Integrating Technology is a Verb
Posted November 2011
Honestly, it was largely the online nature of the program (for accessibility purposes) and the fact that studying technology in education sounded like something that would come easily for me that first got me looking at Michigan State’s online Educational Technology masters program. That and the fact that it was about time to start earning credits towards my next certificate level and the first three classes were offered face to face near my home. Being a math and English double major for my undergraduate career and starting out immediately after as a middle and high school teacher, I wasn’t really certain until I really got started what I wanted to study for my masters, though I knew I definitely wanted to start soon. All this to say that I fully planned to complete the masters program before I even started the three certificate courses, though I did not set out first knowing what I was really getting myself into as far as the program goes and what I would be studying. What I didn’t expect, however, was to be affirmed in my decision so quickly.
Beginning the Program
I didn’t know a ton about the program when I first got started, but what I read about it seemed straightforward enough: we would study how to “[thoughtfully use] technology to support teaching and learning in a range of educational environments,” as worded on the program’s website. When I look back on that statement and the description that followed I can see now what about it exactly fascinated me, though I didn’t really think about it at the time. I have grown up with a father who worked with computer technologies for a living and I have always been encouraged to understand how things work and to experiment with the usefulness of a variety of technologies. Technology was always just in reference to the things themselves though, not the actual stuff elements of technology helped us do. When it comes to my career as a teacher I see all kinds of technology available. In just my first two years that I had taught I was handed lots of different technologies that did a variety of things for my classroom, and there was always more out there to want. But what I really wanted to know was how these new things were actually supposed to make learning so much better than before—I had just graduated from high school not too long before without most of them and had been just fine after all!
The thing that grabs me still in that statement is the use of the word “thoughtful.” What I take from this is that the technology I use in my classroom can do a lot of different things, but it isn’t meant to be there and being used just for the sake of having something new and different to wow my students. And it even might not be there to try to make the statement that all learning is better because of technology. What I do believe however, is that technology allows me to reach more students who learn best by a variety of learning styles and who comprehend the material I teach on vastly different levels—as long as I am able to think critically about what I choose to integrate and how, when, and with whom I do so. This belief is something that I think I always had but never really started thinking about or voicing until I got started in my first course for the three-course certificate program that starts the masters program.
Integrative Coursework
Taking the three certificate courses with the small group of teachers I took it with really was a neat way to get started (CEP 810, 811, 812). The conversations I remember the most are the ones where we would discuss the implications of using a certain internet or other technology resource for both the good and the bad it possessed. Because the classes were taking place near where I live in northern Michigan, the eight of us were from all over the north part of the state and taught in very different, yet in some ways similar, schools districts. Also, having a professor from a large district down state to bring us examples of things he experienced in his school district as a technology director was neat because his perspective on technology opportunities within a school district could be so much larger than where we teach at in our rural schools and in our classrooms. One thing this experience really helped me to realize was how fortunate I am in comparison to many other teachers to have a comparatively large amount of technologies at my disposal. As we created activities and explored internet sites together I tried hard to make every activity for each of those classes really apply to my own classroom, and I turned out several products that I am continuing to use with my students today.
Having this bridge from traditional learning to online, before I started the rest of the program completely online, was encouraging to meet real people who were interested in technology for many of the same purposes as I am and who taught in similar settings as I do. We would go out each time between classes and try out the resources or technology uses we were exposed to, either by playing with them in our own classroom or by creating a sample that would be turned in as part of the class. What I was most struck with though was how little of it actually felt like it was work for a class. I found myself turning out products that I could use with my students even right after I created them. And many of these projects, such as my WebQuest, I am still using with students three years later. Not only did I create lessons that were functional, but I gained useful insight for how online learning should really look. As I went forward from these classes into exclusively learning online, my bar was already set high for the caliber of learning that was meant to take place within a community of learners—even when that community would never see one another face to face. As the world of education continues to find itself becoming more and more global, this perspective and understanding of how successful this setup can be for a group of people desiring more from their schooling has helped me consider carefully all that the vast world of technology has to offer the world of education—and thus, they really are one world together.
Another class that really shifted my perspective on applying technology to education was Learning in School and Other Settings (CEP 800), which I took this last year. By focusing on human development and learning stages (a topic I hadn’t studied since my early introduction to teaching classes during undergrad), we now looked through the lens of how technology can be most appropriately applied to specific ages of students depending on their current development. Also, it was emphasized that the use of technology should go deeper into what a student is learning and to enhance their current ability to understand a subject. This was the only course for the program where I can remember explicitly reading theory and talking with classmates about how different analyses of student learning styles interacted with a specific subject matter. This increase in innovation and expected response by students to personalize learning and assessment was demonstrated well during that course, as even our final project of creating faux Facebook wall posts by educational theorists pointed us towards the relevance of our learning and how we could creatively incorporate technology so many are already familiar with and turn it into a meaningful example of learning.
