Ally Roberts
Showcase
Welcome to my graduate showcase! My journey through the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University (MSU) has been quite the roller coaster of a ride! This program has challenged me to shift my mindset from knowing how to teach learners to understanding how to teach by first understanding how to learn. Through hands-on exercises, many failed creations, and tons of hours of research, I have experienced meaningful learning where having a creative mindset helped me to problem solve. I welcome you to explore my work that has helped guide me to the teacher I want to be for my learners.
-meaningful Learning-
How you learn can determine whether you know or understand. Learning experiences that go beyond the memorizing of facts to being involved in the learning process and forming connections between content and real-world scenarios, resulting in understanding, are said to be meaningful. The following artifacts demonstrate meaningful learning experiences that resulted in understanding for both myself and my students.
The learning process is all about building on what others have done and letting others build on and revise what we have done (Gee, 2013, p. 17). Personal Learning Networks (PLN's) allow people who share an interest to learn from one another and strengthen their understanding on content from their personal experiences. In this screencast I created, I share my experience with learning the do's and dont's for how to chalk paint a dining set from YouTubers and bloggers within my PLN.
PLN's &
An old Table
I created this lesson to allow students to take charge, play with the material, and create their own masterpieces to educate others in an entertaining manner. Learning activities such as these are not only for entertaining purposes but allow for interaction, negotiations, and ultimately for creating meaning (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p.97). For learners, activities that allow collaboration, transfer and application of knowledge, sharing of ideas, and creating end goals to reach together are needed for preparing them for our everchanging 21st century. Check out some of their final works!
STEM Parodies:
21st CEntury Learning
Learn through
Meaningful play
The power of play in learning is that students can explore, discover, and form connections without the constraints of rules or fear of failing (Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 1999, p. 267-268). Rather than lecturing my students the necessary skills for teamwork and having them memorize them, I wanted them to understand the importance of such skills by experiencing them naturally and through discovery. I designed this fun and meaningful learning experience that allowed students to do just that by playing with simple materials and collaborating with one another to reach a team goal.
-Creative mindset-
How you think can affect how you understand. Creative thinking challenges you to look at things in different ways to develop an understanding for its whole. Once you have experienced creative thinking and formed an understanding for how to, a creative mindset sets in that can be used to accomplish goals, deepen understanding, and solve problems. The following artifacts demonstrate how I used creative thinking to problem solve and deepen my understanding from my experiences throughout the MAET program.
Creative thinking is the exploration of your mind through imagination and how we make sense of such thinking helps us to create understanding (Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 1999, p.24). Training my mind to think in different ways has not only opened my eyes to affordances of technologies and how to creatively integrate them into learning has also helped me to understand how other learners also think and how to rightfully check for their understanding. Take a look at how I used modeling and dimensional thinking to create an understanding for the map of Michigan!
Rethink how you
think
Many people envision technology in education as having the newest devices or gadgets to help us teach and learn (Mishra & The Deep-Play Research Group, 2012). For a meaningful learning experience, it is not about WHAT newest technology you have but HOW you can utilize what technologies (both digital and non-digital) you already have by understanding it's capabilities and getting creative! Check out HOW I utilized both digital and non-digital technologies to create a fun, trial-and-error learning experience!
Gettin' Thrifty
With a Sphero
The Technological Pedogogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) theory helps teachers to think outside-the-box for the affordances of a technology as most technologies in school are not designed specifically for the teacher or for learning (Kereluik, Mishra, & Koehler, 2011, p.15). In this video, I creatively used limited tools to complete a task which opened my eyes to not fret on what technologies (digital and non-digital) I don’t have but how I can creatively utilize what I do have to reach the same goals. Check out how I creatively "cut the cheese" with a wooden spoon!
TPACK
Cuts the cheese
-problem solve-
How you perceive and understand a problem determines how you solve it. We face challenges everyday. To prepare for them, it is important to understand how to look at the problem to be able to identify the ways in which we can take to solve them. The following artifacts demonstrate how I explored professional and personal challenges and how I worked towards finding solutions.
As is learning, finding solutions to a problem is a process that takes time and relies on the beauty of questioning (Berger, 2014, p.184). I created this presentation to share my thinking process for identifying a wicked problem in my teaching profession as I journeyed through questioning its existence, stepping back and focusing on its importance, and my approaches for finding solutions through collaboration and research.
Solving A
Wicked Problem
Identifying problems and finding solutions are the beginning steps in creating a vision for change; change achieved through the motivation and inspiration of a leader (Kotter, 2001, p.86). To successfully lead, you must understand and communicate your personal core values to set an important precedent for others to want to follow and integrate change. I created this stop-motion video to express my values as an educational leader driven by research, experiences, positivity, and teamwork.
Leadership
COre Values
Educational research furthers our understanding for meaningful processes of teaching and learning (Casanova et al., 1994, p.8). Deciding to leave the classroom to become a homeschool educator was not a decision taken lightly and through extensive research from reliable sources, I gained an understanding of the benefits and challenges of a home school education. I created this research review to share the knowledge I have gained from my research that helped guide my decision to homeschool.