Yongbo Chen
MAET Portfolio
Beyond Technology
Goal Reflection by Yongbo Chen
As a technical staff working at the College of Education at MSU for years, I understand there is truly no end to learning. With the ever-increasing level of my work, I was feeling strongly that the theoretical study is as important as practice. Understanding what is happening in real classrooms is extremely important to me developing educational software and providing technical support to educators and students. Reflecting back on the knowledge I learned, theories like TPACK framework have guided me in how to integrate technology, pedagogy, content knowledge; courses like CEP817, Creativity in Teaching and Learning have taught me about the importance of creativity to educators for their professional improvement and to students for their learning; tools like Wikispace, Weebly, different learning platforms introduced in MAET courses have helped me learn about technologies that are used in teaching.
What I learned in the MAET program was about education and technology. Although I don’t have any classroom teaching background, I have been trying to move beyond my technology field by applying course concepts to my current role and experience in education. There is a long journey ahead, but a good start can lead me to the right direction. Applying for this program was a significant choice for me to continue my career. The knowledge I learned in MAET will help me to eliminate the roadblocks on the way.
Almost at the end of my experience with the Master of Arts in Education Technology (MAET), I can’t help to think back about my study since I started this program a year ago. It was a short time finishing the whole program in one year, but when I checked my goal statement I wrote in the application of 2011, I found out my main goal of theoretical study and actual practice has been achieved. My passion for bringing my technical knowledge to education field and curiosity in education had pushed me to apply for the MAET program. With the study of such an advanced degree, I feel more confident to be an excellent developer of educational games and software by combining the technological and educational knowledge.
Another experience I have really valued is the opportunity to work with teachers in classes, such the Summer Cohort 2012. As a novice in education, I learned a lot from my classmates by reading their posts, communicating and working with them in different activities. In MAET classes involving teaching, I acted as though I was a teacher who is teaching students about computer programming. Without any teaching experience, my classmates gave me a lot of help like creating a lesson plan, writing emails to students or parents. Different from teachers who are learning technology in class, I was the opposite. I want to know more education and what technologies are being used by teachers.
