From the countless conversations we have about our career or passion, a few gets stuck in our heads. An impactful conversation that I still remember to this day is one that I had with my supervisor. We spoke during our last meeting before I left research and went to teach math at a public school. Here is an excerpt of the most conversation that had an everlasting impact on me. This part started after I complained about the education system where I live:
My supervisor : “if you had no ceiling of power and resources, how would you go about improving the education in the local context?”
Me: “I will be the minister of education of the country.”
My supervisor : “What will you do as a minister?”
Me: “I will hire the right people.”
My supervisor: “Sorry to put it this way, but that’s what clueless leaders promise in their election campaigns.”
He elaborated on what he meant by giving examples, and I could not agree more. The moral of the story is that I kept thinking in the back of my head, what is it that we could do to improve education? I stayed as a teacher for two years, then went back to work with the same supervisor. I still did not find a difinite answer. I had many other chats with people in the field, attended countless workshops, and met with education influencers around the world. It became evident to me that there is no one answer. However, I gained some skills that enable me to understand how to answer such a question, more importantly, how to ask the right questions. I realize now that it is not a one man’s job nor a one “model answer” type of question.
One thing that helped me better understand the issue of “improving education” was the Master’s degree in Educational Technology that I started in 2016. As I am wrapping up my degree in 2021, I feel so grateful to have extended my time as a master’s student because I needed this much time and space to delve deeper into the field of education. There are many things that changed in my career during these five years that made me more effective in choosing which issues I will adopt and try to solve. Below, I will explain how my experience as a master’s student at Michigan State University has shaped my current self.
In my journey of trying to find a solution to this intriguing problem, I was so much focused on the local context. I used to believe that each context is so unique in their challenges and opportunities that I should completely disregard anything international about educational issues until I find solutions to problems in my area. Becoming a student in the Educational Technology Masters program in Michigan State University made me ascertain that different parts of the world have so much in common when it comes to educational problems. I was amazed. Although I knew that globalization affects many aspects of our human experience in this time, I did not realize that schooling was one. Through my interactions with my instructors and classmates, I came to know that we are pretty much on the same boat. Issues such as top-down power hierarchy, ill-structured classrooms, and misuse of educational-technology are extremely common issues in different parts of the world. Learning from the international experience in dealing with common issues in education helps us as a community of passionate educators to achieve small wins that will eventually improve the quality of education.
Reflecting on my journey in the masters program and the development I underwent prepared me to view the issues in education in a holistic way. It helped me attain a bird-eye view of the field and appreciate how skills and experiences can eventually contribute to improving the practice. There are two skills that I can proudly say I achieved as a professional.
First is Writing for a wider audience: throughout my journey in the master’s degree, I had the chance of articulating my ideas to an international community of educators. Most of the courses require peer review and instructor’s feedback. This continuous cycle or fine-tuning my writings and presentations helped me step-up my game as a communicator in this complex field. Today, education happens far beyond schools and books, and takes many forms. Therefore, it is vital to be adequately and succinctly able to deliver concrete ideas to people outside our schools and workplaces. The role now of an educator is harder as we have to utilize all channels, not only school, to prepare a generation that is ready for the future.
Second skill is Critical Thinking. Having a background in Computer Science, a field that puts so much focus on logical thinking, critical thinking, computation thinking, I was not anticipating more of these theories when I started this master’s program. Nevertheless, one common theme that I can list all the courses under is critical thinking. The flexibility afforded by the program helped me apply most of my assignments to my own work context. Therefore, it was my responsibility to choose how I would best benefit from the assignments to maximize my learning as an adult and add value to my career. Although flexibility in choosing a project’s context might sound like a low hanging fruit, it was my hardest challenge, yet taught me the best lessons. The challenge of integrating the program courses to my work opened a wide door of creativity and opportunity.
My time as a graduate student in Michigan State University, I took some courses that helped me grow and replenish my skills in different ways. I will discuss three courses that had a unique contribution to my skills and knowledge below.
On top of the list of my favourite courses comes “Learning in school and other settings”. If there was one course I took the degree for, it would be this one. As I come from a technical dry background, I needed to learn as much as I can about educational theories. This course introduced some of the most important sociology and psychology theories that are fundamental in the field of learning. The approach of how this course presented the theories was incredibly relevant to my life to the point that I was able to apply my learning in my personal life, let alone my career. Although the course is on the theory side of the spectrum, I can still explain the learning theories I learnt by heart and help my audience to relate in their own context. Those theories helped me build the foundation I need to have sound arguments whenever I am involved in planning educational committees. Meanwhile, those theories will also help me as a lifelong learner and a caregiver.
The second course that has shaped a lot of my learning about education was “Adapting Innovative Technologies to Education”. To be honest, as I started my masters in educational technology, I was not looking for exciting technology applications. Therefore, the name and description of the course did not excite me. Nevertheless, it ended up being one of the most impactful courses I studied. The course inspired me to think outside the box of the common practices in my career and how we can go about integrating technology in workshops (I was working in outreach back then). I also learnt that I should always stay humble to “less-techi” people and learn from them because others will always have a different line of thinking and have interesting ideas that differ from mine. The course helped me appreciate how the design of our integration of technology is way more important than the technology itself. Unlike how I believed that technology can only be useful as an educational tool if designed for a specific teaching goal, this course debunked this myth and showed me how pretty much any technology can be used for learning if integrated in a suitable context.
Another course that was just so informative as well as interesting was “Foundations of Serious Games”. I am a big fan of games. Not only do I love playing and making them, I also find it one of the best ways to teach. I wanted to learn about the science that goes behind designing educational games, which is one type of serious games. This course enlightened me with the different applications of serious games and the process of making them. I got the opportunity to design a game for my own field of teaching computer science. The experience was so amazing that I still remember how my final game drastically changed throughout the iteration process. I took the course earlier in my time as a master’s student, and I thought that this would be the starting point of my career down the road. That was not the case. Life took me to an absolutely different path, yet, I am so proud of this experience and I think that good educators do value the role of play in teaching and learning.
Reaching a closure with my master’s, I am glad to have had the experience of a program that was both challenging and yet understanding of how each of us as students had different contexts and faced different battles at our day jobs. The fact that this program is part-time was perfectly suited in my view while working in daytime full-time. The courses are designed in a way that allows a room for flexibility to integrate the learning to the learner’s context. I changed my job three times during this degree, and I found it beneficial from different angles throughout my career shifts, namely as a researcher, teacher, and a program administrator.
As I am coming to an end with my master’s degree in educational technology, I am still thinking about my supervisor’s questions. I think to myself that although he has way more experience than me, he might not have an answer either. Maybe there is no answer to how we could improve education. In fact, it seems that there are many answers that constantly change with time. Nevertheless, I now have better developed my analytical skills and my knowledge in addressing problems in the field. Gaining problem solving skills is not a stand-alone goal that one can reach and claim mastery. In fact, it is an everlasting challenge for those who genuinely want to make a real difference in the world.
Hanan Alshikh 