How my journey through the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program transformed me as an educator.

In his doctrine of universal flux, Greek philosopher Heraclitus (circa 500 BCE) proposed that that at any given moment nothing stays the same— the universe is a continuum of constant change. The changes we experience throughout our life result in transitions and transformations— those often turbulent spaces of space and time between something or someone changing from one thing to something else. If I had to distill my experience and journey that led to my completion of a Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) from Michigan State University (MSU), I would describe it as a journey of transition and transformation.

Teaching is my second career. Starting a second career requires many transitions and transformations such as one vocation to another, one set of skills to another, one mindset to another, and one type of daily schedule to another. The list of sub-transitions and transformations that occur under the umbrella of starting a second career is too many to reasonably accommodate in this essay. The transitions and transformations I have experienced professionally have prepared me for the MAET program as well as my path moving forward.

"The changes we experience throughout our life result in transitions and transformations— those often turbulent AREAS of space and time between changing from one thing to something else"

My first career was in the printing industry with the majority spent in the newspaper printing field. I began my career as a darkroom technician and film stripper, otherwise known as prepress. The skills I mastered at first were mathematical, spatial and, required manual dexterity as well. In the early to mid-1990s, technological advancements would introduce a seachange in the printing industry as the imaging process transitioned from a photomechanical process to an entirely digital imaging process. This transition and transformation in the printing industry happened swiftly and required me to do the same.

During this time I played a pivotal role in evaluating digital imaging systems for the prepress department. I analyzed a plethora of hardware and software in which the makers made lofty claims about the suitability of their products for the newspaper printing process. I believe this experience has served as a bedrock for how I evaluate technology for use in my classroom and instruction today. There is a seemingly endless array of educational technology products that have very limited usefulness in the instruction and facilitation of student learning. My past experience has ingrained in me the mind of a skeptic when making decisions about introducing technologies into my classroom or the recommendations I give regarding technology bond purchases by my school district.

Through the MAET program, I have gained a host of new skills and schemas that further enhance and bolster my capacity to not only evaluate the usefulness and potential of new technology but reevaluate technology already in use. My experience in the MAET program has also broadened the lens from which I see and understand the role of technology in education. Embedded in the courses were principles and concepts that transcended educational technology that affected almost every aspect of my practice as an educator. One of these principles is the role of inquiry in the classroom and the professional practice of a teacher.

CEP 812: Applying Educational Technology to Practice

In the MAET course, CEP 812: Apply Educational Technology to Practice, I was introduced to the ideas that resonated with me the most as we read Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question, in which Berger explains why and how we lose our sense of curiosity and inquiry that is so prevalent during our childhood. Berger explains the role of social institutions in creating an atmosphere of fear of being wrong rather than engaging in the type of risk-taking required to fully engage in inquiry. As a social studies teacher passionate about teaching students how to challenge conventional interpretations of history, I found A More Beautiful Question to be the closest approximation to an epiphany that I have experienced as an educator.

Some of what Berger writes about was not new to me but some of the ideas he refers to took on a different meaning for my teaching when placed in the context of his arguments. For example, it would be a safe assumption that the majority of education students in universities throughout the United States have read Deborah Meier or at least about her work. I certainly did, however, to be reintroduced to Meier in the context of Berger’s arguments transformed the meaning and understanding of what I had read and studied regarding Meier’s ideas about inquiry. This had consequences for how I see the purpose of my own instruction and how my students and I use technology in the classroom.

"My mission as a teacher has been transformed to facilitate my students’ mastery of inquiry techniques and strategies that will empower them to question the droves of information and claims they encounter every day in the information ecosystem they inhabit."

Berger quotes Meier when she speaks broadly of the importance of teaching students how to be effective inquisitors:

If you can’t imagine you could be wrong, what’s the point of democracy? And if you can’t imagine how or why others think differently, then how could you tolerate democracy?

Meier’s questions deeply resonate with me. All of my students live in an information landscape dominated and fractured by an endless array of information platforms that portion out information in small, non-contextual, spoonfuls. My mission as a teacher has been transformed to facilitate my students’ mastery of inquiry techniques and strategies that will empower them to question the droves of information and claims they encounter every day in the information ecosystem they inhabit.

I have also been inspired by Berger’s question, “who is entitled to ask questions in class?” Berger argues that when one person— in this case, the teacher— holds the power to formulate the questions, they possess intellectual power over their students. Even today, I continue to struggle in overcoming the institutional counter currents to transferring ownership of questioning to my students (Berger, 2014). My greatest desire is to transform my instruction from traditional input teaching models to empowering my students to determine the questions that frame their learning. This would lead to guiding them in effectively using digital resources to research and formulate responses to their own inquiries.

Berger reports that before developing her five habits of mind for inquiry, Meier focused on two specific ways of thinking— skepticism and, empathy. Empathy as a critical thinking skill was a new idea for me. I had the opportunity to expand on the idea of empathy in the MAET course, CEP 817: Learning with Technology through Design.

