The Lamar Educational Technology Leadership Program has prepared me to serve as a leader in an effort to improve student performance through the integration of technology in the classroom. By understanding how people learn and how best to facilitate that learning, I can design curriculum and assessments aligned with standards that are enhanced by the integration of technology.
After completing the Educational Technology Leadership program my next goal is to get a Master Technology Teacher Certification (MTTC) and serve as a Master Technology Teacher. Currently, I work several evenings as a facilitator for the Instructional Technology Department. I find helping the teachers learn new skills and technology very rewarding but I would like to do more to assist teachers in the integration of technology. I would like to be a full time technology facilitator that is available to assist other teachers who want to integrate technology in their lessons. I have learned that “a focus on technology is not about the technology itself, but about changing teacher practice, motivating our students, and creating learning experiences that will be applicable to their world and future workplaces” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, Xii).
My ultimate technology leadership position would be at a regional or district level where I can foster change by providing professional development and resources that allow schools and teachers to implement what they learn. Too often teachers attend professional development but never get around to implementing the strategies learned because there is no long term plan for follow-up. In the three stories of Education Reform (2000), Fullen tells of three cases of successful education reform that did not focus on large amounts of professional development but on utilizing the resources and knowledge that is already available in schools. Technology initiatives are more likely to succeed if integrated with high priority initiatives and included in the Campus Improvement Plan. Solomon and Schrum (2007) sums this up the problem by saying, "Professional developers have tended to design programs that attempt to implement strategies to change practice; unfortunately, when the support and funding disappear, frequently so does the change in practice" (p. 101).