Web Conference Review 3/9/11

After attending the web conference March 9th, I have come to the conclusion that web conferencing could be a useful tool. I could see how you could get input from many different people without having to be in the same place. I do feel that there needs to be some guidelines or topic for the conference. The conference I was in seemed to always go back to conversations about the Lamar Competency Exam (LCE) or the Instructional Leadership Development (ILD) training. I understand that those topics are important to all of us, but I was expecting a more subject focused discussion. I did not feel that I benefitted from that particular experience. With that being said, I did not push the issue either. A couple of people tried to focus the conversation, but they were outnumbered. If I were to use this technology as a tool, I would definitely want to have some sort of topic to be the focus of our discussion.

Action Research For Technology Integration

Associate Superintendent
For Instruction and Technology Services
The associate superintendent oversees all areas of research and information technology.

Executive Director For Research and Information Technologies
The Executive Director is in charge of technology professional development and compliance with the district technology plan, the student technology standards and the teacher technology standards of the district.

Campus assistant principal in charge of curriculum
The curriculum AP creates the master schedule which includes access to computer labs and other campus technologies. He also coordinates technology professional developments.

Campus assistant principal in charge of the technology committee
The Assistant Principal overseeing the technology committee is in charge of compliance with the district technology plan, student technology standards and teacher technology standards at the campus level. He also creates the agenda for and conducts technology committee meetings.

Campus Instructional Technology Support Specialist
The campus instructional support specialist is in charge of evaluating and supporting staff members in the use of available technologies. They work in conjunction with the assistant principal in charge of the technology committee to ensure all campus technology needs are being met.

Technology Committee
(One representative from each department)
Department representatives help create professional development activities and act as communicators between the department and the committee. Representatives are also in charge of trouble shooting any technology issues before initiating work orders for technology repair.

Action research plan and program timeline
Goal: The goal of this action research is to use the current NETS*S standards to build lessons that integrate technology.

Action Steps	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/ End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Assessment/ Evaluate need	Technology Committee Intern Rodney Vigil	Begin survey’s March 28th. Allow 2 weeks for all replies to be returned.	Internet access, computer, manpower, time	Survey teachers for needed training and level of ability for several technology pieces (Moodle, Turning Point, TI83, Probewares etc)
Identify target areas	Technology Committee Intern Rodney Vigil	April 11th through April 29th	Manpower, time	Highest need training areas based on survey. Create pair/share teams based on ability levels to build lessons together
Research	Technology Committee Intern Rodney Vigil Science Dean and team leaders	Continuous throughout program	Computers, Manpower, Time	Teachers can be placed in groups of three teachers at different technology & experience levels to integrate technology into existing content for upcoming lessons.
Develop plan and procedures	Technology Committee/ Department Representatives	May 2nd through May 20th.	Manpower, Time	Create draft plan of four day summer workshop on integration of technology and content. Teachers will receive teacher choice hours for time spent in workshop.
Present the proposed procedures to Department Dean for additional input and final approval	Technology Committee Chairperson	May 23rd through May 27th.	Manpower, Time	Present plan to Department Dean for approval or revisions
Finalize Procedures	Technology Committee/ Department Representatives	Time dependent on changes required. To be complete before beginning of workshop August 1st.	Manpower, time	Make adjustments to plan as recommended
Begin Workshop	Technology Committee/ Department members	Week of August 1st through 5th	Computers and various technologies, Manpower, Time, Facilities (Rooms), Refreshments and snacks	Teachers placed in pair/share teams of three. Schedule is set for morning technology seminars and afternoon content/technology integrations.
Evaluate program	Technology Committee Department members	August 5th through 9th	Computers, Manpower, Time, STaR chart, AEIS report, Developed Lessons	Part 1- Online survey of overall program effectiveness. Part 2- Was there enough time in the workshop to complete multiple lessons? Part 3- Did lessons rank in the Developing, Advanced or Target area according to STaR Chart standards?
Reflection	Technology Committee, PDAS Supervisors, Department Deans	Part 1 – August 15th Part 2 – Ongoing throughout Fall semester.	Computers, Manpower, Time, STaR chart, AEIS report, Student and Teacher survey data	Part 1- Were teachers able to build several true lessons (not presentations) integrating new technologies? Part 2- Were those lessons actually effective during the school year based on student scores on summative evaluations and student/teacher surveys?
Presentation of data	Technology Committee Chairperson	At scheduled department meeting first month of Spring Semester.	Computers, Manpower, Time, STaR chart, AEIS report, Student and Teacher survey data	Present findings to full department outlining successes and failures with the workshop. Have teachers complete survey to determine continuation of program.

