Blog 1 Technology Leads Education

  Five years after graduating from Michigan State University, I came back for graduate school. I choose Educational Technology because I am passionate about applying technology in daily teaching , and I wish technology could help teachers improve teaching efficiency, also reduce teachers’ workload. After finishing the first week of study, I believe my goal can be reached in the program.

First of all, CEP 810 Teaching for Understanding with Technology has many themes and objectives that are closely related to my goals, such as “Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), essential mindsets for teaching with technology, creative uses of technologies for learning” (D2L, 2022). The course itself is a good example. We don’t need to sit in the classroom, listen to the instructor, take notes, or study overnight to pass an exam. Instead, I sit on the couch, hold my laptop, explore all the materials, and do the assignments on my own pace. The instructor gives me feedback that lead me to deeply think about the question. This whole experience is personalized. By exploring, creating, and sharing, we are able to explore a wealth of knowledge, internalize it as our gain, and create meaningful production.

Secondly, I explored many current education technology products, like Flip, Twitter, Google site, etc. As a student of EdTech, these are things we need to “play around”. In the Twitter section, I need to “find a few people and/or organizations who you don’t typically agree with or see eye to eye with and follow them or read their Tweets” (D2L, 2022). I read posts about the LGBTQ group. Although there are some pictures and words make me a little bit uncomfortable, I am very grateful for this opportunity to understand the voice of a group that is completely different from my own. “seeing opposing points of view is a really important aspect of being a knowledgeable person” (D2L). People are living under big data. The Internet is fully aware of our preferences. These information is manipulating our thoughts. Thus, stepping out of our comfort zone to explore a completely different or even uncomfortable content is essential to modern people.  

I love reading articles about educational technology, and I am very fortunate to have chosen this program. I hope my goal can be achieved in this program - to encourage more teachers to use technology in their classroom with confidence, and to make teaching more efficient!

References

Master of Arts in Educational Technology (2022, Fall Semester). Unit 1: Building a Strong Foundation. Michigan State University, CEP 810: Teaching for Understanding with Technology. http://d2l.msu.edu

Vangie B. Webopedia (2021) https://www.webopedia.com/definitions/technology-education/