Education 10.12 - Flipbook - Page 6
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The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, October 12, 2025
Learning new skills
New programs offer new opportunities
By E. Rose Scarff, Contributing Writer
otre Dame of Maryland
University offers an art
therapy degree at both a
bachelor’s and a master’s
level. Completion of the
master’s degree qualifies students
to seek licensure as an art therapist.
“Our students are eligible for the
counseling license in addition to
the art therapy license,” says Cathy
Goucher, art therapy department
chair. “They have comparable
training and education.” Students
generally come into the program with
a foundation and understanding of
art, but they also take courses in the
studio arts, along with prerequisite
courses in psychology.
By the time students reach
graduate level the coursework
is an integration of psychology,
understanding about art, theories
of art, and aesthetics as well
as symbolism and counseling
practices. This broad background
prepares students to work with
children and adults of all ages in a
variety of settings.
All of this came together for Nia
Willis, a recent graduate who is
now working at the University of
Maryland Medical System as an art
therapist. She had always done art
but was looking for a way to use it to
help people when she learned of the
major. She graduated with a double
major in art and psychology and
went on the complete the master’s
in art therapy.
She works with youth in the
acute inpatient unit. Recently she
was able to use her skills in both art
and therapy to help a new patient
overcome some of his anxiety
by encouraging him to work on
internships and often are offered
jobs before they graduate. Notre
Dame’s program is still the only one
of its kind in Maryland.
Stevenson
University
has
received a grant to implement
the integration of computational
literacy across their teacher
preparation programs. At both the
undergraduate and graduate levels.
“Computational literacy is a way of
thinking about things, and it can be
integrated into any content area,”
says Beth Korbett, Ed.D., dean of
the school of education.
Computational literacy involves
understanding how something
concrete can be represented in an
abstract way. It is about making
connections and seeing patterns.
Future teachers are being prepared
to integrate computational thinking
into their classrooms using problem
solving skills, abstract thinking and
critical thinking.
The faculty was charged to think
about how they could integrate
computational literacy and really
make it come alive for the students.
They wanted students to be
comfortable with the process by
graduation. Last year a couple of
juniors took this on as an honors
project and integrated phonics
and computational literacy in a
weekly phonics program in an early
childhood classroom.
The Ozobot, Dash computer,
and coding mice make coding and
programming accessible to young
children. A very simple code can
take the mouse through a maze. “It’s
really thinking about logical thinking
and how can you give someone
directions that they can actually
a gratitude journal using art. He
was resistant because he couldn’t
draw. “I reminded him that it was
important to remind yourself what
you are grateful for,” says Willis.
With guidance, he identified many
things he was grateful for and was
surprised that he could do the
project.
Graduates of the master’s
program can find work in clinical
practices or set up their own
practice. They receive lots of
experience before graduation during
follow,” says Korbett. “A lot of these
are life skills.”
It is a lot of fun for the student
teachers and for the faculty as they
think about what they are teaching
and how they are teaching it. All
the activities and lessons are going
into a repository, so the kinds of
activities can be tracked and how
they are being used. The repository
is there for students to use as a
starting place to see how things
work.
For example, the dash robot (seen
N
Nia Willis graduated from Notre Dame and is an art therapist at the University of Maryland Medical System.
below) can move around and talk.
Students may be asked to write an
introductory lesson using the robot
for some facet of computational
literacy. They get to choose, which
gives them the opportunity to
learn about and experience it for
themselves and gain confidence
about using it in the classroom.
The University of Maryland
Global Campus (UMGC) has
received a grant from the National
Cybersecurity Teaching Academy
(NCTA) for the first graduate level
cybersecurity certificate program
aimed specifically for high school
teachers in the United States.
This is triggered by the critical
workforce shortage in cybersecurity
professionals.
Currently, high school teachers
may be teaching cybersecurity, but
they don’t have formal cybersecurity
backgrounds. “This program was
designed to give teachers the deep
content knowledge they need to
effectively prepare students for
cyber careers,” says Chad Whistle,
Ph.D., assistant dean, portfolio
lifecycle and student success in
the school of cybersecurity and
information technology.
The program covers both
cybersecurity knowledge and
teaching methods. Those enrolled
will learn fundamental cybersecurity
concepts such as systems attacks,
defense methods, network security,
digital forensics, penetration testing
and incident response. But most
importantly, they will learn how to
teach those concepts effectively
using dedicated methods for
teaching cybersecurity courses. This
standalone course is the capstone
for the certificate program.
Students will learn to think about
curriculum development, creating
lesson plans to engage their learners.
They will learn about assessment
strategies and using cybersecurity
specific technologies that they may
not have been exposed to before
in their formal teaching preparation
programs. This different perspective
to their existing teaching subject
matter expertise is an effort to make
their cybersecurity methodology
more accessible to high school
students.
With this preparation teachers
will be able to offer cybersecurity
courses at the secondary level
as well as potentially qualify to
teach early college credit courses.
UMGC is aligned with national
standards, and these teachers will
meet the requirements to endorse
cybersecurity and computer science
knowledge in their areas. The hope
is that when they are back in their
own classroom, they will advocate
for this type of education in their
schools.
The 18-credit program starts
each summer and should take
about 18 months to complete. It
is cohort based and fully online.
Credits earned for the certificate
can be applied to the master’s
degree should they decide on
further studies.
