As an educator, helping students form new, significant life experiences is the essence to why I am always excited to teach. I am motivated to ensure students understand all concepts of using technology and the process of technology adoption. It is critical to prepare students on how to apply the course concepts in the real world so that can successfully implement technology oriented systems. My previous work experiences of helping faculty develop course curriculums and my own online teaching experiences have helped me to become a successful educator. Having worked in the information technology field for over ten years, I have been exposed to many technologies and tools that work well in certain environments and many technologies that do not work based on the students’ needs. I ensure that I am always using the best technologies possible and that students are getting the best possible experience.
In the classroom, I inspire learning by using information technology tools, virtual guest speakers (when possible), and current research. Information technology has produced various active learning tools, blogs, engaging multimedia, and other technologies, like Twitter, Instagram and VoiceThread, which are often integrated into my classroom. I help students create connections to why the course content is relevant to them. Being a professional educator today requires the instructor to be flexible with course design and delivery and responding to meet the needs of all students. The use of web-based and mobile tools is used in all courses I teach (e.g. VoiceThread, Thinglink, etc.), which, I believe, helps strengthen the student-teacher relationship and build better professional networks. I provide multiple technologies and opportunities to students to ensure they have the opportunity to be in communication with me, even if it is a phone call from me asking how the course is going. I also enjoy the prospect of employing new collaboration and communication technologies to better engage students. As a professional educator, I believe course curriculum needs to always be changing and it is my job to find the best tools and technologies that will meet the students’ needs successfully. Ultimately learning is a choice; therefore, I strive to help students learn and become lifelong learners.