Upon looking back at my graduate school application, I laugh at my innocence and lack of experience in education. I applied to graduate school during my first year teaching. Although only in the classroom at the time for less than a year, I never had a doubt that I wanted to further my schooling in anything other than educational technology. Technology and Early Childhood Education have both been a passion of mine since entering the College of Education at Michigan State University, but my idea of what it meant to teach with technology has since shifted. My goal at the time of entering the Masters of Art in Education Technology (MAET) program was to find a way to further incorporate technology into my own teaching, specifically into the lower elementary classroom. In my original goal essay, I state that I want to differentiate instruction through technology and plan to heighten student engagement and interest by teaching with technology.

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Now, my goal as an educator is not only for me to teach using technology, but for young learners to become familiar with and use the technology interchangeably in their everyday work to become successful 21st century learners. This means that students are not just watching me use an iPad, computer, document camera, or interactive projector to keep them engaged, but instead they are using these tools interchangeably with books, workbooks, pencils, pens and paper as developmentally appropriate to enhance their learning. My hope is that they take ownership of their learning by sharing it with their parents and classmates and commenting on peers’ work.  As a lower elementary teacher, taking the time to teach students how to use these technology tools, to build a foundation for their future skills, is also an important goal that I overlooked upon applying for the MAET program. A short term goal of mine after attending the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) conference is to incorporate technology buddies with my students and a fifth grade class next year. They will work one on one and the older students will coach and model how to use specific pieces of technology and apps that I can further expand on for learning to meet state standards in the classroom.

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A more lifelong goal of mine is to share my resources and findings with other colleagues and encourage them to use technology for student learning, not just teaching, in their own classrooms.  I am currently on my way to accomplish this goal by being a district technology leader for lower elementary. As a lifelong longer, I am constantly trying out new technologies for myself and my students. I am using my resources and always finding new sources for funding. The best part about limitless learning in both children and adults is learning from one another. Together we can find endless opportunities to explore and create.