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.\u00a0 \u00a0While 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.\u00a0 I am unfamiliar with the basics of teaching. The seven principles put forward by Chickering and Ehrmann in 1987 are new ideas to me.\u00a0 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. \u00a0I relied solely upon the feedback of students and their acquisition of skills to assess my performance of a teacher.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 One of my daughter\u2019s teachers has a Masters in Learning Psychology.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I am impressed not only with her teaching, but with her understanding of the principles and structures that she applies to each lesson.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
I have used technology, in a number of different ways and forms for many years.\u00a0 I feel very comfortable with my skills and ability to adapt and use digital technology in my class.\u00a0 I want to see the same invisible layer that the educated teacher applies to his or her class.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
The fifth NETS\u00b7S principle is to engage in professional growth and leadership (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).\u00a0 My goals as this stage are fairly simple in that I am looking for an understanding of the practice and theory behind education.\u00a0 However, I understand this principle as a call for lifelong learning.\u00a0 My goals will change as my understanding of the subject changes but the learning does not end with a final assignment or course.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Epictetus wrote \u201cDon’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.\u201d\u00a0 This is as relevant in the digital age as it was when he wrote it several thousand years ago.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Half way through this course, my objectives have not really changed, but my understanding of them and my \u2018flight path\u2019 is altered.\u00a0 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. \u00a0\u00a0Human interaction and community is now linked by archeologists to our creativity and development as a species (Pringle, 2013).\u00a0 Our interaction as a community has been a driving force in our development as a species for over 40,000 years.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
References: <\/strong><\/p>\n 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<\/a><\/p>\n