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.
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