Goals and Philosophy of Educational Technology Statement

Abigail Tanner

Oklahoma State University

Graduate Student
 My interest in technology came at a very young age. I never knew the extent of my

interest, though, until I went to college and realized that I loved working with computers and was

not afraid to take them apart or figure out how to work some new program. I was a Social

Studies Secondary Education major, so I did not get as much time, as I would have liked, to

explore my new-found passion. As I became a teacher and started researching new ways to

engage my students, I found a new way to pursue my passion, using technology in the classroom.

In 2009, I started working at Claremore High School where I taught Oklahoma History

and US History 1865 - Present. This was my first official year teaching and I didn’t have very

many resources. At this point, I was using many short video clips that I incorporated into my

lessons. Since Claremore was unable to rehire me due to the recession, I had a hard time finding

a new job. I decided to take some college classes to see if I needed to change directions in my

career. I completed courses in programming and web site design, but still had that passion to

teach. With this realization that teaching was still my passion, I decided that I just needed to find

a better way to incorporate my passion for technology and my passion for teaching together. In

2011, I got a job at Broken Arrow Public Schools teaching Western Hemisphere Geography. I

had an awesome department head that encouraged me to incorporate as much technology into the

classroom as I could. With her encouragement and help I finally figured out how to fit my two

passions together. As I continue my career in Broken Arrow, I have become an advocate for

using technology in the classroom. In 2014 I was selected for an extra duty position that dealt

with technology at my site. With this extra duty position, I get the opportunity to empower and

assist teachers in whatever technology they would like to use in their classroom. As our district

is becoming a 1:1 district we are focusing more on finding and teaching new ways for our

teachers to use technology daily within the classroom. I help teachers with flipping their
classroom. I do research and read articles on using technology in the classroom on a weekly if

not a daily basis. I get to be on the forefront of any new technology the district decides to use,

and I get to become the trainer and advocate for the technology in the classroom. I was also

asked to be on a team to help develop a procedure for using technology as a way for professional

development in our district.

I'm still not sure what my next step in educational technology is going to be. I still love

being in the classroom with students, but I also want to be able to the help teachers integrate

technology in their classrooms. I would like to be able teach a 1 to 1 classroom effectively in

order to give myself credibility for when I decided to leave the classroom. I believe that being a

specialist in technology in a school district or working in the private sector in an education

department of a technology company would be the careers that I would like to pursue. I would

like to help a district create a technology plan that would benefit them and help them along the

way until they are ready to run with it. I would also like to help develop software that would

benefit teachers.

I feel that many of our teachers are reluctant to change the way they teach. They are

nervous or unwilling to use technology in their classrooms. My passion has now become my

mission. I want to be able to teach teachers how technology in the classroom benefits students

and give them the tools to accomplish that. Teachers need to understand that technology is not

going away. They need to be able to find a balance between the traditional style of teaching and

adding technology into their teaching and I want to help them succeed in that.

I believe that students need to become proficient in the use of technology in order to be

prepared for the future, but also need to develop other skills that do not involve technology. I

also believe that technology must have a purpose when using it in the classroom or it is pointless.
Technology can be something that engages the learner and instead of the teacher being the sage

on the stage, I want to be in the midst of the students when they are working on a project. I have

found that when I incorporate technology into the classroom my students are more willing to do

the activity/assignment and they are engaged in the learning process. Technology is always

changing, and students can now see beyond their tiny world and get a broader perspective.