Synthesis

Facing the Challenges

Throughout my time in the Masters of Art in Educational Technology (MAET) program, one word or idea has stayed consistent: challenge. Challenge my way of thinking. Challenge my students. Challenge me. The concept of challenge is often met with resistance, but the challenge is what makes life interesting. It is what pushes me to be better, continue trying and adds variety to life. Every part of the program that has had an impact on my mindset has challenged me in some way.

Changing Ideas

One of the first ideas I was introduced to in my classes and that has stayed with me is the idea of TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).

Before I started this program, I understood that using technology in the classroom needed to go beyond just completing worksheets online. Floating with this idea in my mind worked for a while, but learning and understanding TPACK helped to give me a concrete foundation. When choosing to use technology with my students, I start with identifying what content knowledge (CK) should my students end the lesson understanding. From there, I look at different ways (P) to impart that knowledge to my students. My district prefers the I do, We do, and You do format for math classes so I follow that format in using technology with my students as well. This way they are more comfortable trying something new. Once I know the what and the how I look at the wide varieties of technology that my students have access to and what best suits this lesson. Keeping in mind that technology should be doing

something we cannot do on paper and pencil. Whether that be a quick check that gives them instant feedback and helps them to discover their mistakes or helps them apply their knowledge to a real-life scenario. Technology needs to and can extend both our learning and our communities. TPACK challenges me to make sure that I am using technology to benefit my students not just check a box.

In my very first class and my first assignment for this program, I had to write a short paper. I wrote in that paper that actual knowledge is the ability to transfer the learning to different situations. This challenged me to ensure that my students could take their math skills and apply them in different situations. I now strive to present math problems in as many different forms as possible. I try to create real-life situations that my students must solve using math, I use word problems, I present problems using synonyms and different vocabulary words. Through technology, I can reach out to experts and other learners, students can share their knowledge, and gather additional insights and opinions. My classroom is not just limited to traditional math problems. I challenge my students and myself to think deeper and apply knowledge in different ways.

Assessing Student Knowledge

With education changing, the question of how teachers assess knowledge has become even more prominent. This battle of assessment has been raging for some time now. Almost every teacher I have talked to has strong feelings about testing. How do teachers equitably measure student progress to ensure growth is not an easy question to answer. I learned in one of my classes, CEP 813: Electronic Assessment, that teachers need to distinguish between formative and summative assessment. Teachers hear the word assessment and automatically think of standardized testing. If the only assessment I give in my teaching practice is the end of the year test, I am not helping my students learn and grow. I must challenge my thinking and my colleagues’ thinking about the purpose of assessment in our classrooms. Just grading the paper is not going to give students the support to learn from the assessment. This challenged my very thinking as I get buried under piles of papers to grade and do not always devote time to showing my students what and how they could improve. It is easier just to mark questions wrong. It takes time to adjust a teaching practice. Now instead of waiting to grade, I try to grade as students are turning work in. I quickly conference with them and give them a chance to fix what is wrong. This habit takes time and a whole lot of classroom management. The dividends have proven this habit helps my students to understand their work and not transfer incorrect knowledge to the next topic.

My biggest take-away from this class was about feedback. Assessment should allow us to give feedback. More feedback than just a grade on a test. More than that feedback on all assessments should be given no matter if it is formative or summative. What is the point of assessment and marking things wrong if students do not have an opportunity to learn and grow? In my practice, I now have students take the district assessment. They then use a sheet that separates the skills tested into knowledge bands and color the boxes based on how they did. Students get a visual on what specific skill they need more practice with. I then take time to conference with each student on what they are proud of, what they need to practice, and how they will achieve their goal. I have seen my students take more ownership of their learning and take time to see what they got right and wrong. My students can identify both what their strengths and weaknesses are. Giving feedback through assessments has changed how I approach assessments and what I do after an assessment is provided.

Example of students understanding feedback.

Assessments can be more than just multiple-choice, short-answer, or essay questions. Assessments can be games, assessments can be skits, assessments can be videos, assessments can be anything. In this rapidly changing environment giving the same assessments that schools have been using for years makes little sense. Anyone can memorize answers, but students being able to transfer knowledge is the true test of learning. With the technology available to us, I do not have to use precious class time sitting through tests or presentations. I can have students record themselves, connect with experts, and apply what they have learned to real-life scenarios. If students are learning how to multiply fractions, have students bake cookies and triple the recipe and record themselves doing that. The possibilities are endless. I have never been asked in my job to prove my knowledge by taking a test. I get asked to teach a lesson and show student growth, so why do I ask students to take a test that most likely they will not learn from.