In my experience working with other teachers, I find that a big reason many teachers don’t access new technologies even when there is physical access to them is the amount of time it takes to learn them or to incorporate something different into a existing curriculum. At times, this also combines with a fear of doing something that is so different that the teacher may not feel prepared enough to work every piece of a certain technology in front of students. As I am not one who feels anxiety in working with new technology, I take joy in allowing my students to play along with me and to hopefully help me learn better how something works as we go. I am, however, often held captive in finding the time to integrate something new that I am introduced to or discover on my own, whether it be an online resource or a tangible piece of technology. It is also difficult at times to figure out quickly what is in-depth enough to actually take the place of something I used to teach through lecture or other traditional methods and that which needs to come alongside those more traditional methods.
One example of this was the creation of a learning podcast using Podomatic. Although this work sample was on the surface an exhibition of my own learning about learning theories, it dual purposed as far as my teaching goes to get me used to and comfortable with creating simple podcasts—a skill that I can now integrate into my classroom in a variety of ways. Although I haven’t yet done so, I have plans in the future to try providing access to at least some of what we do in the classroom to my students when they go home, and podcast recordings are one way I might do this. Even more exciting from my students’ perspective has been their attempts at recording and producing podcasts about their own learning that can be “published,” which I have tried only recently but with great success.
The course I was most excited to take was my Learning Mathematics with Technology class (CEP 805), due to the alignment with the subject matter that I teach at school. This course required a significant amount of group work and it was always interesting to have the perspective of a handful of colleagues from around the country that all taught in similar situations yet viewed the material differently. Through a lot of group work, I found myself quickly challenged in my math practices and being forced to think about why I set up my classroom the way I do and how my methods align with the National Counsel for Teachers of Mathematics’ Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Though I have belonged to the organization for four years, it wasn’t until now that I actually read these standards and looked at how mathematics understanding is meant to gradually become deeper and more centered around many of the same themes as students grow older. This was quite helpful as we continued analyzing the different opportunities presented by incorporating technology into the classroom that were not only relevant but also creatively integrating of new information for students to interact with.
There were several examples of work from this class that sticks out to me, one of which is my Online Resource Library. By building this database of resources for eighth grade math students that can be accessed online, I was able to bring together sources that I was already using in my classroom with many that I now had a reason to go out and look for. And now, as my classroom is shifting to a focus on the Common Core State Standards, I find myself teaching several concepts that are rather complex and challenging for my students. By incorporating some of these online resources I am going to be able to hopefully bring topics alongside my students and allow them to explore the answers in another hands-on way to gain better understanding. By putting these resources all in one place I can also share them with others and provide quick access not only to a list of resources but an organized list, with descriptions of each for quick scanning of usefulness for what each online resource has to offer. I find that this project completely aligns with my desire to use technology that is truly beneficial and allows me to bring information in a new way that could not be done so fully otherwise.
"Doing" What I've Learned
By completing the vast majority of my masters program in an online learning environment, I feel I was able to really personalize my learning and create products for classes that were so much more than just assignments. I can honestly say that I can see ways to integrate each and every piece, either by actually using that work sample or by employing strategies from within them or the conversations that were had as my classmates and I challenged one another to justify and analyze the uses of technology in our classrooms. Like my undergraduate work helped me to shape my initial views on education and best practices for teaching mathematics to students, my graduate level study has brought that understanding full circle and allowed me to really consider where some of those views came from and how they were serving my students.
By analyzing this through the focus of technology in the classroom and within school environments of various sorts, I have come to understand how technology only widens the lens through which we can view education of students as a whole. We integrate technology into our classrooms because it is a part of the world we live in and because our students will interact with technology as a huge part of their future. I don’t believe this interaction to be a piece of our world so much as a way of life for society of today and the future. Many technologies of today are labeled “integrative” for their ability to bring ideas together, but I now view integrating technology as something we actually do something with instead. My belief that technology should be applied to situations of learning where it brings something new to the table or allows students to internalize their learning in a new or greater ways has remained unchanged. But now, I can see looking back that this belief is one that is backed also by my experience and practice—which has provided me means for critically viewing all changes in my teaching practice in the future. This view has allowed me to see that it is never about the means that each person chooses to convey information so much as it is always about students learning in the best way possible for them to gain true understanding of their interactions with various pieces of society and the world.
