In Educational Technology,
Growth is Limitless
As an educator, my goal is to mold the minds of my students and foster a love for learning beyond the classroom. In doing so, I strive to create a safe and engaging learning environment, build relationships with my students, and encourage them to question, take risks and think creatively. Through each interaction that happens between my students and I, my hope is that my love for learning exudes through our conversations and motivates my students to become lifelong learners. To be able to promote lifelong learning, I realized I needed to serve as a model to my students. I wanted to represent what learning can be beyond the classroom. I wanted to further my education in an area that I knew was going to change the future of designing instruction and learning environments. That area was technology. Before continuing my journey of learning, I established a few goals for myself to keep me on track throughout the process. My first goal was to learn how to integrate and implement technology in my teaching practice. I wanted to understand the opportunities that technology offers to students and their learning environment and how it can enhance their experience. My second goal was to become an asset in my district as a technology integrator. I wanted to be able to take my knowledge and not only apply to my classroom but have opportunities to develop professional development for the educators in my district and eventually become a technology specialist, director, consultant or designer. With my goals at the center of my learning, I decided to pursue my master’s degree in educational technology. After careful consideration of different educational technology programs, I went back to my roots and I applied to Michigan State University’s program. Michigan State’s Masters of Arts in Educational Technology Program (MAET) exponentially changed my thinking and practice as an educator. During the MAET program, I also acquired a certificate in Educational Technology. Each course provided material that helped me understand my goals on a deeper level and allowed me develop more goals for my future of learning. I also learned valuable information and was immersed in meaningful activities that forward my thinking on technology.
One course that led me to accomplishing my learning goals was CEP 810, Teaching With Technology For Understanding, with Kim Powell. This course actually served as an introduction to the MAET program and I decided to take it in the first seven weeks of my Fall 2018 semester by itself. Let me tell you, I am so glad I did. I was able to devote my attention, time and creativity to the projects and assignments required by the course without any distractions from other courses taken simultaneously. I was able to understand the power of a Professional Learning Network (PLN). I was asked to identify what makes up my PLN and explore other networks that I can gain knowledge from. It was amazing to reflect on the different resources that I use to inform my teaching but also collaborate with peers and
see where they access their information. I learned to understand the importance of being connected to different outlets that help inform my learning. Also during CEP 810, I created a blog and Twitter account; which would be the platform I used to share my thoughts, ideas, reflections, and projects. I plan to continue to post on my blog and Twitter so I can be a professional learning network for other educators interested in technology integration. The blog and Twitter account has already provided me a platform to reach my initial goal upon entering the master’s program; becoming an asset to other educators.
CEP 810 also provided opportunities to immerse myself in meaningful technology activities. Each activity allowed me to express my creativity and changed my thought process on how I can have my students express their creativity through technology. I realized that technology is so much more than just another way to display content to students. I learned that technology is a tool for learning that enhances a students’ experience with content, encourages collaboration, and provides opportunities to give and receive quality feedback. One of the activities that helped change my thought process and taught me valuable information was called “Cooking With TPACK”. TPACK stands for Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge. It is the basis of effective
teaching with technology, requiring an understanding of the representation of concepts using technologies; pedagogical techniques that use technologies in constructive ways to teach content; knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn and how technology can help redress some of the problems that students face (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). For this activity, you were asked to use unconventional kitchen tools to cut vegetables. The purpose of the activity was to repurpose items for a different use; which is vital when creating learning experiences with technology. Through this experience with TPACK, I can take what I have learned and transfer it into my classroom to teach any content through technology.
Another course that has allowed me to continue my journey of learning is CEP 811, Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education, with Janine Campbell. This course built upon the work I completed in CEP 810 and gave opportunities to dig into TPACK a little deeper. I was immersed in activities that allowed me to repurpose the world around me and learned how to create experiences for my students that were Novel, Effective and Whole (NEW)! This course also introduced me to the Maker Education culture; which changed my thinking and view of technology for the better. I learned three basic elements of creativity which include copying, transforming and combining. Those elements, which can be dubbed as remixing, are what make things new and innovative. This helped me understand why myself and other educators, can find themselves teaching their students away from their creative capacities, because of the fear of stealing or copying an idea. What made this course even more amazing was the fact that our textbook was a circuit board and some wires, called Makey-Makey. A Makey-Makey circuit board and alligator clips allowed any user to use conductive objects and
materials and create something new and innovative. It also allows users the opportunities to craft and code through an application called Scratch. The class “textbook” reaffirmed my beliefs that students should get to play and engage in materials that can help them be creative and create new things. I quickly realized that any content can be taught using this specific technology tool.
