ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT
Fall 2015
ED 870
Capstone Portfolio Course
Instructor: Dr. Matthew Koehler, Sarah Keenan, Spencer Greenhalgh, Joshua Rosenburg
Summer 2015
Throughout this Award Winning course, I have been given the tools to create my own professional website (the one you are viewing now). Armed with the tools, feedback from classmates, and feedback from instructors, I was able to create a site I am very proud of. While it may not appear as professional as others, I did not want it to. I have developed a creative soul and once I was told I could create my website to appear anyway I would like, I went with it. This course has been one of the most enjoyable, as I have had time to reflect upon my past and my future as a learner and an instructor, through the essays I have written. There is a reason this course is Award Winning, it is truly an incredible way to get to know who you are while showing yourself to others.
This course was another in the long line of courses in the Master of Arts in Education Program at Michigan State University, that has provided a huge challenge for me. The reason I believe it was such a challenge for me, was due to the fact that I have had very little instructional experience. This course focuses on the assessment of students and since I have never assessed a student, I can only by what I believe would be the best approach. During the course we have had meetings with people from our class where we discuss whether or not we believe grading assessments of students is effective, if so how they should be graded, and create our own form of assessment, we feel would be appropriate and helpful for the students we have in our classes, as well as ourselves.
During this course I had studied material about how people have learned to gain knowledge on through formal and informal learning. I had the chance to read about the amazing Steve Jobs and learn about his incredible journey from starting a business in his garage to owning an empire. I also was able to learn about a woman who decided to forgo law school and work on a fishing boat. She rose through the ranks from cook of a ship to the captain of her own swordfishing boat. Neither one of these people were unintelligent but they both demonstrated a hunger for knowledge that they just were unable to learn inside of a classroom. These stories had become so inspiring to me. Even though I love formal learning, it made me look outside of the constraints of university learning and teach myself how to do a plethora of different things from painting to writing a novel.
Spring 2015
This course was very informative and helpful to my understanding of what direction I wanted to head in as an instructor. I was asked to define, describe, and create curriculum for my students. I didn't have any students at the time, so I had to approach this class from a student's perspective, not just any student but a student with mental illness. I learned about the pressures placed on students from other countries and about how high suicide rates are for students of different cultures because they simply could not handle the pressures placed upon them. This sort of stress is something I never want my students to experience. I want them to learn but I never want them to suffer. That is why I feel curriculum should be adjusted to match the needs of different students. Granted this would be quite a feat but it's one that I am willing to take on in order to make sure my students receive the best education.
CEP 817
Learning Tech through Design
Instructors: Dr. Danah Henriksen, Jonathon Good, Carmen Richardson
Fall 2014
This course was life-changing for me. I never really thought of myself as a creative person but this class forced me to be one and I was able to do things I never imagined possible. In this course we had to pick a problem of practice and attempt to devise a plan to fix it by using the steps provided in the "d.school Bootleg Bootcamp." I had learned how to pinpoint a problem, empathize with those experiencing the problem, define the problem, ideate, create a prototype (or some form of a prototype), and test my creation. Every step of the "d.schoolBootleg Bootcamp" was turned into a module and when we had created ideas we then spoke with other students in the class about ways to they felt we could improve upon them. This collaboration with other members of the class helped me to think outside of the box, seem things in a different light, and improve upon my own creativity. They pushed me to think more, to go further, and to try things I would have never thought to try.
In this course we learned about theories of education, theories of learning, theories and theories of leadership. The thing I really loved about this class was the fact that it was focused on the progression of education and the instructor took a very hands off approach to his teaching. We were provided with a list of materials to read and then asked to write papers on various issues that dealt with education, learning, and leadership. The materials were not only useful but very inspirational. I was able to see education, leadership, and learning through the eyes of the people in the materials that were provided. This helped me gain insight about my own approaches to these subjects and I have been able to work on apply them to my own life.
Summer 2014
The course helped me learn about the ins and outs of becoming a leader that is technologically oriented. Throughout my time in CEP 815, I had come to understand the meaning of technology, education, and what it means to be a leader. The materials helped me learn about the evolution of technology and principles of leadership. To truly grasp these concepts, I had to learn about my own strengths and weaknesses when it came to my leadership capabilities. This course allowed me to explore my own interests as a leader and had given me the tools I needed to hone these skills and make them more powerful in the process.
You may notice, I take a number of Dr. Steven Weiland's courses and with good reason. His courses open my eyes to the concept of a world where learning is possible in every country, every city, and in every person. The materials in this course ranged from a physician who was still learning how to properly care for her patients, even with many years of experience, to a man who wanted nothing more than to be able to play the piano for his wife, This man had struggle yet gone to great lengths, some which provided much discomfort for him, just to achieve his goal. The materials is this class were very eye-opening and inspirational. There is so much insight to be gained through the learning of others and through their trial and error processes, this course helped me do just that.
EAD 861 teaches students about adult learning in all settings, formal and informal. It helped me to understand how learning changes once we people enter into adulthood and the best approaches to use in helping guide them through the education process. Through the materials and instruction provided, I was able to look outside of myself, as an adult learner, and see what difficulties other adult learners may face, the best way they understand material, and what motivates them to learn. I found that there is a multitude of issues adult learners face and multitude of ways that we, as instructors, can assist them in a formal learning setting. This knowledge will serve me well as I step out of the shoes of solely an adult learner and step into the shoes of adult learn and instructor.
This course was one of the first courses I took at Michigan State University and the first graduate level course I had ever taken. It proved to challenge me more than I ever imagined. Not only was there a great amount of material to go over but there was also a very short time to master it in. To say I was thrown outside of my comfort zone is the understatement of the century but even though I wasn't convinced at the time, this was something I needed. The plethora of material and time constraints allowed me to work harder and throw myself into the course completely. Throughout this course we were given case studies, asked to reflect up them, relate them to the materials provided, and then work within our groups on what we felt was the best course of action to take in order to solve the problem.