Part+1.2+Begin+Comprehensive+Exam

FINAL VERSION Internship to Education Technology Joel Timothy Mellen LamarUniversity 1/16/2012

**Internship to Education Technology** I have a love of education, and ever since I graduated college, I’ve dreamed of working on and achieving a Master’s degree. Unfortunately life throws everybody curve balls, and it has taken a long time for me to be able to start my goal. While my original intentions was to achieve a Master’s degree in Computer Science, I felt this was an unrealistic goal due to that I would be required to attend courses and an unrealistic expense, so the next best things was to get a Masters degree in Education. When I started researching this degree I found that I could combine my efforts and work on a Master’s degree in Education Technology Leadership which would help with both of my goals of improving my ability to teach and give me a better understanding of Technology in the School system. **Leadership Goals** My final goal for my masters degree in Educational Technology leadership is to develop the skills and background knowledge to be Director of Technology of a School. In order to achieve my goal, the first step is to become a campus technologist for a local school. I hope on being hired for this type of positions in the next five years. As a campus technologist I will be able to learn what other teachers are doing with technology in the classroom. I will also be get a better grasp on the technical abilities of teachers in the use of technology, and what type of technology is needed in the basic classroom. It is also important to figure out what technology is the best in helping students learn. After being a campus technologist for 3 to 5 years I will then try to move up into a central office position in technology. This position should give me a better understanding of what the administration process is in education and how to deal with teachers and the low budget of education to get the most out of every dollar in education. My current final goal is to become the director of technology of a local school. While this position does not currently exist I believe school districts will start moving toward this position in the future. Currently this position in my school district is separated between 3 positions, a Campus technologist, an AP in charge of technology (who may or may not know technology) and a person in charge of campus computer maintenance. This position will be located at the school and will be similar to a campus Athletic Director or Athletic Coordinator who reports to both the campus principal and the Director of Technology for the School district. This person will be in charge of making sure the campus network is up and running and is in charge of all technology on the campus. The campus Director of technology will also be in charge of the campus technology budget and how to best distribute knew computers to the school and what is the best software for the campus. This position will also be the person who other people in the school including personnel, and students can go that have any technology positions. In order to maximize this position, I need to understand all areas of technology, including maintenance, networking, and software. I also need to understand how teachers use the technology in the classroom and ever changing legal impact of different software in the classroom. This position will also deal with a lot of communication between teachers and different software and hardware vendors to get the best technology that will be needed and used by the local campus.

