Who+We+Are

**Learning 2025** is an educational technology consulting firm that advises schools, districts, colleges, universities, and governmental agencies on how to integrate technology into their educational programs. Our firm is made up of Sara Bates, Pamela Murray, Alexandra Rhine, and Kathryn Wyss. We feel that a strong emphasis should be placed on what we teach and how we teach it. Because of the advancement of information and communication technology, the role of the teacher and the role of learner are ever evolving; and our curriculum and pedagogy must continually change to meet the demands of our changing society and ensure the success of our learners in the global economy now and in the future.

====**Sara Bates** is a special education teacher at Abingdon High School in Abingdon, IL. Sara is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in from the University of Illinois in Curriculum, Technology and Education Reform.====

====**Pamela Murray** is a special education inclusion teacher at East Richland High School in Olney, IL. She has taught at the elementary and high school levels in both self-contained and inclusion classrooms. Besides teaching in the East Richland School District, she also taught for five years at Amelia High School, West Clermont School District, in Cincinnati, OH. She graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a Bachelor's of Science in Elementary Education and also earned a Special Education Certification. Currently Pamela is pursuing her Master's in Educational Psychology emphasis in Curriculum, Technology, and Education Reform from the University of Illinois.====

====**Alexandra (Allie) Rhine** is currently a 6th grade math and science teacher at Oriole Park School in Chicago, Illinois. She has also taught 4th grade for three years prior to teaching 6th grade. She graduated from the University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana with a Bachelor's of Science in Elementary Education with a middle school endorsements and a concentration in mathematics. Allie is currently pursuing her Masters in Education also from U of I in Curriculum, Technology, and Education Reform.====

====**Kathryn (Katie) Wyss** is currently a biology teacher at East Aurora High School in Aurora, Illinois, located approximately 35 miles west of Chicago. Since 2009, Kathryn has been a science teacher for District's Magnet Academy, which was designed to focus on Math, Science, and Technology. The Magnet Academy will be in its 4th year serving students from 3rd grade through 11th grade. Prior to teaching at EAHS, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Secondary Education from Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois. Kathryn is currently pursuing her Masters in Education from the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign in Curriculum, Technology, and Educational Reform.====

**The Project**
====**Learning 2025** was started as a result of a group project assigned by Karen Hamilton, EPSY 556: Analysis of Advanced Instructional Learning Technologies, a required class in the Curriculum, Technology, and Education Reform Master's program at the University of Illinois.====

====//"The goal of this inquiry-based course is for you, as an educator, to define and to begin to answer the question "what does the future of learning look like"? In doing so, you will be asked to critically consider emergent and advanced learning technologies such as Web 2.0 media and other digital technologies, and how their integration in the classroom may transform the way we teach and the way students learn and what a future learning environment may look like. To do this, you will be designing the classroom or learning space of tomorrow. The focus of the course has you exploring and evaluating advanced technologies and the means by which educators learn about them and sustain them in a learning environment. Your goal is to determine how best to engage these technologies and in so doing, determine new ways to construct and share knowledge. This course is designed to assist you in identifying, analyzing and evaluating new media and digital technology so that you determine exemplary practices in the uses of advanced instructional technologies as they relate to the learning environment. The course aims to provide you with practical experiences that are framed within theories related to blended learning, digital (and other new) literacies, ubiquitous learning, and creativity."//====

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