John Lehman

EDT646

Assignment 9

4-11-06

Future Plans

I am on course for completing my program this summer and should graduate with my Master’s degree in Educational Technology in July. Upon reaching this milestone, my current plans are to continue teaching in an elementary classroom. Even though I will be qualified to become a technology leader within a district, I don’t currently plan on doing so. I very much enjoy working with students and wish to stay in that role. I ultimately plan on becoming a technology leader at the building level, where I can still work with the students. My district currently has these positions at the middle and high school levels, but my dream job is to hold one of these positions at an elementary level. Someday I know that the resources will be dedicated to technology at an elementary level, until that day I will continue integrating technology within my teaching and being a mentor to other colleagues.

Even though I don’t plan on moving out of the classroom at the current time, I know that my technology knowledge and training will help me continue to mentor my fellow professionals and instruct students in this area. I enjoy using many forms of technology to enhance my teaching. Until now, I have had a limited time to fully integrate technology into my teaching because of my commitments to my graduate program and other responsibilities. I am finally looking forward to having some extra time next year with my program being done to increase the level of technology currently being used in my classroom. I will also continue to be a leader to the other teachers in my building and mentor them to increase their awareness to how technology can help their lessons and classroom. I should also have some additional time to possibly write grants for additional technology purchases in my classroom and at my building.

As for my future plans that will keep me employable in a flatter world, I plan on becoming more of a leader with professional development at my building. This along with additional grant writing and the mentoring of other teachers will help to further expand my experience as a leader within the area of educational technology. Leadership experience should help me be more desirable to other districts and/or other industries if anything should happen to my current job. I am very lucky to have a job that is not easily outsourced or off-shored. However, this doesn’t mean that technology in the next 10 years could change all of that. So I need to keep on top of current technology trends and be willing to adapt so that I can remain successful in the “flat” world.

Friedman’s book really helped me to realize the importance of being flexible and being willing to adapt in order to be successful in a “flat” world. Before reading his book, I often found myself thinking and feeling as others do about the job losses in America. I no longer think of it this way. I now see it as job transformations instead of job losses. Unfortunately, our leaders stress job losses instead of providing retraining opportunities for the manufacturing workers that have lost their jobs to outsourcing and off-shoring. As the world becomes even more “flat”, we can not expect manufacturing companies to keep jobs here in America and pay 2-3 times the amount they can pay someone overseas. We can also no longer expect that a worker can be lifelong employed and retire from a manufacturing job. We need to move our economy away from manufacturing type jobs to more of the science and engineering based jobs that we are currently in a shortage of. This was another area that I wasn’t extremely familiar with before reading Friedman’s book. I am now stressing this important fact to my students. If they choose to go into either science or engineering, they can expect to easily find a great job. Many students didn’t realize this.

So realizing the importance of being flexible and keeping one marketable, I know that I must also do the same. I am lucky to feel secure in my current job, but so did most automobile workers 10 years ago. The ever-increasing advancements in technology can change my job security very quickly. Continuing to update and modify my niche will help me remain lifetime employable. I plan on doing this by keeping current on technology trends, improving my leadership skills, and being flexible to change positions if it is in my long-term advantage.