Design and Failure

CEP 817: Learning Technology through Design was one of the first classes that I felt extremely challenged in and felt inadequate in my learning and knowledge. My two previous courses were challenging but did not push me as CEP 817 did. As I wrote in my final reflection for this class, “As this class on design progressed, I would often mutter to myself, “What did I get myself into?”. I was challenged, I was stretched, and I felt defeated at times because I was struggling to catch on.”

The type of feedback that I was receiving in week 8. Not the kind that I wanted.

The focus of this class was using design thinking to identify a problem of practice, come up with a solution, design, and test that solution. I was so used to being given a checklist and examples of work that being told here is the process, now try it was overwhelming to me. The class broke down each step, provided discussion, readings, and support but for me, I still struggled to narrow down the problem of practice. Struggling on the first step while having to keep moving through the other stages made my work unsuccessful. While my problem of practice ended up being, teaching teachers to use technology effectively, it went through many forms along the way. With every assignment I submitted I was

confident that it was good enough, but it would come back with comments galore. I wasn’t getting to the root of the problem effectively. Eventually, I made it through understanding the why of the problem and was successful, but how I teach has drastically changed. I now ask myself questions such as can my students fail safely in this class? Can my students trust me and understand the feedback being given to them? Do my students understand that sometimes to understand we must first fail? Do my students know the why? I want and desire my classroom to be a place where students know that it is okay to fail and that everyone will fail at some point in their journey. I want my students to push their boundaries and step out of their comfort zone. As I learned, actual growth comes from challenge.

One of the first steps in design thinking is to understand why a problem is happening. Jumping right into a solution is only going to prolong the process. In my teaching, if I have a student who cannot use the standard algorithm to divide, teaching them over and over again is not going to help. If I take a second to understand why or in this case perform error analysis, I might be able to see that my student does not know/is not able to figure out their division facts. If they cannot divide nine by 3, then they cannot divide 9,080 by 3. Knowing why gives me the ability to go back and teach what the student is misunderstanding instead of wasting my time on what they understand. This class has shown me that it is not about the result, but the process of getting the result that can have a more significant impact.

The final product that I could be proud of

Leadership

While most classes changed my thinking in some way shape or form no classes impacted me more than CEP 800: Learning in Schools and Other Settings, CEP 815: Technology and Leadership, and CEP 822: Approaches to Educational Research. (CEP stands for Counseling, Education Psychology, and Special Education). Focusing on learning theories, using technology, understanding research, and being a leader.

I was challenged to share my ideas with my peers and lead them in discussions. As a teacher, you would think that speaking in front of crowds and sharing your thoughts with them would be easy. Instead, the opposite is true. For some reason, the stakes seem higher and it is harder to speak with colleagues than my students. Sitting with peers discussing various topics and learning together pushed me to think more deeply. All of my classmates that summer were bright and always had something to add to our conservations. I had to dive deeper and think more outside my box to contribute to our conversations. I was encouraged to participate and given the opportunities to present my learnings. These discussions built up confidence in me. No longer do I fear that my voice is loud enough, or I do not have enough to contribute to the conversations happening around me in education. These classes instilled confidence that I have a voice and should use that to lead my colleagues.

Only the Beginning

I am proud of how far I have come and how far I pushed myself. Now the real test of my education begins. I must prove to myself that I can take all I have learned and apply it to my teaching practice. I want to challenge my fellow teachers to use technology to expand learning just like I have been challenged. I want to challenge my students to fail and be better because of that failure. While my formal education might be ending my learning will not. This is just the beginning; I now have the resources and network to push my knowledge farther than I ever thought before. This journey has not been about a new degree, but everything I have learned along the way. As I have said before and will keep saying, it isn’t about the final result, but the process of getting there.

References

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. Retrieved from http://punya.educ.msu.edu/publications/journal_articles/mishra-koehler-tcr2006.pdf download .pdf