Educational Technology PhilosophySusan Beazley The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought

progress, Charles Kettering said. For as long as I can remember, the education world has been in a constant state of change. And yet, each change that has come along the education spectrum since I have been an educator myself, since 1995, has met with criticism and resistance. The implementation of technology into the classroom is no different, meeting with criticisms of costs, questioning of actual learning vs engagement, teacher training, teacher resistance, etc. After all, if it aint broke, why fix it? I come from the classroom of old that introduced the Apple IIe computer with black and green screens and dot matrix printers. My high school computer class consisted of learning basic programming skillsinformation I neither remember, nor utilize today. My keyboarding experience consisted of electric typewriters, A-frame books of practice text to type, metronomes and circus music to encourage an even pace. In college I learned basic word processing skills, the only technology skills I needed to graduate and move on to my career of choiceeducation. I didnt know how to search through and evaluate differing kinds of information. I wasnt taught how to collaborate and compromise with others to complete assignments and solve problems. I am a digital immigrant, trying to learn and to grow in my knowledge of technology. Technology belongs in education. It is a powerful tool available to teach students how to question and discover, how to collaborate, and how to problem solve. Students are faced with a plethora of information to access, evaluate, question, and use. I am charged as an educator with teaching my students how to be life-long learners, with teaching students information literacy skills. Using technology in conjunction with my guidance, my own life experience, my own subject matter expertise, I can encourage students to approach problems creatively. They can look up information, collaborate with each other and experts in the field utilizing Web 2.0 tools such as Google Drive, Evernote, Edmodo, wikis, blogs, and even Facebook and Twitter. My students are digital natives. As such, as a teacher, I am challenged with meeting their needs as learners and as productive citizens of the future. Helping students learn to maneuver through the different web tools in order to search and discover and to collaborate and compromise with other students helps to encourage questioning of information and creativity in finding and presenting new ideas. If I use technology as a tool to further learning, instead of an entertainment device or instead of learning in itself, I can help to build informational learning skills in my students. They will continue to be comfortable with trying new technologies, with making technologies fit their learning, that they will meet any digital challenge brought to them in the future.

As a result, my job as a teacher and as a library media specialist is changing. I am a guide; a moderator. I am an encourager. I am also a learner right alongside my students. I must model questioning skills, digital citizenship, and respect as these are important skills I expect my students to leave my classroom with. Because of this belief, I follow more of the constructivist approach to learning in my classroom in the past and I my library as a classroom today. When students are allowed to bring their life experiences to the subject matter, the learning becomes real to them. They then feel comfortable enough to question, debate, and discover. Collaboration about information now takes on new meaning as the student feels they have a connection, and so an entry point into most conversations about learning. If I am respectful of their ideas and their questions, if I let them teach me about new technologies and new ideas as I introduce them to new technologies and ideas, if I let them question and discuss with each other these new technologies and new ideas, then I am preparing them to be respectful, collaborating, life-long learners and productive citizens, and I am building my own knowledge of technology right along beside them. As Benjamin Franklin once said, Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Technology in the classroom helps students to be involved in their own learning and so enables them to shape their own futures.