Reflections

• What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?
  

  I had envisioned learning about new technology tools available to teachers to increase student learning in the classroom. I was very interested in learning about Web 2.0 tools for students and teachers including blogs, wikis, podcasting, bookmarking and RSS feeds. I learned a great deal about blogs and some about other tools available in our schools from the journal articles required for reading. The information about keeping students safe online was very valuable and something I will need to follow closely this Spring as I endeavor to implement some of the ideas learned in this course. As an administrator it will be very important to address the concerns about release forms and parental notification and eliminate the possibility of any negative publicity before launching into a new online project with students.
  

• To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?
  

  The material learned in this course was relevant to what I do in my school. As a technology leader in my school, I need to be aware of the STaR Chart data so that I can help move teachers along from Developing to Advanced in the different domains. I will need to be more involved in the staff development sessions providing instruction for our teachers on incorporating technology in instruction and curriculum and assessment. The information we learned about the Long Range Plan for Technology will be useful as a document to support the need for hardware and software at our school. Helping teachers access assessment data on the district website will be very beneficial to increase student learning at our school. The data driven informed decision making will be crucial for our teachers. Some teachers may need more assistance to access the information but will need to implement the data in their teaching.
  

• What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?
  

  I did not learn as much about wikis and podcasting as I would have liked to learn. I think these particular tools would be more effective to use in an elementary school than bookmarking or RSS feeds. Our students can create podcasts and post them online to a safe website if we can teach them how to do that. A majority of our parents have access to the internet and this would be a great communication tool to share what students are learning at school. I will need to experiment with podcasts and find a secure way for students to post. After reading about release forms, parental notification and district approval before students can blog, the process is a bit more complicated than I had envisioned. I understand all the online safeguards that need to be in place and will just have to find time to do this first.
  

• Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?
  

  I was successful in completing the assignments for this course. The only activity I did not participate in was the online web meeting. I have participated in an online meeting for a project I was doing for a publishing company and learned a bit about the hardware and software required. Unfortunately, I do not use a computer with a built in camera and have not purchased one to add on to my computer. I think these online meetings are definitely a wave of the future. It makes so much sense for the business world to meet via Skype rather than flying folks halfway around the world. There are some educational uses for online meetings as well and that will be a fun thing to watch in the coming years. I know some of our laptops at school have built in cameras that students could use. It would be a great learning tool for my students to learn about instruments from other countries. I could set up a presentation sharing on instruments with a music classroom in Japan. That would be cool!
  

• What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?
  

  
   

  The course assignments were in-depth studies and required a great deal of time. I completed the assignments successfully but needed help posting the PowerPoint to my blog. The directions in the courseware gave several choices for uploading the PowerPoint. I tried the first choice and was very frustrated because it didn't work after an hour of trying to follow the directions. Thankfully, the courseware had a second option and this worked in ten minutes. I still get discouraged when technology doesn't work the way it is supposed to work! As an administrator, it will be important to empathize with those teachers who are not as comfortable with technology and experiences like these will help me to remember how it feels.
  

• What is the educational value of blogs and blogging to the 21^st century learner?
  

  
   

  As stated in the NET*S, "all students must have regular opportunities to use technology to develop skills that encourage personal productivity, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration in the classroom and in daily life." Blogging is a perfect way to create these opportunities for our students. Richardson states, "Blogs are one of many new disruptive technologies that are transforming the world." (Richardson, 2005) We as teachers and administrators will need to utilize this new communication tool to keep our students engaged when presenting new content. Students can communicate with and learn from external sources available only through use of the internet. Students can publish their work on the Internet through blogging. Blogs will be a great way to communicate with parents as well. Blogs will be a tool for collaboration between students and between educators.
  

  
   

  References
  

  Richardson, W. Blog Revolution, Technology and Learning: Oct 2005; 26,3; Research Library pg. 48
  

  
   

  
   

• What are the concerns of blogs and blogging in education?
  

  We must be wary about the security and privacy issues and will need to attend to those concerns as we entertain this new Web 2.0 tool. Blogging is part of our culture just as much as the Internet itself. Our students are blogging on social networking websites without much guidance from teachers or parents. There are legal protections in cyberspace to help protect our children when they are online. (CIPA, COPPA, DOPA) However, we need to be aware of online dangers and safeguard against them as much as possible. Districts will need to install filers to protect students' use of the internet. We as a school can provide parent training and keep parents informed of the educational value of blogging. Students will need to be aware of intellectual property rights and copyright laws as they begin publishing on blogs.
  

