My Love of Learning:
Synthesis Essay
by Tracy Marshall
Once Upon a Time:
I find it interesting, and maybe even striking, like a scene in a movie, that I am writing the conclusion of the conclusion of my MAET(Masters of Educational Technology) program in the same coffee shop where I met my MAET advisor when I began the MAET certificate program nearly two years ago. That meeting was a poignant moment for me. I was making a leap from world religions, my former field of study, to a whole new field of which I was excited and intrigued by, but in which I felt insecure. In what seems like a previous life, I was a college instructor teaching campus and online courses. I had designed, created, implemented and maintained four online courses at Henry Ford Community College and went along quite successfully, but didn’t venture out of the LMS(Learning Management System) very often. So, when I began the MAET Certificate program(CEP 810, CEP 811, CEP 812), I was basically a rookie with technology. One advantage that I did have going for me, was that I was already convinced that students would not be prepared for their future, if they aren’t using technology to effectively communicate, produce quality work, critically think and to express themselves in ways many others can understand. In my years at the College, I had seen so many students struggling in 100 level courses because they didn’t have the skills needed to get by in college, let alone in a career. My students were in college so that they could prepare themselves to get a good job when they graduated, but they couldn’t find success in their classes because they didn’t know how to communicate with others, think critically about content material or articulate their ideas so that other people could understand their thoughts and ideas. This is a problem in any world, even a world without technology, but this is certainly a much more complex and devastating problem in our current global technology driven world. I am motivated to help students alleviate this vicious cycle because I believe that education should prepare students for their future, not just be a prerequisite to get a job.
Fueled with a dream to provide applicable educational experiences to prepare learners for their future, I bravely took my first MAET Certificate course, CEP 810, Teaching for Understanding with Technology. It was amazing. I gained so much knowledge and advanced my digital skills more than I could have ever imagined. So, I took another class, CEP 811, Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education. Then, another, CEP 812, Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice. At the end of that certificate program, students were asked to reflect back on the personal learning goal paper we had written when we began the first course in the program, CEP 810. I was stunned by what then seemed like low expectations for myself. In that essay, I had written that I’d like to become experienced at blogging, social networking and RSS feeds, which seemed so advanced at the time that I felt that I was really stretching myself in that goal. Reading that now, makes me chuckle. Those goals, which seemed lofty in March 2012, seem so basic to me now. I can say with confidence, that I now know how to blog, network digitally and manage an RSS feed. And, I can say with confidence that I can also design educational websites, create educational videos, develop educative materials from a plethora of web 2.0 technologies, record a podcast, think critically about numerous technologies and how they can be used in my teaching and how my students can use technologies to learn, and so much more I don’t even know how to break down my list of skills. I can say with confidence that I know a bit about preparing students to succeed in their future. And that success will go well beyond learning specific content knowledge. I hope my students will be successful because they will learn how to apply content knowledge in communication, critical thinking and self-expression using technologies that support these skills. I want them to be prepared for their future.
I find it interesting, and maybe even striking, like a scene in a movie, that I am writing the conclusion of the conclusion of my MAET(Masters of Educational Technology) program in the same coffee shop where I met my MAET advisor when I began the MAET certificate program nearly two years ago. That meeting was a poignant moment for me. I was making a leap from world religions, my former field of study, to a whole new field of which I was excited and intrigued by, but in which I felt insecure. In what seems like a previous life, I was a college instructor teaching campus and online courses. I had designed, created, implemented and maintained four online courses at Henry Ford Community College and went along quite successfully, but didn’t venture out of the LMS(Learning Management System) very often. So, when I began the MAET Certificate program(CEP 810, CEP 811, CEP 812), I was basically a rookie with technology. One advantage that I did have going for me, was that I was already convinced that students would not be prepared for their future, if they aren’t using technology to effectively communicate, produce quality work, critically think and to express themselves in ways many others can understand. In my years at the College, I had seen so many students struggling in 100 level courses because they didn’t have the skills needed to get by in college, let alone in a career. My students were in college so that they could prepare themselves to get a good job when they graduated, but they couldn’t find success in their classes because they didn’t know how to communicate with others, think critically about content material or articulate their ideas so that other people could understand their thoughts and ideas. This is a problem in any world, even a world without technology, but this is certainly a much more complex and devastating problem in our current global technology driven world. I am motivated to help students alleviate this vicious cycle because I believe that education should prepare students for their future, not just be a prerequisite to get a job.
