Synthesis Essay
We are all familiar with the saying, “life-long learner,” but how many of us continue our learning experiences after we graduate with our degree? Sure, we learn new things every day, some intentional, some unintentional, but are we setting time aside to learn more about our craft or passion? I graduated from Michigan State University in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and an emphasis in English Language Arts. I have experience in grades K-5. Over the past ten years, I’ve noticed a shift in technology and its impact on education. We’ve gone from chalkboards to smart boards, from journals to blogs and from paper newsletters to electronic.
The first school I taught at in my teaching career transitioned from a regular public school to a STEAM (science, technology, engineering and math) school (the first and only in Ann Arbor) in 2014. I recall the level of concern and apprehension among the current parents in the community whose students were already attending the school prior to the change. They were concerned that their children wouldn’t do well, they feared technology and all it had to offer. They had questions like, will my kid be on the computer all day? Will technology take away from instructional time? I must admit, I feared it too. We really hadn’t had much training in technology integration, so I didn’t feel comfortable using it all day everyday. I transferred to another school in the district only to find that technology integration was still on the rise. I became fascinated with using technology in my classroom, the collaboration opportunities it offered and the excitement my students experienced while using it. I started exploring options in technology that would help me advance my skills in technology. I found out about this program through my mother (she’s a teacher as well). After researching educational technology, I decided to further my learning through Michigan State Universities MAET (Master of Arts in Educational Technology) program. This program offered courses that helped develop my creativity, curiosity and motivation.
Creativity
There have been many times where I doubted my creative ability. Often education leaves no room for creativity. In CEP 811, Adopting Innovative Technologies in Education, we were required to purchase a Makey Makey Kit that we would use throughout the course of the semester. Completely unaware of what a Makey Makey Kit was, I used my best friend, google. The kit consisted of USB cable, 7 alligator clips, 6 connector wires, 20 stickers, and graphic instructions and had images of bananas hooked up to wires. I thought to myself, what in the world will we possibly do with this? As a teacher, I can only imagine how many times I’ve presented or introduced my students to things and they ask themselves the same question. Although the kit was very foreign to me, I also noticed how excited I was to find out how to use it.
I ended up creating a math game that emphasized geometric sides and shapes using some items from around the house and the scratch coding app. I also went beyond the expectations of the class and created some games for my own children using the kit. This class forced me to think outside the box. As teachers, (especially when you’ve taught the same grade for years) we become accustomed to doing the same routine, using the same material, reading the same books and teaching the same lessons. Educators spend so much of their own money on resources for their classroom that we often forget that we can create and design using things that we have or things around the classroom. One of the projects in CEP 811 required us to find things at a thrift store, I spent less than three dollars and created a game that focused on music notes. I challenged myself to focus on technology and mathematics and music because I was used to using technology for other subjects. As a result of taking this course, I developed better sense of creativity and technology and also integration of subjects. For the Makey Makey project I created, I was able to incorporate science, math and technology which is something I strive to do in the classroom.
Integration
In the past I’ve confused technology integration with just students using computers or iPads in the classroom, however integration is more than just that. CEP 820, Teaching Students Online, was a course that gave me the opportunity to create an online course and become familiar with the behind the scenes of developing an online course. The MAET (Master of Arts in Educational Technology) program was my first experience with online learning. I was one of those people who preferred face to face learning environments for fear of not being able to ask questions when I wanted or interact or collaborate with my peers. This course allowed me to understand that just because the course is not face to face, does not take away from collaborative opportunities as well as communication with the instructor. From the outside looking in, no one could imagine all the researching and planning that goes into facilitating an online course. You can also design the course with multiple face to face opportunities using programs such as zoom or flipgrid. During this course, I created an online science course about life cycles for second graders. This course was designed to reinforce what we learned in the classroom, at home. When developing the online course, I had to take into consideration my audience, grade level and age of my students as well as state guidelines. CEP 820 covered how and when to modify your online course for your targeted audience. For example, my online course consisted of short lessons that were divided into four sections. The students would have to read first, followed by some type of visual being a slideshow, YouTube video or online book, and ending with a three-question assessment.
As an educator, I know that all students do not read on the same level and some cannot read at all. After learning the importance of considering my audience, I went back and recorded myself reading all the text online for the students who struggled to read it themselves. I found that something as simple as a recording, makes an online learning experience more beneficial. I also created a section for assessments. The students would complete the assessments and I was able to give them immediate feedback or feedback the next day in class. I also created a vocabulary page where students could go and look up definitions for words they were unsure of. The online course I created made me think about how I could facilitate something like this in my classroom. I thought about how I could engage parents more with providing enrichment activities, course readings and activities and homework assignments online. I could use the website to reiterate what we did in class that week. I could also use it for students who maybe out of school for long periods of time do to sickness or traveling.
