Week 5 Assignment: Course Reflections

Based on the title of this course, I envisioned increasing my background in the area of technology integration and the issues related to it. This was one outcome that was definitely achieved. Although a number of articles felt slightly outdated and some were a bit redundant, I did get the opportunity to review some issues I was aware of and also reflect on a few issues I had not given as much thought. Unfortunately, I often grew frustrated by the discussion assignments associated with the readings which limited my engagement with the material at times. Another outcome I envisoned was an opportunity to experience and work with a variety of the technology that is now available for use in education. This is an outcome that was not achieved through this course. Overall, I would say that the actual course outcomes were not very well aligned with what I had envisioned for the course.

Focusing on the outcome of increasing my knowledge of the issues that surround technology and the integration of technology into education, I feel I did learn some new information while refining my awareness of some of the things I already knew about. They are extremely relevant to my current work as the technology teacher and technology liaison on my campus and it was definitely beneficial to spend some time looking over the state plans for technology and the plans my district has laid out. Looking at the trends on my campus over the past three years has also provided me with a great deal of information I can use to help guide future goal-setting and decision-making in the area of technology at my school. In this area I achieved the outcome of being more prepared to be a leader in technology decision-making on my campus through the work done in this class.

Unfortunately as I finish this course, I do not feel any more experienced with the technology tools that are available to educators. The opportunity to create a blog was useful, but I did not like the limitation of the powerpoint presentation from the second week. There are a number of other Web 2.0 tools available that could have been explored to expose us to what is available. These include prezi.com and ahead.com. Once we were past the second week, it felt like the class focused solely on the issues of technology integration but there was very little hands-on work. This was disappointing to me as I feel unprepared to go back to my school and share anything new. In week four’s assignment, I was able to explore a few things when planning professional development activities, but the resources I used were ones with which I was already familiar based on previous experience. The failure in this area could be due to my misperception about what this course would involve, but I also feel it is something to consider for the future of this course.

In this course, I was able to complete all of the assignments and feel fairly successful in them when I finished. For the most part I was satisfied with my products, but not as much with the process. The assignments later in the course were extremely frustrating due to unclear expectations. In speaking with other students in the course, I heard the same concerns from others. As educators we hear time and time again about establishing clear expectations for our students, especially when doing more project-based learning. As a result it becomes extremely frustrating as a student when I feel like I do not know what is expected of me. This led to a great deal of discouragement and lack of motivation to continue on. Initially, I was extremely interested in taking this course and felt rather let down as I worked through the assignments each week.

This course gave me the opportunity to examine additional information regarding technology and refine my attitudes and beliefs in regard to the issues. t did not change any of my basic feelings about it, but I did have the chance to consider some different points-of-view and heighten my awareness. I also found some of the information frustrating when taking it back to my campus because I am able to see how my campus would benefit from administration considering some of the same issues we learned about in this course. Unfortunately, my current principal has her focus when it comes to technology and it will take time to educate her on the issues that extend beyond purchasing of new equipment. I feel that my attitudes about technology and education are in alignment with what experts are discussing at this point and at the same time I have also come to realize that I may be more of a digital native than my colleagues. Many of them are complete digital immigrants and that is an issue that always needs to be kept in mind.

As mentioned before, I was glad to have the opportunity to develop my own blog. Blogs and blogging have a great deal of educational value in the 21st century classroom and in a world where students are used to being able to create and be heard. Blogs provide opportunities for students and teachers to learn from each other while sharing their opinions and knowledge. It can also help students develop their own “voice” as they contribute. Blogging also provides the opportunity for collaboration and community building which is something that many students thrive on. This interactive quality can lead to increased enthusiasm and student buy-in as well. One of the greatest aspects of value in terms of technology intergration is that blogging provides teachers with the opportunity to teach writing skills that are based in real-life applications. It also provides the opportunity to teach students about the responsibilities they have when writing for a public audience. So it goes beyond the simple act of blogging to provide teachable moments that are relevant to the future of our students.

As with any activity involving use of the internet there are safety concerns that must be addressed. Just as we teach students about safety in their offline lives, as educators we have a responsibility to teach our students how to be safe in their online lives. Out of all the readings done in this course, there is one quote that is still with me. In the article Cyberbullies, online predators, and what to do about them, J.A. Hitchcock sums it up with the following, “if you wouldn’t say it to a complete stranger on the street, then do not ‘say’ it online.” With this sentiment in mind, I feel we can guide lessons on how to be safe when participating in activities such as blogging. Another concern is one that occurs in classrooms and any situation where students are working together and it is the issue of bullying. Cyber-bullying is just as dangerous as other forms and must be taken seriously. If expectations are made clear in the beginning and students agree to follow the guidelines, the risk can be greatly reduced. The areas of concern can be greatly reduced by setting up clear-cut expectations and consequences just as teachers do with other projects they use in their classrooms. Teaching about responsibility will also greatly reduce the threats and the issues many use to speak out against educational blogging.