Fueled with a dream to provide applicable educational experiences to prepare learners for their future, I bravely took my first MAET Certificate course, CEP 810, Teaching for Understanding with Technology. It was amazing. I gained so much knowledge and advanced my digital skills more than I could have ever imagined. So, I took another class, CEP 811, Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education. Then, another, CEP 812, Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice. At the end of that certificate program, students were asked to reflect back on the personal learning goal paper we had written when we began the first course in the program, CEP 810. I was stunned by what then seemed like low expectations for myself. In that essay, I had written that I’d like to become experienced at blogging, social networking and RSS feeds, which seemed so advanced at the time that I felt that I was really stretching myself in that goal. Reading that now, makes me chuckle. Those goals, which seemed lofty in March 2012, seem so basic to me now. I can say with confidence, that I now know how to blog, network digitally and manage an RSS feed. And, I can say with confidence that I can also design educational websites, create educational videos, develop educative materials from a plethora of web 2.0 technologies, record a podcast, think critically about numerous technologies and how they can be used in my teaching and how my students can use technologies to learn, and so much more I don’t even know how to break down my list of skills. I can say with confidence that I know a bit about preparing students to succeed in their future. And that success will go well beyond learning specific content knowledge. I hope my students will be successful because they will learn how to apply content knowledge in communication, critical thinking and self-expression using technologies that support these skills. I want them to be prepared for their future.
Creative Commons Credit: https://flic.kr/p/6VTM4d
Meaningful Classes:
The single class that has impacted me the most as an educator has to be CEP 882, the Nature and Design of Compelling Experiences. This is because this class acknowledged that learners don’t just learn with their “brains”. Learners internalize knowledge through all of the senses. Learning doesn’t happen in isolation when a person steps into a classroom, sits in a chair and looks up at a teacher. Sure good learning can happen then, but not necessarily by just hearing information and storing it in one’s memory. Knowledge is assimilated through emotional, psychological and subconscious means as well as through listening. As an educator, I’ve always had a sense that this was the case and this class helped me refine my understanding of the whole learning process through the building of digital educative materials incorporating music, visual images, audio editing, video editing as well as the study of the psychological affect of interior design, the structure of music and the emotional appeal of film. Understanding the multitude of ways in which knowledge connects to our deeper selves, is invaluable to an educator. I am happy that I was able to practice these complex skills so that I can forever use this information to contribute to powerful learning experiences of my students.
At the same time that I was taking CEP 882, Nature and Design of Compelling Experiences, I was also taking CEP 817, Learning Technology Through Design. The pairing of these two classes in the same semester could not have been better orchestrated. The content of these two courses complemented each other so perfectly. I was quite often using what I learned in CEP 882 in CEP 817 and vise versa. The information didn’t repeat, but supplemented the other course content in the most harmonious of ways. If I ever get the chance, I will highly recommend purposely taking these two courses together for any Educational Technology student. CEP 817, Learning Technology Through Design, taught me how to construct digital learning experiences in a website, or on a computer screen, in such a way that learners receive it well. A well designed course functions intuitively for a learner in a way that enables the learner to receive the content material without having to struggle with how to get it. It is similar to a well designed kitchen. If the stove, refrigerator and sink are in the proper places, a chef can work her magic without having to think about getting food out of the refrigerator into the pans cooking on the stove, for example. This makes the cooking experience much more focused on the experience of crafting a meal instead of on the logistics in the kitchen itself. In CEP 817, I was afforded the opportunity to develop my digital content design skills so learners can enjoy the process of learning and not become frustrated with extracting the information from a poorly structured learning artifact on their computer screen.
The single class that has impacted me the most as an educator has to be CEP 882, the Nature and Design of Compelling Experiences. This is because this class acknowledged that learners don’t just learn with their “brains”. Learners internalize knowledge through all of the senses. Learning doesn’t happen in isolation when a person steps into a classroom, sits in a chair and looks up at a teacher. Sure good learning can happen then, but not necessarily by just hearing information and storing it in one’s memory. Knowledge is assimilated through emotional, psychological and subconscious means as well as through listening. As an educator, I’ve always had a sense that this was the case and this class helped me refine my understanding of the whole learning process through the building of digital educative materials incorporating music, visual images, audio editing, video editing as well as the study of the psychological affect of interior design, the structure of music and the emotional appeal of film. Understanding the multitude of ways in which knowledge connects to our deeper selves, is invaluable to an educator. I am happy that I was able to practice these complex skills so that I can forever use this information to contribute to powerful learning experiences of my students.
