Week 5 Work
Article/Resource Review (Professional Development in Instructional Technology)
The resource I looked at discussed issue that buying technology is all good and well but you have to probide the training for that technology if you want it to be successfully implemented. It talks about how one-time or sit-and-get training sessions are not effective when learning how to use technology. Many districts use these types of training sessions to teach their teachers but it often leaves the teachers wanting more. The article also discusses that providing this professional development must be an integral part of the school/districts improvement plans.
The article then goes on to discuss the components that should be involved to make the professional development most effective. From making it a hands-on experience to collegial studies, from curriculum specific applications to administrative support, the article offers many components to make any professional development successful. The article gives great ideas of how to incorporate these components and make everyone on the same page in the professional development.
The article also talks about the roles teachers, administrators, the technology planning team, and parents/community members should play in professional development. It talks about specific roles for each group to make the professional development a success for everyone. It also discusses how to get the most for the money you are spending and how to properly allocate funds to make technology use successful for all involved.
I really enjoyed looking through this article. It had great ideas that would be easy to implement at any time. The article gave a wide range of ideas and help to a school district that is struggling with successful professional development. I think this article is great for any professional development staff to look at.
Rodriguez, Ginger (2000). Critical Issue: Providing Professional Development for Effective Technology Use. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from North Central Regional Education Laboratory Web site: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te1000.htm
Week 4 Work
Evaluating the School District of Waukesha's Technology Plan
The first thing I noticed about the technology plan for Waukesha was its length. But after further review realized it was actually only 67 pages with 130 pages of appendices. Then I noticed after actually getting into reviewing it that they must have very closely followed the Technology Plan Review that the DPI provides. Each section was clearly labeled and easy to find if you are looking for something specific in the plan. The background, goals, and objectives are stated nicely and are easy to find.
The background gives a nice overview of the district as a whole. If I was someone viewing this plan from the outside, I would be able to get a good picture of the make-up of the community and schools. It also gives student demographics based on race and the percent of students who receive free or reduced lunches. The plan also gave a great review of the history of technology in the school district. When major things were implemented, referendums passed to help information technology increase, and the number of trained professionals. It also talked about other major things which were put into place in the school including the virtual high school and Blackboard access.
The plan then goes on to discuss the current status of the teachers which was determined by a group of teachers who were helping to develop and implement the plan. The plan discusses the current staff proficiency on different topics and the goals for where they want the teachers to be. THe district also requires new hires to take a technology information class in their first 3 years of teaching, which is a goal of the district. I also found it interesting that the plan discussed student proficiency.
I like how the Effective teaching practices was presented. It first discussed the current status of teachers, students and the general community. Then it went in to talk about the current practices and curriculum in the school school, before talking about research being done on the topic. Finally it talked about where the district wants or can improve in this area. Many other areas of the plan were discussed in this way, including; the access to information resources and resources and fixed assets.
The part I found most interesting is the part where the areas of need are discussed. It really shows you where a school district likes to place their emphasis and what they find most important. Waukesha seems to value teacher collaboration, training, and use of technology in order to make student learning more effective.
Now after starting to write this I have realized that each part which we are looking for to review based on the Technology Plan review form is easy to find and recognizable. The hard part to see with the plan, though, is that so much has changed in the past three years since this is written. One goal was to increase the number of technology resource teachers, but with our budget cuts those were all but eliminated. Also we are getting better and newer technology in the schools, which the money is coming from the referendum, but there is not much support if this equipment is not working properly. I do believe the plan is good and well designed, the downfall is that the goals and objectives are so vague and not typically carried out fully, yet still "achieved" because of the vagueness of the goal. I think more regular updates would be nice to see, especially to see if the goals are rreally being carried out as said. And with the district changing so drastically in the past few years it would be interesting to see where the district focuses their goals now. The plan is very thorough in its goals but I believe some things could be changed in order to make the plan more effective. (Like having a condensed version which is given to all staff so they know what is going on!)
Evaluating Administrative Software
I looked long and hard to find an administrative evaluation tool. I did find many articles with suggestions on how to best evaluate and determine which administrative software would be best to use, but no true evaluation tools. So I decided to look at a basic software evaluation tool.
http://waynesville.k12.mo.us/Media/forms/software%20eval%20form.pdf
The software evaluation form I found is for any type of software. Which is obviously one of its weaknesses. Some things would have to be added and removed in order to make it more appropriate for evaluating admnistrative software. There are also many strengths of this evaluation form. It is easy to use and quick to read through. There are areas to to add comments if you want. The evaluation form has questions which help link the software being proposed to school/district goals and standards.
