Vision+for+Instructional+Technology

Vision for Educational Technology
“In the future, //how// we educate our children may prove to be more important than //how much// we educate them,” says Thomas Friedman (2005). This statement drives me to be the type of technology leader that stays abreast of the ever-changing technology landscape. I have to find a way to bring the “how much” and the “how” together so that both needs are met in today’s schools. As an instructional technology specialist for my district, I must bring curriculum and technology together. As stated in the most recent Horizon Report (2010), “Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.” So often, classroom teachers, under great pressure to produce successful test-takers, are not providing for the technology needs of their students. My goal is to provide the necessary instructional technology training opportunities for teachers so that they are able to produce technologically savvy students who are prepared for their 21st century work lives. Today’s students can and do take advantage of “the cloud” via wikis and blogs already. In just a few years, schools will truly be able to take advantage of e-books. Augmented reality (Johnson, et al, 2010), on the Horizon Report’s “two to three years" adoption horizon, has the potential to once again change the way things are done in the classroom. My role is to stay as current as possible in educational technology applications so that I may provide my teachers and students with the best tools to do the job of learning while preparing for a future that hasn’t even been imagined yet.

Friedman, T.L. (2005). //The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century.// New York: Farrar, Straus & Girous. Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2010). //2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition.// Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.