Here's where you start your journey to a Master's degree focusing on Technology in Schools. You will explore basic instructional design processes and strategies for integrating technology you're teaching and your students' learning. We also provide an overview of the EdTech field, a survey of emerging trends, and a framework for thinking about learning enabled by technology.

Beginning my Master’s Program with this course provided great insight to the focus area of Educational Technology. Being a Business Educator, much of my undergraduate courses focused on us teaching technology, so I was curious to compare and contrast my past experiences with this new Master’s Degree. Technology has always been a passion of mine, so beginning a new learning experience with technology was exciting.

This introductory course helped build a bridge between what I had previously learned and what I was about to learn. It allowed me to connect the dots and understand the difference between teaching technology and using technology in our schools as a learning tool. I specifically remember the impact of one of our first class discussions and interview assignment: explain the difference between learning with technology and learning from technology. Even with the nature of my class I taught at the high school, I quickly realized that I fell into the category of learning “from” technology too much. Yes my students had to learn to use the technology, but most of my curriculum and teaching techniques focused on learning from technology. Since that discovery, I’ve been much more observant about how I integrate technology into my lessons.

Several of the other assignments in this class helped open my eyes to the various levels schools use technology. Some schools work diligently to integrate technology into their schools; however, many schools lack funding and knowledge to effectively utilize technology tools. After completing our technology surveys and comparing notes, the technology integration plan was used to help us finish connecting the dots. After discovering different forms of using technology in the classroom, creating and implementing our own plan into our actual classrooms help provide practice with the new concepts. In addition, the concept map created in this course demonstrated how we view the relationship among technology, teaching, and learning. This visually provided a guide to help remind ourselves as educators what the end result and focus continues to be with technology in education. As a result, I currently find myself asking with every assignment in my classroom “how have I effectively used technology to learn “from and with” in my classroom.