One part which realy caught my eye with this software evaluation, which I didn't see in any other evaluations, was that it asked about the amount of support and cost of support the publisher of the software will provide. It also asks questions about ease of use, compatability with current hardware, and how it will connect with things currently going on in the school/district.
Chapter 4 Summary
In chapter four the book discusses applications of technology in administrative areas. It breaks down the different types of administrative applications into three main categories; databases, spreadsheets, and office automation. The first category the book discusses is databases. Databases are used to organize all data that a school/district may have. Databases are used to keep track of student records, attendance, and performance. They really help to organize all the information and make it more accessible to people in the district. Having databases makes it much easier to determine how a particular student has performed throughout their school career. Or to determine how a particular cross-section of students performed on a standardized test. Having databases makes many peoples lives much easier and allows information to be accessed at a much quicker rate. In our district we recently changed one of our school databases which is for taking student attendance and making student schedules.
The next category which was discussed was electronic spreadsheets. Electronic spreadsheets have now been designed to help people with everything from budgets to calculating student grades to creating enrollment projections. Electronic spreadsheets have made it easier to analyze data received from the databases. Everything can be quickly entered into a spreadsheet and calculated properly. The numbers can be manipulated to see the effect without much work. The number of "projections" you can do with a set of data then is endless and doesn't take much time. Charts can also be created from spreadsheets easily. It has been found that spreadsheets are most effective when integrated with databases.
The final category was office automation. At first this was looked at only as creating "Word" documents, but with the Internet being used as it is, office automation has moved beyond that. Office automation can be used for an endless variety of reasons, including; home correspondence, meeting notices, curriculum, budget/work order requests, and notices of events. Through e-mail the speed at which office automation is done has increased significantly. Office automation is used in so frequently is schools now that it has become commonplace. If information needs to get out about something, an e-mail is sent out and everyone is aware of it.
Week 3 Work
Article/Resource Review (Application of Instructional Technology)
Hawkins, Jan (1997, July). The world at your fingertips. Retrieved September 26, 2007, from Edutopia Web site: http://www.edutopia.org/world-your-fingertips
This article discussed how technology can best be used in education to help students prepare and achieve. One topic the article brought up was that technology allowed for richer materials for learning. It says that technology will bring more interesting and diverse materials to the classroom as compared to just using a textbook with a single viewpoint. The article discussed how students can look up current events, go more in depth on historical events that may only be discussed in one paragraph in their textbooks, or witness discoveries going on in space as they unfold. There are so many opportunities with technology to diversify and make a topic more interesting to the student.
A second topic the article discussed is that technology allows teachers to use time differently. It discusses that if you give students some time to work independently with technology, you will be able to work one-on-one with students who are struggling. Also technology has allowed for more efficient and quick grading, easier to contact parents or colleagues, and deal with less paperwork. The article also talked about since it takes students less time to find information they are researching, it gives the students more time to evaluate, analyze and use it. This allows them to get into the higher levels of thinking and understanding of a topic. Students can also collaborate with each other more effectively through class chatrooms and discussion boards.
The final topic the article discussed was professional development is greatly improved with technology. We are often to "not reinvent the wheel". This is greatly aided by the Internet and technology. Online you can find thousands of ideas to make your lessons more dynamic and find ways that other teachers found to be successful for them. There are many Blogs teachers can go to to ask questions and look at problems others are having which might help them as well. The article also discusses that once technology is implemented into a setting the teachers must be properly trained on the technology. They should be allowed to observe others using it to see what works best and have follow-up support for an extended period to make sure the implementation is going smoothly.
I found this article to be very informative. It discussed some things about technology implementation which I had not thought of as of yet. Although with math it is often hard to use some of the amazing benefits of technology, I see how great it would be to get up to date information on topics around the world with a few clicks of a mouse.
Week 2 Work
Article/Resource Review
Anderson, Jerry S. (1994, March). Technology planning: Recipe for success. Retrieved September 22, 2007, from National Council for Technology Planning Web site: http://www.nctp.com/html/tp_recipe.html
The article I read had to do with how to successfully plan and implement a technology plan. Many good ideas were brought up. Some of these were new to me from our discussions, many other I had learned before. One part that really caught my eye was that it discussed how it is more important, at first, to concentrate on the major points of the plan, before getting into specific details and elements. Another part of this "recipe" was to form a good representative committee which involves from many different aspects of the school community which will be affected. These people must see that what they are doing is very important and know what they are working towards, so a good idea this article brought up was to have a report given initially to the group which discusses the current status of the schools technology use and "inventory". Also with this group it is important to divide up tasks so every one is having some type of input into the plan.