Honestly, it was largely the online nature of the program (for accessibility purposes) and the fact that studying technology in education sounded like something that would come easily for me that first got me looking at Michigan State’s online Educational Technology masters program. That and the fact that it was about time to start earning credits towards my next certificate level and the first three classes were offered face to face near my home. Being a math and English double major for my undergraduate career and starting out immediately after as a middle and high school teacher, I wasn’t really certain until I really got started what I wanted to study for my masters, though I knew I definitely wanted to start soon. All this to say that I fully planned to complete the masters program before I even started the three certificate courses, though I did not set out first knowing what I was really getting myself into as far as the program goes and what I would be studying. What I didn’t expect, however, was to be affirmed in my decision so quickly.
Beginning the Program
I didn’t know a ton about the program when I first got started, but what I read about it seemed straightforward enough: we would study how to “[thoughtfully use] technology to support teaching and learning in a range of educational environments,” as worded on the program’s website. When I look back on that statement and the description that followed I can see now what about it exactly fascinated me, though I didn’t really think about it at the time. I have grown up with a father who worked with computer technologies for a living and I have always been encouraged to understand how things work and to experiment with the usefulness of a variety of technologies. Technology was always just in reference to the things themselves though, not the actual stuff elements of technology helped us do. When it comes to my career as a teacher I see all kinds of technology available. In just my first two years that I had taught I was handed lots of different technologies that did a variety of things for my classroom, and there was always more out there to want. But what I really wanted to know was how these new things were actually supposed to make learning so much better than before—I had just graduated from high school not too long before without most of them and had been just fine after all!
The thing that grabs me still in that statement is the use of the word “thoughtful.” What I take from this is that the technology I use in my classroom can do a lot of different things, but it isn’t meant to be there and being used just for the sake of having something new and different to wow my students. And it even might not be there to try to make the statement that all learning is better because of technology. What I do believe however, is that technology allows me to reach more students who learn best by a variety of learning styles and who comprehend the material I teach on vastly different levels—as long as I am able to think critically about what I choose to integrate and how, when, and with whom I do so. This belief is something that I think I always had but never really started thinking about or voicing until I got started in my first course for the three-course certificate program that starts the masters program.
Integrative Coursework
Taking the three certificate courses with the small group of teachers I took it with really was a neat way to get started (CEP 810, 811, 812). The conversations I remember the most are the ones where we would discuss the implications of using a certain internet or other technology resource for both the good and the bad it possessed. Because the classes were taking place near where I live in northern Michigan, the eight of us were from all over the north part of the state and taught in very different, yet in some ways similar, schools districts. Also, having a professor from a large district down state to bring us examples of things he experienced in his school district as a technology director was neat because his perspective on technology opportunities within a school district could be so much larger than where we teach at in our rural schools and in our classrooms. One thing this experience really helped me to realize was how fortunate I am in comparison to many other teachers to have a comparatively large amount of technologies at my disposal. As we created activities and explored internet sites together I tried hard to make every activity for each of those classes really apply to my own classroom, and I turned out several products that I am continuing to use with my students today.
Having this bridge from traditional learning to online, before I started the rest of the program completely online, was encouraging to meet real people who were interested in technology for many of the same purposes as I am and who taught in similar settings as I do. We would go out each time between classes and try out the resources or technology uses we were exposed to, either by playing with them in our own classroom or by creating a sample that would be turned in as part of the class. What I was most struck with though was how little of it actually felt like it was work for a class. I found myself turning out products that I could use with my students even right after I created them. And many of these projects, such as my WebQuest, I am still using with students three years later. Not only did I create lessons that were functional, but I gained useful insight for how online learning should really look. As I went forward from these classes into exclusively learning online, my bar was already set high for the caliber of learning that was meant to take place within a community of learners—even when that community would never see one another face to face. As the world of education continues to find itself becoming more and more global, this perspective and understanding of how successful this setup can be for a group of people desiring more from their schooling has helped me consider carefully all that the vast world of technology has to offer the world of education—and thus, they really are one world together.
Another class that really shifted my perspective on applying technology to education was Learning in School and Other Settings (CEP 800), which I took this last year. By focusing on human development and learning stages (a topic I hadn’t studied since my early introduction to teaching classes during undergrad), we now looked through the lens of how technology can be most appropriately applied to specific ages of students depending on their current development. Also, it was emphasized that the use of technology should go deeper into what a student is learning and to enhance their current ability to understand a subject. This was the only course for the program where I can remember explicitly reading theory and talking with classmates about how different analyses of student learning styles interacted with a specific subject matter. This increase in innovation and expected response by students to personalize learning and assessment was demonstrated well during that course, as even our final project of creating faux Facebook wall posts by educational theorists pointed us towards the relevance of our learning and how we could creatively incorporate technology so many are already familiar with and turn it into a meaningful example of learning.
