Michigan State University
Master of Arts in Educational Technology
The following are the courses that I took on my road to receiving my Masters of Art in Educational Technology. For reference when looking at the course titles, CEP stands for Counseling, Education Psychology & Special Education and TE stands for Teacher Education. Click on the title of any course if you would like to read the Michigan State University course description.
Full Year - Student Teaching
August 2014 - June 2015 MSU courses were every Thursday, aside from Guided Lead Teaching (GLT.) Guided lead teaching was when I took over all classroom instruction in my 2nd grade student teaching placement at Sycamore Elementary in Holt Public Schools. For more information about this time, click on the button below the photo.
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TE 802:
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TE 803:
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TE 804:
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The following courses occurred for two weeks on the campus of Michigan State University and online for the following four weeks. Because of this, the courses and assignments very much overlapped. "A More Beautiful Question" by Warren Berger was our main course text. An overarching project was to create a Personal Learning Portfolio where we could share the various projects as well as our thinking throughout the program.
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CEP 810:
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CEP 811:
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CEP 812:
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This section of the hybrid program focused on technology integration and applying the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Framework to our classroom by thinking of a lesson that could be reworked to include those key ideas. My lesson objectives were that students will begin to identify consonant blends in words. Students will able to identify the characters and settings in a story. The technology objective was that students will be able to begin writing a short story using their spelling words for the week using BookCreator.com.
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For this part of the program we learned about the "Maker Movement." We had two main projects the Makers Project and Networked Learning Project. The Makers Project was done in a small group and we created a brief lesson plan to connect with a tech tool. We used Code & Go Activity Set to focus on the sequencing skills of coding and connecting that with sequencing in literacy. My Networked Learning Project was about me learning how to sew with a pattern using only YouTube videos and blog posts to help me gain the needed knowledge.
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The main part of this course was to use technology to address problems in teaching and education that may not have a definitive solution. The project for this course was the Wicked Problem. My partner and I focused on the following wicked problem: "Allow failure to be as powerful a learning mode as success." Our goal for this project was to try and answer the following questions and propose potential solutions for this Wicked Problem. Why are we so worried about failing? How can we teach our students that their failed attempts are what lead them to their steps toward the future?
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These courses occurred in person for four weeks in Galway, Ireland. Similarly to Year 1, many of the courses overlap. During this time I grew more confident as a educational leader in technology and user of technology to solve problems of practice.
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Instructors (all courses):
Dr. Liz Owens Boltz & Sean Sweeney
Dr. Liz Owens Boltz & Sean Sweeney
Often, teachers share new tools with one another that have worked for them. Many times we jump into using these tools without being critical of them. This course focused on teaching us how to be critical of our instructional tools and how we are using them in our classrooms. I was able to analyze my favorite tech tools (Freckle and Flippity.net) by using the TPACK Framework. After analyzing these two resources I presented my critique to my peers.
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Professional Development is something that all teachers experience. This course put my peers and I in a leadership position and had us create PD based on problems or big ideas in technology (Ethics in Technology & Social Implications of Technology,) teaching, and learning. By the end of the course we had created three different PD's and done a lot of research on the topics. It allowed me to grow more comfortable sharing what I know with others in a professional setting.
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During the 2019 Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) Conference, data was recorded by conference attendees about how they use creativity in their classrooms. My MAET cohort then did research using this data to find what the commonalities were. We coded the data and created categories to organize this information further. We also created two podcasts to share our findings with a wider audience.
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CEP 807:
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