The Michigan State University Master of Art in Educational Technology (MAET) program offers several flexible options in order to satisfy the coursework requirements. For the majority of my credits, I opted for the Hybrid Online offering, described here (from the MAET website):
"Each summer we welcome two cohorts of educators to the beautiful College of Education at Michigan State University for two weeks of extraordinary face-to-face learning. After these two on-campus weeks, students return home to complete four more weeks of learning with their cohorts online. At the end of the summer, all students return to campus for one day to present their best work, and to share in celebrations of their successes. We call this a hybrid cohort program because it blends face-to-face and online learning experiences. The cohort model allows students to forge strong professional connections to a group of colleagues who are working through a common set of courses together."
Nine of the thirty required credits are completed through each summer in the Hybrid Online program (18 total over 2 summers), leaving the remaining coursework to be completed individually. While the Hybrid Online programs cover the material that is available through specific individual courses, it is offered in a cohesive and integrated way that (in my opinion) is greater than the sum of its parts.
Hybrid Online Year 1: Mindsets for Innovation
Summer 2018, Missy Cosby, PhD & Kyle Shack
Three courses are combined for this experience:
I worked with a partner to design a Maker lesson which we piloted at a local summer technology camp, and subsequently built out a Maker website collaboratively with my cohort in order to share our projects with fellow teachers. We studied the ways in which a student’s broader experience, including the spaces in which they learn, powerfully affect learning outcomes, and spent time learning CAD software and designing new learning spaces for our schools. We heard from experts in the field of equity in educational technology, and had the opportunity to debate whether or not big technology companies are exploiting students (particularly in disadvantaged areas) by their data collection policies.
Our exploration of “wicked problems” - really big problems with no simple answer - was particularly engaging. My partner and I chose to dig into the problem of “keeping education relevant.” Simply understanding the problem was a substantial task, as we tried to define what it means to be relevant. Relevant to whom? Relevant to what? Who should define relevance in education? Is relevance actually important? Relevant to an individual’s current context, or relevant to future prospects? We surveyed the faculty at our schools, and tried to imagine some first steps toward a solution, such as trying to define relevance at the local level, and leaning on local technology, industry, education, and content area experts to continually review and revise the curriculum and offerings in a school. During the course of a normal school year, it’s easy to get weighed down by the immediate demands on our time and attention. It was invigorating to put the minutiae aside and dig deeply into the big questions with fellow educators. I returned from the program excited to apply new knowledge and methods to my teaching, such as inquiry- and question-driven lessons, and excited to bring big questions back to my colleagues my school.
- CEP 810: Teaching for Understanding with Technology
- CEP 811: Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education
- CEP 812: Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice
I worked with a partner to design a Maker lesson which we piloted at a local summer technology camp, and subsequently built out a Maker website collaboratively with my cohort in order to share our projects with fellow teachers. We studied the ways in which a student’s broader experience, including the spaces in which they learn, powerfully affect learning outcomes, and spent time learning CAD software and designing new learning spaces for our schools. We heard from experts in the field of equity in educational technology, and had the opportunity to debate whether or not big technology companies are exploiting students (particularly in disadvantaged areas) by their data collection policies.
Our exploration of “wicked problems” - really big problems with no simple answer - was particularly engaging. My partner and I chose to dig into the problem of “keeping education relevant.” Simply understanding the problem was a substantial task, as we tried to define what it means to be relevant. Relevant to whom? Relevant to what? Who should define relevance in education? Is relevance actually important? Relevant to an individual’s current context, or relevant to future prospects? We surveyed the faculty at our schools, and tried to imagine some first steps toward a solution, such as trying to define relevance at the local level, and leaning on local technology, industry, education, and content area experts to continually review and revise the curriculum and offerings in a school. During the course of a normal school year, it’s easy to get weighed down by the immediate demands on our time and attention. It was invigorating to put the minutiae aside and dig deeply into the big questions with fellow educators. I returned from the program excited to apply new knowledge and methods to my teaching, such as inquiry- and question-driven lessons, and excited to bring big questions back to my colleagues my school.
Hybrid Online Year 2: Theory, Research, and Practice
Summer 2019, Missy Cosby, PhD & Dave Goodrich
Three courses are combined for this experience:
Hybrid year 2 focused on Learning, Leadership, and Research. While still a single merged experience, the projects and assignments for year 2 fell more discretely into the descriptions of each individual course. I'll discuss (for each course) some of the work that was most representative of the course content, and most consequential for my learning.
