Course Reflection
It is amazing how technologically advanced our students are today; even our youngest students know to operate a computer, gaming system, or music/video equipment. I now fully understand the concerns of our nation to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. Targeting the struggling student who is engaged by learning in different mediums will ensure district success and should be occurring in our society today. Not using technology in the classroom due to limited resources, such as hardware and software shortages, should be a call to school district administrators to allocate money to foster a comprehensive technology curriculum that incorporates all disciplines and grades.
Well, it does sound good. But the question on my mind this entire course has been how to fund it. It takes a lot of diligence and expertise to create an extensive, functioning technology program that meets the needs of the Long Range Plan, keeps costs down and provides greater access for students. I have not envisioned myself as a master budgeter, but I realized that I am going to be the one making these things happen for my campus. Developing the flow chart that outlined the roles and responsibilities of the technology staff within my district really opened my eyes to the individuals in charge of making technology happen. I will have one of those roles one day, I will have to make sure my teachers are integrating technology effectively, that their needs are being met, and the needs of my students are being met.
The paradigm shift from paper and pencil tasks to classrooms that have LCD projectors and Smartboards is one of the challenges administrators are facing in our state. If research has told us that students learn more effectively with technology, then why are teachers not being held more accountable for using it in our classrooms? Why is staff development on technology never hands-on? If we plan to make this shift to accommodate the 21st century learner then our schools need to get up with the times. There is no excuse for two or three teachers, out of campus of fifty, that use technology on a regular basis in the classroom. A lot of teachers are still scared to use technology because of failed past experiences. I believe this when an experienced and knowledgeable technology staff comes in and teaches the teachers how to use the software or hardware. Addressing the needs of the teachers will ultimately lead to success among the students.
Coming into the course I thought I used technology a lot, then I realized I am not doing half the stuff that other schools are doing for their students. I would like to do more podcasts and have my students create blogs to meet other students around the world; I plan to incorporate some of these things into my lessons next semester. Using the blog in this course has allowed me to put a face with some of the students I have talked with in the past 5 courses. It also allows me to talk in a different setting about topics of interest and I can understand how this would be an effective communication device for all campus stakeholders to keep up with information and communicate with administrators on the needs of the district. I now feel more comfortable using a blog, creating multimedia presentations and developing my skills to model for the students. I plan on using my professional development agenda to iterate to the staff on the importance of technology in the classroom and its benefits for our students.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this course. I have learned a multitude of things that I can use in my classroom and apply as an administrator. The development of the action plan has shown me that I can create a model to work on the deficiencies and the technology needs of the teachers and students. I still wish, however, that I could have learned how to use the different software features that was outlined in this course. I recently went to a law conference that stressed the importance of being safe when using blogs and allowing for certain content to be unblocked and the main speaker kept reinforcing to the staff that it should never be allowed at school, so what is the best practice? The round-table discussion allowed me to see what is best practice in the technology field and how to address them as an administrator, but never what to do to solve the problems of cyber bullying or indecent pictures making their way on the site. I just feel very confused about what I should do and how I can approach administration to start student blogs. I really liked listening to the professionals talk about how the shift in the educational standards in technology will be changing in the future and what we can do now to meet the needs of our students.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Technology Action Plan
Technology Action Plan
Positions and Responsibilities of District and Campus Personnel Responsible for Technology
Director of Technology: Writes and maintains technology grants; ensures that technology is available for use throughout the district; implements new programs, hardware and/or software; educates staff and students on appropriate uses of technology; coordinates and researches meaningful staff development; and organizes technology upgrades for the district.
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Network Administrator: Keeps network updated and running; maintains network security, and informs staff and students when network will not be working.
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Computer Technician: Responsible for general maintenance and up keep of equipment on all campuses in the district.
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District/Campus Technology Committee: Responsible for distributing information to school personnel on all campuses; making technology decisions with technology teacher leaders; serves as a liaison between district administrators and campus leaders.
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Technology Teacher Leader on Campus: Responsible for ensuring campus staff has appropriate and working technology; distributes key websites that are useful in classroom curriculum; keeps staff up-to-date on technology professional development sessions; and teaches all technology classes on campus.
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Classroom Teacher: Uses technology appropriately to enrich curriculum and instruction; mentors students on appropriate uses of technology; gives administration and technology teacher feedback on staff development and ideas on technology integration into the classroom.
The district and campus improvement plans are vague in outlining technology integration into curriculum and instruction within various departments. The district goal is to continue to support staff development that will bring technology integration into our classrooms. The STaR Chart and the technology personnel listed above will provide a starting point for the integration of technology into curriculum and instruction. After interviewing the various individuals for the week 3 assignment, it became clear that my district will be begin to phase in mandatory professional development hours in technology in the coming years.
If funds became available, it would be ideal for staff to attend ongoing technology professional development for each curriculum. Technology workshops can be provided to teachers in-house in the usage of Elmo’s, LCD’s, Smart Board’s, Inter-Write Pads, and I-Touches, using interactive software and creating multi-media power points. It would be designed by a content-specific consultant to help teachers, in their own classroom, practice integrating technology. Teachers on my campus and within my district will continue to use data disaggregation software such as AEIS-IT, using excel spreadsheet charts and graphs, Discovery Education United Streaming, various math and reading mini-games, and online databases.
Technology integration in our district can be evaluated annually using the STaR chart, looking for continued improvement. It could also be evaluated in lesson plans and classroom observations on a daily or weekly basis. The district can also assign technology mentors to assess and plan for technology integration in curriculum, instruction and assessment. Together with the mentors, teachers can design their own instruction and assessments. The mentors and technology committee can also create surveys to monitor how teachers are using technology and which areas are still areas of weakness. Based on the areas of weakness, the technology committee can evaluate the data and create meaningful staff development.
Ultimately, it is the role of the principal to meet the needs of the faculty in the area of technology. They need to challenge their teachers to continually implement technology in their curriculum so that all staff members become users of technology. A principal has to ensure that the teachers understood the staff development and the information is incorporated in their classrooms.
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