  
   

  
   

• How can you use blogging to communicate with school stakeholders?
  

  Parents can access school websites for a wealth of information about the goings on at their child's school. In this age of going "green" parents are always looking for ways to stay informed without reading, then throwing away, a stack of bulletins and notes from their child's school. Will Richardson in his article "Blogging and RSS", mentioned a school in Oregon using Weblogs to keep parents informed. "The school website features the latest in news and events as collected from a series of separate Weblogs that are hooked together using RSS." (Richardson, 2004) This sounds like a great idea! Staff members can contribute timely information, the PTA can post meeting minutes and announcements and the administration can distribute personal messages to the community. Our community appreciates information and this seems a very economical and efficient way to distribute that information. Our school board members would benefit from having access to each school's website as a way to feel the pulse of the community they serve.
  

  
   

  References
  

  Richardson, W. Blogging and RSS, MultiMedia and Internet@ Schools; Jan/Feb 2004; 11,1; Research Library pg. 10
  

Action Plan

GOAL: Our focus for improving student achievement through the integration of technology will be in the areas of Teaching and Learning and Educator Preparation and Development.

Objective 1: Integrate the Technology TEKS within the core curriculum at each grade level.

Strategy	Timeline	Persons(s)	Resources	Evidence
Utilize the Technology Instructional Planning Guides	Spring 2010	Teachers, Campus Tech Assistant, Tech Focus Group Teachers	Online IPGs	Class projects, student participation, active use of the computer lab and classroom computers
Improve basic computer skills in teaching staff and faculty	Spring 2010	Tech Focus group teachers, Administration	District issued laptops, staff development sessions offered in Jan. 2010	Fewer tech support calls placed, increase in use of tech hardware checked out from library, STaR Chart data shows improvement in some areas from Developing to Advanced

 

Objective 2: Use digital diagnostic tools for formative evaluation to monitor progress toward the mastery of instructional objectives. Integrate student performance data from district/state assessment instruments with electronic curriculum resources to inform and differentiate instruction for every child.

Strategy	Timeline	Persons(s)	Resources	Evidence
Utilize websites: Learning.com, Cool Math, BrainPop, United Streaming	Spring 2010	Teachers, Campus Tech Assistant, Tech Focus Group Teachers	Internet available wifi in classrooms and computer lab	Class projects, student participation, active use of the computer lab and classroom computers
Benchmarks Data	Spring 2010	Teachers	District AIMS site, and Benchmark Analysis Reports	Improved mastery of TAKS objectives

 

Objective 3: Provide curriculum to ensure personal safety for students in a digital world.

Strategy	Timeline	Persons(s)	Resources	Evidence
Online safety instruction	Spring 2010	Teachers, Campus Tech Assistant, Tech Focus Group Teachers	AISD IT Dept will provide resources	Students answer questions on a checklist type assessment after instruction has taken place

 

Objective 4: Provide professional development for teaching and integrating Technology Applications into the foundation and enrichment TEKS.

Strategy	Timeline	Persons(s)	Resources	Evidence
Professional Development Tech sessions	January 2010	Teachers, Campus Tech Assistant, Tech Focus Group, cadre of tech savvy teachers	Time provided on staff development day	Teachers report increase in comfort level with tech tools available on campus
Observations of other teachers lessons that incorporate tech.	Spring 2010	Teachers	Teachers take one planning period per 6 weeks to observe another teacher's lesson	STaR chart data will show improvement from Developing to Advanced in some areas.

 

Objective 5: Provide training on the use of electronic tools and information to support sound, data-driven instructional decision-making.

Strategy	Timeline	Persons(s)	Resources	Evidence
Establish Norms for Group Work	January 2010	Teachers, Administrators	Time provided on staff development day or Faculty meeting	Grade Level teams report on norms created and agreed upon by team
Directions for accessing AIMS Benchmark Data	January 2010	Asst. Principal	District website	Teachers print out Benchmark Item Analysis Report, TEKS Item Analysis Graph, and Student Variation Graph for their students.

 

Campus S Ta R Chart

Summary for Mills El.

Campus S Ta R Chart

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Educator Preparation and Development

In this domain of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, Educator Preparation and Development, guidelines and criteria are presented to enable teachers to fully integrate appropriate technology into the curriculum and instruction in their classrooms.

