COVA Reflections 

The primary motivation for enrolling in the ADL Master's Program was to update my teaching strategies as an educator to meet the demands of current technological changes, allowing me to connect and share content with my students while making the learning experience a vivid and transformative event where they could share valuable insights while exercising their critical thinking skills. 

​

From the first courses, Disruptive Innovation and My E-Portfolio, it was foreseen that when conceptualizing my innovative proposal, Digital Journals Within a Blended Learning Environment, I would need to construct an educational concept in accordance with the new guidelines of cutting-edge educational philosophies offered in the ADL Master's Program. We were given the freedom to develop a proposal to address a demand in our schools and workplaces. With this freedom came the responsibility of how to propose to resolve the educational demand of provoking young learners to write literary responses to a given text while developing our voices on how we communicate and deliver our solutions to our audience of interest. We also had the opportunity to build our perspective through interacting with authentic learning opportunities. COVA It's About Learning (Harapnuik, 2017), which stands for choice (C), ownership (O), and voice (V) through  (A) authentic learning opportunities, is a student-centered framework driving our innovative proposal. At the outset, the experience was overwhelming; we encountered difficulties engaging with various projects. The exemplary links provided in Dr. Harapnuik's ePortfolio facilitated a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter; however, we needed to develop the capacity to navigate with considerable autonomy and maintain our focus on the project at hand. Balancing the program's demands with other professional responsibilities was challenging, but we gradually learned to manage our time more effectively and prioritize tasks. Nevertheless, we began to appreciate the merits of this freedom of choice, recognizing its significance in enabling us to articulate our ideas and decision-making process. 

​

In Concepts of Educational Tech, when adopted by people and organizations, a Growth Mindset Plan (Dweck, 2006) can turn challenges and difficulties into chances for ongoing growth and progress. For instance, it teaches us “The Power of Yet.” In the growth mindset, the term 'yet' is more than just a simple word; it acts as a powerful instrument. It represents a belief in opportunities and development, allowing us to enhance our skills without feeling overwhelmed by the urgency of “already.”  “Yet,” as a word, it can inspire significant learning moments and foster ongoing growth.

​

 Understanding by Design enabled us to approach our planning with the end result in mind. Learning facilitators and educators must structure their lessons around the intended performance outcomes to ensure achievement.

​

Knowing what I know now, I would have explored a variety of apps to help me perform better and more expertly in the master's program and ease the anxiety factor. For example, before starting the program, I would have explored more apps such as Canva to create a slide show, a blog, a podcast, or a video on YouTube, Lumino, or Powtoon because tools such as these enable digital content creators to communicate with their audience. At the end of the day, if you post on an e-portfolio, you become a digital content creator and a learning facilitator. 

​

Our attitude toward leading change in my school organization has improved, prompting us to feel more secure and convinced to propose Digital Journals Within a Blended Learning Environment as a pilot program to our dual language team. We plan to conduct professional development sessions by organizing learning activities based on Allison Gulamhussein's (2013) Five Principles of Effective Professional Development: duration, support, engagement, modeling, and content specification. Developing Effective Alternative Professional Learning will assist educators in reaching their goals and meeting their young learners' needs. Our audacious goal communicates to educators the benefits that the joint implementation of the Blended Learning (Horn et al., 2017) and COVA (Harapnuik et al., 2018) educational framework models may provide, particularly in terms of promoting language proficiency and developing critical thinking skills in young language learners. Using the 4DX framework by a second-grade team to aid students in establishing online writing diaries is a practical application of this framework in an educational setting. This strategy has the potential to improve our educational outcomes significantly. The Four Disciplines of Execution is a framework designed to refocus our efforts on achieving meaningful change, focusing first on the wildly important issues; it requires you, as a leader, to intentionally focus on less so that your team can accomplish more (McChesney et al., 2021). 

The six sources of influence in The Influencer Mode helped us more fully understand what to do as a leading change factor. They also assisted us in creating a framework for promoting change by consistently using a critical mix of all six sources of influence ( J. Grenny, 2013, p.67 ). 

 

All of this planning emanates from a compelling reason for doing things. Our Why motivates us to focus on reaching our learning goals. Our Why believes that instilling in children the ability to write empowers them to articulate themselves clearly, analyze situations objectively, and communicate effectively within their community and the world. 

​

 We created an Implementation Outline strategy to improve our time management abilities and researched and acquired relevant information about our chosen field of study. This procedure allowed us to make well-informed decisions based on acquired data. In Assessing Digital Learning Instruction, we updated our  Literature Review This literature review investigates the transformative benefits of blended learning (Horn et al., 2017) combined with the COVA approach: Choice (C), ownership (O), and voice (V) transforming the learning experience through  (A) authentic learning opportunities (Harapnuik et al., 2018), primarily through the implementation of digital writing journals that encourage students to express and share their ideas and discoveries with the larger school community. This strategy uses digital and active learning tools to provide students with authentic learning experiences that allow them to internalize and apply their information in and out of the classroom and in real-life settings. 

​

My Innovative Proposal is authentic in the manner that it supports active learning with the combination of Blended Learning (Horn et al., 2017) and the COVA Approach  (Harapnuik et al., 2018), giving our young language learners freedom of choice, encouraging them to make their own decisions on the way they want to present academic content. By implementing this approach, young language learners will have a more engaging experience with the creative writing process, allowing them to customize their points of view and reflect on what they have learned while also taking advantage of the opportunity to present different ways of expressing their thoughts more vividly via online technology.

 

 In Creating Learning Environments, we reflect on how the COVA approach and Creating Significant Environments (CSLE) are foundational concepts that deeply resonate with my Learning by Doing Philosophy but through slightly different views. 

The COVA and CSLE frameworks highlight the importance of learner autonomy and producing meaningful learning experiences consistent with my learning philosophy. The  COVA It's About Learning approach is compatible with my ideas because it places students at the center of the educational process. Students flourish when they can make decisions about their learning, accept responsibility for their academic experiences, and share their thoughts in the classroom. In a similar spirit, the Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE) concept emphasizes the need to design learning experiences that are both meaningful and engaging. The most effective method for facilitating learning is "learning by doing." Learning occurs best when learners actively engage in critical thinking rather than passively absorbing knowledge to be memorized. Memorization fades; however, learning by doing allows the learner to make inferences and solve issues and situations that memory alone cannot address.

​

  Constructivism is an educational concept that encourages students to expand their knowledge and awareness of the world by engaging in experiences and reflecting on those experiences to make conclusions. According to this viewpoint, learning is an active cognitive process in which learners integrate their existing knowledge and experiences to make meaning of newly learned material.