Hi!

I'm the Technical Support Alpha Geek at the Georgia Department of Education, Educational Technology Training Center located at Macon State College.  Our web site is located at http://www.etcmcn.org and the gateway site to all the Educational Technology Training Centers is located at: http://www.ga-edtech.org.

After spending twenty years and twenty-seven days in the US Army, I retired, returned to my home town of Fort Valley, GA and went to work for the Georgia Department of Education.  Since I served in a combat zone (Viet Nam) and returned home in one piece, I guess I'm one of those Disgruntled Military Veterans.  According to the Department of Homeland Security "rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat."  I haven't been contacted yet but I'm certainly Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Pro-Liberty, Pro-Freedom, Anti-Big-Government and as a Mormon (member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) I'm definitely a suspicious character.  ;-)

I ran the Educational Technology Training Center (ET²) in Fort Valley from its inception (April 1987) until it was closed and its functions transferred to the Macon Educational Technology Center.  The Macon center was originally located in the Cigna building on Arkwright Road hosted by Georgia College and State University.  Later it was moved to its current location in the Educational Technology Center (the old Lecture Complex) on the Macon State College campus.

Our primary role is to provide professional learning, consulting, and service for Georgia educators to promote the appropriate use of technology in support of teaching, learning, and leadership. Our goals include promoting the use of a variety of technologies in improving student achievement across Central Georgia, establishing strategic and productive methods for the use of instructional technologies, developing effective training in the use of instructional technologies, promoting the development of emerging and innovative instructional technologies and  working collaboratively with Macon State College's School of Education and the Middle Georgia RESA to support the educational mission of the Georgia Department of Education.

The Governor's 2011 budget recommendation removed funding for the Educational Technology Centers and RESAs.  He did this last year but funding was restored by the legislature and we hope the same will happen this year.  If funding is not restored I may be joining the ranks of the retired/unemployed in July.  Since we are managed by a Board of Regents facility, Macon State College, we are subject to the furloughs they have planned.

You can contact me at:
     ed@egowen.net (personal) or
     egowen@etcmcn.org or to be painfully complete Edward_Gowen@email.etcmcn.org (work)
Yes, I have a slew of other email addresses but these are the ones I check on a regular basis.  J Note:  The email addresses above have been obfuscated to prevent harvesting by spam bots. To learn how this is done, visit the web site at: http://alicorna.com/obfuscator.html

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