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This page examines the courses that I took as part of Michigan State University's (MSU) Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program. Courses are listed in chronological order, organized by semester. For each course, I provided the following information: course title, link to official MSU course description catalog for quick look up, course instructor(s), and a brief description of my experience.
/// CEP = Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education ///
Instructors: William Bork & Anne Heintz
This course was one of two courses that started off my graduate school quest. During this course we explored the world of design process. We learned how design works with education and the world around us. During this course we used the five phases of design thinking using the Stanford Model of Design Thinking. As I progressed through this course I used the Model of Design Thinking to articulate a problem of practice within my teaching and curriculum.
Instructor: Matthew Schell
This course was also one of two courses that started off my graduate school quest. During this course we explored learning management systems and how they should be properly used to help create successful and safe learning. We explored functions and features of learning management systems and then created our own mock lessons within a learning management system of choice. We explored methodologies to help guide us to successful teaching and learning.
Instructor: Chris Sloan
Assessment is always thought to be something that measures what you learned; with the implication that in order to prove what you learned you must take a test. However, assessment should be about showing what you learned and can be done in many forms. This course focused on foundational theories of assessment by examining different assessment methods and purposes. The assessment methods and purposes involved digital tools that helped to gather, analyze and make informed pedagogical choices about what assessments to use. The most useful tool I created during this course was that of an assessment checklist. The list is gathered content that help to make it so my assessments can relate to all learners and each learners need. This course helped me to re-analyze my assessments.
Instructor: Mary Wever
Who knew that cooking could have anything to do with a theory of learning. During this course we focused on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). To explore the ideas of TPACK we created a cooking video to analyze how this theory works in our life. We also explored our personal learning networks. We used our professional learning networks to explore something we wanted to learn. We then created a 21st century learning activity to connect to our professional learning network project. I felt that this class really helped me to understand how TPACK works in my classroom, but also how to find reliable 21st century sources for projects.
Instructor: Colin Gallagher
Being creative is a key tool to success in the future of education and the work force. This course was designed to explore the ways in which to be creative. Using play as a major concept for development of creativity this course explores what it is to be creative, the "thinking-tools" for being creative, how teaching can be creative, how we can use creative thinking in our disciplines and how we can get others to think creatively. My biggest takeaway from this class was how to use empathy in my teaching. It really opened up my eyes to how one-sided teachers can be sometimes. I loved being able to look at creativity though the eyes of a medium of study in my class. This class helped me to develop a better understanding of the need of creativity in my classroom.
Instructors: Michael Lachney & Marissa Zhu
Understanding research as a teacher is very important. One thing that is true is that with the advancements in technology our students need to understand what is good research and how to find it. This course exposes teachers to theories behind quantitative, qualitative and humanistic research and allows opportunities to explore aspects of research design. One thing from this course that really helped me was the idea of interviewing peers in the development of research. Having interviewing skills are very important for not just research but for professional skills as well.
Instructor: Stephanie Jennings
Making a connection to learning in the classroom and outside the classroom is important when teaching students. This course focused on creating a bridge in the classroom that connects both the classroom and the outside community. During this course we explored concepts such as affinity spaces, formative assessment, project-based learning, backward design and we used these concepts to develop our own theory of learning. In order to ensure the best teacher practices are used in our classrooms we must make somethings a habit. During this course we also explored our own habits and underwent a habit changing activity. I personally chose to focus on my own habit of positive personal talk.
Instructor: Kyle Shack
Leadership in the work place is important to understand. Each leader had a different set of leadership qualities and expectations. The overall goal of this course was to examine the aims of education, the history and evolution of technology, principles of leadership, and the intersection of these three elements. To truly understand these concepts we created a global vision of where see the future of education going. We also created a professional development plan to be shared with our colleagues. By the end of this course I felt that I truly understood who I am as a leader. I was able to identify where I see the future of education going along with what traits of leadership I possess and how I can use those traits in my work place.
Instructor: Bill Marsland
Creativity can be a hard thing to gage in a classroom. Administering creative assessments with intentional grading policies can be hard. This course focuses on the intersection between creativity, computer science and cross-disciplinary contexts. During this course we created artifacts that can be used in our classrooms that focus on using creativity and computer science systems. One of the biggest things I took away from this course was the development of a rubric that helps to grade creativity. I felt that this course not only gave me a good ideas on how to grade creativity, but also how to create an environment that supports creative pedagogy in my classroom.
Instructor: Matthew Koehler
This course was the last stop of my graduate school journey. This course organizes graduate studies into a meaningful exhibition that displays the creations and reflections created during the master’s program. During this course I created a website that displayed artifacts from graduate school along with displays from my classroom. This course helped me to develop a professional web page that I can use beyond graduate school to celebrate all of the successful things I have done as an educator.
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