Executive MPA Capstone Project
The Role of Technology in Building Leadership Capacity for Public Service
Kathy Glanville
June 11th, 2011
Problem Statement
• What role should technology play in building leadership capacity for public
sector leaders in the context of the Executive Masters of Public Administration
program at Portland State University?
Research Questions
• What does the literature tell us about the history, current use and emerging
trends of educational technology?
• How was educational technology used throughout the 2009 Cohort EMPA
Program?
• What were EMPA student’s expectation and perceptions of the use of
technology throughout the 2009 Cohort EMPA Program?
• Based on what those three questions tell us, what are the existing gaps and
what would be the optimal alignment look like in using educational technology
in the EMPA Program?
Literature Review
• Historical Context of Educational Technology
• Techno-Centric Thinking
• Current Trend
• Learner Centric – Lifelong Learning
• Emerging Trends
Emerging Educational Technologies
• Learning Management Systems and Personal Learning Environments
• Courseware – Blackboard or Desire2Learn
• HyFlex Course Model
• Combination of Face to Face and Elearning Solutions
• Eportfolios
• Digital way to capture learning activities, reflective practice and collaboration
• Lecture Capture
• Digital Recordings of in class lectures
• Data Visualization
• New technologies for presenting data
• Mobile Learning
•
• Digital Divide between Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants
Web 2.0 Technology
• Blogs, Wikis, Social Networking
Content Analysis of EMPA Curriculum for Use of
Educational Technology
Analysis of 2009 EMPA Cohort Educational
Technology Survey
•
Majority of Cohort Mainstream Adopters
•
Preference for Moderate Level of Technology for Learning
•
Main benefit of using – Communicate and interact with other cohort members
•
Main benefit for learning – Online sharing of additional resources and having access
to other points of view
•
Main barrier to using – inconsistent use from course to course
•
Main frustration – inconsistent use from course to course
Conclusions
• Use educational technology to bring new learning opportunities to the EMPA
Program, but do so with the learner and learning objectives as the driver
• Use educational technology to bring engaging and active learning to the EMPA
Program
• Establish a framework around making decisions regarding which educational
technology to bring to the program
• Cohort members stressed the importance of face to face time
• Awareness of digital immigrants
Recommendations
• Existing Gaps in the Use of Education Technology
• Upfront Training and Expectation Setting
• Consistent Use of LMS/Courseware
• Ongoing Assessment of the use of Educational Technology in the EMPA Program
• Optimal Alignment of the Use of Education Technology in the EMPA Program
• Expand Existing HyFlex Course Model with Web/Video Conferencing/Lecture
Capture
• Add in focus on tools for creating and understanding Data Visualization
• Eportfolios
• Use Web 2.0 Technologies to create and connect a Community of Practice