My mind is that of an IT guy but my heart has always been in Education. I spent nearly 20 years in the IT field, mostly in the Music Industry with a company called Promo Only. The problem with traditional IT for me was that I could never shake this urge to do something that actually helped people. This itch goes back to when I was a kid; I can remember exactly where I was and recall the very day when I first felt that itch.

I was in 7th grade, sitting in my pre-algebra class. Math never came easily to me (go figure, an IT guy who doesn’t like math). I remember I was learning about the fundamentals of factoring, which aside from FOIL is the something I’ve entirely forgotten. Confused and completely uninterested in what the teacher was teaching I recall saying to myself, “Someday when I grow up, I’m going to invent a better way for kids to learn this stuff.” It’s worth noting that I didn’t use the word “stuff”, I’ll let your mind wander with what vernacular a 12 year old might use instead.

Fast forward 25 years later and I find myself at Florida Virtual School. My team and I put together a piece of software we simply called C.A.T. that automates the process of delivering educational content for kids. It does much more than deliver content though, it enables instructors to pick and choose the content that speaks best to their kids. Teachers can literally mix-and-match learning material to find what works to advance each individual learning experience.

Reflecting on this I realized that I really had fulfilled a dream while at the same time understanding that we can do more.

What I do here at my Blog is talk about the things that I believe advance this dream and call attention to the technologies that shape us. While I don’t pretend to be a visionary or a futurist, I do believe that I can lend a voice to advance our mission as educators and ultimately to keep chasing that dream.

Thank you for reading.