Fifteen years ago, I was a new teacher struggling to motivate my students to write problem-solving strategies in math. Despite my best efforts and enthusiasm, my students seemed bored and uninterested in the process. Desperate to find something to reach my students, I created an international telecommunications project, MathWorld Interactive, which involved my classes' problem solving with students around the world. My one-computer classroom became part of the global community. What occurred was nothing short of a miracle as my students developed into willing and excited participants in their problem-solving activities. They not only wanted to involve themselves in the process, they began to surpass and excel at the skill. It would be correct to say that it was my students and their remarkable academic growth that created my philosophy on educational technology.

It is not enough for us, as educators, to simply meet the needs of our diverse student population. Instead, we must strive to surpass meeting their needs and bring about growth. We have available to us a tool that hooks our students into lessons, motivates them to excel, allows for diversity in learning styles, and encourages creativity and vision. That tool is technology and it is our responsibility as educators to incorporate and use this knowledge so that we facilitate higher-order thinking skills and help students realize their potentials. In addition, we must share and work cooperatively with our administrators and peers so that all students are able to benefit from this rich resource. I have yet to meet an educator who, when presented with information or a tool that clearly benefits students, does not eagerly work to embrace and integrate it into their curriculum. Working as a professional learning community to share our technology successes is a vital step in the educational process to benefit our students.

Technology has done for me, personally, what I want it to do for my students. I have the tool to "think outside the box" and challenge myself to find innovative ways to encourage learning in my students. I created and managed MathWorld Interactive and GeographyWorld Interactive for nine years. Students in grades K-12 involved in this project worked to solve open-ended word problems in written form with students around the world while sharing cultural and geographical information. MathWorld Interactive's archives are still available at http://mathforum.org/~carolm/index.html.

I am fortunate to be at Hillcrest Middle School, a recipient of the TIP (Technology Immersion Pilot) grant. Each student is issued a laptop computer, and this has taken my integration of technology in the classroom to a new level. Most of our students have never had an opportunity to work with technology outside of a classroom lab. There are simply no words to describe the experience of watching these students eagerly researching or working with an online activity to further their knowledge and then sharing their pride as they meet success. And, just as it was fifteen years ago, the students are my inspiration behind my own philosophy of educational technology. They have taught me to remain open to new ideas, to be willing to take a risk, and to challenge myself to be better than I was yesterday.