A Flyer on A Bulletin Board
By: Tina Iafrate
I don’t pride myself on having a perfect memory and it’s not often that I remember exact moments from ordinary school days in college, but for some reason one specific day I will always remember. I was sitting in Erikson Hall at Michigan State University on a cool spring day waiting for class to start. I was about 15 minutes early and no one was in the classroom yet so I got up and walked across the hall to read some flyers posted on a bulletin board. My eyes grazed over the colorful flyers… spring break in Cancun… Teach for America… MBA programs… and then I stopped to focus on one particular flyer, study abroad in Plymouth, England for the Educational Technology Program at MSU. A million things went through my mind at that exact moment: “I’ve never been out of the country before,” “I don’t even have a passport,” “They speak English there, right?” and “My mother is going to freak out” were just a few of them.
I always knew I wanted to further my education in the education field because I love teaching, I just didn’t know how or when I was going to accomplish this. As I stood there staring at the flyer everything appeared to come together all at once. I love teaching, I love technology and I could also travel to another country and experience another culture. I picked up my cell phone, dialed my mom and said, “Mom, I’m going to get a masters degree in Educational Technology and study abroad in England this summer.” That exact moment is where this essay begins.
After a few months after reading that flyer on the wall I was all set to go to England. I received my passport, was accepted to the Education Technology Program, convinced my parents I was going to be perfectly safe and I was all packed. However, all my preplanning and preparation could have never prepared me for everything I learned and experienced my 3 weeks in Plymouth, England or in the 3 years it took for me to complete this program while living in 3 different countries.
Upon going to England I thought I knew quite a bit about computers. I used them every day in college to write papers, edit photographs and communicate with others. It wasn’t until CEP 810 and 811 that I was exposed to many new forms of technology in David Wong’s classroom. It would be impossible for me to document everything I’ve learned in these 2 classes while studying abroad, but there are a few programs and a few lessons that have really stuck with me over the past few years. I became confident in my movie making skills using Windows Movie Maker to edit video and Audacity to edit sound. One particular assignment had us going around the town interviewing people about their perspective on particular issues. At first we were all extremely nervous to ask complete strangers questions with our American accents. Fortunately, after the first few times we realized how much information people were willing to share with us and how friendly they could be.
Another assignment that made a huge impact on me was visiting a public elementary school in Plymouth, England and creating a podcast to document the differences between schools in America and England. Observing teachers in action in another country was a great experience and I loved every minute of it. However, I had never created a podcast before and it took a bit of trial and error. In the end we were extremely proud that we completed our podcast and had it up and running on the internet.
Now learning how to use these new programs and incorporate them into classroom activities was more than I could have expected, but it doesn’t stop there. One of the most important things I learned throughout my time studying abroad was that there are many available teaching opportunities throughout the entire world. In the Educational Technology program there were many American teachers that were teaching in Dubai, South Korea, France, Japan and everywhere else around the world. Hearing their experiences made me realize the opportunities out there and I wanted so very badly to have the same type of international experience they were having. So, after completing my year internship for my undergraduate degree at MSU I was off to South Korea to teach English at a girl’s high school in Seoul, South Korea.
While teaching in Seoul I still wanted to continue my graduate degree and luckily the Educational Technology programs offers many online classes that can be taken from anywhere in the world. I took several online classes and every course I have taken in this program was extremely beneficial to me. I always incorporated what I was learning in my graduate classes into what I was teaching my students in Korea. Every class gave me some great ideas on how to use technology in my classroom in order to enrich the learning environment for my students. However, a few of the online courses made a great impact on me and my student’s education. One of them was the course CEP800 with Nick Sheltrown. During this course I learned about many different theorists’ perspectives on how we learn. From the varying view points of Piaget, Skinner, Plato and Locke: every theorist had valid points. A huge part of being a teacher is not only teaching your students, but also understanding how each individual child learns. This course opened my eyes to the varying perspectives on how we learn, absorb and transfer information to each other. I had only taken one psychology class in my life and never really learned much about great theorists that shaped what we know about learning today. This was a great course to help me understand where “learning” theories all began.
A project from this class that I really enjoyed involved interviewing students and creating a podcast. We were assigned to document student understand on a particular topic. I decided to interview my students about America and their perspective on the country I call home. After some tough convincing, a few of my EFL students agreed to let me interview them; the results were shocking, but expected. Most students thought of America as a dangerous place where everyone carries a gun and it’s not safe to walk outside alone. However, the most surprising part was their idea of what an American high school looked like. While describing the high schools I realized they were basing their ideas off of “High School Musical,” “Mean Girls” and “Glee” which are all popular in South Korea. This project was extremely eye opening and is something I will share with colleges and remember for a long time to come. Not only did this assignment give me great insight to my students, but it was also a great refresher on how to edit and upload a podcast to the internet.
