A Synthesis of thought of my time in the Master's of Educational Technology
All educators are people who want more. Not necessarily in a selfish way, (okay sometimes in a selfish way. Especially when there are doughnuts in the breakroom and it is the Thursday before the Friday of Christmas break), but in the “there’s more out there” and “there’s got to be more to this idea” and “I want to know more about how to be the best at my job” and “I want you, the student, to bring me, the teacher, deeper work that challenges the way that I think about the topic” kind of ‘more’. Educators are those of the perpetual academic appetite and I know that I now belong with them. (Sorry powdered sugar with jelly filling)
This was not always how I viewed things. When I finished my student teaching during the beginning of the downslide of the Great Recession, I knew my job prospects were slim (especially being a History teacher) and the ‘more’ I wanted was simply a job, and I thought that having that job would be enough. That I wouldn’t be “hungry” anymore. No job appeared, even with additional certification. I knew that if you couldn’t have a classroom of your own, then the next best thing was to be in a classroom, learning more. I was resistant at first to the idea of earning my Master’s Degree. I was done sitting in a classroom, and my student teaching was starting to feel distant. I wanted to teach! Who needs more than a classroom? Isn’t that enough?!
This was not always how I viewed things. When I finished my student teaching during the beginning of the downslide of the Great Recession, I knew my job prospects were slim (especially being a History teacher) and the ‘more’ I wanted was simply a job, and I thought that having that job would be enough. That I wouldn’t be “hungry” anymore. No job appeared, even with additional certification. I knew that if you couldn’t have a classroom of your own, then the next best thing was to be in a classroom, learning more. I was resistant at first to the idea of earning my Master’s Degree. I was done sitting in a classroom, and my student teaching was starting to feel distant. I wanted to teach! Who needs more than a classroom? Isn’t that enough?!
The concepts of a Master’s Degree and a Master Teacher were essentially synonymous in my mind. It was something you did after establishing yourself as a teacher ....a re-sharpening of the blade if you will. How could I dare to approach the ivory tower, a mere mortal with no teaching experience and no active classroom to “work with”? What could I bring to the table that would be worthy of my colleagues who had been down in the trenches?
(Dramatic I know, but you have to understand my mindset in order to understand what a transformation was brought about in the MAET program.) I knew that “knowing more history” was not something that would get me hired in the long run, and although I cannot tell you what first led me to investigate the program, I can tell you what encouraged me to stay: I had sent a very nervous email to the program advisers, trying in a very professional way to lay out all my fears and trying to figure out if this program was a good fit. The overwhelmingly warm and encouraging response made me realize that this was not going to be some stuffy, academic, sink-or-swim program. It was was about reconsidering and pushing the academic practice to its best by incorporating technology, and as further proof of the non-stuffiness, there was no thesis but a course where you built your own website! This was about putting theory into the real-world and watching it bounce around! I was sold. |
I was encouraged by the ‘take action’ mentality. After all, I wanted to teach and these courses were going to give me more tools to help me teach. Having no real teaching experience, I thought that the more digital devices that I had, the better off I was going to be when that job came along. A tool for any needed task! I was not disappointed. My initial courses of CEP 810, CEP 811, and CEP 812 opened the doors to a world that I had little idea of. So many Web 2.0 tools were now at my disposal and we were encouraged to play around. And if it didn’t work for you, say why, then pitch it! Build your own. Make something better! This wasn’t intellectual freedom, this was Freedom. This was the kind of thinking that I imagined happened at big tech headquarters in Silicon Valley, not within the hallowed walls of academia. However, this was still very self-centered thinking. I was learning things. I had new tools. I could make things cool. Students figured into my writing and reflecting but they were still a somewhat abstract concept for me, and while I would never have admitted it at the time, I realize now that I still somewhat considered students to be tabula rasa, and I the digital stylus that was going to change their lives. That would change with the summer hybrid program.
Continuing the “me” theme, I had decided to take the summer hybrid program because it was three courses being given all at once and that would help me of achieving my degree (and hopefully a job) that much more quickly. I was still nervous because I knew that these courses would involve more theory and I still saw myself as “classroom deficient”, but I was optimistic because my earlier courses had been an amazing mix of people from all different points in their careers, including some who weren’t even in the field of education. And we were all learning together, so our experience was all valued equally. I knew that this program was going to be intensive, and I was ready to push through the content with the best of them. Teachers, if nothing else, are excellent students. I would be taught to stand on the shoulders of giants!
