- Promote teachers who are leading the way with effective integration techniques for technology and project-based learning

- Offer teachers a venue to conduct professional development workshops for others

- Provide a vital network and support structure for teachers who share similar work and teaching strategies

Kirsten Baesler

When I started as a librarian almost 15 years ago, my biggest fear was that a student would come into the library to do research on a topic for which we had no information. Since the introduction of technology, the biggest challenge I face is to teach both students and teachers how to critically evaluate the TREMENDOUS amount of information, resources and presentation options we have available. Now I am known as a Library Media Specialist and my role and responsibilities don't even resemble what they used to be. Technology opens many doors, but it also requires users to make the best choice based on accuracy, relevance, and currency. Throughout my career, I have been very involved in local, state, and national professional associations. I am a member of the International Society for Technology in Education and the American Library Association. I am a member of North Dakota Association of Technology Leaders and was fortunate enough to be able to advise our state leaders as they wrote the first-ever, combined, Library & Technology Literacy State Standards. The standards were published in July 2002, and are currently being implemented across the state. Locally, I was part of an 8-person team who wrote our school district's first comprehensive Technology Skills Scope and Sequence. That same team was given the task of writing the 5-Year Technology Plan for the Bismarck Public School District. We are currently establishing our baseline and designing technology goals that will affect over 10,000 students and 1,500+ employees for the next five years. I feel collaboration and integration are key for successful technology teaching and learning. Recently, a classroom teacher taught the skill of writing a traditional business letter. The teacher covered what basic parts each of those letters needed and the layout of each. I, then, covered the parts of an e-mail and, as a group, we discussed how e-mails have the same basic components of a friendly letter and business letter as well as having some additional components, such as a Subject field. Each student was given the name and e-mail address of an expert to coincide with the student's science research (which they were doing for their science fair). Students were asked to contact their expert in a business letter form via e-mail with a question. As teachers become more comfortable with technology I find myself doing more training and workshops for Webquests, QuizStar, and RubiStar. Our district has taken technology into the assessment area by testing each of our students in grade 2-8 three times a year in math and reading. All of the assessment tests are delivered online and students use laptop computers to complete each test. Although not high-stake testing, it has certainly brought technology into almost every classroom and to almost every student in a very real way. The future is exciting!

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