Objective: I would like to help both students and teachers use technology as a tool to achieve their educational and professional goals. I would like to be a technology specialist in the elementary school setting. I would like to help teachers integrate the use of technology to meet curricula objectives. I would like to help students become proficient in the use of technology so that they can use it as a tool to gather, interpret, and evaluate data and be able to create a product that can be shared with others. I would also like to see the technology be a means for sharing that information.


Philosophy: My goal as an educator is to help each student reach his or her personal potential in an educational setting. I believe that there are certain principles that help the educator achieve this goal. I also believe that proficient use of technology by both students and teachers is conducive with each of these principles. Among those principles are the following:

• The student should see a real life application or purpose in what he/she is learning.
• The student should have some control over the process of learning.
• The student should be motivated by that process.
• The student should be able to collaborate with others in that process.
• The student should be able to evaluate both the process and the product.
• The product created should also have a real life application.
• The diversity of product and process is important because the learners are also diverse.
  
  The technology revolution that has occurred over the past twenty years has changed the classroom. It is no longer teacher centered but rather student centered. The teacher is no longer the central dispenser of knowledge. He/she is instead a facilitator that guides the student in learning. This re-creation of the classroom is very positive. It lends itself to a more productive classroom. It is clearly a paradigm shift. But change is never easy. It forces teachers to learn new roles and develop new tools. It is the challenge of technology committees and specialists to help both teachers and students with this transition. This is an exciting time to be an educator. In many ways, it rivals the last great paradigm shift of ink, parchment, and letters. But a personal shift must occur in each teacher before it fully occurs in the classroom. In order for this change to take place, the teacher must take ownership of the technology, the process, and the product. In otherwords, effective staff development must also apply sound principles of learning. This is the first great challenge for our schools in this new digital age. It is a challenge I have no doubt we will meet.