Flight Path submission 2
My flight path through this course, through the MET, is part of a larger effort to combine my skills, focus my efforts and identify and create opportunities with technology and education. While I am motivated by the thrill of exploring the edges of the digital education horizon, I realize that my education must focus on the framework, the nuts and bolts of teaching, delivering content and assessing results. I am unfamiliar with the basics of teaching. The seven principles put forward by Chickering and Ehrmann in 1987 are new ideas to me. I have incorporated many of the principles in my class and in online learning tools, however, I was unconscious of this application and thus, unable to assess the success of my course in a structured and objective manner. I relied solely upon the feedback of students and their acquisition of skills to assess my performance of a teacher. Assessing courses and teaching methods in this way is a bit like walking in a dark room, painfully bumping into furniture occasionally and changing course to make it through.
My flight path will focus on learning more about the structures, the framework and the principles associated with teaching, delivery of content and the assessment of both students and the course. While I have experience in many different fields that relate to technology and education, I know very little about the process of learning itself and the tools that educators use to transfer and build upon knowledge. One of my daughter’s teachers has a Masters in Learning Psychology. She blends tangible objects with Smart Board and iPad technology to capture imagination, engage students and provide a number of different ways to learn and understand. Her teaching ensures that all students have something to offer and respects the diversity and richness of talent and learning strategies her students bring to her class. I am impressed not only with her teaching, but with her understanding of the principles and structures that she applies to each lesson. It is another layer that only she sees but this is her guide and the reason why her students excel and her class is engaged.
I have used technology, in a number of different ways and forms for many years. I feel very comfortable with my skills and ability to adapt and use digital technology in my class. I want to see the same invisible layer that the educated teacher applies to his or her class. I want to understand why something worked or did not work when I receive feedback from students or do not achieve the understanding I had hoped to achieve with a lesson. I want to have the framework and theory that will allow me to assess and adapt my course. These skills and knowledge will also allow me to create and design an appropriate lesson for a client or for a class with a deeper understanding of what I am doing and what I can expect as an outcome.
The fifth NETS·S principle is to engage in professional growth and leadership (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). My goals as this stage are fairly simple in that I am looking for an understanding of the practice and theory behind education. However, I understand this principle as a call for lifelong learning. My goals will change as my understanding of the subject changes but the learning does not end with a final assignment or course. My participation in learning communities, in research and in community building will be an essential element of my career and of my success in the delivery of content and of my contribution to the online education.
Epictetus wrote “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.” This is as relevant in the digital age as it was when he wrote it several thousand years ago. It is repeated in the both the seven principles of Chickering and Ehrmann (1987) and in the principles put forward by the International Society for Technology in Education (2008). Half way through this course, my objectives have not really changed, but my understanding of them and my ‘flight path’ is altered. I want to embody the principles I am learning in this course, to understand them in an intimate way and to naturally incorporate them into my work from this point forward. Human interaction and community is now linked by archeologists to our creativity and development as a species (Pringle, 2013). Our interaction as a community has been a driving force in our development as a species for over 40,000 years. Online technology is just another tool for continuing this process and it is good to be reminded that learning requires a village and a dialogue, that how we are determines how we learn and that everyone contributes and plays a role in leading us forward.
References:
Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7. Accessed online 11 Mar 2009 http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm
Pringle, Heather. (March 2013). The Origin of Human Creativity Was Surprisingly Complex. Scientific American, 308(3), 36-43.
National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved June 15, 2013 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm
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Original submission
Explain what you want to learn about Learning Management Systems (LMS), assessment, social software, and multimedia. Give your best estimate (guestimate?) about what resources you would need to master these technologies as a novice professional. Be sure to cite relevant literature to support your decision. Be as specific as you can, even if you’re “guestimating” at this early stage: you won’t be penalized for your priorities evolving as the course proceeds. But you might not get the full benefit of ETEC565A if you start out with too general an idea of your aspirations.
In my discussion on Digital age teaching professionals, I wrote a final paragraph that was the beginning of my flight path statement for the ETEC 565A course.
“For my own flight path through ETEC565A, I want to understand how to assess the quality of what I create online, the effectiveness of the tools I develop in their ability to convey the information and skills I wish to deliver and provide to my students. How does one assess the overall quality of the learning environment and how is it improved or designed to meet specific outcomes and criteria? I am also curious about how to provide support for teachers and businesses in choosing the best technology and tools for online or blended learning environments. Part of my work outside of teaching at BCIT is the development of multimedia and online tools and there are a myriad of new and exciting options….that said, the flash and sparkle of the newest thing is not necessarily a fit for a client. I am familiar with how to use technology, how to create and build web pages, multimedia tools and set-up social media sites. But the why and when, for whom, what works and what does not are questions that I hope to find some answers to in this course. ‘
This submission to my blog is late and so I have had several more days since my discussion entry to think about it. A colleague asked me on Monday what a Master’s in Education Technology was all about- “What would I do with a degree like that?” is a truer quote. I was taken aback when I had to think about it and define in a few words what I was studying and what I wanted to do with my new degree. I have not considered the enormity of the field or the scope of my interests and I found it difficult to find an answer for him.
My flight path through this course, through the MET, is partly to explore the edges of the digital education horizon. I took my private pilot’s license a long time ago and I loved to be above the world where I lived and see the landscape from a bird’s eye view. The valleys, roads and rivers made sense up there and I hope to use this course and this graduate program like that plane –as a bird’s eye view of the digital education. How is it connected? How big is it? What is possible? What is being done? What looks like it is working and how is it laid out and for whom? Who is using it? Who is not using it? Why?
I read a recent study on ancient communities and they are now proposing that humans began to explore and technology, abstract concepts and radical new practices through community and connection to other human communities. If they are right, then we are a species that thrives and evolves through connection to one another. I would like to know how we connect, why we connect and how we learn and use knowledge. While I have experience in different fields, I know very little about the process of learning itself and the tools that educators use to transfer and build upon knowledge. One of my daughter’s teachers has a Masters in Learning Psychology. She blends tangible objects with Smart Board and iPad technology to capture imagination, engage students and provide a number of different ways to learn and understand. Her teaching ensures that all students have something to offer and respects the diversity and richness of talent and learning strategies her students bring to her class.
I have used digital technology for many years and feel very comfortable with my skills and ability to adapt and use digital technology in my class. The skills I hope to acquire are technologies around communication, learning, engagement and assessment. Understanding how to use tools like the seven principles and how to evaluate their effectiveness is a key goal for my learning.
I am not sure how this will look or exactly what skills and knowledge will aid me in my goals –I am still to new to this program to be able to accurately define or identify them. The idea of a flight path, a clear view of it all and a sense that I am looking for a several key things that I have defined here helps to clear my view of what I am learning and seeing. Not sure if outlining this flight path will help me with my answer to “What will I do with this degree” but perhaps that is permissible at the beginning of the flight. It is hard to make connections of valleys, rivers and roads when you are barely off the ground! To the flight and the open horizon then!