ALLISON BIRBAL

Synthesis Essay

 

A Glance at the Past and a Vision for the Future

by Allison Birbal

 

When I take a moment to glance at my past, I have to chuckle at how I used technology in my classroom. I began teaching in Fall of 2010, and with it being my first year teaching, I have to admit I did not think much about using technology in my classroom. I was more focused on making sure I could manage the students and that they learned the science standards I was determined to teach. I can remember filling out lesson plans, and in the box labeled “Use of Technology” I would go ahead and write in that I was using the overhead projector and a PowerPoint. Occasionally, about once a quarter, I would be able to write in that we visited the computer lab. That was if I could plan far enough ahead to schedule a time before it was taken by other teachers. In my mind, this was enough and fulfilled the requirement on the lesson plan.  Sure, I would have loved to use more technology--but it was not readily available nor did I have an understanding of how to use technology with students.

 

After completing three years of teaching, things started to change. First, my interest in incorporating technology grew as I began to research other teaching methods. I looked into the Flipped Learning model as a way to help my students go deeper with their understanding of the science concepts. I began flipping my class by recording my lessons and posting them on our class website. Second, my school had gotten more technology and was even selected to pilot a 1:1 digital curriculum with HP Laptops. That summer, along with attending trainings on digital curriculum and participating in conferences about flipped learning; I also made the decision to continue my education by earning my Master’s of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) at Michigan State University. It seemed like the perfect fit, I was interested in learning how to incorporate more technology and my students would each have their own devices during the school year. I truly thought my situation would mesh beautifully.

 

After completing my summer trainings, I felt good--I was going to take all the neat science lessons I had taught and change them around so that my students would get them digitally through Google Drive and Edmodo and voila I was “successfully” using technology. However, that Fall I began taking MAET courses, and I soon realized that perhaps taking everything I had taught before and making into a digital version was actually not the best way to utilize all this technology we had available. These courses were opening my eyes to a whole different understanding of how technology could and should be integrated in schools.

 

When I was accepted into the MAET program, I began looking at the courses I would be taking over the next two years. One course, CEP 820--Teaching Students Online, was a course I was not interested in, and originally wanted to swap it out for a different elective since I had never planned on teaching online courses and did not think this course would be relevant to my future. Well, this course happens to be required for the program, so I had no choice. It turns out I was completely wrong--I gained a plethora of knowledge from taking this class. Our instructor, Anne Heintz, had us build our own online or hybrid course based on research we had read throughout the class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

requiring students to take an online course before graduating. I also began to improve my own videos that I was making for my students by creating more of an online presence that I had learned about in CEP 820. Throughout the course, I also kept track of notes and ideas in my developers notebook which I still go back and refer to every once in awhile. I now realize, having taken CEP 820, that even though I may never teach an online class (which now I am not even sure I can say that…) that I still have a good understanding of what it takes to set up an effective online course that focuses on student engagement and learning.

 

One of the courses that really made me grow as an educator was CEP 815--Technology and Leadership taught by Ben Gleason. When I first started my Master’s program, I had no plans of using this knowledge as an educational technology leader. My original plan was to learn techniques to integrate technology and learn what the best technology tools were. Well, after taking this course, I quickly realized that my original plan was not a good one because my original plan was all about the technology instead of the kids! Through this course I learned not only to focus on the mission and how technology could aid as a tool, but also the role of a leader, what qualities good leaders possess, and how a technology leader might tackle certain problems of practice. This course helped me realize the importance how technology knowledge should be combined with pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge (the TPACK framework) to enhance the learning and understanding of students. Most importantly, this course shifted my goals for the future. Instead of using my knowledge from my Master’s program and creating a more tech savvy classroom, I now view myself as a potential technology leader in a district. As a technology leader, I know that there are many changes in education with regards to technology. This class has helped me become aware of how to manage change as a successful leader by having a vision for the future, the skills necessary to reach the vision, incentives for all involved, resources, and an action plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During my CEP 800 course, Learning in Schools and other Settings, I was able to make connections between learning theories and technology integration. This course really helped me realize that educational technology is more than just picking out a cool new app and having students use it during the next unit of study. Instead, this course taught me to focus on how students learn, the content that students typically struggle with, and then technology that could be used as a tool to enhance the learning process. By dissecting the student learning this way, I found out that integrating technology is more than using the latest gadget, instead it is about finding the best way to teach the content and using the advantages of technology to enhance learning. During this class, I wrote a lesson plan that used TouchCast as the technology to aid in the lesson. After writing the lesson plan, I actually taught the lesson and was able to reflect on the advantages of using TouchCast as part of the lesson. This process helped me realize the goal of this lesson was still to teach my students about variables, a topic that sixth graders typically struggle with, but also analyzing the benefits of a type of technology that may help students understand difficult concepts better.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During my Master’s program, my Professional Learning Network  (PLN) grew immensely. Before I began my classes, I had very few resources that I would use outside of my school to help with content, technology, or teaching in general. Part of being a professional educator is to continue to grow and to learn about our field and to connect with one another. Now that I am close to the end of my formal education, not only do I know where to reach out to continue to learn about educational technology, but I am also comfortable sharing with other educators my knowledge of what has (or has not) worked in my classroom. My vision for the future is to use my own PLN to help other teachers expand their PLNs and help them contribute to the educational community.

 

I spent a great amount of time discussing learning theories throughout my coursework at MSU. I appreciate that these learning theories were part of every course, as it seems pointless to try and focus on how technology can enhance education without thinking about how students learn in the first place. When I first began the MAET program, I was under the assumption that an educator should look at the technology first, to assess whether it would benefit the learning of their students. Now, I understand that as educators, our focus should not be on the technology--it should always be on the student and how they learn. Once an educator understands how students learn, then the technology can be added as a tool to aid in the learning. I have been exposed to valuable resources in my classes that have been an asset as I continue to learn more about technology and learning. In my future I plan to refer educators to these resources of learning theories as they introduce more and more technology to our schools.

 

Lastly, I feel that the research I was exposed to and learned about was crucial to my learning throughout the past two years. It only makes sense that we be exposed to the research behind incorporating technology into classrooms. Educators should be interested in educational research in general. I feel that the most valuable information I gained about research is that educational research is one of the more difficult areas of research because it requires students and their education, which includes many variables. With regard to educational technology, there is more research to be done. However, by completing my coursework I was still able to make connections about how “old” technologies were first introduced to classrooms and how it had an impact on learning and how “newer” technologies may have a similar impact. I was able to learn from researchers about best practices, online learning, 1:1 device integration, and more. I can use the knowledge from these resources in my own future as I grow as an educational leader and plan to refer back to the research as much as possible. I also plan to use educational research to help educators understand the best practices about successful technology integration.

I have come a long way since my first year teaching in 2010, but I have also come a long way since beginning my Master’s in Educational Technology. I have used my knowledge gained through my coursework to grow as a technology leader who understands the importance of students learning content and how technology paired with appropriate pedagogical strategies can be a valuable tool to get us there. I no longer fill out that I am using a projector and PowerPoint to fulfill the technology requirement of my lesson plans. I am now able to include that I use technology as a tool throughout my lessons as a way to ensure all my students are learning the science content.