About This Page
The following is a detailed transcript highlighting the ten classes (thirty credits) taken as part of the Masters in Educational Technology (MAET) program. Classes are organized chronologically, beginning with my first semester in the program, in order to best highlight the progression of work and thought throughout the program. If you have any questions about the courses in the following transcript or any of the work featured on my Instructional Showcase page, please get in touch!
Summer, 2015
CEP 811: Adapting Innovative Technology to Education |
CEP 812: Applying Educational Technology to Practice |
Instructors: Melissa White & Janine Campbell
This course centered around the Maker Movement and its growing application in both primary and secondary education. The hands-on course began with purchasing an individually selected ‘maker kit’ with which we could play, experiment, and ultimately create lessons throughout the semester. I selected the Circuit Stickers and was challenged to find ways to connect the Maker Movement to my ELA classroom. The course asked us to immediately apply information gleaned in readings in order to place us in the learner position and mind-frame; this allowed us to best design lessons or activities for our students. In all, the goal of the class was to explore how technology can be integrated into the classroom in a variety of ways, and how technology not immediately or obviously connected to education or a particular subject can support student learning and growth. |
Instructors: William Marsland & Andrew Steinman
This course focused on problems that educators may face in the meaningful integration of educational technology in their classrooms or buildings. Throughout the class, we were encouraged to research and explore a “Wicked Problem” that impacts our classroom or our professional lives and discover or propose potential solutions to the problem using technology. The class also aimed to help us understand and contextualize our own technology use and the limitations that we may be unintentionally placing on ourselves based on the resources we access or ignore online. For example, if I only seek sources with whom I know I will agree, or if I only read research immediately applicable to my content area, what perspective might I be missing? The goal of the course was to foster meaningful technology integration in the classroom and help teachers identify where technology may hinder student success rather than supporting it. |
Fall, 2015
CEP 810: Teaching for Understanding with Technology |
CEP 818: Creativity in Teaching and Learning |
Instructors: Kimberly Powell & Emily Stone
As one of the first experiences in the MAET program (for me), this course served as an introduction to various education technology theories and helped me and my colleagues understand the goals of educational technology. The primary emphasis of this course was the understanding of the TPACK framework (technological pedagogical content knowledge) and its application and utilization in instructional design. The hands-on course encouraged me to place myself in the mindset of the learner, experiencing both the frustrations and discoveries that learners make in their pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Ultimately, the course introduced me to a variety of ways that technology can be meaningfully included and integrated into classroom experiences and asked me to reflect on my pedagogical goals for the remainder of the program. |
Instructors: Punya Mishra, Carmen Richardson & Jon Good
The course focused on one of the hardest questions in education to answer: what is creativity and how do we teach and assess it in the classroom? The course aimed to address this query by asking us to engage in hands-on experiences in which we considered, assessed, and demonstrated our own creativity and brainstormed and planned ways to integrate creativity into our classrooms or workplaces. One of the primary objectives of the course was to support us in re-defining creativity for ourselves and help us understand the connection between creativity and experimentation or play. Finally, we were are asked to consider how technology can or does play a role in classroom creativity and what kinds of learning experiences can be designed to best support this effort. |
Spring, 2016
CEP 815: Technology and Leadership |
CEP 820: Teaching Students Online |
Instructors: Benjamin Gleason & Missy Cosby
As educational technology evolves and becomes more ubiquitous in the classroom, it is inevitable that technology will (and should) begin to infiltrate other areas of education such as educational leadership. This course explored how individuals can effectively utilize technology to support not only students in a classroom but teachers as well. Whether this happens through teacher leadership programs such as professional learning communities or administrators supporting teachers’ efforts in the classroom, the course provided research, resources, and exploratory experiences to help us best act as leaders in the space of educational technology. A highlight of the course for me was a project in which we designed a potential professional development seminar or training for a hypothetical audience of teachers. The information and experiences were designed to help build capacity in school buildings where technology experts or training may not be readily available. |
Instructors: Anne Heintz & Elizabeth Boltz
As education and teaching experiences become increasingly difficult, this course supports teachers in their efforts to digitize classroom experiences or entire courses. This is achieved through the creation and development of a digital presence on an existing course management system (CMS). Through this course I was able to create authentic learning experiences through a CMS after exploring the benefits and drawbacks of various systems. I also spent time exploring how technology and digitizing elements of my curriculum (or the curriculum in its entirety) can benefit students, parents, and other stakeholders. This class is particularly poignant for online/distance students like me who have experienced learning through online modules and a CMS and are now tasked with applying what we've learned to the creation of our own model. I was encouraged throughout the course to use artifacts from my own classroom in order to make the experience more relevant and applicable in my classroom or with my students. |
Summer, 2016
CEP 800: Learning in School and Other Settings |
CEP 822: Approaches to Educational Research |
Instructors: Carmen Richardson & Diana Campbell
This class posed the essential questions, “what does learning look like and where does it happen?” Through research, personal reflection, and classroom/learning environment observation, I, along with my fellow students, sought to answer this question and explored how learning that takes place beyond the classroom can be relevant to students within the classroom walls. In essence, the course aimed to help contextualize the different types of learning and how one’s environment, interest level, and other factors impact learning and understanding. Ultimately, the goal was to bridge the types of learning that students experience outside of the classroom with authentic classroom learning experiences. |
Instructors: Yining Zhang & Ming Lei
This course focused on the qualitative and quantitative research available in the field of education and educational technology. Throughout the class, I was encouraged to explore research techniques and practice ways to interpret and apply information gleaned from research. One of the goals of the course was to foster meaningful changes or research-based practices within a classroom and help teachers ensure that the instructional design choices or classroom setup choices they make are based in research rather than opinion. I ultimately focused my energy on one topic, the use of peer feedback in a writing class, and explored the concept through research. A variety of research and interpretation techniques were utilized throughout the term, resulting in a deeper understanding of both the research process and the benefit of rooting pedagogical choices in qualitative and quantitative research. |
Fall, 2016
CEP 816: Teaching and Learning Across the Curriculum |
CEP 807: Capstone Portfolio Course |
Instructors: Diana Campbell & Binbin Zheng
This course is centered around the idea of New Media and how new forms of media and digital information can enhance students’ learning and engagement. Essentially, through the class I explored the kind of texts utilized in my classroom and how those texts may be hindering learners from understanding or engaging with the course material. I have been encouraged to explore their current practices and the texts used in their courses and reevaluate the benefit of such material. Then, instructional redesign is used to revise learning experiences and promote stronger engagement. Course participants are encouraged to engage in a variety of hands-on learning experiences designed to foster understanding of New Media Technology Tools (NMTT) and consider how to best incorporate NMTT in courses and class activities. |
Instructors: Matthew Koehler, Spencer Greenhalgh & Aric Gaunt
This course, the final experience for most MAET students, aimed to encapsulate the skills, expertise, and thought processes developed over the course of the program and encouraged me to apply those skills by creating a comprehensive program portfolio. The portfolio, which served as both coursework and a practical artifact for my future applications or evaluations, asked me to reflect on my learning throughout the program and compile coursework, written statements, and professional documents and consider my own growth and development as both a teacher and learner. The course also fostered and encouraged collaboration by emphasizing the benefit of feedback and revision. My cohorts and I regularly engaged in meaningful discussion with one another and provided feedback to support our success in the overall portfolio. |