Week 5 Reflection

At the beginning of this course, I had no idea what to expect. I did not fully understand that this course would be a technology class. The course title does not lead one to believe that the entire course is about instructional technology rather than leadership. I would have thought that the class would have more to do with leadership and perhaps curriculum development. When I learned what the course content would be, I was still interested in what the classs had to offer. As the weeks passed, I did expect to learn more about blogs, wikis, and even podcasting. While we did learn to blog, I had expected that as the class went along there might be more content that would deal with podcasting. Podcasting and wikis were addressed in our readings, but there were no assignments involving wikis and podcasting. I think I expected to learn about the need for instituting more technology into our curriculum and the various ways this might be accomplished. I do believe that we did learn about this, and that we learned about ways in which we can better use technology in our own schools. To sum up, once I knew what this course was, I don’t believe that is was all I thought it would be. However, I do believe the course was helpful.

This course is very relevant to my school and to my work. Our students are very engaged in the uses of technology. As educators we have to develop methods of incorporating these activities into our daily lessons. Our school is very committed to the use of technology in our classrooms and student learning. All information in our school begins and ends with some type of software. We use technology to plan our lessons, register for staff development, obtain information about our special needs students, and teach in our classrooms. Many of us are using technology in testing, grading, and everyday assignments. Each year our district woks to add new technology applications and hardware that can be used in our classrooms. There are a few in our school who are blogging to maintain contact with students and parents. After this course, I can see a use for blogging within my work and communicating with students. There is a push in our district to go totally to computers and a vision of a time when we are no longer using textbooks. I feel that before I retire many of our course materials will be available for downloading straight to our students phones. I believe the outcomes of this course are highly relevant to what I do.

My biggest disappointment was in the power point for the STAR Chart. While I was able to complete the power point with the STAR information, I was not able to completely post it to my blog. I tried to follow the directions that were given in our assignment but the service that I used to convert my power point to did not match up with the directions.


I was successful in completing all the assignments with the exception of the posting of the STAR power point to my blog. It did seem that there were several glitches with the announcement board and our ability to access that information. Also I feel that some work needs to be done so that a greater number of students can access the web conferences that are set up. I noticed that at many times there was a limit to the number who could participate at any one time.

I learned that, personally, I need to work a little harder to keep technology from passing me by. While I do use technology, there are a lot of applications that I could make use of if only I knew how to use he application. My only problem is finding or making the time to sit down and learn how to use them. I’ve worked with some form of technology for the last 15 years or more. I have used many different types of software and I am not afraid to try new pieces of hardware and software. I think these traits will help me in leading other staff members toward using technology more in their teaching. In addition, I believe our school and district are well ahead of many of the schools in Texas. The problem some schools have is lack of funding and lack of technology development. These schools can still improve some uses of technology in their districts while waiting for bigger improvements in their areas of the state.

Task
Parties Responsible
Monitoring
Completion Date
Evaluation
Implement more technology uses into the district curriculum • Executive Director of Technology
• Coordinators of Secondary and Elementary Instructional Technology
• Campus Principals
• Assistant Principals
• Technology Facilitator
• Teachers District staff development to understand the data in the STaR chart survey, PDAS, and the district improvement plan as it relates to technology End of 2010- 2011 school year • STaR chart
• PDAS system
• AEIS report
Staff development to train teachers to use technology hardware and software • Coordinators of Secondary and Elementary Instructional Technology
• Campus Principals
• Assistant Principals
• Technology Facilitator
• Teachers Campus committees, instructional coaches, principals and department chairs End of 2010- 2011 school year • STaR chart
• The monitors will determine the need for more staff development
Development of district technology survey and implementation on district campuses • Executive Director of Technology
• Coordinators of Secondary and Elementary Instructional Technology
• Campus Principals
• Assistant Principals
• Technology Facilitator District technology planning committee End of 2010- 2011 school year • Board of Education
• Superintendent’s office
• Executive director of technology supervises development of survey
Implementation of district survey • Campus Principals
• Assistant Principals
• Technology Facilitator
• Teachers Campus Site Based Committee End of 2010- 2011 school year • District Technology Committee reviews information gathered in local survey, compares to STaR chart, AEIS, and statewide information

Our STaR Chart scores were very good in all areas. However, I do believe we could make progress on our campus within the Educator Preparation and Development area. There are still many teachers who are not comfortable with technology. There is quite a lot of technology available to the educators in our district that is not taken used adequately.