CEP 817 Learning with Technology through Design

When writing a lesson plan, planning instruction, or developing learning experiences and environments for students, empathy was not a word that immediately came to my mind. Yet, empathy is one of the cornerstone principles of The Stanford Design School Model which served as the foundation of this course. Infusing empathy into the design process is to engage in user-centered design where the needs of the user are paramount to the decisions made by designers.

According to Kouprie and Visser, empathetic design is “to get closer to the lives and experiences of users... in order to increase the likelihood that the product or service designed meets the user’s needs.” Unlike product designers which must make a special effort to have contact with users of their designs, teachers are in daily contact with their “users” or students. But being present with students is not sufficient. It requires a mindset of empathy— seeing your students through the lens of empathy is of utmost importance.

"I have made it part of my practice to infuse empathy in my design of instruction and I now see my lesson plans as lesson designs with the needs of my students as the foundation and focal point of the lesson."

Before this course, I had never thought of a lesson plan as something that I designed. Yet, that is exactly what I am doing when I write a lesson plan. In fact, I more often think of lesson plans as schematics for a learning experience. Seeing my instruction as a learning experience has helped me move my frame of reference from myself as a teacher to my students as the “users” of the experiences I create. I have made it part of my practice to infuse empathy in my design of instruction and I now see my lesson plans as lesson designs with the needs of my students as the foundation and focal point of the lesson.

One of the areas in my instruction that has been transformed through the lens of empathy is how I assess my students' learning. I had the opportunity to further explore how I designed and used assessments in CEP 813: Electronic Assessment.

CEP 813 Electronic Assessment

One of the most significant struggles I have faced as an educator is integrating good formative assessment into my instruction. Collecting exit tickets from students on their way out of the classroom after the bell has dismissed them to the next class is often an act of futility. The index cards or post-it notes pile up in a heap on my desk along with all the other pieces of paper demanding attention. What I learned in CEP 813: Electronic Assessment has transformed my practice. I have leveraged digital tools to enhance all of my assessments. Now I can compile data efficiently and analyze the results to determine my next instructional decisions for all students. Digital assessments also allow me to differentiate with greater efficiency.

What was really transformative for me was the idea of assessment as learning. Ostensibly this is what formative assessment is supposed to be but thinking of it in terms of teaching with assessment has changed how I assess my students. One example is game-based assessments. The game-based assessment I created for the course was more of a story-based assessment. As students take the assessment they make choices along the way. The answer they select sends them in different directions. If they demonstrate mastery of the skill or concept they move onto the next stage. If they have not mastered the concept or skill the student is simply sent to another challenge for further practice and assessment.

"My reteaching of the concept or skill is embedded within the structure of the assessment."

This approach to assessment has already yielded results. Many of my students find this type of assessment more engaging. Additionally, this assessment allows students to work towards mastery at their own pace and without having to wait until I am available to give them one on one attention. My reteaching of the concept or skill is embedded within the structure of the assessment.

It seems fitting that I conclude my reflection with a course on electronic assessment. That is essentially what this essay is, my own self-assessment of what I have learned and how that has transformed my teaching.

Transitions & Transformations: A Continuum

What do I envision for my professional practice after the MAET experience? I will continue to move forward in transitioning and transforming my instruction with learning experiences designed to elicit the curiosity of my students through inquiry-based activities. Now that my classroom has a dedicated set of Chromebooks, I can provide ample opportunities for my students to follow through on their inquiries by researching possible answers and/or solutions to the questions they raise. While doing so, I see my students applying the thinking skills of a skeptic to the information, claims, and sources they will encounter in an information ecosystem dominated by sources of questionable credibility and intellectual dishonesty.

"I am eager to further explore the potential that is inherent in game-based and story-based assessments. What other technologies exist to create such experiences? What platforms could be created to develop game-based and story-based assessments for social studies, especially history?"

With time, I will continue to develop a more systematic approach to ensuring that the learning experiences I create for my students are driven by empathy for how they experience the learning activities I have designed. This means that I not only attempt to see the designs through my students’ eyes but also, to invite my students to share in the design process by asking them to describe how the experiences make them feel.

Finally, I am eager to further explore the potential that is inherent in game-based and story-based assessments. What other technologies exist to create such experiences? What platforms could be created to develop game-based and story-based assessments for social studies, especially history? I hope to find or create a community of educators who wish to do the same.

My teaching career is still in its infancy but as I look forward, I understand that my trajectory as a teacher exists as a continuum of transition, transformation, and adaptation. My experience in the MAET program at MSU is but one experience— a crucially important one— on that continuum. The opportunities that lie before me are a complex network of possibilities branching off into a myriad of uncountable directions. I move forward with the confidence afforded to me from my new-found skills and schema that I have constructed throughout my experiences and accomplishments in the MAET program.