Leveling Up - My Plans for More Development
The term “life-long learner” is very popular right now in education - and with good reason. The days of spending a few years learning one skill to apply for 40 years at the same company are long gone. The most important thing we can teach our students is how to learn. I hope to use my Masters Degree in Educational Technology to assist teachers and schools to do just that. A guiding principle of mine, when helping others use technology for learning, is “develop the mindset.” How does the teacher or learner think about the tool they may be using? Some teachers view modern tech tools simply as slicker versions of their industrial analogues. For example, they may view a google doc as a digital version of a document, rather than a dynamic, collaborative, and easily accessible learning tool. Other teachers may get drawn into the “wow” factor of modern tech tools, and want to use them in classrooms without necessarily understanding their true potential for learning. For example, only using a makey-makey to have a banana replace the space bar on a keyboard, without exploiting the full potential the tool has to teach us about circuits, current, and programming. I want to continue to grow my own learning in a number of areas in order to better facilitate the learning of others, and so have made three goals for myself. First, I need to expand and develop my PLN (Professional/Personal Learning Network). I’ll also need to stay current with business and education trends that will affect teachers and learners I’ll be supporting. As a pragmatic goal, I would also like to build my basic IT skills to gain more knowledge and competence of the hardware and other systems that make digital learning possible in the first place.
In my 13 years of experiences as a music teacher, I have been granted an unusually high degree of autonomy. The large-scale performances and events that were a part of mine and my students’ lives required a great deal of planning and collaboration between myself and other teachers and performers. However, as head of the vocal music departments, I alone was responsible for the music learning of my students, and had no need to collaborate with others on daily educational content or its delivery. While my performances were highly collaborative, my educational environment was not. I have therefore given myself a goal to grow, develop, utilize, and contribute to, my PLN. As a grad student, my “colleagues” are currently other students, and I have access to them through class forums and other media. I have just begun a career search as of this writing, so I do not have professional colleagues. However, I would still like to have a larger network of educational technology professionals. I have started this process by opening a twitter account, finding and following people whose opinions and expertise I respect, and have begun to contribute to various channels. I hope to continue making progress on this goal after I find a career placement.
There is a larger world of educational ideas and philosophies, of course, outside of my PLN which can affect the teachers and learners I hope to support. Many educational products, and the ideas that come with them, began their life in the private corporate sector. Keeping current with corporate and business trends that could affect the educational world will make me an evolving, adaptable, and ultimately more useful resource for teachers and learners. My plan to satisfy this goal is twofold. First, I plan to always be reading something new. I’m currently reading The Power of Habit and The Anti-Education Era. I’ve consumed many books outside of required class readings over the last year, and plan to continue to do so after I graduate. Second, I plan to join ISTE and attend their annual conference, as well as any other regional conferences wherever I eventually end up. Staying current with educational technology is a daunting but absolutely vital task.
My third area of intended development is my IT ability. I simply want to improve my ability to understand, manipulate, and make decisions about the hardware that undergirds all the digital learning in a school district. It is entirely possible that as a technology integration specialist, I could also be tasked with being a network administrator. I could also be responsible for small fixes here and there on computers, printers, or networks - particularly in smaller districts. This is gritty, practical knowledge that will help facilitate communication within a school or learning environment. I’ve already begun an online class to complete my first CompTIA certification, and plan to acquire a handful of these certifications. This will give me a reasonable degree of knowledge and competence of the systems upon which students’ digital learning is built. I also recently built my own 3D printer, and have been participating in what is now a very DIY online community. Essentially, I want to build the “tech” part of my “EdTech” speciality.
I’ve already made significant strides toward improvement in some of my intended areas of future learning. Others will have to wait until I am hopefully employed as a technology facilitator or teacher. Wherever I land, however, I do not ever plan on viewing these goals as “accomplished.” The world I am preparing for is a dynamic and fast-paced one, with change as the only constant. I am making sure that accepting and evaluating such change will be a permanent part of my professional identity.
I’ve already made significant strides toward improvement in some of my intended areas of future learning. Others will have to wait until I am hopefully employed as a technology facilitator or teacher. Wherever I land, however, I do not ever plan on viewing these goals as “accomplished.” The world I am preparing for is a dynamic and fast-paced one, with change as the only constant. I am making sure that accepting and evaluating such change will be a permanent part of my professional identity.
