The course Instructional Leadership: The Technology Link was an exciting course to take. There were many outcomes that I looked forward to learning. I envisioned the course to be about how to implement the technology in the school to further the education of the students in today’s world. My previous Masters degree was an MBA e-Business, which bridged companies together via technology. I looked forward to learning the legal aspects of technology usage and emerging issues that are affecting the school systems. The implementation of technology in the schools and how to manage the systems effectively would be a necessary skill to learn. Additionally, I believed that the safety of the students was critical to advance their educational needs.
The blogging that I implemented from this course enabled me to be more effective in communication within the school; therefore, I am able to now relay information to others in a faster manner. The blogs used within the school’s server system are utilized now to communicate without interfering with the e-mail system. I realized the importance of technology within the classroom. It is relevant to improving student success, so I did assist other teachers in better using the technology that they had. Understanding the inventory of technology encouraged me to record what technology was assign to me and remove unused items so that others may use them.
All of the outcomes that I expected did occur within this course. I had a good knowledge and understanding of technology prior to the course. One outcome that I did not fully achieve was what technology in a classroom would look like without the availability of widely used tools and staying within the scope and guidelines of the district. The availability of time prevented the understanding of this concept. However, I have learned where to find the information and what state standards to follow in learning additional technology issues. Even though it wasn’t within the scope of the course, I would have like to learn more about the specific implementation of technology at the advanced level. Again, this is something that I have discovered widely available on the Internet.
I was successful in carrying out the course assignments as instructed. However, the Brighten system does not allow students to change an assignment once submitted or ensure that the assignment is correctly sent. It was difficult to arrange all of the interviews for the assignment, but I was able to improvise with alternate volunteers. The articles were insightful, but it was difficult working around other people’s schedules. That is one downfall with collaborative work. Most students were able to post comments in a timely manner. Often the discussion part of the assignment took longer than the actual writing of an assignment.
I believed that I was using technology in the best way according to current needs. However, there were many areas that I needed to improve upon. I have not created blogs before, but it was relatively easy once I began the process. Normally, I respond to blogs already present. I knew that my students weren’t using technology as they should, yet the unavailability of technology was what I felt was the hindrance. I now utilize the SmartBoard and Internet to maximize technology usage the best that I can in the classroom. I feel very confident that I can utilize technology in the manner directed by the state.
Blogs have a very important educational value for today’s learner. The instructors are able to use blogs to communicate best practices and deliver important information among their peers in an easier manner than previous methods. The students are able to use blogs to learn new material or to learn about a topic in a different manner than what is taught. Often students can learn best by using various mediums for information. The administration would utilize blogs to distribute information among all stakeholders of the school, and they would be able to clarify their positions on standards set within the campus. If all use the blogs effectively the primary benefactors would be the students, which is what the primary goal is.
Blogging in education can become misused. The Dallas Morning News has a blog site for the Dallas ISD. Some individuals post erroneous information or post negative and hateful messages. Many times the sources are not identifiable; therefore, we don’t know if comments to blogs are reliable. Some people actually believe the information posted, for I hear ‘news’ from the blogs on campus. Another problem is with the writer of blogs. Often, they try to release the news quickly without getting all of the facts. This causes a problem when it is vague and causes misinterpretation or the news is biased.
Blogging is an important tool to communicate with various people effectively. Especially those that are not with in one’s e-mail list are those that are not known like community members that haven’t been met yet. When introducing a concept or releasing information that affects all stakeholders of a school, blogging would become the most effective means. This would be alongside the traditional memo style to accommodate those without Internet access. At my school, we wanted to introduce the concept of gender-based classrooms, so we use an intra-school blog to receive feedback. The delivery of the idea was effective for the purpose that we wanted.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Technology Action Plan
Action Plan
Organization Chart Integrating Technology
Dallas Independent School District
Superintendent of Schools
Michael Hinojosa
The superintendent is responsible for implementing the school boards direction in technology. Additionally, the technology vision for the district is set and maintained by the superintendent of the district.
Finance & Human Development Division
Executive Chief Finance Officer
Larry Throm Due to past financial problems, the IT department was placed under Finance and Human Development. Larry Throm has recently hired to bring financial stability to troubled departments. This position is mainly for oversight.
Information Technology
Executive Director
Patricia Viramontes The IT Executive Director oversees what technology the district will invest in. The director establishes contracts with particular vendors that the campuses will work with.
Information Technology
Campus & Administrative Support Director
Sam Illya The Campus Support Director monitors that the schools have the technology in place that is necessary. They create the training for the technology specialists and technology staff development. This director establishes the curriculum necessary for the technology standards to be met.
John B. Hood Middle School
Principal
Fred Davis III The principal has the duty of ensuring the campus staff is utilizing the technology available. He monitors to see the effectiveness of technology implementation and education on campus. He oversees the technology budget and decides on what technology to invest in.
John B. Hood Middle School
Technology Specialist
Paul Newman The campus technology specialist maintains the inventory of the school, monitors the repair and maintenance of the campus technology, and teaches several classes of technology.
John B. Hood Middle School
Staff The teachers and staff of the school are responsible for ensuring the students meet the technology standards, security of campus technology, and modeling proper ethical standards for technology usage.
The principal must ensure that the organizational chart is followed. The staff of their school must follow through with the technology specialist since the specialist is the one who closely monitors the technology of the campus. Principals must understand the technology flow to the district level. They need to know which vendors to work with, curriculum that must be followed, and procedures for technology acquisition.
Professional Development Planning
One critical area that has been addressed as a concern for professional development in Dallas ISD is the poor timing and quality. This has been an ongoing problem for years, yet even with the available technology, the situation is not fixed. The district spends hundreds of dollars sending teachers to a staff development within the district during instructional time, and there is a loss of instruction while the teachers are away at training.
