Teacher Professional Development: I need a Dell laptop computer capable of meeting the demands of a changing technological educational environment. <profdevpilot>
As the Educational Technology Facilitator of a K-8 school, I am constantly investigating and exploring new programs and advocating for upgrades to existing equipment. I need a laptop with the memory, speed, peripherals, and storage capacity capable of handling new programs and possibilities.
I have been in education for over 25 years.
From the beginning, I have been an advocate of the integration of technology into the classroom experience. Through my years as a 4th and 5th grade teacher, school librarian, and now technology facilitator, I have strived to seamlessly join the possibilities of technology into various educational activities across-the-curricula. This has led me into video, stop-action/claymation movies, coding, virtual design, and a myriad of other creative integrated lessons that expand a student's understanding of the curricula and allow for the expression of information in ways that were unthinkable or unattainable even a decade ago. I have presented at local, state, and national conferences, sharing ideas and approaches such as "Putting STEAM into STEM through Creative Technology Integration." I am a Teaching Fellow in our state's A+ program, and have led workshops in discovering creative ways to integrate technology into classroom instruction.
My Project
There is a tremendous amount of change occurring in technology at present. I feel I need to be more fully educated in these changes, so that I can make informed decisions for my instructional practices, and not just go with the "flavor of the moment" approach. Through my mentor work with AmeriCorps, I have earned monetary credit that may be applied towards educational class-related expenses. I plan to use these credits and attend classes Fall 2015-Spring 2017 at our local university and technical college, focusing on technology as it applies to the K-8 environment. I have a broad experiential background in technological applications, and have taken some classes.
But now, with the explosion of technology apps and tools, I want to focus on these new innovations, so I can broaden and deepen my background and understanding of where technology is now, and where it is possibly going, and then collaboratively create projects with students and teachers that further support integration. I need a Dell laptop computer capable of meeting the demands of a changing technological educational environment.
Technology possibilities are changing on an almost daily basis.
Every day it seems there is yet another announcement of some technological tool or app that will change how we interact with the world around us. My students deserve the technology that helps them better understand the curricula and the possibilities. This project will provide me the tools to investigate potential approaches, through guided instruction, and more fully understand how they might impact student learning and integration.
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