I had the pleasure of visiting with Dr. Cyndi Danner Kuhn at Kansas State University. She teaches teacher education technology courses and assists faculty with learning to integrate technology into their teaching. Cyndi is a wealth of information when it comes to technology resources for teachers, and I felt very lucky to have the chance to visit with her. I wanted her to help me understand what it takes for teachers to successfully integrate technology into their teaching - beyond having the hardward. Throughout our discussion, she focused on these points.

1. The number one thing is for teachers to have access. All too often school districts put limits on the Internet that keep teachers from being able to successfully use technology in their teaching. Instead of blocking almost everything and letting only a few websites come through, the Internet should be open, with only a few sites (inappropriate ones) blocked. For many school districts, this is a huge shift in the thinking used to make such decisions.

2. Bravery and a willingness to take risks are crucial for teachers to step out of their technology comfort zone. Cyndi often spoke about the fact that success breeds success. When a teacher tries something new with technology and it's successful, he/she becomes excited and wants to try something else. This enthusiasm is often contagious to other colleagues, and then things just take off.

3. Underlying the integration of technology into instruction is an attitude of sharing. This attitude is not limited to education though. There is a whole culture of sharing that encompasses the Internet. Blogs, tweets, Facebook, emails, vodcasts, videos, all reflect a person's desire to share with others. Do these things represent an innate need to be heard? Cyndi emphasizes the importance of having students create projects that can be shared with others. This act of sharing causes students to step up the quality of their work a couple of notches, since they know that others will be seeing it. Sharing also gives us a reason to create something - not just because it's an assignment from the teacher. Cyndi emphasized that there are tons of free resources where students can create projects to share with others. It makes me almost ashamed that I have been teaching the students in my language arts classes about publishing student writing in only paper form.

4. An important realization for teachers must be that things that are created for the Web are not ever really finished. We must help students move away from the notion that you complete a project and it's finished. Things like wikispaces and blogs are works in progress. Along this same line is the realization that there are several ways a project could be created on the Web and one way is not the "right" way. I think sometimes teachers hold back on using technology because they are not sure what is the "right" or best way. Do I share this information on a website, in a blog, on a wiki, or through a podcast? Each one is different and can be used effectively, depending on your purpose.

Above all, Cyndi emphasized that integrating technology should be fun for the teacher and students. Having fun is what seems to drive Cyndi to continue in this work, and her enthusiasm is contagious. I came home and was going on and on to my husband about the cool resources she shared with me!

http://www.cyndidannerkuhn.info/CDK/Home.html - Cyndi's webpage including links to her college class, blog, contact information, and the free newsletter she publishes

http://technologykeys.wikispaces.com/ - Wiki created by Cyndi and Mary Frazier that has TONS of resources for teachers