Lifelong Learning Journey Reflection with Academic Mentor
“Self-reflection is a humbling process. It’s essential to find out why you think, say, and do certain things – then better yourself.” ― Sonya Teclai
Introduction
Taking time to reflect, back in 2011, I was working on one of a more recent teaching and learning projects ePortfolios and Learning, throughout my career and academic work, with my longtime lifelong teacher, mentor, colleague and friend (image above), Becki Williams. It was through that project (one of many through the years since we first met in 1998), when we were working on a new core curriculum committee project within the Dallas County Community College District that she introduced me to, and many others to the idea of "folio thinking." Unfortunately, at that time, our beloved antiquated district, was simply not ready for innovative, forward "folio" thinking and learning, with the use of educational technology tools like Foliotek. Not long after the intensive work of many subcommittees within our NEW Core Curriculum committee work, led by Becki Williams and her team, the district unilaterally made the decision to not include students being required to collect, select, reflect, and connect upon their learning experiences as a graduation requirement, for the some hundred-thousand students within our district of seven colleges (each of them individually accredited at that time) . Many of the district's educators, including me, did not agree with this decision at that time, and although students creating and maintaining an ePortfolio was no longer a requirement, there are still to this day, February 27, 2021, ten years later educators within our district (newly reorganized into a single accredited, unified Dallas College corporately modelled organization) ,who are including ePortfolio work, and "folio thinking" into their individual content course work, thanks to the dedication and many innovative and forward "folio" thinking, cooperative learning, and droves of other work that Becki Williams, has led those initiatives and work throughout her 40 year career in academia and even now as she has entered retirement, she continues to lead everything she does through being the true leader, others should, can, and do learn from and work with. I am blessed to have met Becki in introduction of chemistry during the summer of 1998, as well as her taking me (and many others to this day), under her wings to be a leading lifelong learner. Becki Williams actively leads everything she does in life, as she always has, as a "lifelong living example," and a genuine and true servant leader! Thank you Becki for everything you continue to lead by example in your daily living!A couple of years ago, I was invited to assist an autistic student named Jason, who was taking a freshman level college introduction to chemistry course from a fellow colleague of mine, and professor, Becki Williams at Richland College. Becki informed me that Jason wasn't doing well five weeks into the sixteen-week semester course and he needed additional help. Although I had never worked directly with an autistic student before, I have worked with many other students with various other disabilities throughout my academic career. So, upon agreeing to help Jason, first, I met with Becki Williams, his chemistry professor to determine from her what issues he was having in class, so we could then develop a plan to help him. Becki then introduced me to Jason. Following introductions, Jason and I decided that we would get together several times a week to work on designated chemistry learning objectives that Becki facilitated in class. Initially, the first two face-to-face tutoring interactions (using a traditional marker board and textbook in a small conference room on campus) between Jason and me didn't seem to be going well. Jason would not make eye-contact with me, he was socially awkward, and unbeknownst to me, his specific disability with autism, impaired his communication, and left him emotionally detached. This obviously interfered with his ability to comprehend the chemistry concepts he needed to learn in a classroom setting with other students who weren’t like him. In addition, I was observing that he wasn’t able to give me his undivided attention in this setting. So, reluctantly to me and his professor, I suggested that Jason and I attempt to do his chemistry tutoring online via our colleges online learning management system, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and Jason agreed. Our next tutoring session began with me sending him specific instructions on working with the technology applications, and how to get logged in and setup with Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. I also sent him a tutorial video showing him (with his mother’s assistance) how to navigate in that online environment.
Once he was all setup online with his mother and me guiding him through the technology, we were ready to begin tutoring. It didn’t take very long for me to observe through our online interactions that Jason, was now in his element. He suddenly became focused and enthusiastic about learning the content, and he was interacting and actively engaging me using the technology. He was no longer hindered from learning. It truly made me excited to see a completely different side of him, despite his developmental disabilities that were being exacerbated in public, with face-to-face classroom interactions. He began asking me questions throughout our tutoring sessions that led me to conclude that he was comprehending the complex concepts. This online tutoring experience went so well just after the first week, that he and I chose to work through the remainder of the semester’s chemistry tutoring through online only.
Reflection
One thing that is neat that I have learned with using a proprietary digital portfolio product through my decade long use of, working with, and exploring other technology resources (that I was challenged this semester in my ETEC-054-01W course), is that although this technology tool choice to use for your digital portfolio has a reasonable cost associated with it to use and maintain, it is a robust technology rich resources that they have continued to make improvements to on a regular basis, it allows you to create your own url for your portfolio, it provides for additional storage space for your ePortfolio resources, this company makes improvements to the software that foster "folio thinking," including page prompts to guide you with what information should be placed on a certain page etc., it allows you to create and maintain as many portfolios within your account that you would like to create, and finally, it allows you to provide and share a feedback page so that others can send you constructive feedback on your portfolio, which you can then make improvements to. There is more on this in the third Blog I created in my Introductory to Educational Computing that I have included a link to that Blog in another area of this portfolio for your reference.Mentor, Leader, Teacher