Making my MTA a practical exercise – beyond the construction of its curriculum – was always a key objective right from the outset.
I wanted to be able to demonstrate what I had learned from my self-declared master’s degree by building up a wide-ranging portfolio of practical projects – this is why I refer to my master’s degree as being my MTA Portfolio.
But more so than just having a set of practical projects that demonstrate my competencies, I wanted each of those projects to serve as springboards into ongoing personal and professional endeavours that extend beyond the conclusion of my MTA.
The key to future-proofing your life is laying the foundation for that future now.
ibuiltmyown.education is the foundation on which I am building and showcasing the final projects of my MTA Portfolio.
The final projects are also the remaining elements that need to be added to the site before I can call it fully completed.
Now that I have the site in a presentable form, with its new homepage and about page, I can get back to completing the final projects.
Ten concentrations means ten final projects
Ten final projects might seem a bit excessive but when you consider I have studied over 800 online courses for my MTA Portfolio, then ten final projects are tame in comparison.
The number of final projects varied while I was constructing the curriculum of my MTA, but once I settled on my two majors both possessing five sub-concentrations each, giving each concentration its own final project seemed like the most logical conclusion.
In the same way that my final projects are springboards for further endeavours, I also see them as the capstones for each of the concentrations.
The current state of my final projects
So far, I have two final projects more or less finished and documented on this site…
- Not Your Average Life Coach (final project for the Leadership and Management concentration) is completed and fully documented on this site.
- Biohacking my Personal Fitness (final project for the Public Health and Personal Fitness concentration) is about half completed and half documented on this site.
I have a further three projects in near completed states, they are just lacking their write-ups on this site…
- Fixing My Finances (final project for the Business Administration and Finance concentration)
- Creative Technologies Sandbox (final project for Multimedia Studies and Creative Technologies)
- I Built My Own Education (final project for the Education Innovation concentration)
Paradoxically, even when I do post up all the components for the I Built My Own Education final project the project won’t be fully completed because one of the components is this very website and the website won’t be completed until I have ALL the final projects presented on the site.
And there are five additional projects to do that have had relatively little work put into them…
- Final project for Global Citizenship
- Final project for Environmental Sustainability
- Final project for Information Management and Career Development
- Final project for Marketing and Brand Management
- Final project for Creative Producing and Entrepreneurship
Hence why they are not represented on this site yet.
The other five final projects
The focuses of the other five final projects are still not definite.
I can only devote so much of my time and attention to two, maybe three, projects at any one time.
Therefore, most of my effort is being directed towards the more completed projects in order to get them fully completed and written up on this site.
Then I can bring my focus back to the five remaining projects.
I have some ideas for the other five projects.
I have even created a few things that could be incorporated as components of future final projects.
But these ideas could change.
I’ve always maintained an open mind with my MTA.
I’ve also always operated with an integrative learning experience which means I am resourceful with my time and use as much of what is happening in my day-to-day life to fulfil the requirements of my MTA.
A perfect example is what happened with my Not Your Average Life Coach project… I started a life coaching side hustle without ever intending to incorporate it into my MTA Portfolio until I realised that it would be the perfect final project for my Leadership and Management concentration.
The focuses of the other five final projects are currently in a state of flux.
Who’s to say what unexpected opportunities will come up in the next year or so that will determine their eventual directions.
Equally who’s to say what opportunities I can engineer from the ideas I am currently toying with for the other five.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
The final push will take as long as it takes (but hopefully no more than another two years)
The idea to do the final projects was always there, but I didn’t start to undertake them until 2018.
Retroactively some of the final project elements were started long before 2018.
A key example is my Creative Technologies Sandbox, some of the elements of that project were never intended to be incorporated into my MTA Portfolio.
But active and substantial development of my final projects didn’t begin until 2018 and didn’t really start to get into full swing until 2019.
I have just continued to chip away at my final projects since then.
Each of my final projects are split into components which are basically just mini-projects or assignments.
On the one hand, having separate components simplifies the process of completing the projects because it means I can split them up into smaller tasks that I can do around my other life commitments.
On the other hand, it has complicated the process of finishing the projects because I tend to leapfrog between the components of different projects without ever finishing a full project (aside from my Not Your Average Life Coach one).
But that’s just the way I work and, overall, all the projects are benefitting from this drawn-out process because competencies and elements of one project are always rubbing off on the other ones.
For instance, the web design skills I developed while building my Not Your Average Life Coach website have been fully utilised and further honed while building ibuiltmyown.education.
If anything, leapfrogging between projects only strengthens and further demonstrates the transdisciplinary nature of my MTA Portfolio.
Another major hurdle has been the lack of a presentable portfolio site to showcase my projects on.
That problem was further exasperated by the fact that the building of ibuiltmyown.education was itself a component of a final project.
A component I have only now brought to a satisfactory state of presentable development.
Now that I do have a presentable portfolio website on which to present my final projects, the undertaking and write-ups of each final project will speed up.
Ideally, I would like to have them all finished by the end of next year.
But, realistically, I can’t see their conclusion coming about until the end of 2025.
I will just have to keep pushing myself until I have all the projects developed, finished and documented on their respective pages on this site.
This site can then serve the purpose for which it was first built – being the interactive diploma of my completed master’s degree.