On our campus, we have two full time professionals and one part time dedicated to taking care of our technology needs. One is tasked to handle maintenance on all of our electronics. One takes care of software education, and the part time technology person handles the network on our campus. Between these three people, our campus technology needs are handled.

Focusing on Educator Preparation and Development, however, usually comes from the tech person that handles our software education. We are notified weekly of current technology education that is upcoming. Also weekly, there are technology continuing education classes being held all over the district. We are notified electronically of all these upcoming classes. It is only a matter of the individual taking advantage of these classes to learn more about technology. Teachers on our campus can only blame themselves when they cannot use technology in a competent manner.

I believe that Frisco ISD is ahead of the majority of schools in Texas with Educator Preparation and Development. All school districts, both state and nationally are attempting to prepare their teachers for a 21st century educational environment. That environment will be heavily skewed toward technology. Teachers, both state and nationally will be required to keep pace with these developments in order to properly prepare students.

Week 3 Reflection

As this process grows I plan on continuing to share my findings and results on the Action Research blog with my peers for their review and critiques. Their input will be helpful to ensure that I do appropriate and comprehensive research to gain insightful knowledge and come to the proper conclusions.

I believe it will also be important to hare my findings with my site supervisor whom I am working with very closely with on this topic. We have begun open collaboration and brainstorming. We will also reflect at the end of the year on the results and findings from the action research plan. At that point we can make any changes as necessary and hopefully implement the system the next year if all findings lead us to that conclusion.

Lastly, I will continue to review findings and data with my group. This group for the district wide study will be weighted toward this specific action plan, and will include my site supervisor, other post graduate students, and the counselors in charge of report cards. We will be meeting on a regular basis to discuss the book and required reading, as well as reviewing our findings from Internet resources and other school districts that have already shifted to a two-fold reporting system.

Week 2 Reflection

I think that several parts to this weeks reading that were interesting. Especially the information concerning the 9 Passions of action research. What I think is really interesting is why we study some of these topics and yet do not utilize the information gathered. There is all types of information regarding a positive school climate and yet most principals do not approach their school climate in the ways research indicates will help their teachers and therefore their students successful.

I also found the video interviews to be interesting as well. I appreciate the fact that it was mentioned that not all action research has to be formal. There is already a lot of information out there and there is no point in re-inventing the wheel.

Action Research

Action research is a form of research which can be helpful to educators as well as other research areas. The use of action research can confirm when a change is needed and aids in putting a plan in place to provide positive change. Action research will also aid in the monitoring of the change as well as evaluating it effectiveness. Action research uses reflection as a means for identifying issues which may need to be addressed. Data must be collected on the issue and must be analyzed carefully. Action research is different from traditional research which generally stopped at the research of an issue in that it provides the plan needed to put change into place. Action research allows for continued professional development among teacher's and administrators. The use of action research in courses such as, Professional Learning Communities and Leadership teams is a valuable tool in targeting areas that may need improvement. Teachers can use action research to improve instruction in their own classes, while PLC's can use it as a tool to solve issues that may arise throughout a school year. When all is said and done action research is a means by which positive change is made in a school culture.

Blogs in Education

Blogs are already being use extensively in eduaction. As a matter of fact this will be the second one that I am currently using. I use blogs in my classes as a means to provide added detailed information to my students which they may have access to at home or from another classroom or library. Blogs are also useful for educators to collaborate with other educators when it would be virtually impossible except for at conferences and seminars. Blogs makes it possible to collaborate litereally at any time of the year on any subject. While there are a lot of things about blogs I may not know, I am curious as to the ways that they can be used for better communications.