Meet Ryan Wassink: Educational Technologist, Admin and Shop Teacher

If you’d like to be featured in our Meet the Edcampers series, fill out this form!

How are you involved in education?
I’m a certified Educational Technologist, District Administrator, and Technology Education (shop) teacher.  Although placed in a 6-8 classroom, my passion specifically focuses on education as a system – I enjoy working with custodians, cafeteria staff, nurses, teachers, administrators, bus drivers, coordinators, etc so that I can better understand the synergistic nature of the system that I’m a part of. Based on my observations I firmly believe that properly-configured technological systems can greatly increase the productivity of everyone in the school, which is why I am such an advocate for Educational Technology.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
1:1 laptop tablets (with a stylus, not a finger) that communicate with a classroom “server” so that all content is pushed and pulled wirelessly to clients during class.  Comfortable movable seating – couches, chairs, tables, foot rests.  Controlled natural lighting, 70-degree temperatures year-round, green plants and flowers located around the room.  Interactive Projection Devices (take the place of IWBs) around the room, teacher audio amplification device, and always-full water cooler.  Classroom would be wired for recording/playback of lessons for students who are absent or to allow for video conferencing.  Blended instruction.  And that’s just a start….

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
EduBloggerCon

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
“How we fix common classroom problems: a discussion about everything from pencil sharpeners to power saws”
or
“Creative writing via crowdsourcing: supporting ELA while having fun in any subject area.”

Do you have a website or blog?
Pedagology.net

Are you on Twitter?
@RjWassink

What is your favorite digital tool?
Twitter (#EdChat)