Make sure to set a time when you want the entire plan done and bench marks along the way to have smaller tasks done, so the group stays informed as to the progress of the plan so far. After beginning to research and discuss the plan make sure to keep the people being affected by the plan remained informed as well. Having those people come to a consensus or allowing them to voice their opinion will allow the committee to develop a good plan. Successful implementation of the new plan depends on support from a majority of all members of the school community. So make sure teachers especially know the purpose of the plan, give them some type of ownership of the plan, and make sure they adequately trained before expecting them to implement the plan in their classrooms. Once the plan has been implemented the most important thing for the committee to do is to evaluate the plan and its effectiveness. The plan should have been evaluated all along the way, but it is most crucial here to make sure the plan is continuing to be successfully implemented.
The author feels that if you follow this "recipe", you will find success in your technology plan. He also states that there are many resources out there to get help on developing the plan, and that no group needs to go about it blindly.
Chapter 3 Summary
It was definitely interesting reading this chapter on technology and equity issues. A lot of parts really made me start thinking and a lot of statements made be researchers I didn't agree with, although I can definitely see where they are coming from. One statement made about how teachers may one day become obsolete really hit home for the fact that I am a teacher, along with everyone in this cohort. I can see traditional teaching styles going out with the introduction of online schools. In our district we do have a very large online school, but the classes are still "taught" by teachers, several of them in this cohort. Just because they aren't taeching in a traditional format doesn't mean they aren't teaching.
Another thing that really caught my attention was when and how to incorporate using a computer into a child's life. I believe it is never to early to get a child using a computer. Obviously a child shouldn't spend hours in front of a computer at a time. But there are so many educational programs you can have them work on that the child will find as fun. I would much rather have a five year old child spending hours playing a educational computer game then playing a game on Nintendo with no educational value. My nephew who is in first grade we introduced to some low level computer activities at the age of three. He now knows how to log on to his home computer and open up his educational games on his own. All his games are age appropriate and help build on things he is learning in school.
In elementary schools, I can see teachers just taking the easy way out and giving the students a long time to spend on the computer in not an educational way. I remember when I was in fifth grade, we played "Oregon Trail" almost every day! Now I am sure times have changed, but there are probably still those teachers out there who give computer time with no educational value behind it.
When gender equity issues were discussed in this chapter I found it very interesting as well. It is true that males are more likely to take a computer course than a female, but I think it has to do sometimes with our society. Males are also more likely to be into playing video games and developing them, which leads them into the computer programming side of things. One thing it suggested in increasing the number of females in computer based courses is to establish positive role models in the school. I have seen this work first hand at the school I am in. Three years ago, when I first started, the other Kristin in our class was also hired as a math/computer teacher. She had no females in her computer classes. But now that she is teaching the classes, and talking with the girls about the advantages of them, she has increased the numbers of females in her classes. Although boys are still the make up the majority of the students, she has been able to get more and more girls to take the courses! She is definitely a positive role model for those girls to show them that females can also be successful in the computer field.
Great summary and your thoughts woven in allow you to bring the chapter together for you - Louis
Week 1 Assignments:
- Summarize Chapters 1 and 2 from our text.
- List the Technology Needs Assessments you find
- Article/resource review on Change
Chapter 1 Summary
Chapter one really summarized and brought home the idea behind the game we participated in in class. It talked about how many people in districts are very interested in technology and the possibilities of it, but are apprehensize of using it. The thing that really caught my attention though is the part where it talked about people using technology for technology sake. I see so many teachers using their SmartBoards as a glorified chalkboard. Or they go to the computer labs for the classes to have their students type their reports, even though having them hand-written would be just fine. The other part that really made me connect to the game was when the need for planning was discussed. This part just re-emphasized the need for careful planning, multiple source input, and re-evaluation are in order to get as many people to support you as possible. A constant evaluation of the successes and struggles is very important. The more people you get involved in your cause the less resistance you are going to have.
The chapter also discussed the history of technology incorporation into the school settings. It talked about how technology began with just data-processing and drill-and-practice type programs. And now you can do and find pretty much anything on and for the computer. The chapter also discussed how programs for administrators have developed over time and made many of their tasks easier because of this.
The main focus of the chapter was to, in essense, summarize the entire book. It talked about the layout of the book and the goals the book has for anyone who is reading it.
