As I begin to think and reflect on my journey through the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University, I am compelled to start my reflection with the goals I laid out for myself at the beginning of the program. Examining and reflecting on my original goals for the MAET program is a natural starting point for an introspective exercise. As a secondary social studies educator with a passion for teaching students historical thinking skills, I believe we cannot know where we are going without understanding where we have been. At its essence, history is the study of change and so to reflect on my experience through the MAET program is to ponder what changes I have undergone through the course of my journey. Looking back and identifying the transformations I have experienced along the way illuminates the road ahead in my career and professional practice.

My original goals for the MAET program were to explore, discover, and create ways to use technology to:

• • • promote critical literacy skills

    • support inquiry-based learning

    • differentiate instruction to empower students through a variety of choices that best fit their own learning needs

At the end of my journey, these original goals seem so distant. Out of my three original goals, only promoting critical literacy skills received any attention. As a consequence, the first revision of my original goals was to parse them down to one— promoting critical literacy skills. Simplifying my goals by focusing on critical literacy skills will allow me to concentrate my energies rather than scattering my efforts across competing goals. Originally, when expanding on my goal of promoting critical literacy skills through technology, I explained how I wanted to “explore the role of technology in multiple forms of literacy, recognizing that technology plays a natural role in how students presently access and acquire information.” I expressed my hope that technology could be used “as a springboard to more sophisticated levels of reading and writing.”

Today’s youth inhabit a world in which digital media and tools are woven into the fabric of their lives. Social media, for example, has created space for both the distribution of information and ideas while at the same time extending, or curtailing, the social networks that play such an essential role in their lives. Additionally, students have access to digital tools that give them access to an immeasurable amount of information, practical tools to analyze, synthesize, and construct their own understanding as well as express their own arguments for taking informed action.

I have since narrowed my goal of promoting critical literacy skills to promoting literacy skills specific to teaching history— otherwise known as Historical Thinking Skills. The repertoire of skills that encompass Historical Thinking Skills support students’ growth as persons who can critically examine contemporary issues in a manner that can empower them to take informed action as responsible and competent citizens of a democratic society.