Alissa Arden

Hands-on Teaching and Learning

  

After rifling through documents on my computer, I stumbled upon my admissions essay for Michigan State University’s Masters in Educational Technology (MAET) program. I spoke of how I used technology at the time after two years in the classroom and provided a vision for how knowledge gained from this degree could help me achieve my lifelong goals as an educator. Upon applying for and entering this program, my primary goal was to learn how to use technology to better engage students and provide my pupils with the self-efficacy to complete tasks with greater independence than previous graduating classes. More than anything, I wanted to learn ways to put technology into the hands of students rather than solely in the hands of educators. There are a few ways I could dissect this initial goal statement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first piece of my vision was learning how to better engage students with technology. This is still one of my goals as an educator and an (almost) MAET graduate. Reflecting back to my own experience as a high school student, PowerPoint presentations and film clips on VHS were examples of cutting-edge technology. Once every teacher used the same tools, the novelty wore off and it was the instructor’s use and skill level at technology integration that mattered. More importantly, very few educators allowed students to interact with technology. My most vivid memory was in Psychology where my instructor had my peers and myself use a computer simulation tool to experience B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning experiment on rats. I would go on to remember everything from this lesson in several years later in my college courses. This experience shaped my goal to learn to use technology to increase opportunities for hands-on learning and thus improve engagement and increase retention of course content.  I have witnessed first hand how technology can be a vehicle for learning and aid students in critical thinking, rather than mere computational, tasks. Because of these memories, my goal remains the same in this regard.

 

The second piece of my goal statement revolves around learning how to build student’s self-efficacy to complete tasks. In my original thesis, I implied that technology can help support student learning whether it is through online tutorials, other visual aids, devices to support mathematical computations, or simulations for discovery learning. However, there is one small adjustment I would make to my vision, which is that tools can help students accomplish learning goals when a teacher skillfully integrates them to help scaffold learning. Thus, the minor distinction between my past and future goal is to play the role as a guide for technology for my students. This has changed because when I have used technology for exploration tasks with my students throughout this program, they do not necessarily understand the learning goal or achieve objectives without me connecting the experience to course content. Technology alone cannot create learning opportunities. I want to be a hands-on educator because student-teacher interaction is vital for learning.

 

My goal as a technology integrator has slightly developed because I have come to the realization that technology changes over time, as demonstrated by my own high school experience. I want to help students attain a level of autonomy and engage with content rather than merely engage with the tool.