EDLD+Internship+Week+2



Technology Leadership – Comprehensive Examination Alberto Guia  Lamar University As I look back over the past 17 months or so I begin to wonder did I do the right thing? Did I make the right choice in regards to my degree in Educational Technology Leadership rather than Administration? This though is now even more relevant to me today since I was just released from my position on my campus as the school computer teacher and technology leader. Through all this looking and the recent bad news I think I did. I think our students need technology, more than ever, and the education system needs leaders who are trained in this field to help guide the student, the teachers, and the administration into the 21st Century, even though they don’t yet realize it themselves. **Career and Leadership Goal** To career, leadership and me goals, are a hard concept to wrap my head around. It may sound like a very simple concept, what do I want to do with my work and how do I want to help others along the way? But thinking ahead I have several things I want to do with my career in the education field as well as options and idea for outside of it. Within the education field my career and leadership goals are very simple, in fact I think too simple, I want to help students and teachers better understand technology and get them to realize that with technology everyone’s life’s will be easier and full of more opportunities. “The technologies that benefit young children the greatest are those that are interactive and allow the child to develop their curiosity, problem solving and independent thinking skills.” (Perry) I think that technology makes the classroom more interactive for students, thus allowing them to become more involved in the lesson and in turn allowing them to better retain and synthesis the information. Without technology savvy teachers and more importantly technology savvy leaders those experiences that our students need and quite frankly deserve will never happen. As the technology leader on the campus it will be my job to better equip the staff and administrators on how to integrate technology successfully in to the classroom. **Vision of Educational Technology** In today’s environment technology is ever more prevalent in the classroom. Technology is no longer a taboo but a must have for our youth, the “Digital Natives” (Prensky). As I first begin my graduate program I thought I was very advanced and savvy in regards to technology and the must have and how to’s. After the first few classes I began to realize there is much more to technology than an Iphone or a Spartboard in the classroom. In today’s classrooms a teacher cannot live without technology such as a digital projector, document camera, computer workstations, etc. This is something I feel as an educational technology leader as the must have’s for a classroom. But as my courses advanced I began to turn my attention to even more “advanced” technology such a Web 2.0. These tools include videoconferences, 2nd Life, blogs, wikis, glogs, etc. These technological advances allows for the instructor and students to stay connected in a virtual classroom way beyond the normal operating school hours. Even more than before students can have unprecedented access to their teachers, share information, collaborate outside the normal classroom and gain knowledge on a 24 hours 7 days a week basis. In order for student to be able to take full advantage to the tools that we as educators are trying to prepare them for I strongly feel that basic internet access is a must have for all students. Being a teacher from a low-income neighborhood, where 97% of the students are on free or reduced lunch, the students are not able to fully take advantage of the on-line tools. As a technology leader I think that school districts should have an obligation to the students they serve to provide the with free home Internet access. Yes I know many school districts are going through budget cuts and crises, I was just released from my position as the campus only computer teacher and technology leader, due to funding and program cuts. Despite this looming dilemma schools need to ensure that their students are able to learn and compete with students who have unlimited resources. In today’s workforce even the smallest job requires that the individuals know the basic computer skills and in today’s market that means being able to use and productively navigate through the Internet.

**References** Perry, B. (n.d.). Using Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom. //Teaching Resources, Children's Book Recommendations, and Student Activities | Scholastic.com//. Retrieved October 10, 2010, from http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/using_technology.htm Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A. & Haywood, K. (2010). //2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition.// Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved October 17, 2010 from //www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdf// Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. //On the Horizon//, //9//(5), 1.