Chapter 2 Summary
Chapter two discussed basics needs of planning. The first topic talked about how a school reflects the community in which the school is in. Teachers and others trying to implement technology really need to look at the community and talk with them to determine the needs of technology in the schools. Also it would be good to get their opinion and possible support on the project. The chapter also talks about how school budgets very so greatly and that districts need to consider true student need when looking at purchasing a new piece of technology. Sheathelm's ideas of the major elements for successful planning were discussed. These elements include; comprehensiveness, collaboration, commitment, and continuity. When making a plan for a school, you need to look at the comprehensive picture of the school, not just a small view. You must also collaborate with as many people as possible, including community members, administrators, students, and other teachers. Their opinions and support will help make your plan a success. You also need to get people committed to your plan. Without people's commitment and support, it will be hard to move forward with the best possible plan. Also make your plan a never ending process. You must re-evaluate and improve any weaknesses you may find in order for your plan to grow and change with the school.
A very important point that was brought up was that you should not be afraid to evaluate or be evaluated on your plan. The evaluations will only allow your plan to grow and improve. Make sure to develop some evaluation criteria besides those set out by your district. This will give you a more comprehensive look at how your plan is doing. Also set goals of where you want your plan to eventually take you and your students. This will keep you headed in the right direction and something to work towards. The one part that really caught my eye was the section which discussed planning for administrative applications. My school recently changed many of their administrative applications, and we have had many problems with it. Not enough people were trained, goals were unclear, and there wasn't enough support from the beginning. After reading this section I can see where my school can improve in the future and what they can work on to improve the now.
Needs Assessments
EDmin Open Systems, (1998, December). Technology needs assessment survey. Retrieved September 15, 2007, from An Educator's Guide to Evaluating The Use of Technology in Schools and Classrooms Web site: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdTechGuide/appc-5.html
I really liked this survey for multiple reasons. The first being that it was centered towards the teacher and how they see their technology use and the schools. It was also very easy to fill out, read, and understand. There aren't any lengthy questions or ones which you have to write anything, which makes people more likely to fill it out. Though adding a few optional areas for people to have a written response might help you gauge your teachers a little bit better. It also lets the person reading the survey know the teachers prior knowledge of technology while also determining what they are interested in learning more on. Although it would need to be adjusted a bit to fit the needs of the specific school or district in which the survey is given I think this would be a great starting point for any school looking to understand their teachers technology use and needs.
Co-nect Inc, (2004). Brookline teacher survey. Retrieved September 15, 2007, from Teaching and Learning with Technology -- Teacher Survey Web site: http://www.sun-associates.com/eval/samples/teacher1204.html
I also liked this survey for many of the same reasons I like the previous one. Although this one has many more good qualities, including it is done on the Internet and submitted that way. This though I could see as a downfall as well, since some teachers won't take the time to go on the Internet and take the survey. It also had parts where teachers could make additional comments if they wanted to, and there were some questions where the teacher actually had to write the answer. I think these types of questions will really help the people reading the survey understand the needs of the teachers better.
Article Review
The article I chose discussed ways to implement change into a school successfully. One part which really caught my eye was how to get professional development opportunities to be most successful for the people who attend. It said that only about ten percent of participants would successfully implement what they learned if they just went and sat through a professional development presentation. The more engaged a person was and active they were in the presentation the more likely they were to implement it immediately into the work place. But if follow-up was given to help with the implementation you could get almost all participants to begin to incorporate it into their classrooms. Looking at this I find this true in my real life. If I am not going to get watched and helped over a long period of time, I am not going to feel like I am doing it correctly. It is always nice to get feedback on new implemenations in order to know what to continue doing and what needs to be changed in order for it to be more successful.
Another part which caught my eye was on they talked about the five categories of intervention. These caught my eye because I could relate it to the game we participated in in class, which I could then relate to the school and district I am in. The steps made so much sense and would have been great to know before we played that game because our team could have received lots of "bens" if we followed the steps carefully. The first step was to articulate your view and set up goals. Our team didn't talk to enough people at the beginning which caused our progress to be slow. Once we did that we could move on to the second category in the article which is planning and providing resources. This, as it says in the article, allowed for positive reaction from the participants and allowed us to continue to gain support. In the game we then created professional development opportunities, which got the reluctant ones moving, which is the third category the article discussed. The last two categories, monitoring and reinforcement, were in the process as our third eyar ended.
I really enjoyed reading this article becasue it re-emphasized everything we have been discussing, from the game to the needs assessments we had to find to the work we did as a group. I like to see multiple perspectives on topics to get the full view and multiple viewpoints on a topic. I like to see the "whole picture".
Hord, Shirley (1994). Staff development and change process: Cut from the same cloth. Retrieved September 16, 2007, from Issues about change Web site: http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues42.html
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