A Reflection on
Independent Study – Georgetown College – SP2012
Lucas M. Gravitt
Lucas M. Gravitt
As I was
deciding on which technology elective to take this spring, I am so very glad
that no class being offered interested me.
Not to say that Georgetown College does not offer good classes, but I
truly was not interested in any being offered during this semester. After working with Dr. Andrea Peach, I
designed this independent study course to explore the use of mobile devices in
the classroom, evaluate applications currently designed, and to learn how to
design my own application. It was a fun
time indeed.
As I began
on my journey (as I called it frequently on my blog site), I was excited to
research and find articles pertaining to the topics in which I was
interested. After scouring over probably
30 articles, I had found 12 that made sense for me to write a reaction blog
post about. This really gave me an idea
of where the world of technology in education was, where it has been, and where
it is going. Having posted my reactions
and reviews on the blog (and subsequently on Twitter and Facebook), I was quite
excited to see that there were more than a few people reading my posts and
enjoying what I had to say. To date, I
have had nearly 300 viewers on my blog, from nine different countries (in North
America, Europe, Asia, and Australia).
One thing I learned during the process was completely not predicted; with
social media, one can truly be connected with the world.
After
attending the KySTE conference in Louisville in March, I was reinvigorated in
my quest of app development. Having
attended several great sessions of apps, use of iPods/iPhones/iPads in the
classroom, I came away with a greater awareness of the power of technology. One session in particular spoke volumes to
me: Build Your Own App. Even though the
presenter had some technology glitches, she shared a variety of methods of how
one can create their own app, and discussed how to go through the process of
becoming an Apple Developer to be able to place your app on the marketplace (I’m
at that stage now). I am forever
grateful for the experience and I highly recommend this conference to any
teacher or administrator.
As I began
to make my app, after reading about XCode and other app coding wares, I
realized that without several hours each day, I needed to find a nice template
to help my design. I chose to use
ibuildapp.com to help me on this process.
I played around with graphics some, decided exactly what it was that I
wanted to present, and then started making it happen. It is so much easier than you would
expect. As I tried to link some things
from my classroom website, I found that our district and school’s website is by
no means mobile friendly. I plan to
enter into discussions with our tech-gurus to discuss the implementation of a
mobile friendly website.
As I have
designed lukasedtech (my blog portal where my work is posted) to be a platform
from which I will launch my consulting firm, I am more than thankful for all of
the support from instructional technology people around the world. I have been asked to start writing for
kyedtech blog, have made contacts in Europe, and in conversations with someone
to perhaps begin working in developing Africa as broadband access and device
availability is expanding. The
possibilities are endless and I am thankful that this class enabled me to
discover and learn content in which I was most interested.
From this
point on, the lukasedtech blog will be used solely for promotion and consulting
as I continue to expand my skills and begin to change the world of
instructional technology. I look forward to giving presentations at local, regional, and national conferences - and hope to be able to continue to better education through the use of technology. Thank you.