Dallas ISD is one of the largest school districts in the nation. There is a great amount of knowledge and experience within the district. Additionally, the district has the technology capability to improve the staff development.
The solution would be to create podcasts of the sample lessons that the district is wanting. Most middle schools already have the technology on campus to create the podcasts, and they have the hard drive storage to maintain the files. The content departments would find the most effective teachers in terms of style and results to model a lesson. The departments would then post the files to the server for all other teachers to view. A similar site is already in operation; it is Teachertube. Teachertube is a site where teachers around the nation can view lessons. The difference with Dallas ISD’s proposed site would be that the lessons are specifically tailored to what the district is requesting of its teachers.
MyData is a student data site that contains content for TAKS results, demographic, benchmark results, previous school data, and wealth of other necessary to know all students. This data is critical to show progress, especially for the new Texas Projection Measure. MyData would enable the teachers and district to monitor the effectiveness of the new staff development methods. Training for better use of the data site would be available for the teachers on the site as well.
Evaluation Planning for Action Plan
The Dallas ISD podcast site could easily be measured for effectiveness. Every time an employee accesses the site, specifically a lesson, it will create a ‘hit’. The more hits on a lesson will show the popularity of the particular lesson. The unit test will show a statistical growth between the teachers that utilize the site and the ones that don’t. MyData will show the results of unit tests between particular teachers that use the site and schools that use the site most often.
When the teachers become better at using MyData, they will improve their decision making about the instruction of the students in class and tailor instruction according to their needs. The two programs combined will add quality to the instruction.
Teachers will be able to post comments and suggestions about the technology and new staff development via currently used electronic survey forms in the district. The data from the input will assist to improve the professional development in the future. The podcasts would be used for campus professional development as well as the content professional development.
Organization Chart Integrating Technology
Dallas Independent School District
Superintendent of Schools
Michael Hinojosa
The superintendent is responsible for implementing the school boards direction in technology. Additionally, the technology vision for the district is set and maintained by the superintendent of the district.
Finance & Human Development Division
Executive Chief Finance Officer
Larry Throm Due to past financial problems, the IT department was placed under Finance and Human Development. Larry Throm has recently hired to bring financial stability to troubled departments. This position is mainly for oversight.
Information Technology
Executive Director
Patricia Viramontes The IT Executive Director oversees what technology the district will invest in. The director establishes contracts with particular vendors that the campuses will work with.
Information Technology
Campus & Administrative Support Director
Sam Illya The Campus Support Director monitors that the schools have the technology in place that is necessary. They create the training for the technology specialists and technology staff development. This director establishes the curriculum necessary for the technology standards to be met.
John B. Hood Middle School
Principal
Fred Davis III The principal has the duty of ensuring the campus staff is utilizing the technology available. He monitors to see the effectiveness of technology implementation and education on campus. He oversees the technology budget and decides on what technology to invest in.
John B. Hood Middle School
Technology Specialist
Paul Newman The campus technology specialist maintains the inventory of the school, monitors the repair and maintenance of the campus technology, and teaches several classes of technology.
John B. Hood Middle School
Staff The teachers and staff of the school are responsible for ensuring the students meet the technology standards, security of campus technology, and modeling proper ethical standards for technology usage.
The principal must ensure that the organizational chart is followed. The staff of their school must follow through with the technology specialist since the specialist is the one who closely monitors the technology of the campus. Principals must understand the technology flow to the district level. They need to know which vendors to work with, curriculum that must be followed, and procedures for technology acquisition.
Professional Development Planning
One critical area that has been addressed as a concern for professional development in Dallas ISD is the poor timing and quality. This has been an ongoing problem for years, yet even with the available technology, the situation is not fixed. The district spends hundreds of dollars sending teachers to a staff development within the district during instructional time, and there is a loss of instruction while the teachers are away at training.
Dallas ISD is one of the largest school districts in the nation. There is a great amount of knowledge and experience within the district. Additionally, the district has the technology capability to improve the staff development.
The solution would be to create podcasts of the sample lessons that the district is wanting. Most middle schools already have the technology on campus to create the podcasts, and they have the hard drive storage to maintain the files. The content departments would find the most effective teachers in terms of style and results to model a lesson. The departments would then post the files to the server for all other teachers to view. A similar site is already in operation; it is Teachertube. Teachertube is a site where teachers around the nation can view lessons. The difference with Dallas ISD’s proposed site would be that the lessons are specifically tailored to what the district is requesting of its teachers.
MyData is a student data site that contains content for TAKS results, demographic, benchmark results, previous school data, and wealth of other necessary to know all students. This data is critical to show progress, especially for the new Texas Projection Measure. MyData would enable the teachers and district to monitor the effectiveness of the new staff development methods. Training for better use of the data site would be available for the teachers on the site as well.
Evaluation Planning for Action Plan
The Dallas ISD podcast site could easily be measured for effectiveness. Every time an employee accesses the site, specifically a lesson, it will create a ‘hit’. The more hits on a lesson will show the popularity of the particular lesson. The unit test will show a statistical growth between the teachers that utilize the site and the ones that don’t. MyData will show the results of unit tests between particular teachers that use the site and schools that use the site most often.
When the teachers become better at using MyData, they will improve their decision making about the instruction of the students in class and tailor instruction according to their needs. The two programs combined will add quality to the instruction.
Teachers will be able to post comments and suggestions about the technology and new staff development via currently used electronic survey forms in the district. The data from the input will assist to improve the professional development in the future. The podcasts would be used for campus professional development as well as the content professional development.
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