Synthesis Paper

"The Masters Journey"

By David Bullio

Michigan State University's College of Education's Online MA in Education has proven to be a challenging program, yet a rewarding one as well. My learning over the past three years has been shaped by some excellent professors. It has also been shaped by some wonderful classmates who at times helped to push my thinking to another level. In the following essay I will explore how technology has played a very important hand during the MA program and how it will continue to influence me as an educator. I will also explore some powerful learning experiences in my MA program and how the involvement of others has played a hand in that. To conclude my essay, I will give the reader an explanation for how I see shared leadership playing a part in my decision making as I move into an administrative position.

Technology and Me

In my "Lifelong Learner with Technology" essay I touched on the topic of how important technology will be to learning in the 21st century. In the essay I mentioned how I went to a workshop this year at Yokohama International School and realized how much education has and will continue to change. At the workshop I went from discussion to discussion surrounded by educators on their wireless laptops and Iphones, exploring Web 2.0 tools with presenters in "real-time". With my paper notebook and pencil in hand, I felt like "The Last Samurai" surrounded by all these technological weapons! Luckily for me, I had been enrolled in the online MAED program since the fall of 2007 and was well aware of how technology can be used to enhance learning, as well as provide access to a variety of learning opportunities.

Through the online MAED program I have been exposed to a number of technological tools that have served to empower me as a learner and I will quickly name a few: Blogger, Google Sites, Angel Online Discussion Forums, Angel Live Chat Rooms, Online Museums, Windows Movie Maker, Hypermedia, and of course Skype. The Angel Online Discussion Forums serve as places where discussions are held in an asynchronous manner and papers can be left there for review or alteration by others is very similar to the increasingly popular wiki, which is increasingly being used in K-12 International Schools. What makes this sort of technology so great is that it allows individual users to do some real thinking at the time that is best for them, as I know students who have used my wikis I created for them have other commitments after school and this sort of technology freed them up so they can truly have the "best of both worlds". When we think about it, all of the technological tools I mentioned above have a great ability to give access to learning opportunities that would not be possible without them. For example, I was fortunate enough to use Skype in my EAD 882 class with Dr. Meloche and I was able to get some excellent face-to-face advice for how to handle the final project in the class. With me residing in Tokyo and her residing in East Lansing, it would have been impossible to have such an important face-to-face meeting without this excellent technological tool. This experience alone has helped to stamp in mind the importance of integrating technology into K-12 and Post secondary learning experiences, as I have first-hand knowledge of how these sort of technological tools can provide positive learning experiences that I would have been denied if I was living in Japan twenty years ago.

Throughout my time in the program, I have also been fortunate enough to learn about how technology can be used to give an array of choices to learners. With Professor Weiland in ED 800 and EAD 864, I was given a great deal of opportunities to thoughtfully engage with hypermedia. In these courses I was given a chance to explore an abundance of reading choices in his weekly modules and to follow up on what I "personally" wanted to further explore on any given topic. One hyperlink that continues to stand out in my mind is one where the "real" Lowell Bergman, the journalist who is played by Al Pacino in The Insider, is being interviewed by a director at the University of Southern California. It was a moment of authentic learning as I had the chance to further explore a real-life character and the reason he made certain choices. This hyperlink helped fuel my motivation to write "The Insider: Lowell Bergman's Career Development". Professor Weiland also used hypermedia to expose me to some wonderful online museums and exhibits. One that we explored in ED 800 that continues to stand out in my mind is the Life After the Holocaust Online Exhibition. "Attending" this exhibition actually felt like I was at a real museum, because I truly felt like I was there. Like a "real" museum, I was also given choices as to what parts of the exhibit I wanted to explore.

To put quite simply, technology can and will continued to be used by the world of education and myself because it provides exciting learning opportunities that were not present "yesterday" but are present "today". They also provide access to learning opportunities for those who are far-away or for those who have other commitments as well. Without a doubt, technology will continue to play an important in hand in my learning as well as how I oversee how curriculum is delivered as I move into administration.

More Great Learning Experiences and the Value of Others

Throughout the program I have been fortunate enough to come across some challenging, yet very rewarding learning experiences. One class that stands out in mind is TE 850, where Dr. Apol had us exploring our assumptions about children’s literature and how that affects how we perceive a text. With Nodelman and Reimer’s Pleasures of Children’s Literature as our guide, we also explored such ideas as surface ideology and passive ideology. Surface ideology has to do with what the author’s intended messages are within a story, whereas passive ideology deals with values that are taken for granted by the author and are widely shared by the society that surrounds the writer. I remember the week in this six week intensive course when these ideas caused a lot of great debate and emotion as we used surface and passive ideology to explore children’s literature that dealt with the perspectives of World War Two and the Hiroshima atomic bombing. The texts certainly had very appealing surface ideologies, but as we explored the passive ideologies the texts became increasingly complicated and led us to consider Nodelman and Reimer’s (2003) suggestion of questioning what authors are not touching on and why (Pg. 179). Using this along with other strategies that Nodelman and Reimer introduce, we used this to steer us towards some very stimulating discussions where some of us had similar views, while some of us differed in our views. It certainly was a stimulating discussion forum where challenging ideas and concepts were debated in a professional manner, which played an integral part in making the discussion forum such an excellent learning venue.

