Learning Will Not Cease
A Vision Essay by Dawna Kilgore
Learning is not a product of schooling, but the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
~ Albert Einstein
As I sat down to write this essay I felt a bit like the star of the winning super bowl team…“Dawna Kilgore, now that you’ve earned your master’s degree, what will you do next?” Unlike the winning football star I will not be going to Disney World (although I could use the vacation). Now that I’ve (nearly) completed my master’s degree I will do what I feel any dedicated teacher would do—I will continue learning.
When I began researching master’s degree programs several years ago, I was at a point in my life when I needed a program that offered flexibility. I was a mother to two young boys (ages 4 months and almost 3 years at the time) and I was teaching full time. I knew that I would not be able to choose a degree program that required me to go to a campus or satellite campus and I didn’t want any part in a program that only met on the weekends (that time was reserved for my family). It quickly became evident to me that Michigan State University’s on-line Master of Arts in Education program was what I was looking for.
It did not take me long to realize that on-line learning was very different from the traditional class setting I was accustomed to. While I wasn’t traveling to a university campus, my coursework was taking away from my time with my family, especially the weekends. My busy life as a full-time working mother of two young children only afforded me the weekends to dedicate to coursework. While this was something that I eventually adjusted to, there was something that I never did seem to adjust to. I have found that I usually learn the most through conversations with my colleagues who are in the classroom teaching on a regular basis. While most of my courses encouraged conversations with peers, I found the asynchronous nature of these conversations to be very different from the face-to-face conversations and discussions that took place in my undergraduate classrooms and those discussions that take place with the colleagues that I work with on a daily basis.
There were many times throughout my master’s coursework that I thought about how different on-line learning was from traditional learning. As our society changes and technological advances are made, I wonder how different learning will be next year, in five years, in ten years, etc. As a science educator, I worry about the impact on-line learning could have on science education. So much of science education is hands-on. Part of learning in science is doing. How will students who learn on-line gain the knowledge that comes from doing experiments that require sophisticated and expensive equipment and materials which can, for the most part, only be accessed at large universities? While I’m only familiar with science and I best understand pedagogical strategies in science education, I can’t help but to believe that other disciplines grapple with similar concerns in their content areas.
As for my future as a learner, I don’t foresee a PhD in my future. I think that my days of formal university coursework may be coming to an end. I LOVE learning, but at this point in my life and my career I think that most of my learning will occur in a smaller, less formal setting. As a practicing teacher, I learn daily. My students (and my own children) teach me more and differently than any university course ever could. I learn through interacting with them.
I am fortunate enough to teach in a school district that continually educates their staff through professional development activities. Our district works on a schedule that allows for teaching and support staff to participate in professional development sessions (almost) every Wednesday morning, while students come to school later in the morning. These professional development sessions allow me to further learn as I listen to speakers such as Chick Moorman, or while I discuss classroom management, science content, pedagogy, etc. with my colleagues. I also believe that as my “formal” education comes to an end I will seek out more learning opportunities through my local ISD. I have a newfound interest in learning ways in which I can incorporate more technology into my classroom and I know that my local ISD offers many workshops that can help me further develop these types of skills.
Learning is not a product of schooling, but the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
~ Albert Einstein
As I sat down to write this essay I felt a bit like the star of the winning super bowl team…“Dawna Kilgore, now that you’ve earned your master’s degree, what will you do next?” Unlike the winning football star I will not be going to Disney World (although I could use the vacation). Now that I’ve (nearly) completed my master’s degree I will do what I feel any dedicated teacher would do—I will continue learning.
When I began researching master’s degree programs several years ago, I was at a point in my life when I needed a program that offered flexibility. I was a mother to two young boys (ages 4 months and almost 3 years at the time) and I was teaching full time. I knew that I would not be able to choose a degree program that required me to go to a campus or satellite campus and I didn’t want any part in a program that only met on the weekends (that time was reserved for my family). It quickly became evident to me that Michigan State University’s on-line Master of Arts in Education program was what I was looking for.
It did not take me long to realize that on-line learning was very different from the traditional class setting I was accustomed to. While I wasn’t traveling to a university campus, my coursework was taking away from my time with my family, especially the weekends. My busy life as a full-time working mother of two young children only afforded me the weekends to dedicate to coursework. While this was something that I eventually adjusted to, there was something that I never did seem to adjust to. I have found that I usually learn the most through conversations with my colleagues who are in the classroom teaching on a regular basis. While most of my courses encouraged conversations with peers, I found the asynchronous nature of these conversations to be very different from the face-to-face conversations and discussions that took place in my undergraduate classrooms and those discussions that take place with the colleagues that I work with on a daily basis.
There were many times throughout my master’s coursework that I thought about how different on-line learning was from traditional learning. As our society changes and technological advances are made, I wonder how different learning will be next year, in five years, in ten years, etc. As a science educator, I worry about the impact on-line learning could have on science education. So much of science education is hands-on. Part of learning in science is doing. How will students who learn on-line gain the knowledge that comes from doing experiments that require sophisticated and expensive equipment and materials which can, for the most part, only be accessed at large universities? While I’m only familiar with science and I best understand pedagogical strategies in science education, I can’t help but to believe that other disciplines grapple with similar concerns in their content areas.
As for my future as a learner, I don’t foresee a PhD in my future. I think that my days of formal university coursework may be coming to an end. I LOVE learning, but at this point in my life and my career I think that most of my learning will occur in a smaller, less formal setting. As a practicing teacher, I learn daily. My students (and my own children) teach me more and differently than any university course ever could. I learn through interacting with them.
I am fortunate enough to teach in a school district that continually educates their staff through professional development activities. Our district works on a schedule that allows for teaching and support staff to participate in professional development sessions (almost) every Wednesday morning, while students come to school later in the morning. These professional development sessions allow me to further learn as I listen to speakers such as Chick Moorman, or while I discuss classroom management, science content, pedagogy, etc. with my colleagues. I also believe that as my “formal” education comes to an end I will seek out more learning opportunities through my local ISD. I have a newfound interest in learning ways in which I can incorporate more technology into my classroom and I know that my local ISD offers many workshops that can help me further develop these types of skills.