The final project in the course was something completely different from anything I had ever done. We had to use famous theorists and create Facebook conversations between them. At first glance this assignment appeared easy, but it was much more difficult than I imagined it to be. Taking theorists from hundreds of years ago, assigning them pictures, and Facebook personalities created quite a challenge for me. However, it was extremely insightful to think about what these famous people would say now about using technology in the classroom and about our dependence on the World Wide Web. This assignment was also a great refresher on how to use Photoshop and resize images in order to make them look like real Facebook conversations.
I was really anxious to learn how to develop and implement an online course for my students so I was extremely excited to take another online course, CEP820 with Mike DeSchryver and Min Lun Wu. This course was all about teaching K-12 students with an online environment. Out of every class that I have taken during my graduate degree I would have to rank this one as the most beneficial to me. In fact, I wish I would have taken this class earlier in my degree instead of taking it as one of the last classes. If I had taken it earlier I would have used what I learned to benefit students in my classroom by supplementing what I was teaching in the classroom with additional online resources. As the world changes and more and more people are becoming technologically savvy, the need for online courses and teachers is going to grow. Many high schools are already offering online courses and I believe this trend with catch on fast. I enjoyed this class because it was fun exploring different sites that were available for creating online courses. The choices are plentiful and the features are amazing.
During the winter of 2010 I was teaching a 3 week summer camp for intermediate EFL students. The camp was extremely memorable and I believe my students learned a great deal, but the one thing I was most satisfied with was how much they learned about English on the web. I created an online course to supplement the camp with different resources that correlated with what they were learning in class for my major assignment in CEP820. After exploring many different course management systems, I decided Moodle had exactly what I was looking for when it came to teaching my students. I added several Youtube clips, listening exercises, and I even had them create a Facebook account so we could keep in touch over the weekend. I am confident that I opened their eyes to many different resources online that has changed the way they think about learning English.
As happy as I am to complete my degree in Educational Technology, a huge part of me is sad to see this part of my education end. I know my knowledge of technology education will not stop here because I will continue to teach and research everything I can about teaching with technology as the years go by. I had a lot of expectations coming into this program but nothing could have prepared me for everything I learned about technology, teaching and myself during the completion of this degree. As I wrap up this essay and think about the past 3 years I can’t help but focus on how fast the years have flown by. I’m excited to take my knowledge to the classroom in order to educate my students and other teachers on the benefits of using technology in the classroom. But most importantly, I will always tell my students how a small step in one direction can change the course of your life for the better, just as my life journey started with a colorful flyer on a bulletin board. Every dream has to start somewhere.
I always knew I wanted to further my education in the education field because I love teaching, I just didn’t know how or when I was going to accomplish this. As I stood there staring at the flyer everything appeared to come together all at once. I love teaching, I love technology and I could also travel to another country and experience another culture. I picked up my cell phone, dialed my mom and said, “Mom, I’m going to get a masters degree in Educational Technology and study abroad in England this summer.” That exact moment is where this essay begins.
After a few months after reading that flyer on the wall I was all set to go to England. I received my passport, was accepted to the Education Technology Program, convinced my parents I was going to be perfectly safe and I was all packed. However, all my preplanning and preparation could have never prepared me for everything I learned and experienced my 3 weeks in Plymouth, England or in the 3 years it took for me to complete this program while living in 3 different countries.
Upon going to England I thought I knew quite a bit about computers. I used them every day in college to write papers, edit photographs and communicate with others. It wasn’t until CEP 810 and 811 that I was exposed to many new forms of technology in David Wong’s classroom. It would be impossible for me to document everything I’ve learned in these 2 classes while studying abroad, but there are a few programs and a few lessons that have really stuck with me over the past few years. I became confident in my movie making skills using Windows Movie Maker to edit video and Audacity to edit sound. One particular assignment had us going around the town interviewing people about their perspective on particular issues. At first we were all extremely nervous to ask complete strangers questions with our American accents. Fortunately, after the first few times we realized how much information people were willing to share with us and how friendly they could be.
Another assignment that made a huge impact on me was visiting a public elementary school in Plymouth, England and creating a podcast to document the differences between schools in America and England. Observing teachers in action in another country was a great experience and I loved every minute of it. However, I had never created a podcast before and it took a bit of trial and error. In the end we were extremely proud that we completed our podcast and had it up and running on the internet.