At the same time that I was taking CEP 882, Nature and Design of Compelling Experiences, I was also taking CEP 817, Learning Technology Through Design. The pairing of these two classes in the same semester could not have been better orchestrated. The content of these two courses complemented each other so perfectly. I was quite often using what I learned in CEP 882 in CEP 817 and vise versa. The information didn’t repeat, but supplemented the other course content in the most harmonious of ways. If I ever get the chance, I will highly recommend purposely taking these two courses together for any Educational Technology student. CEP 817, Learning Technology Through Design, taught me how to construct digital learning experiences in a website, or on a computer screen, in such a way that learners receive it well. A well designed course functions intuitively for a learner in a way that enables the learner to receive the content material without having to struggle with how to get it. It is similar to a well designed kitchen. If the stove, refrigerator and sink are in the proper places, a chef can work her magic without having to think about getting food out of the refrigerator into the pans cooking on the stove, for example. This makes the cooking experience much more focused on the experience of crafting a meal instead of on the logistics in the kitchen itself. In CEP 817, I was afforded the opportunity to develop my digital content design skills so learners can enjoy the process of learning and not become frustrated with extracting the information from a poorly structured learning artifact on their computer screen.
Creative Commons Credit: https://flic.kr/p/dhouq6
Best Summer Cohort Ever:
The experience that has been the most profound experience in the MAET(Master of Educational Technology) program has surely been the MAET 2014 Summer Cohort. Two weeks of intensive campus classes, followed up by the intense online portion of the Cohort made for the best college experience I have had the great fortune to a part of. In the Cohort, we tackled three courses, namely, CEP 800Learning in School and Other Settings; CEP 815, Technology and Leadership; and CEP 822, Approaches to Technology Leadership. I learned classic learning theory and how to incorporate it into modern classrooms; how cognitive science influences pedagogy and how to apply that foundational information in the building of digital content material that immerses students in the process of attaining knowledge in a way that satisfies the natural impulse of every person to learn, build knowledge and improve skills. In these courses, I’ve conducted research, built websites, made videos, organized and hosted a webinar, and much more, all in the name of becoming an educator that is well informed, up-to-date in her field, a leader for her peers and highly skilled in educational technology. Working in these three classes at the same time, without a clear distinction between the content of one and the content of another, is representative of the job of an educator. Sometimes we are teachers, sometimes we are researchers, sometimes we are learners, sometimes we are technology leaders and sometimes we are technology integration specialists. The 2014 MAET Summer Cohort taught me that the various roles of an educator aren’t distinct necessarily and can be some of the most amazing, collaborative and fulfilling work that there is.
Image Credit: http://www.weebly.com/uploads/
9/7/1/7/9717261/2215446.jpg?412
Weaving it all Together:
Equally important content in the MAET program curriculum for me has been the readings and discussions of traditional and newer learning theories, cognitive science and educational psychology. The art of blending all of the traditional learning theories from classical scientists like B.F. Skinner, with more modern cognitive scientists, such as Daniel T. Willingham, author of Why Don’t Students Like School?, has provided me with such insight into the complexities of learning. The educator’s job is certainly multi-faceted, dynamic and always evolving and how fortunate we are as modern educators to be able to benefit from conditioning, behavioralism and cognitivism, as well as contemporary methods of studies to understand the diverse nature of the learning process to help ALL our students flourish in school, develop a love of learning and internalize content knowledge in meaningful ways that supports their success in their future.
The overarching theme that has guided me throughout the MAET program is TPACK. When I first began learning about it during the MAET Certificate program, I knew I chose the right university to further my study in educational technology because TPACK made so much sense to me and coincided with my experience as an educator. I learned that in order to provide an educational experience that will help students find a job and be successful after they graduate, students need their educators to develop a plan that caters to the needs of the 21st century. As conveyed in the TPACK framework, learners need educators that have a solid foundational knowledge of the content they teach because the teacher’s knowledge is extended to students. If the teacher’s knowledge is superficial, then the students’ knowledge will be so as well. Learners also need educators to have a deep understanding of pedagogy because just standing in front of a classroom talking about content, isn’t necessarily the way many students will learn the content, so educators need to be able to employ many pedagogical strategies that will help learners internalize content. Learners also need educators to have good working knowledge of technology so that content can be disseminated when and where students can use it and in ways that cater to learning styles.
