Close to the Finish Line: EDLD 5370 Web Conference

I can scarcely believe we've come to this place:  this week, I began finalizing my portfolio and writing my comprehensive exam in order to finish my master's program.  I actually attended two conferences this week:  on Tuesday, I simply hoped that someone else might have a question that I hadn't even considered.  In fact, it appeared that most people felt the same way.  Dr. Abernathy gave us some guidelines for getting started on the comprehensive exam, including recommendations for how to most effectively create the paper in APA style.  She also clarifed for the group which items should be contained on the eportfolio (wiki) versus which items should be included in the comprehensive exam.  One bit of a surprise came when Dr. Abernathy told the group to add the curriculum vitae to their comprehensives.  It is certainly not trouble to do so, but I appreciated her pointing it out specifically.

By Sunday, I was feeling some of the pressure and had my own list of questions ready for the final web conference of the week.  This conference consisted of a small, intimate group of students, most of whom I have connected with throughout the coursework.  Consequently, we were able to bounce ideas between each other and Dr. Abernathy for what I consider the most robust, productive web conference of my entire program.  My first main question was answered almost immediately:  Dr. Abernathy told us that our comprehensive exam introductions should maintain a balance between the expression of our own personal narratives and an overview of the types of material to be covered in the paper.  Later on, Dr. Abernathy addressed my concerns regarding the field-based summary reports, indicating that various activities that reflected mastery of several ISTE indicators could be crossed-referenced to indicate the connectedness of our learning and experiences.  Also, she informed us that the signed summary report would not be due on our eportfolio until the final week of the course.  I was immensely relieved to have more time to refine and organize my thoughts for those all-important reflections.  Overall, this second conference allayed many of my fears and allowed me to feel much more confident in my abilities to complete this course in time for the long-awaited December graduation date.