etec 5743 reflection essay

Running head: ETEC 5743 Essay: Reflecting upon the Transfer of Knowledge

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ETEC 5743 Essay: Reflecting upon the Transfer of Knowledge

ETEC 5743- Internship

Beashua Spearman

University of Arkansas


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Reflecting upon the Transfer of Knowledge

An educator is an advocate of transmission, development, and nurturing. He or she is an

advocate of change, knowledge, communication, and learning. Throughout my internship

experience at the Fort Smith Adult Education Center, I have learned the importance of becoming

an advocate of education. To understand educational technology, instructional technology, or

design, a person must understand the importance of an educational advocate. According to Brady

and Lampert, educators teach in order to learn, to make connections, for stimulation, to become

spiritually enriched, for relationships, to be remembered and finally, to transform lives (Brady

and Lampert, pp. 1-4). To advocate transmission is to become an advocate of transferring

knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of a content area or skill. For example, the ESL

citizenship instructor is an advocate for his students. First, he is passionate about what he is

teaching, second, he is concerned about the learning needs of his students, and third, he is

passionate about the transfer of knowledge within his classroom.

A second example is the ESL English instructors; they too are advocates of transferring

knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of instructing their students to learn English skills. They

ensure learning is transferred during each class to ensure their students understand what they

have learned. For example, the Beginning ESL instructor assigned me to become her student’s

conversational partner. I sat with the students during the class and assisted them in speaking

English. I learned the importance of communicating with a student and transferring knowledge to

that student.

The ESL Citizenship instructor assigned me over seven students throughout the past three

months to assist them in their quest to obtain U.S. Citizenship. My job was to prepare the

students for the U.S. Citizenship exam; each class period, I met with one student, prepared him

or her for the U.S. Citizenship interview, N-400 questions; which are a series of personal


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questions the U.S.Citizenship & Immigration officer will ask the applicant, and the civic

questions. Within this experience, I learned the transfer of knowledge begins when the educator

is willing to learn. To instruct U.S. Citizen Hopefuls, I had to learn about the process of

becoming a U.S. citizen. The ESL U.S. Citizenship course instructor taught me the basis of the

citizenship interview, the in-depth knowledge of the N-400 questions, the reading and writing

section of the test, and the civics questions. From that point on, he had transferred knowledge,

and developed my learning, because of this, it influenced and prepared me to tutor his students.

This selfless act taught me that teaching is selfless, and the educator must have the

confidence to transfer knowledge to his or her colleagues or students. According to Malcolm S.

Knowles, Learning is a change that occurs when we have experienced something different. It

occurs because of a change or a process of becoming aware of the experience (Knowles, p. 38).

In regards to educational technology, an educational technologist must become an advocate of

transmission, development, and nurturing. He or she must advocate transferring wisdom,

knowledge, and the understanding of the material. For example, during my internship, I learned

the importance of observation, asking the faculty questions, and inquiring about their level of

comfort in using technology. He or she must advocate developing their student’s knowledge,

develop and implement new ideas and education to ensure transmission has occurred.

Development includes developing new ideas and assisting other colleagues to develop new ideas

too. In regards to nurturing, an educator or an educational technologist is like a gardener, he or

she may break ground that has nothing growing in it and that person can tend it over a period

until it matures and blooms into its full potential.

As an instructional designer, we can integrate technology into the classroom if it benefits

the educator and his or her students. An educational technologist must understand the importance

of transferring information and following up to ensure that it was integrated correctly. To


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transfer information, an educational technologist must first understand the learning needs of the

students. Second, he or she must gather the correct technologies to supplement the course

curriculum. For example, I learned that I must consider the content level, educational functioning

level of an adult learner, and the educator’s technology use within the classroom. Third, an

educational technologist must learn how much technology to integrate into a classroom.

According to M.D. Roblyer, an educational technologist or educator must research,

investigate, and create a relative advantage of the content level technologies in comparison to

similar technologies (Roblyer, p 252). An overexposed amount of technology may create

confusion for the educator in addition to his or her students. If a course is crammed with

technology, the technology may overshadow the content and because of this, the transfer of

knowledge is not evident.

During my internship experience, I have learned the importance of considering the course

curriculum needs, the content level, the student and the educator’s needs and experience of using

technology. For example, the U.S. Citizenship course instructor assigned me to integrate

technology into the U.S. Citizenship course curriculum. First, I asked the educator about the

basic needs of the course, his level of knowledge using technology, his student’s level of using

technology, and finally, the course curriculum and content area. I integrated three projects, an

online orientation/resource to promote the Fort Smith Adult Education Center’s U.S. Citizenship

courses to the public and its students. A second project was to create online reading instructional

software to allow the students to practice their Basic English reading and speaking skills. The

final project was an online audio project that was created to assist the students advance their

listening and writing skills within the English language. As an educational technologist, I learned

to listen to the needs of the school’s director, the instructor, and the students. When the

educational technologist employs the correct technology into a class or curriculum it will


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supplement the course and increase the student’s knowledge of mastering a content area.