An extension of TPACK falls on learners. Learners also need to practice using technology to accomplish academic goals. Learners need use technology in ways that give them chances to practice being good communicators and thinking critically about technology based assignments so that they make the connection that technology is a powerful tool that can be used for productive means enabling learners to attain experience in articulating and expressing their ideas in ways that are understood and appreciated by others. Practical experience producing work for a genuine audience, as that will be necessary in “the real world”. I hope to get the opportunity to develop my ideas of creating a companion component to TPACK that categorizes the dimensions of student learning in the way that TPACK categorizes the necessary dimensions of teacher learning. This would help teachers refine their teaching skills even more and provide a model for students in their learning. A student model will provide students a way to visualize a general objective for success while in school and upon graduation, in the same way that TPACK provides a model for teachers to visualize their objectives for success in the classroom.
Equally important content in the MAET program curriculum for me has been the readings and discussions of traditional and newer learning theories, cognitive science and educational psychology. The art of blending all of the traditional learning theories from classical scientists like B.F. Skinner, with more modern cognitive scientists, such as Daniel T. Willingham, author of Why Don’t Students Like School?, has provided me with such insight into the complexities of learning. The educator’s job is certainly multi-faceted, dynamic and always evolving and how fortunate we are as modern educators to be able to benefit from conditioning, behavioralism and cognitivism, as well as contemporary methods of studies to understand the diverse nature of the learning process to help ALL our students flourish in school, develop a love of learning and internalize content knowledge in meaningful ways that supports their success in their future.
The overarching theme that has guided me throughout the MAET program is TPACK. When I first began learning about it during the MAET Certificate program, I knew I chose the right university to further my study in educational technology because TPACK made so much sense to me and coincided with my experience as an educator. I learned that in order to provide an educational experience that will help students find a job and be successful after they graduate, students need their educators to develop a plan that caters to the needs of the 21st century. As conveyed in the TPACK framework, learners need educators that have a solid foundational knowledge of the content they teach because the teacher’s knowledge is extended to students. If the teacher’s knowledge is superficial, then the students’ knowledge will be so as well. Learners also need educators to have a deep understanding of pedagogy because just standing in front of a classroom talking about content, isn’t necessarily the way many students will learn the content, so educators need to be able to employ many pedagogical strategies that will help learners internalize content. Learners also need educators to have good working knowledge of technology so that content can be disseminated when and where students can use it and in ways that cater to learning styles.
An extension of TPACK falls on learners. Learners also need to practice using technology to accomplish academic goals. Learners need use technology in ways that give them chances to practice being good communicators and thinking critically about technology based assignments so that they make the connection that technology is a powerful tool that can be used for productive means enabling learners to attain experience in articulating and expressing their ideas in ways that are understood and appreciated by others. Practical experience producing work for a genuine audience, as that will be necessary in “the real world”. I hope to get the opportunity to develop my ideas of creating a companion component to TPACK that categorizes the dimensions of student learning in the way that TPACK categorizes the necessary dimensions of teacher learning. This would help teachers refine their teaching skills even more and provide a model for students in their learning. A student model will provide students a way to visualize a general objective for success while in school and upon graduation, in the same way that TPACK provides a model for teachers to visualize their objectives for success in the classroom.
Creative Commons Credit:
https://flic.kr/p/dWBWtA
Conclusion to the Conclusion of my MAET program:
I think the big bottom line is that learning is not the same for each learner. Each individual comes to the classroom with a knowledge set and unique perspective on the world. In general, the MAET program has helped me know how to deepen connections to individual students, instead of just trying to cater to the needs of the class as a whole. I feel I have been able to more easily identify student needs and accommodate those needs, make adjustments to content or my approach to presenting content, and maintain the structure of the course so that the important themes of the content connect to the big ideas. And, I do hope, that this will help students be successful in the classroom and outside the classroom.
I think the big bottom line is that learning is not the same for each learner. Each individual comes to the classroom with a knowledge set and unique perspective on the world. In general, the MAET program has helped me know how to deepen connections to individual students, instead of just trying to cater to the needs of the class as a whole. I feel I have been able to more easily identify student needs and accommodate those needs, make adjustments to content or my approach to presenting content, and maintain the structure of the course so that the important themes of the content connect to the big ideas. And, I do hope, that this will help students be successful in the classroom and outside the classroom.
