This is an essay I wrote about myself as part of the application to the EdD program.
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As an introduction I would like to say that I have been following the development of this program for several years, and have found it appealing for many reasons as I will describe below. I think it is a very exciting opportunity for UTC to have a great impact on the education community in this area and potentially around the world. I have a strong desire to participate in and contribute to such a program and I feel that UTC is well-equipped to deliver this degree.
A portion of my interest in this program is to be able to explore some ideas I have about children’s education television programs and the future uses of digital television and broadband in this area. I believe that local public television stations will have a great opportunity to expand their educational programming in the very near future. I hope to be able to study and experiment with locally produced programs that take advantage of available resources in technology, local educational content, and local curriculum experts. Either during or after completing my degree I would like to be involved in the creation of a new, locally-produced children’s TV program that uses the best practices in teaching language, math, history, and science to elementary school children while enabling parents and educators with additional tools to facilitate learning.
Another obvious goal that I have is personal advancement. I love what I do, but I certainly want to move onward and upward personally, as well as expanding the services and level of support that my department at the university provides. Hopefully new positions can be created on this campus to provide leadership and support of our growing uses of technology and I would love to be able to remain at UTC in such a capacity. Another direction I may take is to pursue a teaching career, which up to this point in my life has never been my primary occupation. I have provided a great deal of support for instructors and worked to provide programs that provide learning opportunities to students, but the majority of my teaching has been as an adjunct professor or in very short Continuing Education courses. With this degree I would like to become better prepared for a new professional venture in my life, whether that is in an administrative role related to technology or in a position as faculty-member in and educational institution.
The timing of this program’s inception and hopefully my being admitted to it could not be more perfect. I made a commitment to myself in the last year to follow-up on my research into graduate programs and apply to several schools. After hearing about this program’s approval I believe I was one of the first to call for application information. This program is a perfect match for me because my skills and interests cover a wide range. With undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and Sociology, which I followed with a Master’s in English, I often have to explain myself to people who ask, why do you work in television? It’s hard enough to explain exactly what I do for people without even going into the wide-ranging educational background. I have been blessed with opportunities to follow educational interests that appealed to me at the time and each field of study has enriched my life. With more time I would potentially follow other interests, such as geology or geography, or I am also very interested in some lower-level electronics courses offered by community colleges. However, my chief motivation in pursuing this degree at this time is to bring my wide range of interests full-circle, to maximize my skills and leadership ability for whatever opportunities lie ahead. What can I say except that I love to learn.
In the coming years I see two career paths that I may follow. The first would be to pursue an administrative role, such as a director of technology for and educational institution. I feel that this is a growing field, not just for higher education institutions, but also for K-12 schools and corporate training programs. Someone needs to be able to address the institution’s changing learning needs with the appropriate facilities, content delivery, and resources for each student. The other obvious career path I see is to transition from instructional support to actual instruction. I do enjoy teaching and each year I find myself more engaged with my students in the courses that I teach here at UTC and with the student projects for which I serve as a faculty advisor. I am still considering an alternate plan of pursuing a Ph. D. in Mass Communications in order to be able to teach full-time with a university, but I find option to be somewhat limiting. It might be the best choice if I ever do decide to pursue teaching, but at this point the Ed. D. in Learning and Leadership is my first choice for furthering my education and expanding my potential.
There are several attributes of this program that appeal to me. One of the strengths that I see is this program’s diversity in faculty. I know many professors at UTC that have a great deal to offer in the areas of leadership and learning, areas which are not specific to one field of study. Another feature of this program is that participants from various backgrounds in education have an opportunity to focus on how to adjust the learning paradigms of their educational institutions for inevitable changes in delivery of teaching and assessment of learning. Finally, being a brand-new endeavor for the University, this program is an excellent opportunity for everyone involved to contribute to the exploration of teaching and learning. I believe that this first cohort of students will be able to help mold this new program, which will affect the community around us, by preparing leaders in educational institutions to deal with the challenges facing them.
I believe my wide array of educational interests and vision for using available technology and resources to address educational needs would bring a lot to this program. I want to be a part of the exciting changes that lie ahead in education. My experience as a writer, as a technology specialist, as an instructor and most importantly as a student, all work together in every project I am involved with. I am a very practical instructor in that I understand and look for differences in learning styles in my students and try to adjust accordingly. I am also very focused on “hands-on” and experiential learning as well as assigning practical lessons that build a students portfolio of completed work and skills repertoire. I am perfectly willing to work on a team that has the goal of bettering our society and I am also willing to lead such efforts as I feel compelled to. This program would provide me with an opportunity to hone my leadership abilities; drawing upon my experiences in learning and learning from the experiences of others.