Technology has a way of showing up in classrooms before anyone has figured out what to do with it. I’ve spent most of my career on the other side of that problem, helping educators and institutions make more intentional decisions about the tools they adopt and how they use them.
My background covers web development, instructional design, and accessibility. At Texas A&M, I spent years building out learning environments and training faculty and staff on technology. Not just how to use it, but why it mattered for their students. That work taught me that the most important question usually isn’t “what does this tool do?” It’s “what does this tool do to learning?”
At Apple, before I knew the names of the theories, I was already fascinated by how training could motivate people to pick up new concepts quickly. That curiosity is what pushed me back into school and eventually toward EdTech as a career.
More recently, as Digital Accessibility Manager for the University of Missouri System, I’ve been focused on the equity side of educational technology. Accessible design isn’t a box to check. It’s the baseline requirement for any technology to actually work for every learner. WCAG, assistive technology, and inclusive UX are now central to how I evaluate any platform or tool.
The frameworks I keep coming back to are Universal Design for Learning, the SAMR model, and constructivist learning theory. I’m most interested in how these hold up against emerging technologies and what the research actually shows when the initial excitement settles down.