The Evolution of Me
How It Started
It was a such a huge undertaking to first, know the true motivation or passion that drives me professionally and second, to simplify it down into just one sentence. I started with who I am professionally. I am an instructor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and I teach future veterinary technicians, but it wasn’t supposed to be a sentence about who I was, it was supposed to be about what motivates me or illustrates my passion. So next I reflected on what I loved most about what I did, and almost immediately I knew the answer to that was the students. I loved being a part of their journey and helping them become experts in our field. As a licensed veterinary technician our graduates can end up working in a variety of different avenues of veterinary medicine, for example, private veterinary hospitals, specialty practices, government or military, industry, research, education and more. As a fledgling veterinary technician student, most believe that they will end up working at a private veterinary practice, but throughout their education they will be introduced to all that they will be capable of doing with their degree. It is my job as an instructor and a professional mentor to help my students explore all the different professional avenues and discover what they are passionate about. That was it! My sentence was:
“She helped future veterinary technicians find their passion."
“She created an environment where future veterinary technologists can develop their curiosity and passion.”
As I progressed through the three courses, Teaching for Understanding with Technology, Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education and Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice, I gained an understanding of the process of learning and I learned to identify how technology can enhance learning, and what constraints education (and educators) may be putting on learners. I reflected on my own instructing to see if and how I was doing things to enhance or inhibit my students’ learning. I want to create passionate individuals that constantly explore and discover and creatively problem solve, and by the end of the six week summer cohort I had gained a variety of tools to do just that. Throughout the intensive six week experience I saw my sentence, and it’s meaning, as a lighthouse guiding me along the journey, but after consideration of all that I had learned, in my final assignment, I felt I needed to alter my sentence to be more specific and focused. My sentence morphed into:
Along my MAET journey I have picked up some extremely valuable knowledge. In each course I was able to take what I was learning and apply it to my teaching, but I came away from this program with much more than just a dozen or so new teaching methods. I came away with an understanding of how important expanding, maintaining and engaging in my Professional Learning Network is to my growth as an educator. I came away with the ability to design using the Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) and Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) frameworks and The Stanford Design Thinking model, and I have grown in my technological abilities, including screencasting, video editing, web design, creating and manipulating digital images, and developing content for course management systems. Perhaps most importantly, I come away with a desire to be a leader in education, technology integration, Design Thinking and innovative veterinary education.
PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK
I really had to work hard at expanding my personal learning network or PLN. My “information diet” as James Paul Gee calls it in his book, The Anti-education Era, was pretty limited before the MAET program. I had participated in The Walter and Pauline Adam’s Academy for Instructional Innovation and Excellence, which was a year long cohort focused on teaching and learning, and I attended some professional development presentations on campus, but I didn’t necessarily have a network of any kind. Admittedly, I was not a believer in the power of a PLN when I was first introduced to it, but as I jumped into the Teaching for Understanding with Technology course and the work of creating a blog and starting and maintaining a professional Twitter account I started to see the value. I started making connections and following different communities, educational blogs, journals and other affinity spaces. In the Year One Summer Cohort I began sharing my experiences and ideas with others, and in my Educational Research class, I learned how to develop concise questions and interview strangers, so I started feeling more comfortable participating in Twitter Edchats. Suddenly, I found myself learning new and amazing ideas that I had never before considered. My professional learning network is expanding every day, and I need to continue to step out of my comfort zone and push myself to stay involved and share as much as I reap the benefits of a robust PLN.
DESIGN
Many of my courses revolved around Instructional Design practices, so I’ve learned a great deal about iterative design, Universal Design for Learning, and both Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and the SAMR model (Substitution Augmentation Modification and Redefinition). This also includes learning how to use The Stanford Design Thinking Model to design courses, programs, course materials or curriculum for a specific audience, such as a certain group of students or faculty in my Learning Technology Through Design course. This was a particularly valuable learning experience for me because through the use of the different modes or mindsets that the designer is encouraged to engage in, I able to see the importance of understanding what your audience needs or wants out of your design. The foundational idea of TPACK has also changed how I create, develop and design as an educator, bringing into focus the importance of finding that “sweet spot” that allows for effective integration of technology, content and pedagogy. Finally, I have also grown a lot in my ability to design and present information across modalities: creating infographics, screencasts, authentic case studies, problem-based experiences, creating and editing video content, and writing reflections.
