Not Just Another Master's degree...
Quite honestly I never thought I would make it this far with my MAET (Masters of Educational Technology) degree. I took CEP: 810 Teaching Understanding with Technology, 811: Adapting Innovative Technology, and 812: Applying Educational Technology to Practice, to receive enough credits to fulfill my teacher’s renewal certificate for the State of Michigan. I always thought of myself as tech savy and I wanted to take classes that I could use with my classes. I knew my school was moving toward being 1:1 (one device to one student) so these technology classes were perfect for me to help me with my recertification. Little did I know that this was just the start and in two years I would have another master’s degree. The last few years have totally transformed the way I look at technology integration and have helped me transition smoothly to my school’s 1:1 program. I have a whole new look on assessments that use technology, I am reliant on my LMS (Learning Management System) Schoology, and I have started one of my school’s first blended (class is part online and in class) classes. The three classes that have helped me in this transition are: CEP 810: Teaching Understanding with technology, CEP 815: Technology Leadership, and CEP 813: Electronic Assessment.
Before CEP 810: Teaching Understanding with Technology I dabbled a bit in blogs, started hearing about people who were “flipping” their classes, and started to see different types of assessments using technology. This class and the other two in the series, quite frankly rocked my technological world. I thought I was being all clever by using Quia as a means of online testing. I put all my vocab tests and literature tests on Quia and was considered cutting edge by most of the staff at my school. Professionally this class helped me become connected to other educators who were using technology in their classrooms. We were required to sign up for different blogs, read what others were doing in their classrooms, and then respond. I found it fascinating and refreshing to realize that I was not alone in my confusion and excitement. Others from around the country were wondering what they were going to be doing in their classrooms in the near future. How were we going to keep up? What would our schools think? How would the parents and the students react? All of these were questions we had about our future with technology. I learned a lot from these conversations and I still subscribe to the blogs. While I do not have time to go through them like I did before, I still find interesting information that I can pass along to my colleagues. So with this class we were required to create blogs and then post all our assignments to the blog as a showcase of what we had accomplished.
The part of this class that I struggled with was the video project. Before this class I don’t think I had ever created a video much less an educational video other people might see or use. I started to see the power in video lessons but I also started to see that this was a new type of “voice” that my students were using as well. Youtube was as popular as ever as well as Facebook and the amount of videos out there was and still is unfathomable. I remembered I decided to do a video on grammar. I cannot believe the time I spend creating that video! I had to find the right iPad app that would do what I wanted then I needed to convert what I did to video and then I had to publish it. All of these things were very foreign to me. I look back on that project and can see all the flaws, but I am really proud of it as it was my first ever try at creating something that I could use in my classroom. Since then I haven’t gone as far as “flipping” my classroom, but I do use video as a means of informing my students and I use video as a way for student to communicate with me at the beginning of the year. One of my first assignments is for students to create a video introducing themselves to me and then having them come up with learning goals. It is a great way to start the year and I can get to know my students in just a bit of a different light.
CEP 815: Technology Leadership was a whole different class for me. This was a first real introduction to technical writing. I am used to putting my personality into my writing and this class taught me how to really write a good proposal. I hadn’t really thought about what type of a leadership role I could play with technology. I love technology and use it in my classroom everyday, but beyond that I really didn’t think there was much more to it. This class taught me how to look at the technology and then think about how I can become a leader in my school to show others what technology can do for them. I know there are a lot of teachers at my school who to this day still resist technology. They think that powerpoint is the latest technology and if they are using that, then it is good enough. I was able to write a documented proposal showing them that technology is necessary for both teachers and students.
This class also was good for me in that it helped me hone my research skills. I had to search for well documented articles that backed up what I wanted to say in my papers. Sometimes finding that research was difficult. I took what I learned while researching and brought that to my own classrooms. I introduced my students to Google Scholar and Diigo. I showed them Google Scholar to show how to find reliable resources for their own research. So many of my students were surprised to know that this even existed. I showed them how to use Diigo so they wouldn’t lose their sources, but I really wanted them to see how they could use this tool to bookmark, highlight, and write themselves notes about what they were researching. I really wanted to show them that this tool could follow them to college and that would help them with research in college. This class also was the bridge to my CEP 822: Applied Educational Research class. My entire project was on the importance of teaching research skills to high school students since they would need those skills in college. I looked at finding reliable sites and using Web 2.0 tools like Diigo to save all their information. What I started in my educational leadership class paved the way to my research class. I am confident that if I really wanted to introduce something I felt strongly about I could effectively research it and then write a proposal or a memo that people could relate to and maybe implement.
This class also was good for me in that it helped me hone my research skills. I had to search for well documented articles that backed up what I wanted to say in my papers. Sometimes finding that research was difficult. I took what I learned while researching and brought that to my own classrooms. I introduced my students to Google Scholar and Diigo. I showed them Google Scholar to show how to find reliable resources for their own research. So many of my students were surprised to know that this even existed. I showed them how to use Diigo so they wouldn’t lose their sources, but I really wanted them to see how they could use this tool to bookmark, highlight, and write themselves notes about what they were researching. I really wanted to show them that this tool could follow them to college and that would help them with research in college. This class also was the bridge to my CEP 822: Applied Educational Research class. My entire project was on the importance of teaching research skills to high school students since they would need those skills in college. I looked at finding reliable sites and using Web 2.0 tools like Diigo to save all their information. What I started in my educational leadership class paved the way to my research class. I am confident that if I really wanted to introduce something I felt strongly about I could effectively research it and then write a proposal or a memo that people could relate to and maybe implement.
