I finished my masters of education last year. I needed to renew my license, so I figured I would just go all the way. I was ready to learn. Unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment. My Technology in Education class talked about cutting edge software like using Microsoft Word to "process" an essay! Or make a lecture exciting with a presentation made on PowerPoint! The textbook was on its 10th edition and clearly hadn't been updated since the early 90's.
The other classes had lots of "rigor" [busy work]. Long papers, journal entries, a cumbersome portfolio, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, I learned very little from the entire program. I even did my homework and read all the books. Granted, I went to a private university that is not known for its school of education. It was online, which met the needs of my lifestyle as a full time teacher, father, and husband. The program lasted about 2 years. During the program I didn't check my Google Reader; blogs went unread, and I had no time for Twitter---I was bogged down with the "rigor" of my masters courses. I was too busy to learn.
Since I graduated, I have learned far more from following blogs on Google Reader and watching the Twitter stream of great, new ideas. I have grown more as a teacher in the last 6 months of learning on my own than I did during my entire masters program.
This reminded me of the scene in Good Will Hunting, when Matt Damon tells the pretentious Harvard student he wasted $150,000 on an education he could have gotten for a $1.50 in late fees from the public library.
Clearly a self-directed PD program will create more "buy in" from teachers AND be far less expensive, but how do we translate this into license renewal and pay scale? Does the badge system offer any answers?
The other classes had lots of "rigor" [busy work]. Long papers, journal entries, a cumbersome portfolio, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, I learned very little from the entire program. I even did my homework and read all the books. Granted, I went to a private university that is not known for its school of education. It was online, which met the needs of my lifestyle as a full time teacher, father, and husband. The program lasted about 2 years. During the program I didn't check my Google Reader; blogs went unread, and I had no time for Twitter---I was bogged down with the "rigor" of my masters courses. I was too busy to learn.
Since I graduated, I have learned far more from following blogs on Google Reader and watching the Twitter stream of great, new ideas. I have grown more as a teacher in the last 6 months of learning on my own than I did during my entire masters program.
This reminded me of the scene in Good Will Hunting, when Matt Damon tells the pretentious Harvard student he wasted $150,000 on an education he could have gotten for a $1.50 in late fees from the public library.
Clearly a self-directed PD program will create more "buy in" from teachers AND be far less expensive, but how do we translate this into license renewal and pay scale? Does the badge system offer any answers?
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