Sunday, June 17, 2012

My Final MEIT (Master's of Education in Instructional Technology) Blog Post

This blog post consists of multiple ramblings about my experience in Cardinal Stritch's MEIT (Master’s of Education in Instructional Technology) Program. Looking back through all 65 of my posts has allowed me to reflect on my growth as an individual and as a professional.
My first post contained a goal about what I wanted to learn from this program. I stated that I wanted to learn about how to integrate technology into my daily life and also into my classrooms. I wrote that I would like to learn more about web 2.0 tools, communication outlets, and other resources that I may not be aware of yet. I feel like I have met and surpassed my goal. I have learned about a ton of new resources, I have taken on new challenges, and I have also learned the true value of technology integration. 

Almost one year into the program, I needed to answer the following question: What item do you believe you can incorporate from this class into your professional or personal life and how will you ensure that you achieve the goal of incorporating it? I was required to answer this question in terms of a SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely) goal. It was at this point that I clearly remember deciding to stop discussing the benefits and possibilities of integrating technology and start utilizing them. My SMART goal outlined how I planned to flip my classroom. The remainder of this year included researching the flipped classroom concept and pursuing permission to pilot a flipped classroom for the next school year. This lead to the development of my presentation about flipped classrooms, the structure of my flipped classroom, and the progression of my flipped classroom. These became the groundwork for my vision and mission and the focus of my project for our culminating experience.


The culminating experience for this Master’s program allowed me to showcase what I have learned from the program and how it fits into my vision and mission of a flipped classroom. This project exemplifies what my experience in this program was about. It utilizes resources that I learned about to differentiate for my students and create a personalized learning experience. Both my project and my new found vision and mission are products of this program and I feel like both of these things will help me become a better educator.


Coming into this program I felt like I had a firm understanding of what technology integration was truly about. I felt like technology integration was about utilizing gadgets and software to engage a student. After spending a short time within the program, my understanding of technology integration had changed. My current understanding is that the integration of technology provides an opportunity to personalize a student’s learning experience through exploration, creation, and collaboration.
My understanding of technology integration has changed from simply keeping students invested through the use of gimmicks to keeping students invested through the personalization of his/her learning experience. The latter statement is far more powerful and has provided me with a vision and mission that I hope to maintain throughout my career.