Sometimes what you thought was an insignificant event can set you on a new path in life. One day, I was showing a colleague of mine how to use a document merge script with Google Docs. After I finished, she said, “You know, Nic, you really should be teaching this tech stuff – you're good at it!” It wasn’t the first time someone had said something like that to me, but I had never thought seriously about teaching teachers how to use technology. Was that even a thing? I searched for “educational technology degree” the next day to find out.
My experience with technology before I entered this program was broad but shallow. I began programming as a kid with a TRS-80. I remember the days of saving programs on audio cassette tapes. I learned BASIC in high school. I learned some FORTRAN, Pascal, and COBOL in college, along with Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. Much later, I later learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. I know my way around Windows and Linux desktop OSs pretty well, and I learn software easily. The thing is, I generally only learn enough about a given technology to solve whatever problem is in front of me at the moment.
Learning to combine my technical know-how with my teaching experience seemed like an excellent way to develop professionally and to create new opportunities for myself. In choosing a graduate program, I wanted a program that stressed equal parts of sound educational theory and technical skill building. Being in Korea, I also needed an online, asymmetric learning format. The University of Missouri’s Educational Technology online program had a strong reputation, and I felt confident that it was the best program for me.
On Windows machines, the CTRL+N command usually creates a new document or file. In Bash, it says "go forward" or "next." On one day I taught a colleague about a simple script, and the next day I pressed the CTRL+N keys on my life.
I got exactly what I wanted out of this program: a good balance of educational theory, instructional-design theory, and technical skills. Here are three important things I’ll take away from the program:
My previous educational experiences have generally been “read this” then “do this.” In this program, every class had an online discussion component, where I would have to share ideas and opinions with my classmates about topics we were reading about before, during, and after we produced something. I was surprised how much the online discussion boards added to my learning: getting feedback from classmates with a wide range of perspectives and talents was equally as important as the textbook material for developing my knowledge and skills. I was impressed with how quickly online learners could develop a sense of community, having seen nothing like it in online “discussions” on the Web.
In addition, I saw that learners could complete real work and big projects without any face-to-face meetings. In several courses, my classmates and I had to communicate extensively, sharing ideas about goals, methods, technology, etc., using online chat programs. Communications like these helped to establish a sense of teamwork and community and drove my personal enthusiasm for class projects.
In Teaching Online Courses, I worked in a small group to build a wiki page. Here’s a link to that page converted to a PDF: Wiki Project Page (converted to PDF).
Before this program, I was much more deadline-focused than quality-focused. Three courses in the program have taught me to be a more disciplined, end-user-oriented, and quality-focused developer: Introduction to Web Development, Intermediate Web Development, and Introduction to Digital Media. For example, I never cared about clean code when I worked as a web developer. The back-end guys hated me. I appreciate the importance of clean code much more now, and I find myself surprisingly prideful at some of the code I put together for my courses.
I also gained a great deal of confidence as a web and digital media developer. In Introduction to Digital Media, I learned that taking digital editing software one step further can really expand my creative options. If the course hadn't forced me to go beyond my basic knowledge, I would still be stuck with a much smaller skill set. The web development courses taught me useful techniques with CSS3 and JavaScript. After these courses, I feel like I can not only create media-rich, dynamic websites for myself and my colleagues, but I can teach my students how to create them, too!
Here’s a link to my portfolio of digital media products that I created for Introduction to Digital Media: Digital Media Portfolio.
Overall, the program has shown me how to design instruction that includes technology in a way that enhances learning.
Two of most important things I have learned in this respect are (1) how to apply the ADDIE model to develop learning opportunities and (2) how to develop individual lesson plans with respect to the five characteristics of meaningful learning: active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative. Over three courses, I was able to put these ideas into practice: Technology to Enhance Learning, Instructional Systems Design, and Designing Online Learning.
Before the program, I wouldn’t have distinguished learning from technology and learning with technology. Now, I understand how technology should be used as more than just a vehicle to deliver or access information, it can and should be used to encourage students to experiment, share, and create to construct their own knowledge. Also, learning to write instructional objectives using the "ABCD" model was very useful for me to develop a disciplined approach to formulating clear learning objectives. Before this program, I stated learning objectives in a general and imprecise way.
The Instructional Systems Design course took me and my classmates through all the steps of using the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) to design instruction that included technology in a way that would enhance learning. My classmates and I successfully completed these steps to produce a design for a blended-learning, 2-credit, university-level course: Course Design for BUS 401 Employment Search.
The “Hello, World!” program is usually the first one a programmer writes and executes when learning a new programming language. It gives the programmer a sense of accomplishment immediately, along with the confidence to keep going. I feel very much like I’ve just finished running a life-changing “Hello, World” program. That is, I have a sense of accomplishment and the confidence to keep going in this field. By finishing my M Ed program, I have dedicated myself to becoming an educational technology professional, who produces quality work, values process as much as product, and possesses the knowledge and ability to implement appropriate technology solutions in educational settings.
I am already working closely with my department administrators and other teachers as we develop a new EFL curriculum that is very technology-heavy. I want to develop some products I created in this program into full online courses. I am also going to develop workshops on educational technology and become more involved with educational technology professionals here in Korea and beyond. I have accomplished a great deal by finishing my M Ed program, but I am looking to do a lot more with what I’ve learned.