Effective integration and use of technology in schools--at the elementary level, specifically--is the focus of this curation. I have worked in elementary schools for more than 17 years and, over that time, have seen the advent of many new technologies. It has truly been an amazing time to have been working with students who are digital natives. The struggle has often been what to actually do with these amazing and powerful tools, however. I have found it helpful to keep in mind that whether it is the computer or device itself, website, software, or application, they are just that: tools. High-tech, digital tools are--not unlike slate and chalk before them--a means to an end and how they are used makes all the difference. The curation of these resources has served as a sort of thought experiment that allowed me to work through some of the issues I always felt had an impact on the use of instructional technology. Is it mindless, passive consumption of content? What meaningful products are students creating? What is this digital tool allowing students to do that they could not do before? Am I, the teacher, just replacing a non-digital resource with the same thing, but on a screen? How am I amplifying or transforming my students’ learning experiences by using this tool? Some of these issues I have faced directly and others I am simply aware of thanks to the experiences of others. None of them have been completely solved, nor will they ever. It has been helpful to keep in mind the overarching definition for integrating instructional technology that I found in the chapter from my first resource: “a goal-in-process, not an end state.” Each item in the curation finds its place, I believe, when viewed through that lens.
	Along with addressing effective instructional technology integration generally, the resources contained within this curation speak to the use of digital tools in the classroom from different perspectives. I find it both interesting and important to consider the perspectives of teachers, administrators, technology specialists, parents, and--perhaps most importantly--students. Painful as it may be for me to admit, I am now almost two generations removed from my youngest students. That fact alone means I cannot know or experience technology in the way my students do. Factoring in their perspectives is both necessary and vital to understanding how best to use tools that are no longer novel and rare. I believe these perspectives on effective integration and use of technology, taken together, provide an important insight into how teaching and learning will be taking place as we move further into the 21st-Century. It is the combination, though, of the philosophy that technology integration is a goal-in-process with the perspectives held by the stakeholders involved in the educational process that helps guide my thinking and action as I take on the leadership of a school’s instructional technology program.

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