CHRISTINA M. WELLING
21st Century Educator. Lifelong Learner
Welcome to my online teaching portfolio! On this website you will find a depth of knowledge pertaining to my journey through the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program at Michigan State University. Take a look at my professional work and learn more about me. As always, contact me with any questions!
"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."
-Clay P. Bedford
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Stopping to Remember: A Reflection of My Experience in the Masters of Arts in Educational Technology Program at Michigan State University
I have finally come to the culmination of my experience in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University. After taking ten courses over three summer semesters and one fall semester, I graduate this summer, just in time to start my fifth year of teaching with a master’s degree and an educational technology endorsement. Nothing but proud feelings consume me as I reflect on all that I have done and all that I have gained by pursuing this degree. As I reflect back on all the various courses I took in the program, I am pleased to share all the developments in life skills, writing skills, reading skills and technical skills I have acquired and how they will help me continue my lifelong journey as a 21st century educator and learner.
First, I learned several valuable life skills while pursuing a MAET degree. To start, I have to acknowledge that getting a master’s degree is hard work! When I initially decided to pursue a Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree three years ago, I was not quite sure which format of classes I wanted to take: hybrid, overseas, or online. Since I had been working full time from the moment I started my master’s degree to the moment I finished, the online course format seemed to work the best for me. Therefore, I chose to pursue a fully online master’s degree.
Life sure seemed to be a balancing act. While teaching full time and starting coursework at the end of every school year, I was just wrapping up the final performances and last days of school with my students and had to motivate myself to log online every day. Thus, one life skill that I learned very early on in the program was balancing my time. Some days I felt very overwhelmed with all that was going on in my life. However, over the course of the semesters, I learned how to better balance all the work load and my other responsibilities in teaching and still managed to stay social with friends and family. As a result, pursuing a master’s degree also helped me to be more responsible. No one was forcing me to log online every day. Taking classes online taught me to take the initiative to log in, work steadily week-by-week and submit assignments, as they were due.
Some other life skills that I learned while in the MAET program included how powerful reflection can be as a learning mechanism and failure as a learning method. Week-by-week, in the first summer of my master’s degree, I was asked to summarize what I learned, write reflections, and share them with the world as blog posts. At first, putting all my thoughts down on print, reflecting, and sharing it with the world was hard. As the weeks went on, though, I started to really enjoy blogging because it helped me to see the bigger picture and overall learning objectives of each week’s assignments. In addition, when I would receive feedback on my assignments, failure as a learning method truly came into play. I remember specifically getting my first assignment back in the first course I took in the program, CEP 810 Teaching Understanding with Technology. Lets just say it was not a very good grade since I had no concept of how to incorporate APA style into my writing! I learned very quickly to consult books and online sources on how to cite information in APA format as well as the benefits of revising work. Therefore, feeling like a failure the first time around helped motivate me to get a better grade and to really truly understand the work that I was accomplishing on a weekly basis. From those first weeks in the program, I learned to take extra time to revise my work in order to produce the best examples of my learning in the program. Failure as a learning method, as a result, is one skill I now teach to my students. After experiencing first hand the feeling of not doing well on an assignment the first time, I explain to my students that sometimes the best examples of learning we have are from working through the tough times and the challenging moments. This is a very valuable life skill for me and for my students. Learning to reflect on my work as a teacher and learner as well as keep improving my craft through revising my teaching lessons has helped me become an even better 21st century educator. My students will benefit greatly from my continuing pursuits to improve my craft on a daily basis.
Another area I have grown tremendously in is my writing skills. Before starting the MAET program, I never thought of myself as a good writer. I also never felt confident that I had something worthwhile to contribute to discussion forums or conversations with fellow classmates. I realized however, as I worked through various courses and participated in online discussions, that I did have similar ideas as others. This is when I started to value giving feedback in discussion posts.
I specifically remember developing this confidence through discussions in online forums while taking CEP 822 Approaches to Educational Research. Since the topics for this class were very new to many of my classmates, we relied heavily on communicating together online. As we learned about the power of educational research, how to acquire it, how it is organized and how to critique it, I remember spending a lot of time writing and revising discussion prompts as I submitted them to my classmates. The benefits of communication through writing helped me better grasp these topics. Had I not participated in written discussion forums, I may not have understood the value of educational research. As a result, I learned a valuable lesson. The power of written reflection is important for teachers to continue growing and learning their craft. Another class that really challenged my writing skills was CEP 815 Leadership in Technology. Every week’s assignment required a significant amount of professional writing. I spent time meticulously crafting written assignments to best represent my knowledge on leadership topics studied. This course specifically helped me gain skills in writing like a leader. A strong educational leader writes well and is inclusive of the thoughts and feelings of all stakeholders. Having taken these two classes simultaneously during the second summer of my master’s degree, I felt challenged as a writer and what I could contribute to educational conversations with other teaching professionals. In addition, writing assignments throughout my time in the MAET program were some of the best examples of my learning. Needless to say, I am proud of my growth as a writer and leave this program feeling confident that I can provide appropriate and sufficient written feedback to parents, students, and the community in which I teach.