The last class that has made a huge impact on me is one I am currently taking called CEP 813: Electronic Assessment. I have been putting my tests and quizzes online for about the past five to six years. A colleague and I discovered Quia a while back. Quia is an online testing site. A teacher can create flashcards for a vocabulary lesson that students can access online and then students sign in to Quia and take the test. I have since graduated from my vocab tests on Quia to other types of electronic assessments such as videos and podcasts. With this class I have become much more aware of formative assessment and how the results from these types of assessment can change the way I teach or deliver material. I want to use more formative assessments as a way to gauge if my students are really understanding what I am teaching them. I see the importance of understanding “checks” and then applying that to concepts that I need to reteach. Electronic assessment is much more than just putting my tests into Quia, it is using the technology to help students find out if they are really “learning” the material.
I think what has most struck me is how important feedback is to the learning process. In my research for this assessment there has been a lot of documentation about the importance of feedback. For example, timely and specific feedback, “... [maintained] student motivation and self-confidence while not ignoring student errors,” (Shepard, 2000, p. 11). Students need guidance on strengths and weaknesses with different forms of assessment and if done properly can improve student learning. (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p. 144). If teachers want to help students in the learning process we need to provide feedback on ways to improve and incorporate that process to future assessments. I know I need to do a better job at this. Feedback takes time and when teachers are so pressed to get things graded quickly so students and parents can see the grade, (specific )feedback is the last thing we do. I feel that this is an area where I need to improve, so I have promised myself that I will take the time to give students specific feedback on their projects and papers. For my formative assessment project in this class I am developing a series of grammar quizzes that students can take to help them improve their grammar tests. If students have not had the experience with the grammar they fall behind, so these quizzes, I hope, will give them a little extra practice so they can do better on the tests. I have also made these quizzes progressive so they start out easy and then get gradually more difficult. Students can take them as many times as they need to get a specific score in order to move to the next test. What I haven’t done in the past is give feedback on incorrect answers. With Schoology I am able to put feedback on each response. Even though the feedback is small, I think it will help students while they are taking these tests to see where they might need some extra practice. With the results of these tests I will also be able to really see where I might need to do some mini lessons or some one-on-one with specific students to help them.
I think what has most struck me is how important feedback is to the learning process. In my research for this assessment there has been a lot of documentation about the importance of feedback. For example, timely and specific feedback, “... [maintained] student motivation and self-confidence while not ignoring student errors,” (Shepard, 2000, p. 11). Students need guidance on strengths and weaknesses with different forms of assessment and if done properly can improve student learning. (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p. 144). If teachers want to help students in the learning process we need to provide feedback on ways to improve and incorporate that process to future assessments. I know I need to do a better job at this. Feedback takes time and when teachers are so pressed to get things graded quickly so students and parents can see the grade, (specific )feedback is the last thing we do. I feel that this is an area where I need to improve, so I have promised myself that I will take the time to give students specific feedback on their projects and papers. For my formative assessment project in this class I am developing a series of grammar quizzes that students can take to help them improve their grammar tests. If students have not had the experience with the grammar they fall behind, so these quizzes, I hope, will give them a little extra practice so they can do better on the tests. I have also made these quizzes progressive so they start out easy and then get gradually more difficult. Students can take them as many times as they need to get a specific score in order to move to the next test. What I haven’t done in the past is give feedback on incorrect answers. With Schoology I am able to put feedback on each response. Even though the feedback is small, I think it will help students while they are taking these tests to see where they might need some extra practice. With the results of these tests I will also be able to really see where I might need to do some mini lessons or some one-on-one with specific students to help them.
Overall, I am very grateful for this master’s degree. I think it has helped me tremendously with different theories, such as (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) TPACK to name one and then be able to apply those theories to my class development and my thinking about different projects and assessments. I have come to the conclusion that students do not need tests to show me that they have learned a new concept. There are so many great ways to assess students and most of that has to deal with the different technology that is available. I love movie and podcast assessments. Students not only need to be able to articulate their answers they are also learning the different technologies as well. There is more to technology than social media and Google and I am finding out that those two things are the extent to which my students have experience with. I have learned to really slow down with my implementation of new technology with my students. Before I was using a new Web 2.0 tool with every project and not really experimenting on my own to see which one would be the best. I am becoming more proficient in the tools I want my students to use. I believe I have become more creative in my projects, assignments, and assessments. I hope that students leave my class having good research skills, a variety of technological skills, good writing skills, and an appreciation for technology and how it can help them in the future. I want to share what I have learned in these ten graduate classes and pass that knowledge on to my colleagues, especially the ones that are still afraid! I think I can ease people’s anxiety about trying new ways of assessment to find out the same results from tests. I will continue to explore new tools I can use in my classroom, as there are so many coming out all the time. As the technology changes I will continually adapt and change as well. I have to in order to best teach my students.
Bibliography
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 81–90.
Shepard, L. A. (2000). The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. Educational Researcher, I 29(7), 4–14.
Picture sources
www.securedgenetworks.com (computer images)
frankcharlier.wordpress.com (wordpress picture)
www.schoology.com (Schoology logo)
www.top-windows-tutorials.com (Diigo logo)
edcrunch.org (TPACK graph)
Bibliography
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 81–90.
Shepard, L. A. (2000). The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. Educational Researcher, I 29(7), 4–14.
Picture sources
www.securedgenetworks.com (computer images)
frankcharlier.wordpress.com (wordpress picture)
www.schoology.com (Schoology logo)
www.top-windows-tutorials.com (Diigo logo)
edcrunch.org (TPACK graph)