Ed Tech Hacks

The Graduate School Dilemma

I’ve decided that I will not be finishing our my Master’s degree at the University of Missouri - but the dilemma has presented itself: I don’t know where I actually want to finish my degree.

Long story short with Mizzou: I am unsatisfied enough with the courses provided, (some) instructors who teach them, and their general level of service to their students that I don’t want another dime of mine to go to them. (If you’d like more detail, I’d be happy to elaborate, but this post has another purpose.)

I’ve started looking at several programs, but I have strict criteria. I’m looking for an educational technology/instructional design Master’s degree, from an accredited college/university. The program has to be completely online, or within very reasonable driving distance (I’m in the northern Chicago suburbs - so anything downtown is out - that’s a 2h drive each way). It has to have some repuatation - either well-known or by word-of-mouth - for good rapport with students. Transferring credits I already have is nice, but not mandatory.

Here’s where I’m considering:

• Western Governor’s University (MEd in either Instructional Design or “Learning and Technology”)
• University of Illinois (MEd in E-Learning)
• Ellis College - New York Institute of Technology (MS in Instructional Technology)
• Roosevelt University (MA in Training and Development)
• Southern Illinois University - Carbondale (MSEd in Workforce Education & Development)

The last 2 have the benefit of being online/blended, with a resource center/library/advisers/etc. not far from where I live. WGU sends me email once or twice a week, which is starting to really annoy me. Other than that, I’m still up in the air.

Anyone have any experience, anecdotes, or the like about any of these schools?

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Education, Technology, and Design Conference Calendar

This is a project I’ve been working on for a while - a comprehensive calendar that includes all the big “can’t-miss” conferences in education, technology, design, training, and anything relevant to Ed Tech. As of right now, I only have about 50% or so of the conferences I want to have on here, but I need to get back to writing. =)

(I know T.H.E. has a similar calendar, but I don’t really like it’s display options; Confabb has many of these conferences listed as well, but you have to search through a lot of results to get what you need. So here’s my attempt at simplicity - yet another format you can choose!)

It’s in Google Calendar format, so you can either add it to your own calendars if you use Google Calendar already (by clicking the button at the bottom of the calendar with the blue +), or grab the iCal feed to add it to any calendar software or program that supports iCal.

So… did I miss anything important? Want your conference on the calendar? Did I get a date wrong? Let me know in the comments or by email - I plan to keep this continually updated, and finish up 2008 in the coming weeks!

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