original information in here too. I recently read a review of another very public e-learning blog site, and it was actually PRAISED for sharing articles from other sites as it made that particular blog current and showed that the blogger was sharing current thoughts and information. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do here!

Look, I know that I’m still a beginner at this m-learning and e-learning thing. I’ve blogged for many years on different subjects. I know the blogging game, believe me.

So let me set the record straight:

While this is a blog that reflects my personal interpretations on all things m-learning, e-learning and tech comm, I also am still learning about these subjects. I can’t write about the benefits of using some Lectora trick if I’ve never used Lectora. I can’t talk about e-learning pedagogy if I’ve never taken an instructional design course. I’ve learned things about e-learning “on the streets,” so to speak. I learned through experience, not through theory. I still have SO much more to learn, and I know it. I’ve never been in denial about that. But at the same time, the purpose of this blog is not only to share MY thoughts, but to also open up the forum and share information. I want to learn more from those who read this blog, who have more experience. I want other newbie e-learning and m-learning specialists to come here and share experiences and questions through the comments. Please, voluteer to guest blog on here–I’d love it! I’m trying to build this up as an m-learning/e-learning/tech comm community, so sharing articles that I think are helpful and useful WILL be posted. And as it is, my site stats actually went up once I started sharing these articles, so I don’t think I’m going down the wrong path.

So to the person who gave me that critique, I think you need to see the bigger picture, and read more blogs. The only impression I’ve ever had of the e-learning/m-learning community is that we share. As my husband would put it–we’re sharers. I haven’t seen it in any other field I’ve been in as much as I see it in the e-learning/m-learning world, and I’m happy and glad that this community has taken me into the fold.

So the next time you see an article that is just a repost from my ScoopIt account, please know that I post it because I want to share something that I don’t know well, yet find interesting and informational that I think others would benefit too.

And I’m not taking this blog off of my e-portfolio. I’m proud of what I’ve done here, and what I continue to do here. I still have big plans for this site. I’m working offline on the Educational Resources and Links items listed in the navigation above, and I have ideas for articles I want to write but can’t get to right now. I just stopped to write this…again, just to set the record straight. Keep watching this site…it’s only a month old, and it’s just getting started…

Just bear with me in the next two weeks, as I have to finish up this semester, and term papers from hell are calling me. Please keep me in your thoughts, hoping that I can make it through these next couple of weeks with my sanity intact. 😉

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Countdown to more m-learning on TechCommGeekMom

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

A lot is going on in the TechCommGeekMom world right now. It’s crunch time in many ways…most of all with grad school.  As of this writing, I am 29 days away from graduation.  That sounds like the blink of an eye and an eternity at the same time. I have a lot going on getting all those last term papers, exams, assignments, projects and presentations due before the big day arrives.  At the same time, I’m trying to balance my home life and my work life. My work life is such that I still don’t know completely where it’s going, but I have some trajectories that I’ll let on once they are underway and I feel it’s safe enough to talk about them.

In the meantime, as I think about my work life and where I want to go with my career, I think about this blog and the things I post. A good part of the reason for this blog is to exercise my right to speak about topics that I wish to address–for better or worse-–in the tech comm, e-learning and m-learning worlds. You’ve probably seen personal articles like this one interspersed with postings that I curated from ScoopIt! and other resources. This is because I want to be able to provide not only my own ideas, but also provide information on things that I think are pertinent in m-learning, e-learning and technical communications.

With that, I would like to announce another “countdown” of sorts.  While there isn’t exactly a set time that this will be accomplished, I’m working on adding some additional features to this site. You may have noticed the additional pages in the navigation bar above.  My goal is to make TechCommGeekMom a place where all m-learning, e-learning and technical communications professionals can kick back and talk shop– kind of like kicking back on the couch in your mom’s family room.  I also want to be able to provide some resources for my fellow professionals as well. I want to build a community here, and want you to feel comfortable kicking off your shoes, putting your feet up on the coffee table, have a few snacks, and just chew the fat. (I’ve used the work “kick” a lot in this paragraph, haven’t I?)

I’ve added some new pages, as I mentioned, to try to get the community going, and I truly hope you will participate.  I’ve added a “Discussion Forums” page that actually has a link to my discussion forums page.  I had to put it on another site as the WordPress.com set-up has limitations that don’t allow me to add forums directly onto this site unless I move it to another server, and I’m not doing that right now. Gotta work within one’s means, y’know? Please feel free to join any discussions there, and add any topics–especially about m-learning.

You’ll also see Polls/Surveys. I see this as an informal opportunity to help the m-learning community get a sense of the pulse of things going on. So if you have any suggestions on a poll or survey that you’d like to see asked, let me know.

