Mastery and Revolution: Looking Back at the Goals I Set At the Beginning of My Master's Degree

Over the three years of my master's degree study, my goals have shifted, my understanding of digital learning environments has changed, and I have deepened my understanding of how knowledge through literacy is attained.

Reading back over my goals statement that I wrote when I applied to the MAED program in 2008, I was struck by the statement: “I have spent sixteen years developing authentic instruction practices.” Sixteen years has become almost twenty. What strikes me is the feeling that I am continually learning and do not feel that I am a master of much. Perhaps humility is part of mastery or perhaps it is an acknowledgement that we continually change and adapt and must be open to being novices again and again.

My original goal statement focused on leadership and how “I believe respect and communication are the foundations of empowering leadership.” Although this belief has not changed, my concentration on leadership was abandoned along the way. After the course ePortfolios, I was fascinated by how kids interact with technology and quickly adapt to technological expectations. Studying the potential of digital tools seemed a more worthwhile endeavor in my master’s coursework than leadership studies. Leadership could be explored in other ways, including coursework offered at my school and through the course Technology and Leadership which reconciled my two desires.

What I have learned in regards to technology is that I am surprised by how unrevolutionary online learning is. In my original goal statement, I stated that “online graduate work suits me; because it excites me, I see it as a radical, democratic transformation of the very notion of a school. Libraries have become handheld and universities have adapted to nomads.” Yes, that statement still rings true, but what is so unrevolutionary is how the online learning environment is the traditional education paradigm remapped in a digital format. Lectures become posted essays or videos, class discussions become forums, textbooks become PDF files, essays are still written, but emailed instead of printed.  How familiar it all seems is what surprises me. Yes, there are interesting new tools to present and share with, but in essence it is the same paradigm.  That is what I have noticed and I continually seek to find what makes the confluence of education and technology so radical. So far, what seems most sure is that location, location, location no longer matters. But, to be honest, I still am curious to see how online education will evolve into a different animal.

I continue that original goal statement by stating, “But this revolution is stillborn without literacy.” Okay, there hasn’t been a total revolution, but literacy is still the midwife for knowledge whether in a traditional or digital environment. I assumed that I would learn more digital tools through my technology concentration, but my concentration on literacy and the course of my career in the last three years has brought about more profound growth. Each of the literacy courses, as well as my collaboration with peers at Taipei American School, and my participation in Columbia Teachers College Reading and Writing Institute have continually allowed me to deepen my understanding of pedagogy that focuses on an inquiry-based, constructivist approach to teaching literacy. My teaching is saturated with an understanding of how we interact with texts, with others, and construct meaning together. Our understanding arises from literacy as the node in a network of text, reader, and community. That understanding is the revolution I have experienced in these three years.