Kevin J. Burgam

Spring 2013 Instructors: Amy Leigh Pietrowski and Dr. Leigh Graves Wolf

My first course in the program, Teaching for Understanding with Technology, introduced me to the concepts of TPACK and 21st Century skills. Online collaboration with peers was central in the creation of a Special Interest Group titled Apps for Educators. This collaboration also helped me explore and expand my Personal Learning Network. Examination of Digital Citizenship topics lead to a review of copyright issues in education.

Fall 2013 Instructors: Andrew Steinman and Michelle Schira Hagerman

Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education continued the work I started in CEP 810 by allowing me to create a “remix” of online content using Web 2.0 tools and to deepen my understanding of copyright and digital citizenship issues. It is also the course that kick-started my blog about my coursework and included a deep dive into both Maker Education and its connection to constructivist educational theories. I blended creativity and technology in the creation of a personal online learning experience known as an ultra-micro MOOC (Massively Open Online Course) after studying about instructional design, and I applied both experience design and universal design for learning to a practical redesign of a school technology lab space.

Fall 2013 Instructors: Emily Stone and Michelle Schira Hagerman

Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice introduced me to the varying degrees of complexity in problems, including ill-structured and wicked problems. More importantly, I was first exposed to the work of James Paul Gee, whose theories on situated and embodied learning would later strongly influence my own educational philosophy. CEP 812 pushed me to critically examine the range of my information diet and showed me how difficult it can be to eliminate bias from survey questions. And through a collaborative multimedia project, I explored a potential solution to the “wicked problem” of rethinking education in the 21st century.

Spring 2014 Instructors: Elizabeth Owens Boltz and Dr. Danah Henriksen

Through Psychology of Learning in Schools and Other Settings, I broadened my examination of student understanding as it relates to the role of technology in creating meaningful learning experiences and created a podcast exploring that topic. My study and appreciation of James Paul Gee’s work continued with the creation of a video exploring student teaching as a situated and embodied learning experience. Adopting a perspective of learning as an active, socially mediated construction of knowledge, I created, taught and later reflected on a flipped lesson for educators about how to create flipped lessons for their own classrooms.

Summer 2014 Instructor: Jessica Meier

I completed Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners to satisfy a requirement for earning my Professional Education Certificate with the Michigan State Board of Education. While outside my technology focus, it did help me understand literacy issues and difficulties students face in learning to read. Likewise, it gave me an opportunity to explore best practices in literacy instruction as well as some technology solutions which might be useful to that instruction. The final project for TE 846, a case study analysis of a literacy learner, required a comprehensive review of all aspects of literacy learning related to a single student.

Fall 2014 Instructors: Rohit Mehta and Dr. Punya Mishra

The highlight of my master’s degree program, Creativity in Teaching and Learning, combined my passion for technology, education and creativity in a most practical way. CEP 818 explored the topic of creativity from a variety of viewpoints and ultimately lead to in-depth investigation of seven skills and practices related to creativity: perception, patterns, abstraction, embodiment, modeling, play and synthesis. From a multimedia re-imagining of the Pledge of Allegiance to a playful professional development session on digital citizenship involving juggling and building with Lego blocks, completing the assignments for this course not only encouraged but actually taught new skills for increasing creativity. Of any course within the program, it is the one I will both remember and use the longest.

Fall 2015 Instructors: Dashika Delshan Cosby and Dr. Aman Yadav

Technology and Leadership advanced my understanding of leadership styles and discussed the skills necessary for being an effective educational technology leader. This exploration unfolded through case study analysis, the composition of a “thorny issue” memo, and the application of various leadership styles to social media use. The collaborative creation of a fully formed professional development session gave me an opportunity to implement learning from prior coursework while also functioning as an authentic exercise of my technology leadership skills. Throughout the course, synchronous video sessions facilitated collegial sharing among students and instructors, simulating real world, on-the-job conversations and interactions. The culminating project of the course, defining and explicating my vision for technology leadership, quite nicely drew upon and brought together all of my prior experiences in the program.

Summer 2017 Instructors: Cui Cheng and Dr. E. David Wong

Had it not been a requirement of the degree program, I would not have taken Approaches to Educational Research. I found the course to be much like the vast majority of primary source research I have read during my 30+ years in education, quite dry and too removed from the day to day reality of teaching and learning to be functionally useful. The coursework explored differences between various types of research such as qualitative versus quantitative research. It afforded opportunities for exploring descriptive and inferential statistics and the application of appropriate methods to critique research. Unfortunately, the major project of the course, a research synthesis, did little to alter my belief that in the real world setting of education, the very limited resource of my time is better spent working to increase my knowledge and understanding of new technology than it is spent searching out, decoding, interpreting and evaluating primary source research.

Fall 2017 Instructors: Kenneth "Bret" Staudt Willet and Dr. Anne Heintz

Teaching Students Online offered a practical approach to the study and creation of online coursework. Exploring a variety of computer based learning environments, CEP 820 sought to match appropriate teaching methodologies with successful learning via the best learning management system (LMS). This course allowed a great range of flexibility in the creation of an online course module (OCM) from choosing the LMS, topic of study, content, assessments and structure to selecting one’s own rubric for evaluation. A practical understanding of TPACK theory was once more front and center in both the design and pedagogical decision making required in the construction of the OCM.

Spring 2018 Instructors: Brittany Dillman, Spencer Greenhalgh, Sarah Keenan-Lechel and Dr. Matthew Koehler

The Proseminar in Educational Technology drew together the broad range of experiences and learning encountered throughout my involvement in Michigan State University’s Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) degree program. Taking the place of a comprehensive final exam, CEP 807 provided an opportunity to assess my own learning through an online portfolio (this website) using a variety of structured, practical activities including the creation of an online resumé, a digital showcase of coursework, and multiple reflective essays. Asynchronous video feedback from both instructors and peers provided objective assessment of my progress in identifying and illustrating my learning.