Continuing the “me” theme, I had decided to take the summer hybrid program because it was three courses being given all at once and that would help me of achieving my degree (and hopefully a job) that much more quickly. I was still nervous because I knew that these courses would involve more theory and I still saw myself as “classroom deficient”, but I was optimistic because my earlier courses had been an amazing mix of people from all different points in their careers, including some who weren’t even in the field of education. And we were all learning together, so our experience was all valued equally. I knew that this program was going to be intensive, and I was ready to push through the content with the best of them. Teachers, if nothing else, are excellent students. I would be taught to stand on the shoulders of giants!
However, it turned out that we were all standing in a circle collaborating. To describe my transition during that summer is hard to put into words, in part because it is an emotional one. From the first day it was exhilarating because I had found people with passion. Having never taught before, I had never understood the personal and professional power of a community of educators, and it was amazing. It was the first shift from the ‘me’ to the ‘we’. We were all in this crazy situation together, all striving to learn and be better together, all encouraging the best out of each other, all building individual and group understanding together. There were no giants here, but comrades. Our professors structured the program to help us realize the purpose of what we really doing there, and it helped move me further away from the ‘me’. Three courses were combined into a blended curriculum and delivery method (part brick and mortar, part digital). The three courses were CEP 800 Learning in Schools and Other Settings, CEP 815 Technology and Leadership, and CEP 822 Approaches to Educational Research. As our course director Dr. Punya Mishra describes in his article “Making it Meaningful: The Reciprocal Relationship between Technology and Psychology:
“In this next set of courses, the focus is on meaning making, through immersing them [the students] in readings, activities, and assignments that emphasize the transformational aspects of technology use. This is done not by emphasizing the tools but rather by emphasizing how technology can inform and change how we think about learning, development, and research. Technology in these courses is rarely the central focus of what we do-though, at another level, it is integral to everything we do. Our goal is to have teachers become flexible thinkers, wherein they see themselves as designers of student-learning experiences, through the creative repurposing of technologies to meet classroom needs."
And so we did. We were asked how we knew what we knew, and how we knew when a student really understood something, not just ‘learned it’. How were we helping students to become good digital citizens and build, not only their own knowledge, but a pool of resources? Why were you choosing to approach a problem or issue with the chosen method? What research was supporting you? How were you supporting the research? As Dr. Mishra states in the above mentioned article: “We attempt to enact a deliberately designed learning experience that combines educational theory and research with creative and generative technology assignments, within the pragmatic demands faced by today’s teachers.” To me this was most clearly seen through the DreamIT proposal project.
In this ‘keystone’ project we had to synthesize all the theory, research, and content we had been using throughout the summer hybrid program to create a meaningful, reasoned solution to an issue or problem that we saw in our professional lives, and that utilized technology to assist in meeting that problem. The idea that history can be questioned or altered may be relatively new idea to many students. Most schooling has students working from a single source of information to gain an understanding of how the current situation of the world has come about and which individuals are considered major players in that process. Students are not often aware or understand the process and issues involved in the construction of historical narrative; How bias can be perpetuated and various perspectives silenced (purposefully or otherwise). In response to this, I formulated the solution of having students working with laptops and website programs such as Weebly or Wix to create their own digital historical narrative, while at the same time questioning their own historiographical process and bringing a (constructively) critical eye to the work of other students in the class. However it was not enough to simply to propose a solution. We had to go through and critically examine our own work and discuss our pedagogical reasoning and the research that supported our plan of action. You see, it wasn’t enough to gain technology skills and ‘learn tricks’. It wasn’t enough to learn the theory and earn a Master’s Degree. You were forced to really think about what you wanted to accomplish in your classroom.
And after weeks of being stretched and pushed, I realized that I wanted the students to have more. It was no longer about what I had, it was about what I could give. And give to them with the knowledge that I was “committing no harm”. You understood that it was no longer enough to be in your own classroom having students make cool projects. I had to reach out to that community around you and advocate, even when students didn’t know they needed an advocate for what they need to succeed in the 21st century.
