I've always had a thing for technology integration. It allows me to be incredibly creative and take my mind further than anywhere before. I started out with K-12 integration. I loved thinking of ideas. For my student teaching experience, I had my first graders creating weather news reports and then I videotaped them. But that wasn't the ingenious part. I also wanted the backdrop like a real weather studio where the picture of the sun appears in the background. Since we didn't have the green screen :) I used a PowerPoint presentation with a picture of Michigan and animated clipart. I projected this image onto the screen with a LCD projector and placed the students in front of the screen. Lukily, the picture of Michigan had water (which was light blue, almost white) so there was no funky image projected onto the students. It turned out super cute and the kids had a copy of their own weather forecast when we finished.
It makes me come alive along with my audience. I am incredibly passionate about what I do and I love the technologies becuase it introduces a new possibility into the classroom. That's why, when a new technology comes out, I want to know all about and think about how we could use it in the classroom. It's a new way to address learning and make it exciting.
Therefore, if I had to pick my one research area, it would be technology integration into educational learning experiences (especially creative ones). More specifically, I really enjoy anything with preservice teachers, exciting them about technology. I think it's all about the manner in which you teach. The university faculty are some of the most important influences on the way these students teach. That why I want to be a professor instead of a K-12 school teacher. Think of all the children I will be impacting by preparing better teachers. I'm not just teaching technology, I'm teaching teaching.
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