From Papyrus to Pixels: Rebranding Educators for Careers in EdTech

Concurrent Session 1

Brief Abstract

This express workshop is a DIY professional development session for advancement in the evolving positions in EdTech. The purpose of this interactive session is to provide participants strategies for self-identifying educational skills, showcase their strengths in EdTech in higher education, and to prepare accelerate their future career in Edtech. The session includes three topics: Reuse, Rebrand, and Recycle transferable skills to prepare you for your next career in Edtech. Learning how to decode the skills gaps for the position of your dreams. Take a skills inventory. Explore e-portfolios. Take away a micro-learning tool to get started as an Edtech professional.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Melissa McCartney, University of Phoenix

Educational thought leader with extensive experience in instructional and curriculum design. My background includes delivery and design of effective curriculum and training methods for faculty development and to improve student outcomes performance in higher education, vocational, and K-12 environments. I am looking forward to meeting you at OLC!

Co-presenter: Holly Rick, Walden University

My name is Holly Rick and I am full time faculty for Walden University in the PhD Management program. I was a Research and Assessment librarian for the University of Phoenix. Prior to this role, I was the Campus College Chair for the School of Advanced Studies in Business. I have taught in higher education for the past 10 years, have mentored students through their graduate and doctoral research, and own an Arizona based company. I have my PhD in Organization and Management specializing in Leadership, a MBA, and Master’s degree in Information and Library Science. My research interests are in management and leadership within academic libraries, specifically in mentoring and career paths. I work on professional development opportunities for librarians and mentoring opportunities in academic libraries and preparing the future librarian for the challenges that they will face them in the changing digital environment. My research has been focused on mentoring and professional development of mortgage women. I have continued this research into the library science profession.

Tags

OLC Accelerate 2017 Professional Development and Support Approaches Blended Certification Collaboration Competencies Effectiveness Engagement Faculty Faculty development Faculty roles Instructor experience Instructors Models Online Online community Professional development Staff development Support Teaching Training Transformation

Extended Abstract

This express workshop is a DIY professional development session for advancement in the evolving positions in EdTech. The purpose of this interactive session is to provide participants strategies for self-identifying educational skills, showcase their strengths in EdTech in higher education, and to prepare accelerate their future career in Edtech. The session includes three topics: Reuse, Rebrand, and Recycle transferable skills to prepare you for your next career in Edtech. Learning how to decode the skills gaps for the position of your dreams. Take a skills inventory. Explore e-portfolios. Take away a micro-learning tool to get started as an Edtech professional.

Reuse: 
We will begin the express workshop with a hands-on opportunity for participants to explore the skills that they already possess that would make them competitive applicants for positions in EdTEch.  The participants have the chance to take a skills inventory assessment to identify their transferable skills. We will provide a collaborative opportunity for the audience to participate in small groups to brainstorm and identify transferable skills in desirable positions and collaborate how these skills play key roles in EdTech. 

As a group, we will discuss the common skill sets from the EdTech positions highlighted in several roles. The participants would have a takeaway of transferable skills that they identify using the SIPSOP for jobs in EdTech.

Rebrand:
The purpose of the Rebrand portion of the workshop is to enable participants to identify required skills and skill gaps in for those looking for jobs in Edtech. This topic is targeted to audiences transitioning to positions in online higher education and established online educational workers ready to take their next step. We will show the bridge from educational jobs in on-ground, brick and mortar institutions, to current jobs in EdTech while thinking about positions in the not-so-distant future. We examine the job postings for common of on-ground institutions. After a demonstration, participants will have the opportunity to create word frequency queries for job requirements, desired skills, and experience using open-use software.  We will compare the job posting for on-ground curriculum developers to online E-learning Instructional Designers for commonalities and expose skill gaps. The second job evolution that we will highlight is the role of traditional librarian and the E-librarian who also assumes the role of Information Literacy Advisor and requires many of the skills of instructional designers. The third job rebranding we will examine is the traditional faculty job posting compare to online faculty.  This job evolution demonstrates the culture of adjunct faculty members at multiple institutions in contrast to tenure-track professors.