For CEP 800, a learning self-reflection required me to become well acquainted with prevailing learning theories, and then to reflect on how they affect my teaching practice. It was an excellent prompt to think analytically about things that I “know” intuitively. This program has given me several opportunities to engage in that type of activity. It has deepened my understanding of why we do the things we do, and motivated me to think more carefully about my approaches to certain pedagogy, lessons, or interactions. We also designed and ran an experiment to test Piaget's developmental stages with young children, and took on a "networked learning project" in which we had to learn a new skill through networked online sources.
The '3x3x3' (3 minute video, three key ideas, three practical implications) for CEP 815 gave me the opportunity to engage deeply with a book about leadership. The book I chose, Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek, connected with me because it “met me where I am.” The stories and anecdotes the author recounted resonated with my experiences, both as a leader and as a follower of (perhaps) imperfect leaders. It left me with ideological and practical ways to understand and work within existing power dynamics, and to try to be a more empathetic and human leader myself. The 3x3x3 format forced me to distill a lot of content into a bite-sized chunk, and gave me yet another opportunity to learn a new technology (Camtasia). Beyond the 3x3x3, we spent considerable time discussing and practicing leadership though mentorship with the concurrent year 1 cohort.
I had never written an educational research paper, and it was eye-opening to spend time “in the research” for CEP 822. I had previously (blindly) discounted “snooty” journal articles as irrelevant and dry. When I started looking for articles related to my research question, I found instead a wealth of studies and ideas that I wished I had explored earlier. I don’t know that I’ll become a subscriber to Educational Leadership, but I would like to find a way to regularly digest newly published articles and studies. In preparation for our research, we read and discussed Daniel Willingham's book When Can You Trust the Experts, which prompted great questions and reevaluation of "expert" sources.
As always, the ad-hoc discussions around the table with the cohort were among the highlights of the hybrid program. The diverse array of opinions, convictions, and experiences guaranteed lively debate and discussion. The cohort quickly developed a comfort and trust with one another, and in a short time, we were able to be vulnerable and dig into some very sensitive and consequential topics.
- CEP 800: Learning in School and Other Settings
- CEP 815: Technology and Leadership
- CEP 822: Approaches to Educational Research
Hybrid year 2 focused on Learning, Leadership, and Research. While still a single merged experience, the projects and assignments for year 2 fell more discretely into the descriptions of each individual course. I'll discuss (for each course) some of the work that was most representative of the course content, and most consequential for my learning.
For CEP 800, a learning self-reflection required me to become well acquainted with prevailing learning theories, and then to reflect on how they affect my teaching practice. It was an excellent prompt to think analytically about things that I “know” intuitively. This program has given me several opportunities to engage in that type of activity. It has deepened my understanding of why we do the things we do, and motivated me to think more carefully about my approaches to certain pedagogy, lessons, or interactions. We also designed and ran an experiment to test Piaget's developmental stages with young children, and took on a "networked learning project" in which we had to learn a new skill through networked online sources.
The '3x3x3' (3 minute video, three key ideas, three practical implications) for CEP 815 gave me the opportunity to engage deeply with a book about leadership. The book I chose, Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek, connected with me because it “met me where I am.” The stories and anecdotes the author recounted resonated with my experiences, both as a leader and as a follower of (perhaps) imperfect leaders. It left me with ideological and practical ways to understand and work within existing power dynamics, and to try to be a more empathetic and human leader myself. The 3x3x3 format forced me to distill a lot of content into a bite-sized chunk, and gave me yet another opportunity to learn a new technology (Camtasia). Beyond the 3x3x3, we spent considerable time discussing and practicing leadership though mentorship with the concurrent year 1 cohort.
I had never written an educational research paper, and it was eye-opening to spend time “in the research” for CEP 822. I had previously (blindly) discounted “snooty” journal articles as irrelevant and dry. When I started looking for articles related to my research question, I found instead a wealth of studies and ideas that I wished I had explored earlier. I don’t know that I’ll become a subscriber to Educational Leadership, but I would like to find a way to regularly digest newly published articles and studies. In preparation for our research, we read and discussed Daniel Willingham's book When Can You Trust the Experts, which prompted great questions and reevaluation of "expert" sources.
As always, the ad-hoc discussions around the table with the cohort were among the highlights of the hybrid program. The diverse array of opinions, convictions, and experiences guaranteed lively debate and discussion. The cohort quickly developed a comfort and trust with one another, and in a short time, we were able to be vulnerable and dig into some very sensitive and consequential topics.
