Future as a Learner Essay
Skills to be Successful in Life
By Allison Birbal
As educators, we strive to teach students not only the content of each subject but also the skills necessary to be successful in life. Having been a student for the past two years as a graduate student in Michigan State University’s Master of Arts in Educational Technology program--I feel that my instructors have strived to teach us these very same skills. Instead of focusing on how technology works and how it can be implemented, I have learned to look at the bigger picture, create a vision, and use technology to support that vision. In my future as a learner, I plan to use these skills to continue to learn how student learning can be improved through the use of technologies. My mission is to figure out the best solutions for today’s educational challenges. However, these solutions will not be permanent as challenges in education will be ever changing causing me to have to turn to resources to help me grow as a educational technology leader.
As of now, how I foresee education changing to meet the needs of every child. This may seem simple, and some may say we are doing that now. But, I feel that we can do better. Students should be able to use more creativity, students should be using critical thinking skills every day, students should learn content to mastery. To get there, my hope is that things like gamification and flipped learning help transition us as we still use the traditional school schedule.
My vision for the future is that students are at schools where their schedule is flexible, their learning environment is flexible, the content they learn is flexible. This would look very different in a middle school or even elementary setting. What I hope to see is more and more high schools using blended and online learning, and middle schools and elementary schools that have programs that feed into blended learning high schools.
One resource I have turned to many times throughout my program is my Professional Learning Network (PLN). My PLN includes the teachers I work with, other educators in my district, and educators from all over the world who I have connected with through conferences and social media. I will turn to Twitter to ask for suggestions, share ideas, and learn from educators through Twitter chats. I will rely on my PLN to help me learn the latest trends in technology and best practices, like gamification, that teachers are using to help students reach mastery.
Throughout my coursework, I have learned about the affordances of online education in helping students increase academic achievements. However, I also learned about the lack of research with K-12 online learning. My vision is that a vast majority of students will be reaching mastery through online courses. I will use resources like iNACOL and other professional journals to stay up to date on the research of online learning.
I have been most inspired and excited about education after attending conferences like Flipcon14. I plan to continue to attend and present at conferences to become excited about new ideas in education that will help our students be better critical thinkers. One conference I would like to attend is ISTE’s (International Society for Technology in Education) annual conference to help me stay up to date with the latest technologies and how they are being used in classrooms.
Part of my future as a learner is to always have a positive outlook and be optimistic with where education is heading. It is without a doubt that teachers have a lot on their plates and it is easy to join in on the negativity with colleagues. However, with all the challenges educators are dealt, I still am passionate about my career, and am looking forward to the future of education. I truly feel that the implementation of technology in education is going to cause major changes to our school systems, and I am excited to be part of that.
The TPACK framework integrates the knowledge of technology, pedagogy, and content. The knowledge of all three areas and the knowledge of the intersection of the three areas is a key aspect of educational technology research. Having a deep understanding of the TPACK framework allows educators to integrate technologies and strategies into the classroom.In my future, the TPACK framework will play an important role in my decision to use technology in my lessons as well in my advice with other educators on technology in education. Understanding the various sections and overlays of TPACK allows us to have a better sense of how to solve educational challenges, especially with regard to integration of technology.