In my experience working with other teachers, I find that a big reason many teachers don’t access new technologies even when there is physical access to them is the amount of time it takes to learn them or to incorporate something different into a existing curriculum. At times, this also combines with a fear of doing something that is so different that the teacher may not feel prepared enough to work every piece of a certain technology in front of students. As I am not one who feels anxiety in working with new technology, I take joy in allowing my students to play along with me and to hopefully help me learn better how something works as we go. I am, however, often held captive in finding the time to integrate something new that I am introduced to or discover on my own, whether it be an online resource or a tangible piece of technology. It is also difficult at times to figure out quickly what is in-depth enough to actually take the place of something I used to teach through lecture or other traditional methods and that which needs to come alongside those more traditional methods.
One example of this was the creation of a learning podcast using Podomatic. Although this work sample was on the surface an exhibition of my own learning about learning theories, it dual purposed as far as my teaching goes to get me used to and comfortable with creating simple podcasts—a skill that I can now integrate into my classroom in a variety of ways. Although I haven’t yet done so, I have plans in the future to try providing access to at least some of what we do in the classroom to my students when they go home, and podcast recordings are one way I might do this. Even more exciting from my students’ perspective has been their attempts at recording and producing podcasts about their own learning that can be “published,” which I have tried only recently but with great success.
The course I was most excited to take was my Learning Mathematics with Technology class (CEP 805), due to the alignment with the subject matter that I teach at school. This course required a significant amount of group work and it was always interesting to have the perspective of a handful of colleagues from around the country that all taught in similar situations yet viewed the material differently. Through a lot of group work, I found myself quickly challenged in my math practices and being forced to think about why I set up my classroom the way I do and how my methods align with the National Counsel for Teachers of Mathematics’ Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Though I have belonged to the organization for four years, it wasn’t until now that I actually read these standards and looked at how mathematics understanding is meant to gradually become deeper and more centered around many of the same themes as students grow older. This was quite helpful as we continued analyzing the different opportunities presented by incorporating technology into the classroom that were not only relevant but also creatively integrating of new information for students to interact with.
There were several examples of work from this class that sticks out to me, one of which is my Online Resource Library. By building this database of resources for eighth grade math students that can be accessed online, I was able to bring together sources that I was already using in my classroom with many that I now had a reason to go out and look for. And now, as my classroom is shifting to a focus on the Common Core State Standards, I find myself teaching several concepts that are rather complex and challenging for my students. By incorporating some of these online resources I am going to be able to hopefully bring topics alongside my students and allow them to explore the answers in another hands-on way to gain better understanding. By putting these resources all in one place I can also share them with others and provide quick access not only to a list of resources but an organized list, with descriptions of each for quick scanning of usefulness for what each online resource has to offer. I find that this project completely aligns with my desire to use technology that is truly beneficial and allows me to bring information in a new way that could not be done so fully otherwise.
"Doing" What I've Learned
By completing the vast majority of my masters program in an online learning environment, I feel I was able to really personalize my learning and create products for classes that were so much more than just assignments. I can honestly say that I can see ways to integrate each and every piece, either by actually using that work sample or by employing strategies from within them or the conversations that were had as my classmates and I challenged one another to justify and analyze the uses of technology in our classrooms. Like my undergraduate work helped me to shape my initial views on education and best practices for teaching mathematics to students, my graduate level study has brought that understanding full circle and allowed me to really consider where some of those views came from and how they were serving my students.
By analyzing this through the focus of technology in the classroom and within school environments of various sorts, I have come to understand how technology only widens the lens through which we can view education of students as a whole. We integrate technology into our classrooms because it is a part of the world we live in and because our students will interact with technology as a huge part of their future. I don’t believe this interaction to be a piece of our world so much as a way of life for society of today and the future. Many technologies of today are labeled “integrative” for their ability to bring ideas together, but I now view integrating technology as something we actually do something with instead. My belief that technology should be applied to situations of learning where it brings something new to the table or allows students to internalize their learning in a new or greater ways has remained unchanged. But now, I can see looking back that this belief is one that is backed also by my experience and practice—which has provided me means for critically viewing all changes in my teaching practice in the future. This view has allowed me to see that it is never about the means that each person chooses to convey information so much as it is always about students learning in the best way possible for them to gain true understanding of their interactions with various pieces of society and the world.