Reflection on Instructional Leadership and Technology
Upon beginning this course, I did not have specific projected outcomes for what I would learn by the end of the course. I had learned an overwhelming amount of knowledge from the previous course and suspected that I would learn a great deal from this one. I did, however, hope to gain insight into much of the technology jargon that I heard frequently and was hoping also to know more about how to incorporate the Technology TEKS into classroom instruction. Reading through the Learning Outcomes on the first day of this course began my overwhelming feeling of all that is involved in providing our students with a technology-rich environment where learning is facilitated through digital means. Many of the outcomes listed included things that I had not given much time to, some of which were completely unfamiliar. Before this course, I had never reviewed the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology, had not given instruction to students concerning cyber ethics or bullying, and had not realized the full extent of the needs of the digital natives in my classroom. I knew from the beginning that this course would open my eyes to the needs of students, teachers, and administrators to help bring about a change in the way technology was incorporated in my school.
From the beginning week of this course, I began dialoguing with my principal how we could increase the technology instruction in our schools. From the videos to the discussion board to the articles, everything was relevant to what I do each day in my classroom. During the week 3 interviews is when it all became very real to me. I met with the technology director and my principal and every question I asked was something that they had discussed in their recent district technology meeting. This course had already given me so much insight and opinion into where our campus is in the integration of technology, that my principal suggested that I join the next district technology meeting. I was able to make suggestions that our school could do to help with the use of technology, many of which came from the articles or discussion board entries. My principal suggested I sign up with our region’s service center for the Digital Media conference in January.
The overwhelming amount of knowledge learned from this course has kept my mind reeling. I’ve been able to sort through so many questions that I had that were technology-related. There are still many things that I want to achieve in integrating technology into my classroom. Many of the ideas given in this course have prompted me to take a deeper look into how I can parallel my content with technology instruction. I wanted to be able to view the web conferences, but I was not able to view any of them. I put in many hours at school and church, and I have two young daughters. I really would have liked to have been able to view on of them, and I am hoping to be able to participate in the web conferences if any are available during the next class, or even over the holiday season while I’m out of school. After taking the SETDA survey and the Technology Applications Inventory, I was able to see that technology is not my strong suit, but this course has helped me to get on course and be able to venture into the unknown territory of podcasting, blogging, and other new technology venues.
I was fairly confident at being able to carry out the assignments given each week. At the beginning of each week, the assignment looked a bit daunting (not being a very technology-capable person), but the weeks’ videos, readings, and discussion board were very helpful in providing me with the background needed to get started. In week 2, I was asked to create a blog to house my reflections for each part of the week’s work. This did seem overwhelming at first, but I took it step by step, and in the end realized what a simple task blogging can be! Finding time to get all the interviews done proved to be a harder task than what I anticipated, but the information gathered was well worth it. Not included in the week’s assignment was an impromptu interview with a young college girl that came to observe me that day. I asked many questions about how technology is taught to our college students and was sad to find out that she had never heard of Texas’ Long Range Plan for Technology. She was learning how to make a teacher web page and a power point. That was the extent of her technology course on her road to becoming a certified teacher.
After only five weeks, I learning what I feel like is an incredible amount of information. Before, I was somewhat less likely to be approached with a technology question by a colleague. However, now I feel confident that I could talk about how to incorporate technology into instruction, use data-driven results to guide technology usage, teach online safety and cyber ethics, and conduct surveys to find out the strengths and weaknesses in our school’s technology infrastructure. Whereas before I had the attitude of wanting to incorporated more technology into my instruction but not knowing how, now I am much clearer about how I can strenthen my instruction with technology use. Technology is changing the way we teach, and we are also changing the way we teach technology. I am learning how to use technology to guide my instruction, instead of instruction how to use technology.