We need education preparation programs that model current technologies in instructional practices. We need future teachers that exit the universities and colleges knowing how to use technology in the teaching and learning process. We need beginning teachers that can develop new learning environments that utilize technology.

On the Campus Statewide Summary in this area, it states that 74.2% of teachers are in the Developing Tech level of progress. This level of progress indicates that teacher use of technology is for administrative tasks and classroom management. There is use of online resources and 40% of educators meet SBEC standards. Administrators expect teachers to use technology and 6-24% of technology budget is allocated for professional development.

On the Texas Campus STaR Chart for my school we are also in the Developing Tech level of progress in this domain. Our lowest rated indicator in this area is in Access to Professional Development.

I believe we will need to improve teachers' access to professional development in the area of technology standards to see progress in this domain. I'm sure time will always be a factor for teachers. There just aren't enough hours in the day to learn all there is to learn about incorporating technology. We will need to investigate short online help sessions or presentations that focus on one idea or one instructional tool so teachers will feel less intimidated about jumping in and trying something new incorporating technology into their curriculum and instruction.

Summary of Pre-K Technology TEKS

The Pre-K TEKS lay the foundation for student performance in technology use in future grades.
In Pre-K, student expand their ability to acquire information, solve problems and communicate with others. These are the recurring in the Technology TEKS PK-12. Allowing access to a variety of technologies will be critical in the development of the 21 century skills. This is also reflected in the Long Range Plan for Technology.
Pre-K students will need to navigate through software programs as part of their curriculum. They will need to use a variety of computer input devices and be able to operate voice/sound recorders and touch screens. (I'm not sure many of our schools have touch screen devices, but that would really be nice if they did. )The student will use software to create and express their own ideas. The students will also learn that they can acquire new information through interaction with technology.

In the Information Acquistion domain, the spiraling curriculum throughout PreK-12 is evident. Students begin in PreK learning that they can use technology to acquire information. In elementary school students use a variety of strategies to acquire and evaluate new information. And in high school students use those skills to apply their technology skills in a variety of projects and products.

In my analysis of the Long Range Plan for Technology, I agree with the Vision section of this document. The Vision contains components for 4 audiences: Students, Parents, Educators and Community. The Long Range Plan defines a need for change including transformation of our economy and new business skill requirements. We know that students are tech savvy and that we will need to keep them engaged in learning through the use of technology that they are currently familiar with using in their everyday communications. Teachers will need to find ways to incorporate the new technology into the curriuclum and instruction and not view this as an added thing to teach. Our teacher preparation programs are going to need to model current technology in the the teaching/learning process. Our school leaders should encourage flexibility and innovation so teachers will want to embrace new ideas in technology. We will need to establish a funding model to maintain the technology infrastructure in our schools.

This new learning will impact me as an instructional leader in our district. I think that the integration of technology into the Fine Arts curriculum is currently behind other subject areas. We will need to find ways to engage the students in our music and art classes utilizing the new digital tools and software available to us. The students are already manipulating audio and video files for entertainment. We will need to find ways to incorporate those skills into the TEKS based learning in our classes.

The second Technology Assessment from the State Educational Technology Directors Association was not as useful in defining the technology knowledge and skills. Many of the questions were about collecting data to see if technology is impacting student achievement in my content area. Because I teach elementary music, there isn't really much data being collected or analyzed. Certainly, to some extent, we could work on this, but I will need to research some options.
My students will get to create a podcast this year by creating a piece of music in Garage Band that reflects a piece of abstract art. They will post their podcast on Posterous so that students and their parents can view the artwork and hear the composition at home.
Our Technology Committee has created a set of expectations for students at each grade level, but with little to no teacher training, I don't really see the students accomplishing these goals schoolwide. The teachers that are comfortable with technology are doing more with their students of course, but little staff development time has been given to helping the others.
We do have electronic gradebooks in our district to help manage student assessment data. Through this graduate school work, I have learned about discussion boards and blogs. I had never participated in these forums for communication.
Our school has just gone wireless, so access to the Internet has improved greatly. We do have a school server to use as a shared storage area as well.
As far as I know, our district/school has not collected data on different groups of students' access to tech equipment, software and technology uses. It would be interesting to see some informal data on students from low socio-economic backgrounds, girls, students from historically disadvantaged racial or ethnic backgrounds and students with special learning needs.