**Vision** My vision of the future classroom matches a lot of what is in the 2011 Horizon Report. I feel that Cloud Computing is the way to go for budget strapped school districts, and Game-Based learning is a way to keep students involved, with many Universities and different government agencies already implementing Game-Based learning. I also believe that there are many parts of the 2010 Horizon Report that should also be a part of School systems including virtual classrooms, The largest disadvantage for students going to a rural high school over a larger urban high school is the different courses that an urban high school can provide. The reality is that smaller rural schools do not have the finances and resources to support some programs that a larger urban school can and do provide. This has been going on for some time, for instance, in 1985 Bruce Baker stated “Larger high schools can and do offer greater variety in their curricula offerings than do their smaller school counterparts.” This is just as true today. In January 2011, Governor Dave Heineman stated, “In ruralNebraska, it can be difficult to hire foreign language, math and science teachers.” While larger schools can offer more courses, the reality is that even the larger schools can struggle with offering all of the courses that some of their students want. Another example is Juan, a junior atKleinOakHigh School, with over 4000 students, who wants to take Advanced Latin as a senior. The problem is there is only one other student in the entire school that also wants to take that course at Klein Oak. The solution to schools not being able to provide the courses that all of their students want can be solved with the virtual classroom of the future. These virtual classrooms will exist in an augmented reality world with a game like environment. This new independent study class will have a teacher at one school who is in charge of students all working on different subjects with students from other schools. Each student will be in a virtual class with students from other schools working on the same subject. While this class will be similar to virtual conferencing already in place, it will also have some distinct differences. Already “videoconferencing use is associated with increased access, equal or better educational outcomes, and increases in positive attitudes towards technology use by participants.” (Anderson, Terry 2008) “Cloud computing is a set of strategies that distribute data, applications, and computing cycles across the many machines in such data centers, and even across data centers.” (2011 Horizon Report). Cloud computing allows students will be able to work on group projects together through the use of collaborative environments like Google docs. Students will also be monitored by the instructor to see what they are currently working on, or help students with problems through remote access viewers. In Cloud computing teachers can take advantage of a robust online environment to allow students to collaborate beyond the confines of the classroom with other not in the classroom. In fact, Lomas, Burke and Page note that “students use technology in natural ways that allow them to do what they want: communicate with anyone they want, in the time and space that suits them best” (2008). The best thing about Cloud Computing for a school district is price. For instance using Cloud computing allows for school districts not having to maintain as many services to back up data, and teachers and students can now use free on-line word document tools. “ The Kentucky Department of Education recently selected a cloud solution that provides its schools with tools for communication and collaboration. The estimated state savings is more than $6 million over the next four years”(Horizon Report 2011). Supporting tools used by students will lead to increased demand for processing power which will bring schools into the world of cloud computing. Eric Knorr and Galen Gruman state that cloud computing is “a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel or licensing new software.” This arrangement will allow schools to save on the cost of the physical infrastructure since they will only pay for the space used. Cloud computing also automatically adjusts to resource usage so as the demand increases the network would compensate. The Horizon report tells us that “we are likely to see significant investment in large-scale educational games.”(2010) Even though we call these educational learning program games, in reality they are not really games. Klopfer, Osterweil, and Salen tell us that “more academically oriented virtual worlds like Quest Atlantis and Whyville, both designed to engage kids in ideas connected to science, may use game-like elements like quests, experience points, and currency, but rarely function as games in and of themselves.” These educational games will allow students that have not been successful in the current educational environment a different way to learn. Already MIT has released the game “Vanished”. “Vanished is the first game of its kind, is intended to take the problem-solving and critical-thinking skills kids often develop playing other forms of video games, and translate those habits into a scientific context.” (Dizikes, 2011) Games can even be used to solve problems for instance Discover magazine reported that games helped solve problems for Aids research through the game Foldit. Games can also be used to learn new skills for instance Daily News and Analysis reported “that Young pilots of the Indian Air Force will now hone their flying skills on advance simulators which will train them in dealing with all possible operational requirements including stressful conditions.”
 * Virtual Classrooms**
 * Cloud Computing**
 * Game-Based Learning**
 * Responsibilities **

The world of computers is changing on a daily basis, while their will always be some teachers resisting any change in the classroom, there will also be teachers pushing the new technologies. It will be my responsibility in technology to keep track of new and emerging technologies and figure out which ones will stick around and are the best to help students learn and teachers teach. **References**: Anderson, Terry (2008) //Is Videoconferencing the Killer App for K-12 Distance Education?// Journal of Distance Education; 2008l 22, 2; Research Library pg.109. Bruce Baker (1985) Research in Rural Education, Volume 3, Number 1. //Curricular Offerings in Small and Large High Schools: How Broad is the Disparity// Retrieved from : [] on May 05, 2011 Daily News & Analysis //Advanced simulators help train IAF pilots// Retrieved from [] published September 12, 2011 Dizikes, Peter, MIT News //Learning through gaming// retrieve from [] Eric Knorr, Galen Gruman InfoWorld //What cloud computing really means// retrieved from [] originally published at InfoWorld.com retrieved on May 05, 2011 Eric Klopfe, Scot Osterweil, and Katie Salen (2009) //Moving learning games forward obstacles opportunities and openness// The Education Arcade retrieved from [] Lomas, C., Burke, M., & Page, C. L. (2008). Collaboration tools. //Educause Learning Initiative//, Retrieved from [] Nohr, Emily (2011) Virtual high school would offer options for rural students //McCook Daily Gazette// retrieved from [] on May 05, 2011 Tech-Faq //Augmented Reality// Retrieved from [] on May 05, 2011 The 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition retrieved from: [] on May 05, 2011 The 2011 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition retrieved from: [] on May 05, 2011