My Professional Skills Showcase
Throughout the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program at Michigan State University, I created many educational projects, written essays, and technology-related assignments. The coursework that I completed helped me grow and develop as a professional educator. I know that I will always be a lifelong learner. On this page, you will find a variety of the graduate work that I completed during my Master's program at MSU. The pieces of work that I chose for my showcase fall into two main categories: Technology and Education. The Technology category displays my experiences or pieces of work that primarily showcase my technology abilities and skills. I have created websites, videos, screencasts, and I even built a cool droid with a LittleBits maker kit! The Education category showcases both the teaching and learning skills that I have gained throughout my Master's program. This category shows some of my teaching methods and ideas as well as my thoughts revolving around learning and understanding. |
TechnologyReimagining Online Learning Video – Searching for a Solution My "Reimagining Online Learning" project was a rewarding experience during my Master's program. I enjoyed collaborating with my two Think Tank teammates (and fellow MSU Master's classmates), and it was fun to work synchronously on Google Sites with them as well! Our group took on the task of trying to reimagine online learning in the near future. During this process, each member of our team created our own educational video, offering our take on this "wicked problem". In my video, I have offered a potential solution to our problem. Please watch and read through my thoughts, questions, and ideas as I began to truly reimagine online learning! Reimagining Online Learning –
A Google Site In addition to my video above, I also worked with two classmates to create a multimodal project revolving around that same idea of “Reimagining Online Learning”. It became a challenging, yet rewarding project. Our group, or “Think Tank”, worked together over several weeks to come up with many important questions, then we researched those questions, and finally we brainstormed to dig up a few potential solutions to our “wicked” problem. We decided to create a multimodal Google Site. Google Sites allowed us to get creative, yet stay organized as we collaborated together “live” on the site. The three of us in our group are hardworking teachers from varied parts of Michigan. Please look around this website, starting with the Home page, but then navigate using our dropdown menu found in the upper-right corner of the site; labeled “Home”. Our site includes several pages, including the Home page, and then pages labeled “Student Thoughts”, “Teacher Thoughts”, “The Problem”, “The Solution”, and “The Future”. The thoughts, ideas, and multimodal elements found on our page are our own, but they are also backed by the research that we have done as a Think Tank. This is one of the screencasts that I created for my online course (found at Google Classroom). I used Screencast-O-Matic for this particular screencast. In this video, I give a fairly brief introduction to NitroType.com (primarily for elementary students). The video shows how to sign up for an account and then also how to log in to an account.
For one of my big projects in CEP 811: "Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education", I acquired a very cool “Maker Kit” from the LittleBits Company. This particular kit is called the “Star Wars” Droid Inventor Kit. The kit comes with 30-plus pieces, which allows any maker to create, build, and play with a droid (similar to R2-D2) that they end up making themselves. In addition to the acquisition of this interesting Maker Kit, I also decided to repurpose a few household items to create an obstacle course for my soon-to-be-made droid. Read about the full project at my blog!
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EducationMy Google Classroom Homepage (Image)
When I first started to design and create a new online course for one of my MSU graduate courses, my first decision was to decide which platform to use. Since I frequently use the array of Google Apps at the school where I teach, I decided to commit to Google Classroom. In summer 2018, Google Classroom was being updated regularly. I tested out Google Classroom for several days, and decided that it was a good fit for my needs as an online instructor. Google Classroom is rather simple to use, and if a person is used to any Google application; it works very well. As a teacher, I love the easy ability to create announcements, assignments, questions, and reuse posts with just two clicks (or taps if using a touchscreen). I created a Google Classroom for a 4th-5th grade Keyboarding Course. Google Classroom has worked pretty well for me. Adding explanations for various vocabulary terms and symbols that come into play as I taught new elements about coding, applications, and websites has always been useful for students. In addition to that, screencasts that I created to explain most lessons are always very useful for students. Reimagining Online Learning - An Easel.ly Infographic regarding Teaching and Learning Online in the 21st Century
During my coursework, I created this infographic at easel.ly. Reimagining online learning has definitely become a wicked problem in the 21st century. It’s a complex problem! It took me quite some time just to frame this problem properly. I came up with the following problems: Online learning needs to be reimagined frequently. Online learners today are lacking real-world application and do not look for knowledge expansion or for increasing their higher-level thinking skills. During my very first semester within the MAET program, I wrote an essay dealing with learning, understanding, and conceptual change. My full essay can be found here. The essay is influenced by a reading I did entitled How People Learn (2000) by authors Bransford, Brown & Cocking. I begin by defining learning as much more than just the process of receiving new information. Learning begins just after birth and every kindergarten student enters an elementary school with many preconceptions already. My essay also discusses active learning and engaging students so that they will take control of their own learning. Read the essay to find out why “superficial coverage of all topics in a subject area must be replaced with in-depth coverage of fewer topics."
Another project that I created was a “visual board” showing my Professional Learning Network (PLN) using popplet.com. Creating this popplet forced me to begin thinking about my professional learning network. I started to realize the important role that my family and friends have on my PLN. As an educator, it is extremely important to create a network of people around you that you can depend on and learn from. I know that I can rely on my family members and several close friends when I need help, both as a professional teacher and as a person.
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