We would request audience participation to identify the transferable skills from the word queries. Finally, we will introduce positions in EdTech that are emerging that participants may want to explore. These positions include Learning Content Managers, Learning Management System Architects, and Learning Technology Project Managers.

To wrap up this section, we will facilitate a collaborative discussion about how to fill the skill gaps for the identified EdTech jobs and other positions. The discussion will focus on opportunities for participants to seek professional development opportunities, including certificates professional organizations and associations, Lynda.com, Treehouse, blogging, contributing to journals, opportunities within organizations, and MOOCs.  As a takeaway, participants receive access to a resource dashboard for professional development opportunities.

Recycle: 
The final topic of the session synthesizes the information from the Rebrand and Reuse topics by demonstrating to the participants the value of e-portfolios in the EdTech jobs search to showcase skills and experience. E-portfolios are a growing trend that are like the Tinder of resumes.  We want the future employers to swipe right when they see an interactive and engaging e-portfolio, and not swipe because they see another boring resume. First, we will look at how to turn a resume or curriculum vitae into an e-portfolio by examining what types of items are better to show than to tell.  We will provide an opportunity for participants to collaborate to brainstorm concrete examples of expressed skills in a demonstrable way. We will provide the participants with examples of exemplary e-portfolios, as well as an evaluation tool for less than stellar portfolio.  The takeaway for this section is a Tips and Guide sheet with information on how to create an e-portfolios, elements that e-portfolios need to include, and recommendations on DIY websites. 

 

Participants will be able to:

  • Assess their transferable professional skills
  • Create word frequency queries for required skills in desired positions
  • Identify their skill gaps for those desired positions
  • Identify professional development opportunities to fill the skills gap
  • Investigate e-portfolios as a tool to showcase transferable skills

 

Materials for a micro-learning dashboard for participants:

  •  Word query results
  •  Nvivo
  •  Dedooc
  •  Job posting sites
  •  Transferable skills assessment
  •  SIPSOP
  •  E-portfolio examples
  •  Dos and Don'ts Tips
  •  Professional development opportunities (Lynda, Treehouse, list of organizations) 

References:

Denicolo, P & Reeves, J. (2014) Developing transferable skills: Enhancing your research and employment potential. Sage, Los Angeles.

Eynon, B., Gambino, L.M., & Torok, J. (2014). What difference can an ePortfolio make? A field report from the connect to learning project. International Journal of ePortfolio, 4(1), 96-114. http://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=n...

Guder, C. (2013). The ePortfolio: A tool for professional development, engagement, and lifelong learning. Public Services Quarterly, 9(3), 238-245.

Kang, Y., & Ritzhaupt, A. (2015). A job announcement analysis of educational technology professional positions: Knowledge, skills, and abilities. Journal of Educational Technology, 43(3), 231-256. 

Lorenzo, G., & Ittelson, J. (2005). An overview of e-portfolios. ELI Paper 1: 2005. https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3001.pdf 

Maceli, M. (2015). What technology skills do developers need? A text analysis of job listings in library and information science (LIS) from jobs.code4lib.org. Information Technology and Libraries (Online), 34(3), 8-21.

Ritzhaupt, A., Martin, F., & Daniels, K. (2010). Multimedia competencies for an educational technologist: A survey of professionals and job announcement analysis. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 19(4), 421-449. 

Sugar, W., Hoard, B., Brown, A., & Daniels, L. (2011). Identifying multimedia production competencies and skills of instructional design and technology professionals: An analysis of recent job postings. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 40(3), 227-249. 

Ward, C. & Moser, C. (2008). E-Portfolios as a hiring tool: Do employers really care? EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 31(4), p. 13-14. http://er.educause.edu/articles/2008/11/eportfolios-as-a-hiring-tool-do-...