Learning the value of using blogs in the classroom was not something I thought would be addressed in this course, but I now know that my students can use a blog to interact and participate with others. Just as blogs are used in companies to create a place to communicate, educational blogs are useful when students need to read and edit one another’s writing, collaborated on a science fair project, and interact with other students from around the country. In one of our articles, Blogging and RSS, the author shares how she brought in an author through the use of her weblog to carry on a conversation about the book they were reading. I am looking forward to being able to incorporate blogs into my instruction and see how student learning changes. Our students, being digital natives, pick up new technology very quickly, many are using computers before entering school. We have to learn to take the restraints off and see what kids can accomplish when they are engaged in learning through technology.
As we learned in Week 3, there are some real concerns about blogging. One such problem is accessibility. With so many federal privacy laws, not to mention inappropriate sites, each district, perhaps campus, has its own opinions about students’ access to the Internet. I learned a great deal about programs that our school can use to protect our students, such as iSafe, and even shared these with my principal and technology supervisor. Students can be opened up to many dangers, such as online predators. It is our job, as educators, to educate our students about ways they can be safe on the Internet. Based on the STaR Chart, my district scored highest in Infrastructure of Technology, and this is made evident by the great amount of protection our students receive when using our computers at school. We have to be diligent and persistent in teaching cyber ethics, just as we would when teaching to classroom ethics, such as kindness and honesty.
I am currently discovering that there are many uses to blogs in my classroom. One very important use is to provide school stakeholders with a way to dialogue with the class. For example, when studying cultural celebrations and national holidays in Social Studies, parents and other community members can blog about ways that they celebrate holidays such as Cinco de Mayo, Christmas, Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day. Students can compare and contrast their findings from reading the class blog. I talked to my principal about using a blog to do a book share or our faculty meetings, or talk about curriculum. The possibilities are overwhelming. This class has opened my eyes to all of the technology change that is reaching the classrooms. I am very excited about using all that I learned in my class now and in my administrative position later! As I continue to use Texas’ Long Range Plan for Technology and the Technology Applications TEKS to guide my instruction, using technology will become easier and easier.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Week 4
Week 4 Assignment, Part 1:
Superintendent-To promote the district’s vision for technology to administration staff, teachers, community stakeholders, and students
Curriculum & Instruction Director-To help in the choosing of appropriate technology professional development, and the identification of weaknesses in the technology instruction given to teachers and students
Technology Director-To direct the overall installation, use, and evaluation of technology in the campus schools
Technology Specialist-To oversee the operations of the technology used in the campuses – troubleshooting, maintaining
Instructional Technology Specialist-To provide quality professional development to teachers that will allow more hands-on and relevant instruction to students
Campus Principals-To understand the weaknesses in technology instruction on campus, to relate to the district administration the professional development needs, ensure that all faculty members understand technology policies and guidelines for themselves and their students.
Campus Technology Aide-To provide the campus with technology support and to lead the campus in technology products such as newsletters, etc., to troubleshoot on campus with hardware and software problems.
Campus Teachers -To teach cyber ethics to students, to provide hands-on collaborative and creative ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, to ensure that students receive instruction in all technology TEKS
Week 4 Assignment, Part 2:
Ranking lowest in the area of Educator Preparation and Development on the STaR Chart for the last three years has prompted the district to take a more active approach at offering professional development that is useful, meaningful, and on-going. I gave my principal the web address for the SETDA survey and she has used it to gather data from teachers that will prioritize which technology issues need to be targeted first. Our campus has installed document scanners, projectors, Mimio Smartboards, and other useful instructional technology tools. However, the teachers of our campus have not been proficient in using said equipment based on the minimum amount of training that has been offered. So, in the attempt to provide on-going and productive professional development, every Monday the district Instructional Technology Specialists use one of the computer labs to conduct staff training during each conference period. Each week, a different technology topic is introduced, taught, and reviewed. Topics range from creating newsletters and web pages to using our new software that records books, etc. that can be played on an MP3 player. Teachers use a survey at the end of each Monday professional development session to include how the information given will be used in the classroom, how beneficial the professional development was, and ideas for upcoming Monday professional development sessions. Also, as with many campuses, there are staff members who are fluent in the implementation of new technology. Our new Mimio Smartboards are proving to be a challenge for some of the campus teachers, so I propose a designated time when a teaches can pair up with someone that is more familiar with this new technology and have a “share” time, so that the teachers who are unsure how to use the Smartboards can see how other teachers are using them. Perhaps an online discussion board would also be a great way for teachers to share ideas about how they are using the Smartboards in their classrooms.