Now learning how to use these new programs and incorporate them into classroom activities was more than I could have expected, but it doesn’t stop there. One of the most important things I learned throughout my time studying abroad was that there are many available teaching opportunities throughout the entire world. In the Educational Technology program there were many American teachers that were teaching in Dubai, South Korea, France, Japan and everywhere else around the world. Hearing their experiences made me realize the opportunities out there and I wanted so very badly to have the same type of international experience they were having. So, after completing my year internship for my undergraduate degree at MSU I was off to South Korea to teach English at a girl’s high school in Seoul, South Korea.
While teaching in Seoul I still wanted to continue my graduate degree and luckily the Educational Technology programs offers many online classes that can be taken from anywhere in the world. I took several online classes and every course I have taken in this program was extremely beneficial to me. I always incorporated what I was learning in my graduate classes into what I was teaching my students in Korea. Every class gave me some great ideas on how to use technology in my classroom in order to enrich the learning environment for my students. However, a few of the online courses made a great impact on me and my student’s education. One of them was the course CEP800 with Nick Sheltrown. During this course I learned about many different theorists’ perspectives on how we learn. From the varying view points of Piaget, Skinner, Plato and Locke: every theorist had valid points. A huge part of being a teacher is not only teaching your students, but also understanding how each individual child learns. This course opened my eyes to the varying perspectives on how we learn, absorb and transfer information to each other. I had only taken one psychology class in my life and never really learned much about great theorists that shaped what we know about learning today. This was a great course to help me understand where “learning” theories all began.
A project from this class that I really enjoyed involved interviewing students and creating a podcast. We were assigned to document student understand on a particular topic. I decided to interview my students about America and their perspective on the country I call home. After some tough convincing, a few of my EFL students agreed to let me interview them; the results were shocking, but expected. Most students thought of America as a dangerous place where everyone carries a gun and it’s not safe to walk outside alone. However, the most surprising part was their idea of what an American high school looked like. While describing the high schools I realized they were basing their ideas off of “High School Musical,” “Mean Girls” and “Glee” which are all popular in South Korea. This project was extremely eye opening and is something I will share with colleges and remember for a long time to come. Not only did this assignment give me great insight to my students, but it was also a great refresher on how to edit and upload a podcast to the internet.
The final project in the course was something completely different from anything I had ever done. We had to use famous theorists and create Facebook conversations between them. At first glance this assignment appeared easy, but it was much more difficult than I imagined it to be. Taking theorists from hundreds of years ago, assigning them pictures, and Facebook personalities created quite a challenge for me. However, it was extremely insightful to think about what these famous people would say now about using technology in the classroom and about our dependence on the World Wide Web. This assignment was also a great refresher on how to use Photoshop and resize images in order to make them look like real Facebook conversations.
I was really anxious to learn how to develop and implement an online course for my students so I was extremely excited to take another online course, CEP820 with Mike DeSchryver and Min Lun Wu. This course was all about teaching K-12 students with an online environment. Out of every class that I have taken during my graduate degree I would have to rank this one as the most beneficial to me. In fact, I wish I would have taken this class earlier in my degree instead of taking it as one of the last classes. If I had taken it earlier I would have used what I learned to benefit students in my classroom by supplementing what I was teaching in the classroom with additional online resources. As the world changes and more and more people are becoming technologically savvy, the need for online courses and teachers is going to grow. Many high schools are already offering online courses and I believe this trend with catch on fast. I enjoyed this class because it was fun exploring different sites that were available for creating online courses. The choices are plentiful and the features are amazing.
During the winter of 2010 I was teaching a 3 week summer camp for intermediate EFL students. The camp was extremely memorable and I believe my students learned a great deal, but the one thing I was most satisfied with was how much they learned about English on the web. I created an online course to supplement the camp with different resources that correlated with what they were learning in class for my major assignment in CEP820. After exploring many different course management systems, I decided Moodle had exactly what I was looking for when it came to teaching my students. I added several Youtube clips, listening exercises, and I even had them create a Facebook account so we could keep in touch over the weekend. I am confident that I opened their eyes to many different resources online that has changed the way they think about learning English.
As happy as I am to complete my degree in Educational Technology, a huge part of me is sad to see this part of my education end. I know my knowledge of technology education will not stop here because I will continue to teach and research everything I can about teaching with technology as the years go by. I had a lot of expectations coming into this program but nothing could have prepared me for everything I learned about technology, teaching and myself during the completion of this degree. As I wrap up this essay and think about the past 3 years I can’t help but focus on how fast the years have flown by. I’m excited to take my knowledge to the classroom in order to educate my students and other teachers on the benefits of using technology in the classroom. But most importantly, I will always tell my students how a small step in one direction can change the course of your life for the better, just as my life journey started with a colorful flyer on a bulletin board. Every dream has to start somewhere.
