As the Goal Changes, So Do You!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                               

 

 

 

 

 

    I originally started this program back in 2010 for two reasons. First, I needed to be able to take care of myself and financial aid helped me to do this.  Secondly, I wanted to try and teach English overseas. After being rejected from a couple of oversea programs, due to not having an official degree in education; I enrolled in the Educational Technology Certificate Program at Michigan State University. When I started the certificate program, I did not have to complete a goal statement. So trying to figure out how to write his essay was a bit more difficult when I did not have any particular goals for coming into this program. The goal was simple: get a certificate in education, and go overseas.  

 

     It seems weird to me when I think about my decisions of the past. The one main decision in particular was when I unenrolled from the Educational Technology Master’s Program (MAET) program in 2011, because I learned that my loan debt had hit and passed the six figure mark. In the fall of 2013, I was asked if I wanted to finish the program because I only had 4 courses left to take. I decided to finish because I wanted a higher grade point average when I applied for PhD programs the next fall. 

 

     Getting older and wiser gave me a different perspective on how to approach and achieve various goals in my life. When I resumed classes this past January something inside me clicked. I became motivated to actively pursue a career in instructional design. I am quite sure it was when I realized what an educational technologist does, and that the material I was learning and creating was preparing me for this role. While going through the program, I made sure I was learning the material that jobs were asking about. It became clear that I was missing a key component; how to create an online course. With only 2 courses left to take in the summer, I needed to make sure this goal would be completed; enter CEP 820, Teaching Students Online.

 

     If there is one thing I have learned from my past it is that I now have a better idea of the potential paths I can take with the educational background I have secured.  When I finished my first master’s degree, I had no clue what I was supposed to or could do with it. With my MAET degree, it became very clear where I was going with this one. As one that strongly dislikes online courses, I have a new found appreciation of them, and their purpose. I feel very much more confident in working at an instructional designer, and even teaching an online course. It dawned on me ( somewhere around the beginning of the summer semester) that  in my future career as a professor, having this new skill set spawned by the MAET program: I will be a much more effective teacher, be more diverse in the area of technology, and more diverse in the area of education.