Week 4 Assignment, Part 3:
Our campus will use the yearly STaR Chart data to assess key areas of technology use. Other data reports, including AEIS, AYP, and surveys such as SETDA, will show areas of strength and weakness so we can gauge improvement yearly. Classroom monitoring visits by the principal will be used to assess whether technology is being used to meet instructional needs. Teachers, through e-mail, will be sent surveys periodically to gather opinions about professional development needs. These findings will be gathered and delivered to the Site-Based Decision Making Committee in order to make decisions for the upcoming year regarding new technology and professional development.
Superintendent-To promote the district’s vision for technology to administration staff, teachers, community stakeholders, and students
Curriculum & Instruction Director-To help in the choosing of appropriate technology professional development, and the identification of weaknesses in the technology instruction given to teachers and students
Technology Director-To direct the overall installation, use, and evaluation of technology in the campus schools
Technology Specialist-To oversee the operations of the technology used in the campuses – troubleshooting, maintaining
Instructional Technology Specialist-To provide quality professional development to teachers that will allow more hands-on and relevant instruction to students
Campus Principals-To understand the weaknesses in technology instruction on campus, to relate to the district administration the professional development needs, ensure that all faculty members understand technology policies and guidelines for themselves and their students.
Campus Technology Aide-To provide the campus with technology support and to lead the campus in technology products such as newsletters, etc., to troubleshoot on campus with hardware and software problems.
Campus Teachers -To teach cyber ethics to students, to provide hands-on collaborative and creative ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, to ensure that students receive instruction in all technology TEKS
Week 4 Assignment, Part 2:
Ranking lowest in the area of Educator Preparation and Development on the STaR Chart for the last three years has prompted the district to take a more active approach at offering professional development that is useful, meaningful, and on-going. I gave my principal the web address for the SETDA survey and she has used it to gather data from teachers that will prioritize which technology issues need to be targeted first. Our campus has installed document scanners, projectors, Mimio Smartboards, and other useful instructional technology tools. However, the teachers of our campus have not been proficient in using said equipment based on the minimum amount of training that has been offered. So, in the attempt to provide on-going and productive professional development, every Monday the district Instructional Technology Specialists use one of the computer labs to conduct staff training during each conference period. Each week, a different technology topic is introduced, taught, and reviewed. Topics range from creating newsletters and web pages to using our new software that records books, etc. that can be played on an MP3 player. Teachers use a survey at the end of each Monday professional development session to include how the information given will be used in the classroom, how beneficial the professional development was, and ideas for upcoming Monday professional development sessions. Also, as with many campuses, there are staff members who are fluent in the implementation of new technology. Our new Mimio Smartboards are proving to be a challenge for some of the campus teachers, so I propose a designated time when a teaches can pair up with someone that is more familiar with this new technology and have a “share” time, so that the teachers who are unsure how to use the Smartboards can see how other teachers are using them. Perhaps an online discussion board would also be a great way for teachers to share ideas about how they are using the Smartboards in their classrooms.
Week 4 Assignment, Part 3:
Our campus will use the yearly STaR Chart data to assess key areas of technology use. Other data reports, including AEIS, AYP, and surveys such as SETDA, will show areas of strength and weakness so we can gauge improvement yearly. Classroom monitoring visits by the principal will be used to assess whether technology is being used to meet instructional needs. Teachers, through e-mail, will be sent surveys periodically to gather opinions about professional development needs. These findings will be gathered and delivered to the Site-Based Decision Making Committee in order to make decisions for the upcoming year regarding new technology and professional development.
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