Another Gas Station

Life is like driving, everyone drives a different vehicle, chooses a different pump, gas type, and payment type, and everyone pumps different amount of gas. The same people or events can give different inspirations and motivations to people, and each has their own destination.

The master’s program was a gas station for me. My initial goals entering the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) and getting the certificate of Serious Game Design were to learn more about the relationship on the impact and role of technology among content knowledge, students, and application of knowledge. Upon having deeper understanding of the relationship, I wanted to develop research based solid programs or better use of technology to support language immersion students who are lacking the authentic culture and language learning experiences with families.

Among my serious game design courses, I have had a lot of chances to initiate ideas I could develop to support language immersion students. In the meantime, I had the great opportunity to look at game design from a designer’s point of view as far as user experience, budget, and research behind a good serious game. However, projects after projects, I started to realized that these would be goals I could reach much later down my career path. Perhaps, at this point, I should focus more on applying technology and trying to test the impact on my current students although I knew there are still very limited resources out there. My initial goals were twitching, but have not changed completely, yet.

Through the three MAET courses I took this past summer in Ireland, I have had more opportunities to learn and explore technology from a teacher’s lens versus a designer. The opportunity to work with many other great educators with a variety of backgrounds broadened my thinking of the future. Being able to live in a foreign country and work with new people encouraged me to revisit my goals and take more risks.

Although my end goal is still very similar, I, now, am setting my goal into smaller steps. I now want to be able to broaden my experiences in using technology, playing more games, and focus on user experience in serious games and get my foot in the door of the technology companies. I realize that having a dream is an important motivation to take one to a better place, but planning realistic steps is essential. I am planning on implementing gamified classroom management and one academic project using technology this school year.

Another big factor that lead me to be more realistic and risk taking was meeting my girlfriend, new destination. Because of her, I feel like I carry a bigger responsibility of our future on my shoulder. Thinking about stepping out of the classroom and moving out of Michigan eventually is something I am preparing myself to do. The encouragement and positive influence is a huge motivation for me.