Blogging is not only a tool to be used in the classroom and would be a good way to keep communications with stakeholders up-to-date. It is much more convenient to make post to a blog than to log in and format a new page or update on the school website. Anything that makes it easier and saves even a few minutes is an easy thing to share with my colleagues. Those are the types of things they are extremely interested in learning about. As a technology leader on campus, there are a number of different ways blogging can be used to communicate with different groups of stakeholders. Just as teachers can use a blog to communicate with parents, school leaders could do the same. I feel that use of a blog to make announcements to faculty could also be of great benefit on many campuses. Not only would information be available 24/7, it would automatically be archived in the blog as well. It would be available to later access or for documentation if an issue was to arise based on something from earlier in the school year. In the school setting, blogs could serve a wide variety of purposes and reach out to the full-range of stakeholders.

Week 4 Assignment, Part 3: Evaluation Planning for Action Plan

My Technology Professional Development Action Plan for Ford Elementary, Conroe ISD can be found here.

Week 2 Assignment, Part 3 - Ford Elementary STaR Chart

Analysis of Ford's STaR chart shows a number of strengths and weaknesses. We have strenghts in Leadership and Administration and in our Infrastructure. Over the past year and a half we have worked to address weaknesses from prior years, turning them into strengths. But we still have areas to improve upon, such as Educator Preparation. We have focused our financial efforts on improving our student to computer ratio and updating other equipment, but we now need to focus our time resources on ensuring that teachers are prepared to use and integrate technology effectively in the classrooms.

Week 2 Assignment, Part 2 - STaR Chart

The area of Educator Preparation is an area that is often neglected but one that is essential to the successful integration of technology. If teachers are not prepared to work with the technology, it is difficult for them to provide those opportunities to their students. The areas addressed by the School Technology and Readiness (StaR) Chart in regards to Educator Preparation are the content and models of professional development, the capabilities of educators, access to professional development, levels of understanding and patterns of use of technology, and professional development for online learning.

Progress has been made in the area of Educator Preparation at a state level and on my campus. In the 2006-2007 school year, 8.2% of campuses in Texas rated themselves at the early tech level. 74.0% rated themselves at the developing tech level while 17.0% ranked at the advanced tech level. 0.7% rated themselves at the target tech level in Educator Preparation. A great deal of improvement was made based on the 2007-2008 results. Early tech dropped from 8.2% to 5.4% while developing tech remained almost constant at 17.2%. Texas campuses rating themselves at the advanced tech level increased to 19.9% while target tech dropped to 0.6%. There was nice growth in the number of campuses at the advanced level and it will be interesting to see the summary for the 2008-2009 school year once it is available.

Over the past three years, my campus has remained fairly steady in the area of Educator Preparation, rated at the developing tech level. In 2006-2007 the total score in this area was 13 which fell in 2007-2008 to 12. Last year it remained at 12 once again. I feel this is a low score for our campus and an area of concern. We have focused most of our efforts, especially our financial resources on the other areas, and I believe this year we would benefit from focusing our time resources on providing more opportunities for out teachers. Many of our teachers are excited about their new equipment and new access to online resources, but many are also intimidated by all of it. My suggestion would be a shift in focus from the amount of computers and programs we are providing to a focus on preparing our teachers to put all of it to use. This is the key for success in integration at my school.

Week 1 Assignment, Part 4 – Technology Applications TEKS Summary

PreK Technology Applications TEKS
PreK Technology Applications Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) encourage students to expand their skills in acquisition of information, problem solving, and communication. The end of year outcomes for prekindergarten students highlights the importance of student control over a variety of technology devices. The student is expected to operate a variety software programs to reinforce concepts and to express own ideas. The student is also expected to use a variety of input sources, including both the keyboard and mouse, and to operate sound recording devices, such as CD players, appropriately. Finally, the student is expected to understand that information is available through the use of technology and to learn new information through interactions with technology.

The PreK Technology Applications TEKS lay the groundwork for students in future grades by familiarizing them with the basic operations of available technology. Exposure in prekindergarten provides experience with technology as a learning tool to enhance and enrich the curriculum. The development of basic skills for students who may or may not have access to computers in their own homes allows the students to be familiar with technology that will probably be available in their kindergarten classrooms.

