Vision

Technology is infused in our everyday lives; it is all around us in this new Digital Age. It is our
job to ensure that all students have the opportunity to engage in, and take advantage of the learning that
can result from the use of this technology. The students are fearless regarding the use of technology tools.
This poses the question of how technology should be integrated into the classroom so that instruction can
be structured, meaningful, and engaging for all students regardless of cultural, socio-economic, or
cognitive differences. To have this happen, teachers need to put any technology reservations aside, they
may have brought to the classroom from a different era where technology was not even a possibility.
They must see the technology vision for our students and know that it can foster their skills and growth of
these 21st century citizens that will allow them to join the global community as contributing members.
Robyler & Doering (2013, p.42) state, Students will need to develop critical thinking skills that
they can use for real world situation. Our students learn best with authentic learning experiences; such as
those provided from the technology and social media they use most often such as iPhone, Twitter,
Facebook, and Internet. Teachers need to be sensitive to the fact that these students must be critical
thinkers and technologically savvy to be successful as a 21
st
century citizen. To grow and thrive in our
changing world, students need to be given opportunities to have technology integrated into the curriculum
in an on-going and progressively more skilled manner, so these patterns become second nature. As
students develop these skills it will allow them to effectively collaborate within their local communities,
as well as the global community.
To effectively instruct our students and efficiently incorporate technology into the curriculum for
the purpose of enhancing learning, engagement and higher-order thinking skills; teachers will need to
change how they perceive instruction in their classrooms. To successfully accomplish this, teachers will
need to have content, pedagogical, and technological knowledge, according to Robyler & Doering (2013,
p.54) to engage students and facilitate learning in the classrooms. The teachers role will need to shift to
one of facilitator; encouraging students to engage with one another in an exchange of information and
critical thinking skills, while the teacher moderates learning activities in the classroom. Implementing
these digital tools into the curriculum will be easier for some teachers than for others. But the only way it
will happen is with Professional Development, on-going follow-up, and Administrative Support to ensure
that the teachers make these changes to their instructional practices. As Creighton (2003) says, teachers
on the other hand are developed and educated.
Looking into the future, with the skills and knowledge that have been gained from this
coursework in Instructional Technology, many things are possible. With the focus on leadership skills,
understanding of the SWOT process, GAPSS process, Data Analysis, and producing an Action Plan; it
has made more me intimately aware and sensitive to educational dynamics. In the future, when working
with teachers, this knowledge will be beneficial to interact meaningfully with teachers, giving
recommendations that are focused on student instruction or teacher implementation strategies. When
learning technology tools in this program, (they are simply too numerous to list), but have resulted in
projects such as Engaged Learning, Webquest, and Mini-module, and Emerging Technology. It simply
makes my head spin! Its still hard to believe I had such fun making these projects, the students learned
from them, and enjoyed engaging with them. The interactivity of these Web 2.0 tools has taught me an
important lesson; students engage easily with them and learn quickly. As an Assistive Technology
Specialist, I plan to incorporate appropriate technology tools into recommendations made for students and
implementations strategies made to teachers. I make presentations to teachers on various Assistive
Technology tools that students are using; and will plan to incorporate Web 2.0 tools into the presentation
to demonstrate ways to engage students in learning.
In conclusion, technology has the potential to create a classroom environment that can closely
simulate the real world for our students. In order to do this, the teacher must combine content,
pedagogical, and technological knowledge into engaging, interactive, student-focused classroom
instruction. This learning environment will produce critically thinking, 21
st
century citizens.



References
Creighton, T. (2003), The principal as technology leader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Inc.

Roblyer, M., Doering, A. (2013), Integrating educational technology into teaching. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Pearson.