Early on in the program, I must say I was someone who questioned the value of group work and group discussions. It seemed to be another thing to tend to, another “farm to be farmed”. Gradually, after encountering some wonderful classmates with some new and exciting ideas different from mine, I began to open up to the idea of online collaborative learning. Working with classmates who also helped to share the workload further opened me up to the idea of collaborative learning in an online environment. This moment for me happened in EAD 882, when we were asked by the wonderful Dr. Meloche to create an induction plan for teachers new to the profession and as well as teachers new to the state. There were four of us in our group, and although there were leaders within the group who perhaps spearheaded our induction plan’s direction and helped to maintain that direction throughout the process of creating the induction plan, all four members did their part to make sure that we put forth the best possible induction plan we could create. It was a great feeling to “be on board” with excellent teammates striving towards the same goal of making an excellent induction plan.

Shifting the focus back to TE 850, this class also served as a beacon of hope for how online collaborative learning could and should be. And perhaps this has to do with the format Dr. Apol setup. We were expected to do the research on the topic and write our research paper first, turn it in, and then post our paper to our discussion board group. From there, we were asked to respond to each person’s paper in our group of five students, but each of us were asked to write a more detailed response to a different person’s paper each week. For me, this gave fairness to each member of the group and helped to create a “group balance”, something I feel is hard to maintain in any type of learning environment. This format of course served as the bedrock for several weeks of stimulating discussions which lead to several powerful learning experiences.

What the Future Holds

Having recently been named PYP Curriculum Coordinator for Canadian International School Tokyo, I am excited about having the chance to put into play many of the things I learned about Educational Leadership over the course of the past three years. In EAD 882 we explored the topic of shared leadership in schools. It is something I am now a firm believer in and I will do my best to help create a culture where each elementary staff member truly feels like a valued shareholder. This will embolden staff to take an active part in important decisions regarding the curriculum and will give the entire elementary staff a sense of how important they truly are to the schools success.

For my final project in EAD 882 I made an effort to improve the Japanese specialist’s involvement with one of my units of inquiry. These Japanese specialist’s were gracious enough to volunteer their time after school where we created lesson plans together for my class in English that was exploring how maps can be used. We did the same thing for how they could explore this topic in Japanese. We then observed each others classes and came back the following week with ideas and suggestions for how we could make our lessons better as well as looking at what worked well. We also looked at student samples of work. For our meetings, I also set up protocols that were being used at Harvard’s Collaborative Assessment Conference, where they also were exploring student progress and how to improve instruction. Not only was the project a large success in improving Japanese specialist involvement with my unit of inquiry, it also helped to break down the culture of autonomy and division between the Japanese specialists and the elementary homeroom teachers. A main text we explored in EAD 882 was Cultivating Leadership in Schools. In Cultivating Leadership in Schools, Donaldson (2006) discussed the dangers of how such cultures of autonomy and division feed divisions and hostilities within a school (Pg. 38). That was certainly the case at my school, and still is to a certain extent, but things have improved as the previous PYP coordinator and Elementary Vice Principal took part in the process and decided to apply a similar process to the other grade levels in the elementary school. I know that from my experience of improving Japanese specialist’s involvement with my unit of inquiry, I certainly became better acquainted with my fellow co-workers and even developed friendships as the year progressed.

The success of my final project in Dr. Meloche’s EAD 882 class showed me that great things can truly happen when people come together with an open-mind and an open-heart. It also taught me the importance of valuing various stakeholders in our learning community, even the ones that haven’t been “traditionally” involved with our schools units of inquiry. I have to give credit to what I learned in EAD 882 and Dr. Meloche for developing this desire of valuing various stakeholders and their input, while at the same time staying focused on goals that the school need to achieve.

Conclusion

In conclusion, technology will play an increasingly larger role in the way we learn at schools and how I will continue to learn in the 21st century. By taking part in this MAED program I have been exposed to various technological tools and different modes of learning through technology, which has served to teach me that with technology comes the important theme of "choice". Being exposed to a variety of technological tools has also given me access to learning opportunities that I otherwise would not have access to due to the constraints of living in Asia and attending a university in North America. Technology has and will continue to "open up" my world, and I will also continue to use it to open up the world of the educators and learners at Canadian International School.

During my time in the program I have also been fortunate enough to take part in and experience some powerful learning experiences. Whether it be exploring hypermedia on my own or considering how best to debate a point with a fellow classmate, there certainly have been a number of learning experiences that continue to stick with me. As my time in program progressed I have also developed a refined appreciation for how online environments can and do serve as meaningful places of collaboration, sharing of ideas, and of course true learning.

As I move into administration, I will also take with me the values of shared leadership instilled in me in Dr. Meloche’s EAD 882 course. I will make an earnest effort to value various stakeholders in the school community. This effort will help to promote a school culture where all members of the elementary staff truly feel they have a voice in matters around curriculum and therefore will feel emboldened with their contributions towards the schools success.