The National Educational Technology Plan

The National Educational Technology Plan report focuses on using technology to prepare our present students for a future world. The goals for teachers and students center on becoming contributing members to the global community. For teachers, this means making their work public. Collaboration outside of the school walls means that teachers can receive input from colleagues with various backgrounds and experiences. This sharing of ideas will make Lessons more effective. In addition to using technology to share ideas, it needs to be associated with assessments and data collection. Assessment and other types of collected data will be helpful when making decisions about curriculum. The main drawback that I see comes down to time. The report states and I can personal attest to this fact, that we already have less time for professional development than most other countries. We cannot increase our level of success unless we have time to collaborate locally and globally. In addition to time for collaboration, leadership needs to provide time for some teachers to raise their computer proficiency. It is impossible to design technology integrated lessons for students if you do not feel comfortable with technology yourself. The key goal for students is to set the foundation for becoming a lifelong learner. Jobs are becoming more technologically advanced and are changing so rapidly that a student cannot lock in to one skill set. They must be able to learn new skills in order to keep up with an ever changing world. If they want to stay relevant, they must be able to call upon these skills at any given time.
According to the National Educational Technology plan, students and teachers need to be continuous learners if they want to be a part of the global learning community that is out there.

Texas Long Range Plan for Technology Progress Report

In evaluating the progress report, I noticed that the changes from 2008-2009 to 2009-2010 show that campuses seem to be advancing in the right direction. My next thought was to look at the standards and identify the target areas for each category. I wanted to answer the question; what area needs to improve in order to advance to the next level?
The Teaching and Learning area was rated as developing. The key to this area is that developing schools use technology, but it is teacher directed. To be considered advanced, the lessons will be organized so they are more teacher facilitated. The Education Preparation and Development area mirrored the Teaching and Learning area. It also received a developing rating. This shows that teachers are using technology for administrative tasks and to present material. To receive that advanced rating, technology needs to be infused into the lesson and not just used to present the lesson. The other two categories, Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support and Infrastructure for Technology, received an advanced rating. To receive a target rating, leadership needs to first focus on dropping the tech to computer ratio from 1 tech per 500 computers to 1 tech per 350 computers. More importantly, leadership needs to not just have a technology plan, but ensure that the plan is focused on student success. In order for the infrastructure for Technology rating to increase, there needs to be on demand internet access for all students.
What I thought was interesting was that the categories that scored higher were monetary based. The categories that according to the results lagged a bit dealt directly with teacher student interactions. I think that as teachers become more skilled in using technology; their lessons will become more technology integrated.

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Educator Preparation and Development

The Educator Preparation and Development area gauges how well teachers understand the importance of learning about technology and the many possibilities of its uses. Development of this area is through ongoing job embedded training that is geared towards meeting the technology needs of all students. This is the precursor to the part that I feel is most important; teaching and learning. To quote Harvey S. Firestone, “You get the best out of others when you get the best out of yourself.” Progress in this area at the state and campus level was in the developing stage as of 2008. However, as of 2009-2010, our STaR chart rating moved into the advanced category. We have now moved from using technology for administrative tasks to implementing it into teaching and learning. The trend is logical because the base knowledge of technology by teachers needs to be met before we can move on to implementing this knowledge in to their lessons. My recommendation to continue this upward trend is to allow time for collaboration amongst professionals. It takes time and input from various resources in order to develop lessons that will truly infuse technology and not use it as a presentation tool. Since there is little hope of advancing past the students, we need to use them as a resource. Finally, our greatest untapped resource for new knowledge is the global learning community. According to the NETS for teachers, you can advance past the developing stage and move to the advanced stage by becoming a contributing participant in the global learning community. As a result, all stakeholders benefit.