Below is a brief description of my course experience that I've taken through Michigan State University's Master of Arts in Educational Technology Program (MAET).
Fall 2012- Teaching Internship and Teaching Certification
Instructor: Jay Meeks
TE801 was the first graduate level course I had ever taken. I was able to transfer the credits I earned through this course to my MAET program. I took this course in conjunction with my student teaching. The course focused on helping me develop the necessary teaching strategies to help reach my students and help me guide students to success. The course also developed my knowledge of the different roles teachers are in within various education systems.
Instructor: Jay Meeks
TE802 was another graduate level course that I transferred credits to my MAET program. This course worked in conjunction with my student teaching. The course focused on reflecting on my experiences in the classroom. I recorded my daily observations and experiences within my placement classroom in a journal. I had to evaluate and reflect on my own teaching practices. I analyzed the problems and successes I experienced during the course discussions with other graduate students and my professor. I explored the problems I faced in my placement classroom and worked towards designing solutions to those problems through research.
Spring 2013- Teaching Internship and Teaching Certification
Instructor: Jay Meeks
TE803 was the follow up course to TE801 and worked in conjunction with my student teaching internship. I transferred the credits for this course into my MAET program as well. TE 803 took my knowledge that I had gained in TE801 and applied that knowledge to my placement school and classroom. In the course I analyzed the academic challenges of my students in my placement classroom. Then I designed and implemented solutions to help my students overcome the academic challenges they faced. The course pushed me further into the role of being a full-time teacher through the implementation of the strategies I researched and created during the course into my placement classroom.
Instructor: Jay Meeks
TE804 was the follow up course to TE802. This course also interacted closely with my student teaching internship. This is another course where I transferred the credits into my MAET program. TE804 continued to apply my research, reflections, and experiences I had during my student teaching internship. I was then challenged to design a teaching portfolio to demonstrate my incorporation of the 5 Enduring Understandings that we had focused on throughout my student teaching internship year coursework. The portfolio showcased artifacts that demonstrated our use, understanding, and reflection of the 5 Enduring Understandings in our placement classrooms.
Fall 2016- Online
Instructors: Kim Powell and Emily Stone
CEP810 is the first course I completed in the MAET program. In this course, I began to develop an educational technology blog where I showcased and posted reflections about my work throughout the program. I began building a larger professional learning network (PLN) by connecting to other educators through the creation of my Twitter account and through subscribing to other education blogs through my RSS Feed. Through the growth of my PLN, I learned to create basic 3-D models through Microsoft's 3D Builder for Windows 10. The course also evolved my teaching philosophy by introducing me to the TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge) framework to guide my instruction.
Instructor: Janine Campbell
In CEP811, I used a maker-kit (the Makey-Makey) on various assignments to gain an understanding and to experience Maker Education and Remix Culture. In addition to the maker-kit, I also utilized other technologies to reach course learning objectives such as SketchUp, Tinkercad, Evernote, Zoom, and Piktochart. The introduction of Maker Education and Remix Culture allowed me to further develop my understanding of TPACK by learning how to repurpose tools and technology around me creatively design innovative learning experiences. The course changed the way I think about creativity and technology in education. The most powerful insights I gained from this course was learning how to adapt technology to create meaningful learning experiences for students and how to incorporate and assess creativity in the classroom.
Summer 2017- Galway, Ireland Cohort
Instructors: Sean Sweeney and Elizabeth Owens Boltz
CEP800 pushed me to fully immerse myself with the TPACK framework. A major project in the course was to take on the role of a technology integrationist to help a colleague with their problem of practice in the classroom. My objective was to help my colleague enhance the learning experience for his students in his high school math classroom. I wrote a lesson plan using the TPACK framework that incorporated technology to help my colleague with their problem of practice and enhance student learning. During the process of creating a lesson plan to help my colleague, I conducted research from peer reviewed scholarly journals to inform the creation of my solution and to familiarize myself with the high school math concepts my colleague wanted to focus on with his students. I also sent out a survey to my professional learning network and held a forum discussion with my PLN to brainstorm, discuss ideas, and share resources to further inform the creation of my lesson plan. At the end of the course, I shared my research, discussion and survey results, and my lesson plan with my colleague.
Instructors: Sean Sweeney and Elizabeth Owens Boltz
CEP815 focused on two goals. The first goal was to develop and enhance my educational leadership skills. The second focus was on how to continue learning about the world of rapid technological changes. I explored a variety of technology tools to enhance our thinking about leadership and technology in education. I gained experience on how to manage, apply, and evaluate technology in education. The major project of the course to incorporate the focus of technology and leadership was to plan, facilitate, conduct, and present at an international conference in Galway, Ireland. This challenged me to step into the leadership role, provide professional development, and present research on education to other educators. It showed me the steps and hard work that is required to plan, promote, and create a successful conference. The conference also provided me the opportunity to conduct research and present on Differentiation and Data Driven Learning.
Instructors: Sean Sweeney and Elizabeth Owens Boltz
CEP822 helped me learn how to analyze and produce credible educational research. The skills I learned included how to to gather information, methods on how to analyze data, and how to interrogate the validity of existing data. I worked within a research team to create a research proposal and presentation that critiqued the research we examined as well as the research that we conducted. In addition to analyzing existing research, my team and I carried out experiments and recorded our observations surrounding our question of how listening to lyrical music effects student abilities to accurately and efficiently problem solve.
Fall 2017 - Online
Instructor: Douglas Frankish
In CEP812, I gained an understanding of "wicked problems" in education and learned about the process of design thinking to try to problem solve. I was part of a think tank team that utilized design thinking collaboratively to develop a definition and solution to the wicked problem of "Rethinking Teaching" in the 21st century. We began the process by brainstorming questions we had on the topic. We then moved onto researching and empathizing with multiple perspectives on "Rethinking Teaching". In addition to researching and examining peer reviewed scholarly journals on our topic, we also sent out surveys to our PLN to gather information to help us define and create solutions to the problem. Our wicked problem of "Rethinking Teaching" was finding a way to have more inquiry based learning in the classroom, more time for educators to collaborate, and creating legislation to support teachers in incorporating more technology to conduct inquiry based learning as well as creating legislation to support more collaboration between teachers.
Instructors: Dr. Matthew Koehler, Sarah Keenan-Lechel, Spencer Greenhalgh, and Brittany Dillman
In the final course, CEP807, of my MAET program, I created this education portfolio to showcase the skills and experience I have obtained throughout the program. The portfolio also demonstrates my understanding of utilizing technology to support teaching and learning. Each week during the course, I have created web pages, reviewed the work of peers, received feedback from instructors and peers on the elements of my portfolio, and incorporated the feedback into the development of my portfolio. Visitors of my education portfolio will gain an understanding of who I am as an educator and how my experiences have impacted my teaching philosophy.
Image Attribution: Enjoy all images on this site! The header images are my own. Images that are not my own will have a caption with the image credit.