Graduation is quickly approaching (41 days to be exact) and I have been diligently finishing my work so I can ease through April. After three long years it is going to be something to finally walk across the stage and receive my “diploma” (degrees at Antioch New England are not conferred until July). I feel that I have really put the time into this process and I am already reaping the rewards from it. However my mind is not totally at ease about just resting on my laurels, you see I want to keep going.
I originally graduated with a three-year diploma in Sports Injury Management from Sheridan College in Oakville, Canada. I spent some time as an Athletic Trainer in a private school before making the transition to educational technology 10 years ago. Until I started at Antioch, I guess I was the poster child for an overachiever. I was successful as both a teacher and a technology coordinator. Given that I started as an intern in a private school and worked my way up to being the technology director based on hard work and regular PD courses, I think the idea of becoming an administrator is still really important to me. Hence why I pursued a Master’s in educational administration. As I graduate I still want to move forward into administration, but I feel that I still have some work to do in educational technology and that I need to find the right opportunity as an assistant principal prior to becoming a principal.
My educational philosophy is grounded in the belief that as a principal I must also be a certified teacher. One area of discomfort for me is that I am not a certified Computer Technology Educator. I feel this leaves me lacking in what I can offer my school district both now as the principal and later as a principal. So I feel that it is in my best interest to attain this certification and New Hampshire makes getting certified relatively straight forward. In fact, given that I soon will be a certified school prinicpal I could probably qualify much easier for the Computer Tech Certification, but yet something within me feels that I must move forward to formalize my ed tech competency through either another Master’s degree or Ed.S process. Right now the Ed. D seems a bit far away from me and could be a real challenge for a young family, so I am keeping that on my to do list.
Like Dorothy on her journey to the emerald city, I have come to a fork in the road. On one side the scarecrow is telling me to go this way and formalize my ed tech competency. He then flips his arms and points in the other direction telling me that I can go that way and improve my administrative competencies to become a principal. I feel really torn about this and I am happy that I have an employer who is supportive of my desires to move forward and is willing to fund them. I have kept asking myself what I would rather do and I keep coming back to Dorothy standing in front of the scarecrow. I am hoping that someone in the blogosphere might be able to help.
I will mention a couple of the programs that I have been looking at, but most importantly I think I want to go in a direction right now that does not require me to take the GRE. Some programs require it and some don’t so I have been identifying programs that do not require it or waive the requirement with a master’s degree already attained. I do wonder about the great variance in the cost per credit. Why is it that some schools charge a $170 per credit and others are over $1000? Is that just price gouging or is there a real difference in the content? Another thing, why can’t more schools offer ed tech master’s completely online? If you are to become a “master of educational technology” why do you have to trudge to a classroom? That is so web 1.0. Here are a couple choices I am looking at and I would love to hear from anyone who has gone there or elsewhere who might be able to guide me through my decision making process.
Boise State Educational Technology
University of Wyoming Adult Learning and Technology
University of Tennessee Instructional Technology
