Three Major Takeaways/Themes from My ACE Masters Program

Throughout my time in my Master's Degree program at the American College of Education (ACE), there have been three major takeaways/themes that I have noticed that permeated almost all of my classes. These are all things that I don't think I realized, or at least did not fully have a grasp of before I began my program at ACE. These takeaways will be practices I either bring into my class, or advocate for at a school/district level moving forward. 

1. The importance of stakeholder feedback when making technology decisions. 

I don't think that this takeaway can be stressed enough. When making technology decisions that will impact a wide range of people, it is extremely important to get feedback from the stakeholders who a decision is impacting. This could include thinking about adopting a new LMS, purchasing a new technology tool, taking the use of technology at a school site in a particular direction, or any other number of technology decisions. Throughout the course of my career as a teacher, I have often seen new technology tools be adopted, or seen extremely important technology decisions be made, without having been notified at any point in the decision-making process about what was under consideration. At first, I thought that this was just how education worked, and that maybe I was just too early in my career for anyone to consider my input. Slowly though, I began to realize that almost no one at my school site knew why or how decisions were being made, and that a lot of people at my school site were not on board with the vision of technology use that we had adopted. As I dove into my program at ACE, I began learning about technology committees and technology plans, and how important these can be towards directing the future vision of technology use at a school site, and I realized that my school site and district had neither of these as far as I could tell. The United States Department of Education (2017) noted in their Educational Technology Plan Update that technology leaders develop a shared vision for how technology can support student learning, and seek input from diverse stakeholders to adopt and communicate goals for teaching. Technology leaders implement this vision through a collaboratively developed plan, and use technology as a learning tool for both teachers and students (United States Department of Education, 2017). Having this shared vision is vital for the success of technology implementation at a school site, and I know moving forward that I will advocate for the use of, and implementation of technology that has been carefully reviewed, vetted, and discussed by diverse staff members at my school site to ensure that technology is adopted carefully and utilized effectively. 

2. The importance of technology training.

Another major takeaway from my time at ACE is the importance of receiving training on technology that has been adopted within a district or at a school site. When I first started working in my current district, there was a lot of money available for paid technology training, so I was able to receive proper training to understand how to effectively utilize the technology tools that were at my disposal. With time though, these funds ran dry, and there was no available technology training for teachers for multiple years. Because of this, there were many new technology tools adopted by my district that I never used simply because I had no idea how to use them. Throughout my time at ACE though, I have realized that proper training on newly adopted technologies is vital. Understanding how a technology tool is used, and how it could be implemented to enhance teaching is a great way to get buy-in from all stakeholders. Something I feel is also really useful when implementing technology training is to ensure that those who attend a training leave with at least a few concrete, tangible ways in which they could implement that technology tool in their classroom as soon as they leave the training. I believe this is a great way to help participants leave the training feeling like it was worth it, and more likely to utilize the new technology that likely cost a lot to adopt.

3. Technology should be used only when it has a purpose. 

Oftentimes educators can think that technology is the solution to all their problems, without considering the "why" behind their use of technology. When technology is used effectively, it has the ability to completely transform learning by allowing teachers to be more productive, implement digital tools to expand learning opportunities for students, and increase both support and engagement for students (American University, 2020). Sometimes though, educators simply substitute a digital version of what students would be doing on paper or have students do a simple, repetitive task with little educational value using technology. These types of activities are not strong uses of technology, and add little if anything to a students' educational success. When educational technology is used to meet a specific purpose that a teacher has set forth though, it can be truly impactful. At its best, educational technology can be used to increase communication and collaboration, to personalize learning for students, and increase student curiosity through engaging content (American University, 2020). In the past, this wasn't always how I utilized technology though, and I sometimes used it just for the sake of using it and keeping students busy. Now though, I understand that technology is a powerful tool for increasing student learning outcomes, and I always put significant thought into why I am having students utilize technology when I am designing lessons. 

References

American University. (2020, June 25). How important is technology in education? Benefits, challenges, and impacts on students. School of Education. https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/technology-in-education

United States Department of Education. (2017, January). Reimagining the role of technology is education: 2017 educational technology plan update. https://tech.ed.gov/files/2017/01/NETP17.pdf