Online Courses
CEP 824: Programming Concepts for K-12 Educators
Spring 2019, Dr. Aman Yadav, Dr. Rich Enbody & Matt Drazin
As someone that learned to program computers before many of the current teaching tools were available, it was particularly useful to work through the process of teaching (though learning) with a block-based programming language. We used GP Blocks as our platform, and worked through algorithmic and computational thinking, variables, conditionals, iteration, and functions. In each unit, we built our own projects, and discussed the strategies for teaching and assessing that topic effectively. The course taught me to think about the motivation for teaching coding, and thinking about the important concepts beyond the actual language - such as computational thinking, algorithms, and general problem solving, and how spending time building these skills makes it far easier to learn to be a successful programmer.
Spring 2019, Dr. Aman Yadav, Dr. Rich Enbody & Matt Drazin
As someone that learned to program computers before many of the current teaching tools were available, it was particularly useful to work through the process of teaching (though learning) with a block-based programming language. We used GP Blocks as our platform, and worked through algorithmic and computational thinking, variables, conditionals, iteration, and functions. In each unit, we built our own projects, and discussed the strategies for teaching and assessing that topic effectively. The course taught me to think about the motivation for teaching coding, and thinking about the important concepts beyond the actual language - such as computational thinking, algorithms, and general problem solving, and how spending time building these skills makes it far easier to learn to be a successful programmer.
CEP 820: Teaching Students Online
Spring 2020, Anne Heintz, PhD & Marissa Zhu
The timing of this course could not have been better for me. The COVID-19 pandemic forced our school to move to remote teaching in March of 2020, and as the Director of Technology at the time, the school was looking to me for leadership. The lessons of this course were invaluable to me, particularly when thinking about online and/or asynchronous assessments, clear and focused communication strategies, and methods for building connection and community in a virtual space. Having never taught online, the "just in time" lessons of this course were immediately applicable in my work. The cumulative project for the course was to iteratively design and build an online course module that incorporated research-based best practices.
Spring 2020, Anne Heintz, PhD & Marissa Zhu
The timing of this course could not have been better for me. The COVID-19 pandemic forced our school to move to remote teaching in March of 2020, and as the Director of Technology at the time, the school was looking to me for leadership. The lessons of this course were invaluable to me, particularly when thinking about online and/or asynchronous assessments, clear and focused communication strategies, and methods for building connection and community in a virtual space. Having never taught online, the "just in time" lessons of this course were immediately applicable in my work. The cumulative project for the course was to iteratively design and build an online course module that incorporated research-based best practices.
CEP 833: Creativity in K-12 Computing Education
Summer 2020, Bill Marsland
As a passionate creator myself, thinking about how to support and teach creativity in formal education has long been a focus of mine. This course aimed to expose us to many of the leading computer-based creative tools available today through a hands-on "creative learning spiral" technique. As students, we were weekly learning and applying a new tool to a new creative challenge, and sharing and discussing our experiences with our fellow students. The iterative creative learning spiral was an effective strategy for developing creative work, and it is an idea that should be introduced and reinforced to our students. We discussed the nature of creativity, and methods for assessing creative artifacts.
Summer 2020, Bill Marsland
As a passionate creator myself, thinking about how to support and teach creativity in formal education has long been a focus of mine. This course aimed to expose us to many of the leading computer-based creative tools available today through a hands-on "creative learning spiral" technique. As students, we were weekly learning and applying a new tool to a new creative challenge, and sharing and discussing our experiences with our fellow students. The iterative creative learning spiral was an effective strategy for developing creative work, and it is an idea that should be introduced and reinforced to our students. We discussed the nature of creativity, and methods for assessing creative artifacts.
CEP 807: Proseminar in Educational Technology
Summer 2020, Matt Koehler, PhD & Aric Gaunt
As the capstone experience of the MAET program, this course guided us through the creation of a web site that showcases the work that we have done. It also asks us to reflect on and write about our goals (past, present, and future), successes, and growth as both teachers and learners throughout the program. The web site that we create (the one you're reading now) serves not just as an educational artifact, but as a useful tool for communicating to peers, colleagues, employers, and/or prospective employers. It is intentionally not simply a retrospective of the MAET experience, but a platform for continued use and development. The course leans heavily on support and feedback from classmates, whose perspectives and opinions are invaluable in the refinement of the visual appearance, function, and content of the site.
Summer 2020, Matt Koehler, PhD & Aric Gaunt
As the capstone experience of the MAET program, this course guided us through the creation of a web site that showcases the work that we have done. It also asks us to reflect on and write about our goals (past, present, and future), successes, and growth as both teachers and learners throughout the program. The web site that we create (the one you're reading now) serves not just as an educational artifact, but as a useful tool for communicating to peers, colleagues, employers, and/or prospective employers. It is intentionally not simply a retrospective of the MAET experience, but a platform for continued use and development. The course leans heavily on support and feedback from classmates, whose perspectives and opinions are invaluable in the refinement of the visual appearance, function, and content of the site.