TPACK
CEP 810, Teaching Understanding With Technology is the very first course I took in MAET program. This class introduced me to the TPACK theory, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Prior to this course, I was not familiar with the TPACK theory. This course allowed us to create projects that incorporated all three components, pedagogy, technology and content. In the beginning of the class, we each chose something that we’ve always wanted to learn how to do. It could be something “simple,” or something “hard.” It was then our job to teach others how to do it. I chose French braiding hair. While it may seem easy, it’s something I’ve always struggled to learn.
What better way to learn how to do something then to research it? The project started with us recording ourselves doing the task before we did any type of research or tutorial (technology component) and creating a YouTube video. Next, we wrote a blog on the experience (technology component). We researched our topic (technology, content) on ways to learn our desired task. I used YouTube videos, blogs, and other hair tutorials and then attempted the task again (I was much better). After research, practice and reflection, I was able to successfully learn how to French braid! We recorded at the end and we were able to measure our progress of the content from the beginning to the end. This was such a great way of introducing TPACK. I thought about all the ways I could use this model in my classroom, and all the ways I can incorporate this model into my future professional developments. I currently use things such as journals in writing to measure student’s growth throughout the year, but what if I used a blog instead? Using a blog still monitors growth, uses technology, and allows for others to view your growth as well. More importantly it gives parents the opportunity to view their child’s work and progress. I also thought about how I could incorporate TPACK into other subjects such as science, math and social studies. For math I envision my students solving problems using manipulatives and recording themselves and sharing it with others. With science I envision my students completing science experiments or testing out their hypothesis and recording it or blogging about it to share with others and then blogging about it. There are so many ways to incorporate TPACK in all subjects.
Leadership
In CEP 815, Technology and Leadership course, I learned about the importance of vision, and how your vision must be realistic and how you also must work to achieve the desired results of your vision. I created a vision statement that allowed me to reflect on purpose and my goals as an educator. This vision statement encouraged me to reflect on my experiences in the classroom and where I envision myself as a leader. The primary focus of my vision statement included incorporating more professional developments for educators to integrate technology. the I also learned about the challenges that technology leaders face daily when attempting to gain support in technology integration. It’s not an easy task. I will encounter parents, educators, and administration that will not understand my vision, and that’s ok. I think the most difficult aspect in technology integration is evidence. It’s not enough for me to say technology is great, but rather to be able to provide evidence of it. In this course we were given the opportunity to create a professional development for teachers. My professional development consisted of teaching educators how successfully implement a classroom blog and the benefits of a classroom blog. I really enjoyed this assignment because as I created the professional development (with a partner), I sat and thought about what I would want out of a professional development, what questions would I ask, how long would I want it to be (before I lost interest) and what would I want to gain. After thinking about these questions, I completely changed my original plan. I realized I had pointless activities and wasted time talking about things that didn’t pertain to blogging and I revamped the whole thing. I was then able to come up with what I think was a highly effective (using the TPACK model) professional development after reflecting on my original plan.
A Final Look
This program has changed my thought process as an educator in many ways. What used to consist of me writing out plans for the week or sometimes month, now also consist of me planning on how to effectively integrate technology. In CEP 812, we learned about different ways to use online organizers to make our personal and professional life run more smoothly. I plan on ditching my sticky notes for apps such as wunderlist and Evernote that are great online note taking apps I learned about in the MAET program. There are many things that I took away from this program, but the most important is to make sure that I’m not just using technology as filler, but that I am using technology to enhance my students learning experience. Anyone can place a student in front of the computer, but what are they gaining from it? I’ve also learned that integrating technology is not always at the top of everyone’s list. One of the things I notice throughout this program is the constant observation that some educators do not feel like they are given enough technology professional development opportunities. There are many educators that do not want to accept the shift in education because it’s not their norm. I see myself using what I’ve learned in this program to help educate and encourage other educators. I see myself hosting professional developments in the school and online on technology integration. I also would like to set up an online support system for educators to go for technology integration ideas and to also share their ideas as well.
Image Attribution:
TPACK Image
https://www.schoology.com/blog/tpack-framework-explained
MSU Image
All other images belong to me.
​