Future as a learner essay
By Sophia Borden
As I will soon be graduating from the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program, I have been thinking about what I will do to continue to grow afterwards. In general, I want to continue learning how to effectively use technology to teach mathematics to my students. In order to do this, I will need to continue searching for and evaluating different technologies to use in my teaching and creating lesson plans that specifically consider the implications of using such technology. I also want to continue learning how to create my own resources so that I may help out other teachers as well.
Using the Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, I am able to evaluate the effectiveness of different pieces of technology by thinking about how the technology affects the learning taking place and what benefits or hindrances this technology may have when teaching a particular concept. Incorporating technology for the first time into a lesson can be challenging because it changes how students are interacting with the material. This can lead to unexpected problems or even when it comes to engagement, misconceptions, or struggles to understand the technology. When creating a lesson plan that incorporates this new technology, I use the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines to think ahead and predict what problems I may encounter and how students might see the technology.
Another thing I want to do is continue to learn how to create my own websites and applications to use in the classroom. Being able to create your own resources is truly a powerful tool and using the TPACK and UDL guidelines, I can think ahead of time how this new technology that I create will be used by students and teachers. I have already learned how to code websites using HTML and CSS. I am planning to continue growing by learning other programming languages like JavaScript and how to use a class webpage effectively in my classroom. Eventually, I want to be able to create programs and applications for PC or Android that students and teachers can use. By continuing to learn these different programming languages, I might be able to one day create different simulations that can be used to help teach mathematics.
Finally, one way to help me find and evaluate new technologies is by creating a place that teachers can share, discuss, and revise lessons. During my student teaching, I and two of my peers created a website that served as a collection of the High Cognitive Demand Tasks that our peers in these classes created so that we may share them with each other when we went our separate ways and started teaching elsewhere. The website is called Action-Packed Math as an homage to our mathematics education professor who always started the day off by describing how “action-packed” our day was going to be. I want to continue to expand Action-Packed Math and turn it into more of a repository of High Cognitive Demand Tasks and resources that mathematics teachers all over the country can use. In order to do this, I have already started learning how to create websites using HTML and CSS so I can start working to make it a more stand-alone website. I have also learned a lot about what teachers collaborating can look like from other websites like MERLOT and the discussion forums that I have participated in while in my Master’s program. Using what I know, I am going to try to create a draft of what Action-Packed Math will look like.
The MAET program has taught me a lot about what it means for technology to be used effectively in teaching through example by taking the courses online and through the assignments that I have completed. I still have the same goal as when I entered the MAET program: to learn how to effectively use technology to learn mathematics. However, I know many more strategies on how to do that now and I have an actionable plan to help me continue to grow.
Using the Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, I am able to evaluate the effectiveness of different pieces of technology by thinking about how the technology affects the learning taking place and what benefits or hindrances this technology may have when teaching a particular concept. Incorporating technology for the first time into a lesson can be challenging because it changes how students are interacting with the material. This can lead to unexpected problems or even when it comes to engagement, misconceptions, or struggles to understand the technology. When creating a lesson plan that incorporates this new technology, I use the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines to think ahead and predict what problems I may encounter and how students might see the technology.
Another thing I want to do is continue to learn how to create my own websites and applications to use in the classroom. Being able to create your own resources is truly a powerful tool and using the TPACK and UDL guidelines, I can think ahead of time how this new technology that I create will be used by students and teachers. I have already learned how to code websites using HTML and CSS. I am planning to continue growing by learning other programming languages like JavaScript and how to use a class webpage effectively in my classroom. Eventually, I want to be able to create programs and applications for PC or Android that students and teachers can use. By continuing to learn these different programming languages, I might be able to one day create different simulations that can be used to help teach mathematics.
Finally, one way to help me find and evaluate new technologies is by creating a place that teachers can share, discuss, and revise lessons. During my student teaching, I and two of my peers created a website that served as a collection of the High Cognitive Demand Tasks that our peers in these classes created so that we may share them with each other when we went our separate ways and started teaching elsewhere. The website is called Action-Packed Math as an homage to our mathematics education professor who always started the day off by describing how “action-packed” our day was going to be. I want to continue to expand Action-Packed Math and turn it into more of a repository of High Cognitive Demand Tasks and resources that mathematics teachers all over the country can use. In order to do this, I have already started learning how to create websites using HTML and CSS so I can start working to make it a more stand-alone website. I have also learned a lot about what teachers collaborating can look like from other websites like MERLOT and the discussion forums that I have participated in while in my Master’s program. Using what I know, I am going to try to create a draft of what Action-Packed Math will look like.
The MAET program has taught me a lot about what it means for technology to be used effectively in teaching through example by taking the courses online and through the assignments that I have completed. I still have the same goal as when I entered the MAET program: to learn how to effectively use technology to learn mathematics. However, I know many more strategies on how to do that now and I have an actionable plan to help me continue to grow.