On the Shoulders of Giants
Understanding by building on previous discoveries
In five short semesters, I have completed my Masters of Arts in Educational Technology. During the pursuit of this degree, many skills and new perspectives were gained. In the instruction, assignments, and readings there were opportunities to get to the heart of the concepts that aid in the understanding of education and integration of technology. I took many of those opportunities to improve my understanding of the field. Because of those opportunities I now feel confident in the educational work that I plan on performing. The following will be an overview of where I was when I started and how that influenced my decision to join the Master’s program. I will include three highly influential courses and other insights that the program has made available. Finally, I will be summing up why this training has been beneficial and how I intend to apply it. It is with great pride that I am at the point that I currently stand; please let me describe a little bit about how I came to this point.
When I started, I had recently graduated from Michigan State with a Bachelors of Science in Agriculture Business Management and was contemplating my next steps as a learner. I needed to know what choice would yield the greatest payback towards my goals of enhancing the agricultural systems of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Just after graduation I had begun working with Bay Mills Community College in their Research and Extension Department. During this time, I came to the conclusion that education was an important part of enhancing the agricultural community, this is why I began the Masters of Arts in Educational Technology program. This decision fueled by BMCC’s interest in agriculture helped shape how I was to interact with my chosen courses. In each class I planned to mold the assignments so that they would leave me with fundamental concepts, usable resources, and a vision that could aid in the development and administration of future agricultural courses.
One of the assignments from CEP 812 taught by Michelle Schira Hagerman and Emily Stone that added some perspective on education was the tackling of a wicked problem. Types or classifications of questions were presented to us in order. First we learned that a simple problem is something like 1+2=3. A complex problem would be a game of chess (where you know who the players are and what it means to win.) Finally, a wicked problem is a problem that is often difficult to know who all the players are, what it means to win, and what factors influences outcomes of the problem. Something that added to the complexity of this assignment was the fact that we were a group of students from across the state, and all communications were online. We used our individual resources, had access to instant communication, collaborated using technologies like Google docs, Skype, YouTube, and Prezi. We created a presentation that illustrated our collaborative process as we came together to discuss how we might “Allow failure to be as powerful a learning mode as success” . Inside of the presentation there is also a second presentation that I provided as “A Method to Classify Types of Failure of Individual Ideas.” The second presentation was a means to express a way to identify and quantify (general) types of failure that I would want students to be able to strategize to overcome. By tackling these types of problems it becomes easier to see the necessity of collaboration, organization, thinking ahead and allowing for constant revision. Wicked problems are all around us, and by being able to identify them, we can start solving them sooner.
Another assignment this one from CEP 813 taught by Sandra Sawaya and Michelle Schira Hagerman was very impactful on my views on education came during the last semester of the program. In this assignment the task was to compare two articles, “ Thematic Connections between The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture and Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment.” This article highlighted several areas of insight regarding the roles of assessment within the classroom, and not only for student learning, but also for the encouragement and improvement of teaching practices. In this paper, some concepts were identified to be similar between the authors such as the need for students to be active in the assessment process while being immersed in a culture of success. Students and teachers can improve through a positive learning culture, dynamic assessments, and a focus on the current state of their abilities, feedback, transfer, explicit criteria, and self-assessments. The papers both hinted at the zone of proximal development in which learners and teachers have abilities to complete tasks on their own, with help, and there are things that they cannot yet do. It is important to understand exactly where both students and teachers stand so that the appropriate support is given so that their abilities are expanded over time. The last gem that was taken from this assignment was that everybody does better when they are vested and can take control over his or her own self-evaluations. Once we know our selves better, we can see where we need to be, and we can start setting goals for ourselves. The ability to become self-motivated towards success is essential for creating great life-long learners.
