When I started the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program at Michigan State University, I created a lovely video of me explaining how I wanted to know more about the philosophy and pedagogy of educational technology to support my teachers and students, but I was really all about the stuff. I wanted to know what the coolest new toys were, and wanted to bring them into my school. I was the teacher-librarian version of Veruca Salt from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and wanted it all! My first few classes, I learned about all kinds of new toys, and brought them into my school. They unfortunately have become expensive paperweights. Teachers could not figure out ways to adapt them into the curriculum, and I could not figure out ways to help them. As a result, I now have a cabinet full of beautiful, yet barely used, “fun” tech. Things like Makey Makeys, Spheros, Little Bits and Osmos sitting and gathering dust.
About that time I started taking courses on topics such as leadership; creativity and learning; and online learning. At the same time, my school began to implement Universal Design for Learning and my district began exploring Personalized Learning. Things started to click together in my brain. I realized how the tools that I was exploring in class could be used to support my teachers and students through these initiatives. The Osmos became a way to provide my students Multiple Means of Engagement with learning math facts and vocabulary words. I figured out that the iPads I purchased to run the Spheros could have so many uses in the creation of video and audio representations of student learning. The Learning Management systems that I was exploring became the structure for designing Student Learning Plans in a Personalized Learning Environment. The stuff that I had been so excited about was no longer just stuff gathering dust. Suddenly my educational and professional worlds came together in ways that were exciting. This sudden fusing changed my original goals dramatically as I quickly realized the what of educational technology was not nearly as important as the why and how when it came to classroom implementation.
Two years later, I am finishing up my Master’s program, and I still like the shiny new toys for myself, but my goals for what I want out of the program have changed significantly. I want to develop strategies for professional development that help my teachers implement and assess deeper level technology use. I want to help my teachers see that technology can help engage the unengaged student, and when used appropriately can help draw in that student for whom nothing else in school matters. At the end of the program. I want to be an effective leader and learn how to advocate both for my teachers and my students. If I can achieve that, I will be able to say I have achieved my learning goals.
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