Technology Applications TEKS
The Technology Applications TEKS are a dynamic and scaffolding curriculum. This means that the curriculum provides more support to students in the early stages of learning followed by opportunities to practice skills with greater independence and responsibility. By gradually removing the amount of support provided, students become more independent and promote their own learning and growth. This is the case with the Technology Applications TEKS as students move from kindergarten through the elementary grades to eighth grade. Skills are introduced and support is provided until students reach the higher levels of mastery.

An example of this is shown in the Information Acquisition strand of the Technology Applications TEKS. The fifth skill states that the student acquires electronic information in a variety of formats, with appropriate supervision. The student is expected to: (A) acquire information including text, audio, video, and graphics, and (B) use on-line help. These skills are introduced in prekindergarten and kindergarten with additional instruction and exposure in first grade. Students are expected to be at a more advanced level by second grade and continue at this level through third, fourth, and fifth grades. A similar expectation is found under the next objective which states that the student evaluates the acquired electronic information. The student is expected to: (A) determine the success of strategies used to acquire electronic information, and (B) determine the usefulness and appropriateness of digital information. Once again, these are skills introduced in prekindergarten and kindergarten. Students are expected to be at more advanced levels by first and second grade. As students continue through third, fourth, and fifth grades they are expected to continue to advance until they have reached levels of mastery in fifth grade. These two TEKS are just two examples of how the levels of mastery increase as the skills are introduced and reinforced. The skills only change slightly as student progress through their education but the levels of expectation increase. Students are not expected to master an objective the first year it is introduced.

Week 1 Assignment, Part 3 – Key Ideas of the Long-Range Plan for Technology

The Long-Range Plan for Technology was new information for me. I was aware of the Technology Applications Standards for teachers and the Technology Applications TEKS, but I did not know about the Long-Range Plan. It was very interesting to explore and contained a great deal of information. I feel the information is very beneficial to me in my current position as I work closely with administration on technology planning. This year we received stimulus money to be used on technology for our campus so we have spent many hours analyzing how our funds could best be put to use. Based on the Long-Range Plan for Technology, I feel that we have been focusing our efforts in the proper areas as we have focused on some basic technology needs that can be easily integrated into the daily curriculum such as projectors and document cameras. One area of weakness based on the Long-Range Plan is professional development. On my campus we could definitely improve in this area by focusing more time on providing instruction-driven staff development in the use of our new equipment to ensure that we are using it to best meet the needs of our students. Overall, I am pleased that I was introduced to this document and that I now have it as a tool to revise campus goals and to guide the development of new campus goals in the future.

Week 1 Assignment, Part 1A: Requisite Technology Skills Assessment

The Technology Applications Inventory and the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) survey were both extremely interesting to me as I very involved with the technology on my campus this year. It is my first year as our campus technology teacher and I am also the campus technology liaison. These assessments helped reinforce known strengths in the area of my personal use and experience with technology and the use of technology on my campus. At the same time, they helped me to pinpoint areas of weakness that I can now focus on.

The Technology Applications Inventory was rather simple for me to complete although I was surprised by some of my results. Before I began reading through the items, I felt confident that I would be able to mark yes on all of them, but as I went through the domains and honestly considered each item, I found some areas where I could improve upon what I already know. One area of weakness I knew I had fell under the Foundations domain in regards to proper citations of sources. This is an area I have always struggled with retaining. In the past I have research how to cite a variety of different types of sources and every time I am in a situation that calls for it, I find myself looking it up again. This is an area I can definitely work on retention of knowledge. Most of my remaining areas of weakness fell under the domain of Solving Problems with Technology Tools. This is an area where I have not reached my full potential. My limited experience with databases is an area I have always wanted to explore more. This inventory has highlighted that weakness once again and brought it to forefront of items to consider for improvement. I feel this inventory provided a very accurate picture of my personal technology use and I agree with the items that were identified as being core skills as well as the items the inventory pinpointed as my weaknesses.

The SEDTA survey I chose to complete was for my building. This was a decision I made based on my position and the responsibilities I have as the technology liaison for my campus. This survey required more thought and analysis than the Technology Applications Inventory, but I also agreed with the areas it highlighted as strengths and weaknesses on my campus. Recently we have focused our efforts on equalizing our technology to meet the basic provisions of the new campuses in our district. This year we purchased projectors and webcams/document cameras for all of our classrooms. We have also worked to ensure a low student to computer ratio to allow access for students. Now our main area of weakness involves the integration of the technology into our curriculum. Many teachers on my campus see technology as something completely separate from what they are doing in their classrooms. This year I hope to use the teachers who have embraced it to, along with myself, act as mentors and leaders as we move to a different way of thinking.

Overall, I felt that these assessments were very beneficial in encouraging me to take a closer look at an area in which I consider myself very competent. By taking the time to honestly analyze each item, I now have a new awareness of where I should focus my efforts to best strengthen myself as a leader in technology knowledge and skills.