After playing around with my Makey-Makey and understanding the possibilities of this technology tool, I completed a few projects with it. The projects required you to repurpose items in the world around you and use the Makey-Makey to enhance learning content. One of the projects that helped transform my thinking about integrating technology in the classroom was called Thrifting with Makey-Makey. I found items in my basement; aluminum cans, paper and makers, to help me create a prototype that can be used in a reading lesson. Afterwards, I had to develop a “how-to” information sheet to give others who review my work the ability to replicate it in their own context. I approached this project with a playful and open mind and was able to create a fun and engaging prototype that could allow students to retell the parts of a story in a meaningful way. The knowledge that the activities and content from this course gave me truly transformed my teaching practice and allowed me to learn different ways to have students repurpose items and integrate technology in my classroom. I even had the chance to collaborate with the music teacher in my building, who purchased Makey-Makey kits with school funds, and create music lessons with repurposed items and the kits!
I was challenged to gain a deeper understanding about technology and how it can address problems in education in CEP 812, Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice, with Douglas Frankish. I learned about three different types of problems that are in education, ill-structured, well-structured and wicked. I was aware of the problems that occur in education, but was introduced to the idea of how technology can address these types of problems. It was refreshing to learn another benefit that technology can have on education, not just integrating it in classroom lessons. I worked collaboratively with a group of my peers that were interested in finding a solution to a wicked problem: Failure as a Learning Mode. When learning about this wicked problem, we knew that there was not a simple solution but collaborating together gave different viewpoints and insights on the many perceptions people have in education specifically on failure. To scratch the surface of this truly wicked problem, my group and I conducted research, created surveys, received feedback from the community and collected data on what others in the education world thought about failure as a learning mode. After careful review of the data, we confirmed that many perceptions from teachers, students, parents, administration and stakeholders had a negative view on failure. The pressures of success that many felt in our surveys was the reason why they view failure so negatively. This information not only drove our group to possible solutions but it also transformed my thinking about how I can promote failure as a learning mode in my classroom with my students.
We decided that in order to begin to solve a wicked problem of this nature, we need to create solutions that were immediate and solutions that also took time to unravel. Those solutions include; professional development opportunities, design thinking, using positive words in place of the word failure, and revise work through the use of technology. Collaboratively developing these solutions to this wicked problem help me change the language students use in my classroom, routines and ways that students can show their learning. I applied what I learned from this project directly to my practice and became comfortable with embracing mistakes and failure as a learning mode in my classroom. Students in my classroom know that failure is proof that you are trying and we can sometimes learn more from failures then doing something right the first time.
The knowledge, guidance, skills and experience I gained from Michigan State’s MAET program has allowed me to grow as an educator, develop new goals, and get involved in more learning opportunities. The courses above helped me achieve my certificate in educational technology but also shaped my thinking and teaching practice with technology. I entered this program with two clear goals in mind, learning how to integrate technology in the classroom and become an asset in my district. I can say with certainty that Michigan State has paved the way for me to not only reach my goals but transform me into a better educator and leader for my students and other educators. I am keeping up with my PLN while also being a PLN for others, creating lessons that involve learning objectives and repurpose items, and promoting failure as a learning mode to my students. I have found opportunities within my district to learn more about technology integration and deepen learning for students through projects and inquiry based learning. I promote the benefits of technology to my colleagues and model how to use it in their classrooms. I continue to create safe and engaging learning environments, build relationship with my students and encourage them to question, take risks and think creatively but with a fresh new mindset. I am proud of what I accomplished in my learning journey and elated with all of the new tips, tricks, and innovations that I never thought I would learn. I look forward to my next learning adventure and cannot wait to see what I can share with my students, colleagues and my professional learning network.
References:
Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70.