Instructor Spotlight: Kathryn Dirkin
Our courses are taught by an outstanding team of MSU adjunct faculty, many of whom are:
- K-12 classroom teachers themselves who have experience using educational technology in the classroom
- Graduates from our certificate program
- Exceptionally skilled in educational technology
- Winners of awards such as technology Teacher of the Year from the Michigan Association of Computer-Related Technology Users in Learning (MACUL) and the national award of the International Society for Technology in Education
This quarter’s instructor spotlight is . . .
Kathryn Dirkin , Lead Course Designer for the MSU Educational Technology Certificate Program and Endorsement courses, PhD student at MSU and a faculty member at Central Michigan University starting this fall.
Kathryn has been teaching in the Masters program since 2002. She has taught at all three cohort sites. She was so excited about working with teachers around the state as well as around the world as they implement technology for meaningful learning
Kathryn graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in American Culture, and received her teaching certificate from Michigan State University. She is also a graduate of the Masters in Educational Technology program here at State. She is currently in the process of completing her dissertation and will begin a position as a faculty member at Central Michigan University in the fall. Kathryn lived in Pennsylvania for four years where she taught second and fourth grade elementary students. During that same time she was a building technology coordinator. As a technology coordinator she planned and implemented workshops for teachers, served on a district wide committee for distance learning, and engaged in a national project to connect teachers across the U.S.
Since her work in Pennsylvania Kathryn has had a special interest in online education. She has had teaching assistantships helping faculty build online courses. She has also co-taught CEP 816: Technology, Teaching. & Learning Across the Curriculum and CEP 894: Action Research. She is dedicated to understanding and developing new and innovative online courses. In 2006 she was hired to convert the first and second year of the masters program into online courses. She has found it extremely rewarding to work with a group of people so dedicated to making MSU’s courses a great experience for teachers around the state and the world.