The last two pages that I’ve created– but still need to populate–are ID/TC Links and ID/TC Resources.  The Links page is meant to be something like a blogroll of sorts, to great  blogs or websites that you should read (after mine, of course). The Resources page is actually going to be an educational resources page, listing as many certificate and degree programs as I can find for instructional design and technical communications program, again especially for those who want to get into e-learning or m-learning. If any readers have any suggestions, again, please let me know so I can include either links or program suggestions on these pages.

I really look forward to the participation of m-learning, e-learning and tech comm professionals– experienced or inexperienced, young and old, Mac or PC, Android or iOS, etc. to join in on the fun.

Keep watching for these new changes! Thanks for your support! 😀

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We are living in a Material World, but I’m a Digital Literate Girl.

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

Tonight, I found out something that totally angered me. A year ago, I had applied for a scholarship, and moved heaven and earth between full-time work, taking two grad school courses and juggling motherhood of an autistic child to get this application in. I turned it in before the deadline, and according to what I could see on the application site– which was done through Moodle–(why Moodle? I have no idea.) I saw that a total of six people had applied, and two had sent the application in after deadline. So, if you took the other four people as the eligible ones (myself being one), I had a 1 in 4 chance of getting this scholarship. Pretty good odds, I would think, right? Well, I heard nothing. A year has passed, and having heard nothing at all–not even a “Sorry, Charlie” letter or note or even an announcement saying who actually won the award. Then today, I saw an email for this year’s invitation to apply to the same scholarship. I sent a note to the person who sent the email, saying that I never heard back, and I can’t apply now since I’m about to graduate, so it’s too late, but what happened?  She wrote back and said she had no record of it. I was able to pull up the record on Moodle, and sent her the screenshots that most definitely said that I had sent in all the information needed.  Her only reply was, in so many words, “Oh, sorry. It was my first year using Moodle, and I didn’t see it there.”

As you can imagine, I’m livid. It would’ve been one thing if I genuinely lost out to one of the other three applicants, but I didn’t even have a chance because somebody was not digitally literate in the tool they were supposed to use to do their job. For all I know, I could’ve won that scholarship. I could’ve certainly used the money to help pay for part of my tuition, and the clout of having that scholarship award on my resume would’ve looked great. But no, because of someone else’s ineptitude, I didn’t even have a shot at it. If you understood the rage I have about this, I’m almost speechless (which is saying a lot coming from my big mouth).

It got me thinking about digital literacy.  I looked for a definition, and the following is what was listed on Wikipedia:

Digital literacy is the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and analyze information using digital technology. It involves a working knowledge of current high-technology, and an understanding of how it can be used. Further, digital literacy involves a consciousness of the technological forces that affect culture and human behavior. [1] Digitally literate people can communicate and work more efficiently, especially with those who possess the same knowledge and skills.

So, I feel I used the term of “digital illiterate” for this person running the scholarship correctly. She works for a place that I happen to know is technologically “hooked up”, and still… this. And I had to think about what it means to be digitally literate as well, and how it relates to my quest to be involved in m-learning.

My thinking, for better or worse, is that hopefully the use of m-learning will make people more digitally literate. I’m always amazed at how many people in the working world–especially those who work in networked and digitized offices–are not digitally literate. It’s one thing not to know how to use a particular program that’s a niche thing with that company or function, but really– not to know how to use Word? Or basics of Excel? Or how to send an email? REALLY? Maybe it’s because I’ve been into computers in one way or another for the past 30 years (I really did start when I was a kid not much older than my son!), that I always knew that I had to keep up with technology as best as I could, or else I knew I’d be left behind. In fact, during my stay-at-home-mom years, I did fall behind a little bit, and I’m still catching up professionally due to that.

With the proliferation of mobile devices, how can anyone NOT at least start to become more digitally literate? Technology is everywhere, and just using a smartphone to gain information is a form of being digitally literate. If a digital device helps you do your job better and more efficiently, and you know how to use that tool, then you are digitally literate. If you can’t be bothered to learn the technology given to you to make your job and responsibilities work correctly, then you are a digital illiterate.  If you don’t know how to use your digital tools, then you need to either learn through some means, whether m-learning, e-learning, a book or even just asking another person. Is that so much to ask? No, I don’t think so. The world is moving too fast to not keep up with these things.

So, while there are those who might be more focused on material things, like the Material Girl, I prefer to be the digital literate girl. Always doing my best to keep up with the digital tools I need to use, always trying to add new ones to my repertoire, and trying to keep up with technology so I can try to do whatever it is I’m doing better! We need less Material Girls and more Digital Literate Girls, if you ask me.

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Infographic: About the Gamification of Education

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

Via Scoop.it – M-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

A great game player has all the good characters that schools desire to see from their students. What elements of gaming can we harness for educational purposes?

Via www.classroom-aid.com