In this ‘keystone’ project we had to synthesize all the theory, research, and content we had been using throughout the summer hybrid program to create a meaningful, reasoned solution to an issue or problem that we saw in our professional lives, and that utilized technology to assist in meeting that problem. The idea that history can be questioned or altered may be relatively new idea to many students. Most schooling has students working from a single source of information to gain an understanding of how the current situation of the world has come about and which individuals are considered major players in that process. Students are not often aware or understand the process and issues involved in the construction of historical narrative; How bias can be perpetuated and various perspectives silenced (purposefully or otherwise). In response to this, I formulated the solution of having students working with laptops and website programs such as Weebly or Wix to create their own digital historical narrative, while at the same time questioning their own historiographical process and bringing a (constructively) critical eye to the work of other students in the class. However it was not enough to simply to propose a solution. We had to go through and critically examine our own work and discuss our pedagogical reasoning and the research that supported our plan of action. You see, it wasn’t enough to gain technology skills and ‘learn tricks’. It wasn’t enough to learn the theory and earn a Master’s Degree. You were forced to really think about what you wanted to accomplish in your classroom.
And after weeks of being stretched and pushed, I realized that I wanted the students to have more. It was no longer about what I had, it was about what I could give. And give to them with the knowledge that I was “committing no harm”. You understood that it was no longer enough to be in your own classroom having students make cool projects. I had to reach out to that community around you and advocate, even when students didn’t know they needed an advocate for what they need to succeed in the 21st century.
And in the middle of this I got my first teaching job across the country near an Arizona border-town. What I didn’t realize was that the school year would start the first week of August, meaning that I would miss the culmination of events with my cohort. It was then I learned about the loss of community too. The school that I was at, though fairly large, was technology poor, and a lot of the tools I had acquired no longer had a task. I sought out those who were also interested, however we were a rare breed. But the theory held true.
As I contemplated lesson plans, I would return to the questions of the summer again and again. Even if the ‘technology’ component of the TPCK method (using Technology, Pedagogy, Content, Knowledge to create authentic learning experiences) was paper and pencil, I would ask: was this the right tool for the job? Could I find something better? Were the other elements (pedagogy, content, etc.) in balance with what I wanted to accomplish? How would my students really, truly, long-term, benefit from this? And beyond that, how could I get more technology into their school lives? It was not about how “good of a teacher I was” it was about “how greatly can I grow my students lives”. This line of thinking would not have happened without that summer program. The wisdom and insight from the professors and fellow educators not only helped me understand the power of the practice in the lives of students and teachers, but they helped me to understand how great the power of the practice can continue to be. I realized that we are all learners and we are all teachers. To claim expertise over another is a foolish and ludicrous way to approach the art of teaching and learning and we are responsible for helping our students see the value in themselves and in collaboration with others.
As I contemplated lesson plans, I would return to the questions of the summer again and again. Even if the ‘technology’ component of the TPCK method (using Technology, Pedagogy, Content, Knowledge to create authentic learning experiences) was paper and pencil, I would ask: was this the right tool for the job? Could I find something better? Were the other elements (pedagogy, content, etc.) in balance with what I wanted to accomplish? How would my students really, truly, long-term, benefit from this? And beyond that, how could I get more technology into their school lives? It was not about how “good of a teacher I was” it was about “how greatly can I grow my students lives”. This line of thinking would not have happened without that summer program. The wisdom and insight from the professors and fellow educators not only helped me understand the power of the practice in the lives of students and teachers, but they helped me to understand how great the power of the practice can continue to be. I realized that we are all learners and we are all teachers. To claim expertise over another is a foolish and ludicrous way to approach the art of teaching and learning and we are responsible for helping our students see the value in themselves and in collaboration with others.
The art of teaching and learning however is not without its fair share of elbow grease. Having returned to the MAET program for my last semester, I was again made aware of the practical combination of elements that must occur when teaching. While taking CEP 820 Teaching Students Online, I was reminded of just how much work it takes to create digital content within a cohesive format that students can use and meets all those lofty postulations stated above. How lightly we consume the work of others without appreciation of the effort. The work in this course has opened. my eyes and I am a ‘learning teacher’ again after several years of being a ‘teacher learning’ That is okay though, because honest labor builds an appetite. Just as one endeavors to prepare and plant a garden, to assist and nurture the plants (though you can’t grow for them!), and secretly revel in the successes, while already planning next year’s plot, so too am I looking ahead with hunger in my eyes and heart, and I am hoping that my appetite gets the best of me.