My name is Randy Orwin and I am currently the sole proprietor and consultant at Orwin Consulting. I have a masters degree in Instructional Technology and spent the last 9 years as the Director of Technology at Bainbridge Island School District in Washington State. I am a Novell Certified Engineer and have the Comptia A+ and Network+ certifications.  I have also done a variety of commercial web site gigs.

I am a strong advocate for Open Source software and have spent countless hours working to implement a variety of Open Source applications both on the server and desktop sides.  By using Open Source software my previous school district was able to save or provide nearly $100,000 worth of services each year.

Prior to becoming a tech director I spent 12 years in the classroom and 2 years as a library media specialist.  While teaching in the classroom I spent 12 years teaching high school band, jazz band, percussion and elementary band.  I spent 2 years teaching choir and 1 year teaching 7th grade general music.  On the core subjects side, I spent 7 years teaching advanced ecology and biology and 5 years teaching Novell's Certified Netware Administrator program to high school students.

During my time as a teacher I was my district's Internet specialist for 13 years and have done technology related training/professional development for the last 23 years.  I am a firm believer that it is not about the technology but all about instruction.  Technology is just another tool for teachers to use to impact teaching and learning.  Technology should never be used as a stand-alone tool unless you are specifically teaching the use of a particular tool for the sake of teaching the tool, like teaching Photoshop in a high school vocational class.

I am passionate about teaching and learning and the integration of technology into what we do as teachers every day.  It is all about good instruction.