Throughout the past three and a half months as an intern at the Fort Smith Adult Education

Center, I have learned that learning is a part of teaching; it is a part of instructional design. As an

instructional designer, we teach others how to integrate, design, or implement technology into

their classrooms. In my honest opinion, I do believe that learning is a part of teaching and it is a

part of instructional design. During my internship, I learned about 24 different types of software

the Fort Smith Adult Education has integrated into their Adult Basic Education, General

Education Development, and their English as a Second Language programs. I learned the

programs were designed to increase the student’s knowledge and skill mastery of the content

areas such as math, spelling, writing, English acquisition, and computer technology.

In addition to learning about the technology at the Fort Smith Adult Education Center, I

made many new friends, I experienced a vast student body that united with one goal: to better

equip for the future, train or re-train for a career, or gain new skills. I met people from all walks

of life, some students held degrees from their native countries and were learning English, some

students were studying to become U.S. citizens, other students were re-training after the result of

the Whirlpool lay-offs, and the reminder of the student body are there for various reasons. The

students encouraged, assisted, and motivated each other daily…it was such a spiritual enrichment

and a breath of fresh air to witness! Furthermore, the students motivated, encouraged, and

inspired me to become a better student, a better person, and a better educator.

In my honest opinion, educators must care about their students we are not educators

because the pay is a six-figure salary, we educate because it is our passion, it is our joy, and it is

our calling. I have enjoyed learning from the students, for example, I have re-learned some

Spanish that I thought I had lost from undergrad. I gained a new prospective and respect for each

student and their stories of motivation that brought me to tears. Each day when I woke up, I


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wanted to be there, I wanted to hear the students’ voices, see their smiling faces, and listen to

their wonderful and positive mantras.

The faculty and the staff at the Fort Smith Adult Education Center have given me daily

motivation, encouragement, advice, and inspiration. The faculty and staff care about the well-

being of their students, their educational needs and goals, and the motivation to inspire them to

succeed. Each month a student, who has excelled beyond his or her studies at the Fort Smith

Adult Education Center; is recognized as the student of the month, the student is recognized in

front of his or her peers, classmates, the faculty, and the staff. Each month, I was excited, moved,

and inspired by the obstacles the student had overcome. It motivated me to mobilize and learn

that when obstacles occur, it does not mean we lower the bar, it should inspire us to raise the bar,

raise the standards, and soar like an Eagle.

The faculty and the staff are phenomenal, they ensured I had everything I needed to teach,

they calmed my many concerns and fears of teaching, and they motivated me to emulate them.

The director of the Fort Smith Adult Education Center is an inspiration to me, each time we

spoke about my progress, he inspired me to learn more each week, to continue to grow and move

outside of my comfort zone. I attended every class the faculty invited me to observe, some

instructors allowed me to assist them, tutor their students, or co-teach their classes. If I made a

mistake, they did not scorn me, they helped me to learn and grow from my mistakes. I learned

because of our obstacles and mistakes, it encourages us daily to remember that we are entitled to

being human. They encouraged me to learn about their positions and the reason why they

became teachers, they encouraged me to learn about the purpose of the adult education center

and its impact upon the Fort Smith region.

As an intern, I have grown personally, professionally, and spiritually; I have learned how

to appreciate my life as God has given me to live without fear or worry of failure. I have learned


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that it is okay to fall once or twice, but the main concern is to stand up and continue onward

through my academic journey to become an educational technologist. As an intern, I have grown

professionally, I have become confident, assertive, and passionate about my field of study, I no

longer second-guess everything I do, sometimes I do need clarity, but I believe that allows us to

remain human.

In conclusion, I am excited about the possibilities this field of study will bring into my

life! I am excited about the metamorphosis that has occurred within the past three and half

months of this internship. I am grateful for my supervisor’s mentorship, guidance, and his

motivation to help me become a better educator and instructional designer. I am grateful for the

faculty and staff at the Fort Smith Adult Education center who mentored me daily, prepared me,

and allowed me to soar. I am grateful for the ETEC faculty and staff at the University of

Arkansas, they are my family and I am inspired by their passion and drive to ensure I succeed

within my field of study. I am inspired to emulate my professors and I hope I can become a

wonderful educational technologist and educator as they have been to me.

It was a true learning experience that I will never forget and last but never least…I thank God for

blessing me with wonderful favor and insight, I thank Him for bringing wonderful mentors in my

life who care about me and who want to see me succeed.


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References

Brady, M., & Lampert, A. (2007). Chapter 1: Why Teach?. In The New Teacher of Adults. (2nd ed.). (pp. 1-4). J. Weston Walch Publisher.

Knowles, M. S. (2005). Chapter 4: A Theory of Adult Learning: Andragogy. In The Adult Learner. (6th ed.). (p. 39). Burlington, MA: Elsevier.

Roblyer, M. D. (2006). Chapter 8: Integrating the Technology into the Curriculum. In Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. (4th ed.). (p. 252). Upper Saddle

River, New Jersey: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.


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