Video Introduction
As posted in my Learning Log September 8, 2013
And so it begins.
Two years ago, I never would have dreamed of having a Bachelor's Degree let alone being enrolled in a Master's Degree program. I'm not an education oriented person. In fact, I've often said, "If I want to learn something, I'll teach myself." My collegiate track record, up until two years ago, served as proof positive that university scholarship is wasted on the young. In fact, prior to restarting my IT Degree, my college transcripts should have read, "Skipped all classes, aced the Final Exam, failed class because he didn't show up." Frankly, I'm fine with that. At 22 years of age, I thought all college professors were pedantic wieners. Now at 51, the jury's still out.
Given my ambivalence to formal education, the obvious question is why pursue a Master's Degree at all? The simple answer is that I've fallen in love. The advent of Distance Learning has given me new faith. At long last there is a forum for students like me, people who love to learn, but can't be bothered turning up for a two hour lecture. Having discovered the canvas, I now want to paint. I want to design, develop and implement on-line courses.
I also want to teach. I find myself as a bit of an anomaly in this program. I'm surrounded by educators, people with teaching degrees. I don't have a teaching certificate, nor do I have an education degree. Instead of being a teacher who wants to learn tech, I'm a tech guy who wants to teach. My thoughts are that this makes for an interesting synergy in my classes. Because of my background and my degree, I can bring the tools to the table, but from the table, I can take away the educator's knowledge of how to use them.
It's going to be an interesting two years. I'm looking forward to learning the ropes and developing my skills as an educator. I'm also dying to implement some of the new tools available to educators such as X3D to develop interactive 3D activities. In the 20 years since I became involved with computers, technology has progressed so far. Today's students are less apt to sit down at a desktop and more likely to search for information on their phones. This advancement presents both opportunities and challenges. Because information is so readily available, educators are no longer the gatekeepers to information. Instead, we have an obligation to engage the next generation as to convince them that all the knowledge in the world is worth pursuing.