LEADERSHIP
In every course throughout the last three years, leadership has been at the forefront of the instruction. It has been explained, demonstrated, discussed, deconstructed and assigned. In my Leadership in Technology course I was able to dive deeper into the different leadership styles and really get comfortable with how they should be adapted and employed in response to the particular demands of the situation, the particular requirements of the people involved and the particular challenges facing the team. A goal of mine when entering the MAET program was to be viewed as a technology leader and mentor. With the leadership knowledge I have gained I was able to design a professional development program for my fellow veterinary technology faculty that focused on new technologies and how and when they can be effectively integrated. I am also involved in assisting the Veterinary Technology Program and the College of Veterinary Medicine grow as leaders in innovative education and interprofessional education as we move toward a new competency based curriculum for both the Professional Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program and the Veterinary Technology Program in which our students will learn in innovative and integrated fashion. I am also hoping to lead the charge for our program and college to engage in educational research. As a college that is educating veterinary professionals, we have many opportunities to design, develop and carry out educational research in an area where there is a shortage. As one of only three veterinary technology programs in the nation that is housed within a College of Veterinary Medicine, the integrated nature in which our students learn interprofessionally in the doctorate program, and the use of simulation models and skills labs for training, we have a unique platform and incredible opportunities in which to generate some extremely valuable research.
HOW IT ENDS
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With each course I have developed and grown as an educator and so I have continued to restructure and revise my sentence. As the College of Veterinary Medicine moves toward a more integrated interprofessional education model for the Professional Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program and the Veterinary Technology Program, my sentence has morphed from a veterinary technician focused statement to one that more broadly includes all veterinary professionals. As I have gained a better understanding of the unique needs of learners and how I can accommodate and enhance their experiences, my sentence has changed from one that focuses on creating an environment for learners to search and discover their passion, to one that focuses on encouragement and motivation to always explore, question and search for their passion. Today my sentence is:
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I fully anticipate that as I continue to grow and develop professionally, so will my sentence, but from where I stand professionally right now, it fits perfectly.
As a learner, the journey through the MAET program has taught me to always strive to be better, always look for ways to improve and to approach every situation with a critical eye, exploring what I can learn from it. As an educator, the journey has provided me with tools, skills, models and frameworks that have elevated my instruction in ways I never could have imagined. It has taught me to not just to accept change, but to embrace it and perhaps most importantly to be the leader of that change.
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Resources:
Video excerpt from Daniel Pink's DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/8480171
Gee, J. P. (2013). The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Learning. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
“She inspired future veterinary professionals to engage in curiosity and discover their passion."
After participating in a year long faculty development program through Michigan State University that focused on new tools and ideas in teaching and learning, I knew that I wanted more. I began looking into what types of education degrees were out there and what types I could get without a teaching certificate. In my research, I found Michigan State University’s Master of the Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) Program. I loved the flexibility it gave to the student to decide their focus and the capability to complete the degree with a combination of online and in person courses. Not to mention it is ranked fifth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report ranking of education graduate programs. I was interested in the “new" type of students that we were starting to see. These students value accessibility, adaptability, and flexibility when it comes to their learning and I wanted to learn how I could better accommodate them and enhance their experiences. I saw technology, developing and changing all around me and I wanted to be a part of the community that was using technology in their teaching.
I was already using some technologies in my classroom, and I figured that being a younger member of the teaching faculty at The College of Veterinary Medicine, I would have an edge when it came to educational technology. Well, cut to the first day of the Year One Summer Cohort in the MAET Program and there I sat in the classroom surrounded by other educators, struggling to complete my first assignment. We had watched the video below that introduced us to an idea that promised it could change our professional lives. Claire Boothe Luce, one of the first women to serve in the United States Congress, met with President John F. Kennedy because she was worried that he was trying to do too much during his presidency. She told him “A great man is a sentence.” This one sentence encapsulates his true motivation or passion in life. President Lincoln’s sentence was “He preserved the union and freed the slaves,” and President Roosevelt’s sentence was, “He lifted us out of The Great Depression and helped us win the world war.” These sentences defined these great men in close to a dozen words, and there I sat tasked with writing my sentence and I didn’t even know where to start.