Another area I saw vast improvements in throughout my master’s degree was my reading skills. It had been years since I was given challenging texts to read, comprehend, infer, and apply to projects and assignments. When I first started the MAET program I was having a hard time focusing and reading such lengthy and detailed texts. I even enlisted help from fellow classmates and teachers. I started to rely on
some of the literacy skills that I remembered as a child such as highlighting texts, keeping a notebook for writing down important points I read about, rereading articles to better understand them and other techniques. I even downloaded a text to speech application onto my computer to help me read text while the computer spoke the words to me. A combination of these strategies helped me become a better reader. Along these lines, one factor that contributed the most to my improvement as a reader was simply the continuous work I did reading. The more I practiced reading lengthy educational texts, the better I became. This is a skill that will continue to make me a better 21st century teacher and lifelong learner. The more I read, the better educated I become and my master’s degree opened my eyes to the depth of knowledge that can be uncovered in written word. Thus, my Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree has motivated me to keep exploring texts because I want to continue to grow and learn the rest of my life. I could not have asked for a better lesson here!
Since graduating from the MAET program, I also saw a huge improvement in my technical skills and their application. Before starting the program I had little idea how to blog using Wordpress, design websites using Wix, send tweets using Twitter, create infographics using Piktochart, use graphic organizers such as Popplet, screencast using various applications like Screencast-o-matic, and create movies using iMovie. I realized how fun learning could be when I was given time to explore new technologies and play with them. Although sometimes time consuming, I recognized that playing with a technology and consulting help forums and videos online helped me learn how to use that technology. Since learning this, I always incorporate time for my students to explore a technology before asking them to work with that technology as I teach them the content. While playing with different technologies, some of my favorite design projects included work I did in CEP 818 Creativity in Teaching and Learning. Week-by-week I created movies and practical resources to use in my teaching. I still use and reference these resources today. In addition, CEP 811 Adapting Innovative Technology to Education introduced me to many new applicable technologies talked about in the educational world. Some of those applications included the Maker Movement using a MakeyMakey and the value of 3D modeling using a software program called SketchUp. All of these various explorations helped me grow as an educator as they showed me new resources that I could use to help my students learn in this technologically driven age.
In addition to learning technical skills while in the MAET program, I also acquired knowledge in how to effectively teach with technology. This framework is known as Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). It’s important to note that we never just learned a technology just to learn it in the master’s program. It was always used in application of the content we were learning. So, when I had playtime to learn technologies in various courses, what I really was instructed to do was apply understanding of educational theories using technology. Some of those theories were the Universal Design for Learning, experiential learning, the art of digital storytelling and the power of podcasts. Since
learning this valuable lesson, I consider all components of TPACK when planning my lessons such as what I am teaching my students (content), how I will teach that content in order to best suit my students’ needs (pedagogy), how technology supports or assists in learning of the content and how I deliver the information (technology). Thus, the TPACK framework has helped me become a more knowledgeable educator in how to plan lessons that center around student objectives and the main purposes for learning content.
My time in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program at Michigan State University has allowed me to grow as a teacher and lifelong learner. I am more confident now in my reading and writing skills and place value in what I can contribute to the teaching community. I have definitely learned some life skills such as responsibility and how to better balance my time. In addition, I have meaningful knowledge in various technical skills as well as more support in how to think and act like an educator in the 21st century, using the TPACK framework. When I want to learn something new, I know now the vast amount of resources available to me in digital and print forms and how to locate them. I can communicate with colleagues, ask questions, plan lessons, and better contribute knowledge while teaching my students. My professional learning network has grown throughout my master’s degree, which I blogged about early on in the MAET program and theses changes are apparent in my day-to-day life. My decision to pursue a Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree could not have been a better choice. The skills that I have acquired and the transformations I have made have all helped me improve as a 21st century educator and lifelong learner, but this is just the start!
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