Sunday, May 15, 2016

Looking Forward to this Class

 I'm looking forward to this class!  I am in the MA program in Adult Learning and my research project is going to involve how to use new and emerging technology to improve outcomes in Parent Education. I am planning to use a Participatory Action Research methodology to explore parent education involving fathers in a class called the Nurturing Fathers Program.

I have worked as a parent educator for the last 11 years at my agency, Northeast Parent & Child Society, in Schenectady, New York.  I have been at the agency for 26 years.  I have watched technology grow through every aspect of what I do and when I started we kept all of our records on paper using pen to make notes.  Today, just about everything has become computerized and almost all of my records are kept on servers.

In the last three years I have really grown in my field of parent education.  I became a Tier III Senior Credentialed parent educator in NYS and am a Statewide Representative Member of the Network.  This year I was approved as a national Certified Family Life Educator  (C.F.L.E) by the National Council on Family Relations.  I have graduated from a prominent national organization (Zero to Three) as a Fellow to the Fellows Academy and have been elected to the National Parent Education Network (NPEN), as a Council member (2016-2019).

One thing that has become amazingly clear to me in my leadership roles is that high amount and degree of reliance that is being placed on technology to connect us all together and advance our work with parents and other parent educators.  There is a heavy reliance on social media and younger generations of parents and educators are really more on new media to use to teach.  There has been relatively little research in regard to the use of new and emerging technology in my field.

Many current evidence based curriculums are based on models involving: group sessions, use of video vignettes and a corresponding book to teach the classes.  This is mostly based on the last round of "revolution in teaching" parent education that dates back to the 1980's.  I am looking forward to contributing to the current wave of "revolution" in teaching using social media and technology.

One of the largest concerns in the field relate to ethical considerations.  Another concern involves the change in teaching from a "teacher centered approach to a "learner centered" view.  My theoretical belief is in shaping learning with parents and learners and having a more democratic approach to learning.

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