An assignment that had a great impact on some of the work I want to achieve was a research paper done for CEP 822 a class instructed by E. David Wong, and Tatyana LI. The paper was a research review project in which we were instructed to review ten high-quality peer-reviewed sources that would give us insight to the research that we wanted to accomplish. The research topic focused on the lack of online extension services that would benefit small-scale Native American agricultural ambitions, and what could be done about it. This research took me around the world looking at extension practices in Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. This research highlighted several key findings such as the importance of working examples so that farmers can visually see how to perform specific agricultural practices. Local farmers also are motivated by the ability to provide questions and their answers (knowledge construction), which builds up their regional specific agriculture communities. One of the more obvious but still important findings was regarding the importance of conversation, and listening thoughtfully when working with tribal elders. There should be at least fifty percent of the time in conversation spent listening. It was also suggested to have traditional speakers, and local resources used in the creation of any video or audio work. In the development of instructional resources there needs to be time spent on pedagogy, course management, and providing time to learn and become comfortable with technologies. Also, there should be an inclusion of time to reflect on social dynamics of groups.
These three assignments elevated my understanding and perspective of how to best achieve the work that I see myself doing in the near future, but they are not representative of all of the education that I received well working on my Masters in Educational Technology. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework that was developed by Koehler & Mishra in 2008 was reflected in nearly every course. This framework allowed for integration of the three areas of thought as we are designing content to be used alongside a technology. There was also an introduction to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Which are classes that are designed on the web and are open for free to the public. Professors have been able to reach more students than possible using MOOCs in a single semester then were previously possible over the life of their careers. We were exposed to design concepts that would allow for better transfer of knowledge from our projects based on our design decisions. Not only the specific lessons but the continual use throughout the courses with social media such as with the use of Word press, YouTube, and Twitter we witnessed firsthand the importance of sharing the content that we are developing. Through embracing social media, we can touch a much broader crowd and have a greater social impact. Technologies can be used to bring people together, to let them understand our positions and who we are which brings us to this website and the importance of having a web presence. The creation of an online portfolio gives us the ability to sum quickly up and also provide in-depth information about ourselves and our abilities. For those looking to hire someone with my abilities they would have an opportunity to get to know me before we meet, which would give them a better opportunity to ask questions that are specific to my training and expertise.
The thought leaders who came before me both professors, and authors have allowed me to see further than previously possible, and to understand how to use technology in combination with education to create higher quality, more impactful content for my audience. Through taking the courses seriously and with purpose, I was able to direct the courses to fulfill my needs best as a future educator. I am also in the belief that this course will also help fulfill the desires of those who seek me out as an educator. The award-winning courses and the top of the industry professors payoff in the shaping of an individual, through their guidance I have become someone that others will try to collaborate with in the future. I now have the tools that I was seeking upon entering this program to apply my Bachelors of Science in Agriculture Business Management. I know what students need, I know how to get the message out to them in a way that they can easily understand, and I have a refined understanding of how to use technology to make those things happen. The sense of confidence that comes from mastering a subject is essential to being ready to take on some of the bigger projects that I want to do throughout my career as an educator. As a result of the program, I have taken my fledgling ideas and have developed them to the point that they are action ready.
I have upgraded my skills, found new software that will put me ahead of the competition, and have had time to develop a plan for creating online education that will revitalize extension services that service rural and native community members. I see myself as a change force that has a lot of good work to do creating vision and direction for myself and other educators. I understand that over time it is easy to stagnate, and avoid change as it is often the easy choice. This program has highlighted the importance of embracing the future, taking on those challenges of change and doing so with intellect and grace. I hope to be able to share these understandings with my future co-workers, and the community in which I work. The rural Upper Peninsula of Michigan may have some disadvantages, but technology is the great equalizer, we can now achieve what was previously impossible. The lessons that I have learned in combination with the fluidity that comes with small scale operations will give us an edge that will have others wondering why they are being left behind. I cannot wait to apply this knowledge, and get others excited about the possibilities. Soon we will be the giants and the rest of the world will look to us for both insight and vision.
Image was sourced from: http://olinblog.wustl.edu/2013/10/on-the-shoulder-of-giants/
By Larry Jacques