If there is anything that I have learned throughout my stint in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University (MSU), it is that there are endless possibilities when it comes to technology and 21st century learning; possibilities that can be incorporated into a training program for research administrators and staff at MSU.
Managing and Monitoring My Information Diet
James Paul Gee explains how the Internet allows us to join shared interest groups that fit into our “sweet spots” (2013). We can only see the viewpoints that we like and hide what we dislike. We are the ones that control what types of information we see pop up in our news feeds based on our values, interests, and viewpoints (pp. 117-118). With the way that our news feeds are set up on Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), we only can see the viewpoints that we like and hide what we dislike. As a training professional, this creates a very unbalanced information diet and does not allow for creative problem solving, exploration, or unbiased viewpoints.
When I began MAET program, I struggled with how to effectively search for sources to follow, but as I have grown professionally and as a student, my list is ever changing. I have learned to utilize Twitter by reading through the news feeds with an open mind and continuing to follow other educators and training professionals. Moving forward in my career, I plan to use my information diet with the assistance of Gee's book, The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Learning, to train our instructors on how to use technologies, such as social media, as learning tools rather than biased info diets of personal interests. By continuing to update our information diets, we can explore different styles of training and update our program so is more effective for staff and research administrators at MSU.
Never stop questioning
Children begin questioning without fear at a young age, but as they grow older, the questioning limits creativity and exploration. So why do we stop asking questions? I have come to realize that our current training program does not teach, encourage, or allow questioning in the classroom, and continually puts our instructors under pressure to cover quantity of material and limits the focus of quality training. In most training, the instructor prompts students by creating their own formulated question and focusing on the answer, and this environment does not inspire creativity or stimulate curiosity. The students are not asking questions or doing exploration of their own. As technology continues to have more involvement in society, problem-solving and questioning is at more of a demand. By incorporating effective inquiry into the training sessions, we can encourage the students to explore, probe, access, and determine what to do with the answers that technology can provide.
As a program training assistant at MSU, I plan to work with our instructors to activities that will encourage our students to ask questions using John Hattie and Helen Timperley's “Why, How, or What if” framework (2007). Not only will this help me to continue to learn and grow, but will bring positive change to the training environment and prompt exploration, creativity. I want our team to create a journey of inquiry that is bound to lead our staff into the unknown and help them develop their own questioning.
Creative Learning
The 21st century is driven by creative and personalized learning, and with the increasing demand for technology in learning, one of the challenges our training team faces is implementing personalized learning using innovation. Technology enables real-time feedback, allowing us to adjust the pace of the learning and has increasingly become a part of the way we work and play. I envision us using technology to assist with learning, and it is important to use it productively and effectively in our training program. As instructors, we require creative solutions to the problems that are new, effective, and whole. We are the designers of the whole package and must offer new opportunities for connecting to the content. One way to ensure that I remain a leader, continuously learn, and play with the technology, I would like to attend a Training Conference which is the training industry's leading professional development event, produced by Training Magazine. For more than 40 years, the annual Training conference has given attendees the very best in skill-building content, covering train-the-trainer essentials (design, development, delivery, management, evaluation and measurement), behavioral analytics, digital learning, emerging technologies, and more.
The Future Begins with Me
I have learned that creativity, failure, and innovation are key players in the new learning revolution through a set of activities that are designed with a variety of learning goals in mind. I plan to create project-based activities that allow students to work and take risks together. I want to trigger imaginations and creativity which inspire our students to question and think “outside the box” when solving problems. As technology increasingly becomes integrated into education and training, there will be a higher demand for more creative problem solving to guarantee effective knowledge transfer. Overall, this will require lifelong learning and leadership on my part which is something that I plan to work on long after I graduate from MSU.
Resources:
Gee, J. P. (2013). The anti-education era: Creating smarter students through digital learning. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
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