Reflecting back over a century ago to the small village of Menlo Park, New Jersey provides insight into a remarkable visionary and an exceptional role model for today's problem-solving and design-focused technology educator: Thomas A. Edison, inventor, innovator, and model technology educator. Since Edison could not simply apply existing knowledge to industrial ends, he was forced to develop a system for creating new knowledge, disseminating it amongst his team, and then discovering how to apply that new knowledge. Recognizing Edison's incorporation of team-based, cooperative learning into his development process is essential to appreciating his success and his influence today. In this article, the authors suggest that technology education might benefit by mentoring its future educators on the experiences of innovators like Thomas A. Edison. This standard for the profession will overshadow the current legislation's definition of a "highly qualified teacher" and provide the nation's students the environment to develop the requisite skills for today's technological society. (Contains 1 table.)