Cindy+(Cynthia)+M

=Week 1-2 September 25, 2013=

Hmm, where to start? I graduated with a Bachelors' degree in special education in 1978 from Fitchburg State and taught for a few years in Massachusetts, where I grew up. But due to life changes I ended up working in what was called the "high tech" industry from 1984 until 2002. In 2002, I was laid off, and decided I wanted to do something different. I thought about going back to teaching. Back in the 70's they gave teachers lifetime certifications, but it was no longer valid with the new recertification process. So I had to think about applying for recertification in MA, or new certification in NH (where I had lived for 14 years by then). I decided to stay in NH, and was doing some substitute teaching, when I met someone from Crotched Mountain, a private school on top of a mountain in Greenfield, NH for children with special needs, who asked me for my resume. Ironically, when I was an undergrad at FSC, they talked about Crotched Mountain being the model school in the area for special education. As it turned out they were looking for someone to teach office and computer skills in their vocational program. Since I had experience working with computers in an office environment and a degree in special education, they thought I was a good fit. So I ended up accepting the job, and obtained my new teacher certification in NH. I have been there for 11 years. It is very interesting because the students are all so different, but they are also like all kids, wanting to be accepted for who they are. But they also have different challenges.

I was in the same position for 10 years, teaching office skills (photocopying, filing, and computer skills, etc), desktop publishing (we create our own yearbooks) and also teaching economics to the high school level students, because I worked in the business area while in the computer industry. I actually had gone to NH College, which is now SNHU, while working in the tech industry pursuing my MBA. Although I never finished it, I did take two classes in economics (micro and macroeconomics). Then, last September, the person who was the technology integrator at Crotched Mountain, left to accept a new position in the company, and so my principal asked me if I would be interested in the job. Technology is my favorite of all of the skills I was teaching, so I accepted the new position. I continue to teach the information and communication technology students, but also am the technology integrator for the school. Which is why I decided to enroll in the Masters in Technology Integration program, so I could have the theory behind the practice.

Being a school for special needs students, we also do a lot with alternative technology, which is starting to be more mainstream in the public schools. Things like text to speech and speech to text applications (i.e., Dragon Dictation, Read and Write Gold) are being used more with students who struggle with those skills. I did a presentation last term in the Curriculum Design course on UDL and how those technologies, previously thought of as alternative are now being offered to all students who need them. We also see this today in the new mobile devices, with Siri on my iPhone, I can dictate a text message a lot faster than typing it out on those small keys! (I laugh at myself when I think how I resemble Scotty trying to talk into the mouse of a 20th century computer in //Star Trek IV//). So I do think that technology does drive society to a point, because until those technologies were available nobody really missed them, but now that they are available, we are all using them. If Apple hadn't developed the iPhone, would people be asking for that technology? Even before that, things that were developed for the space industry eventually trickled into society. But I also think that society decides what technologies will continue to survive and which ones will become obsolete, as in economics, it's all about demand.

I also think that technology integration goes beyond the classroom. As the ISTE technology standards state, we need to prepare students to be able to work in a society that uses technology to communicate across networks and continents, being the global economy we are now living in. They will need to collaborate with colleagues online from other cities, even countries. That's why learning to use //wikis, //or // Skype //or // Google Hangouts // to complete projects are lessons that students will use in their future lives. Vicky Davis and Julie Lindsay created an organization called the [|Flat Classroom Project] to teach educators how to reach out to others and collaborate between their classrooms. This project and the book were based on Thomas Friedman's book, **//The World is Flat// **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.5;">, which is about how our economy is now driven by the global marketplace. Teachers, as well, are now encouraged to have a PLN (Personal Learning Network) to reach out to other teachers for ideas and information, via Twitter and Nings and other social networking platforms.