Week 5 Assignment

At the beginning of this course, I had no idea what to expect. I did not know that this 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. When I learned what the course content would be, I was interested. As the weeks passed, I expected more about blogs, wikis, and podcasts. While we did learn to blog, I had expected more content that would deal with blogging. 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. 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 think it lived up to my expectations.

This course is very relevant to my school and to my work. Our district is very committed to the use of technology in our classrooms and student learning. All information in our school begins with the school 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. 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. 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 believe the outcomes of this course are highly relevant to what I do.

As I stated in the first paragraph, I expected to learn more about wikis and podcasting. I realize this is not an in depth technology course, and we did not have the time to get much deeper into different new technologies than we did.

I was successful in completing all the assignments. I am not sure how successful I was in the week 4 assignment. At the time of this writing, I have not received a grade for that assignment. My only problem with the assignments in this course was with the week 4 assignment. After talking with my classmates, I think we all felt that there was not enough detail about the form the assignment was to take. Only after another classmate posted the action plan was I able to develop an idea that was to be my plan. Other than the lack of information for this one assignment, I feel the other assignments were not a problem to complete.

I learned that, personally, I have a few more technological skills that many of my peers. I’ve worked with some form of technology for the last three decades. 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, 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. If there have been no technological advancements in certain areas of the state, it will be hard for schools to improve their technology situation. These schools can still improve some uses of technology in their districts while waiting for bigger improvements in their areas of the state.

In the educational setting, blogging can be a tremendous tool for learning, communication, and information to all stakeholders involved with the school. Blogging can be instrumental in teaching by involving students in their own teaching and learning. I have learned that a blog can help students teach themselves and other students. This can also be instrumental in making lessons and assignments dynamic. By using a blog, we can set an assignment in motion and the let students define where it goes. We can use a blog to maintain avenues of communication with administrators and parents. Blogging can be used to deliver necessary information about anything from current lessons to future assignments. There are many uses for blogging already in use and many that will be found as people begin using blogs in education more.

I think one of the biggest concerns with the use of blogging is the lack of planning that many people do when using this form of communication. Teacher must understand what information they can and cannot publish. They must also realize that their blog will be viewed by many people. Everything about that blog will be scrutinized and they must be very careful how it is written. Students must realize that their will be people reading their blogs that may not have good intentions. Students must make sure the information they put in their blogs cannot lead people to them.

I addressed the last question in a previous paragraph. All stakeholders can be kept informed through a teacher, administrator, campus, or district blog.

S Ta R Chart Presentation

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Frisco High STaR Chart

S Ta R Chart Presentation

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Week 2 Assignment, Part 2

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 1 Assignment, Part 4

The TEKS for the high school Desktop Publishing class can be used to understand how information flows in a circular or spiraling pattern. In this class students are expected to acquire information in electronic formats including text, audio, video, and graphics, citing the source under TEK 5(A) in the information acquisition strand of the TEKS. Under the problem-solving strand of the TEKS, the students under TEK 9(C) are expected to resolve information conflicts and validate information through accessing, researching, and comparing data. Clearly, if information is not acquired correctly or is incomplete then TEK 9(C) cannot be mastered. Students will not be able to solve information conflicts if the information is wrong or incomplete. Students will then have to revert back to TEK 5(A) to relearn the how to correctly acquire the necessary information electronically so that TEK 9(C) can be mastered correctly. Once this is achieved then the student can move forward. In some cases, students may have to go all the way back to the foundation strand of the curriculum to relearn how to use an input device so that the mastery of curriculum can move forward.

Week 1 Assignment, Part 4

Pre-K Technology Application TEKS lay the foundation for future success by having young children familiarize themselves with computers, programs, and computer terminology. For example, the student will learn terms for what he or she is using, for example, mouse, keyboard, printer, CD, etc. Making the student more familiar with these foundation items allows the student to become more comfortable with the computer and then able to perform more complex operations with them in the future. Included in these TEKS, is the teaching of the studnet to enter and exit a program, and to listen and respond to stories and other stimuli in which the computer will engage the student. This foundation building and introduction to interacting with computers will set in motion the student's ability to work with technology in a more sophisticated way as the student grows older.

Week 1 Assignment, Part 3

While studying the long-range plan, I discovered the meticulousness and how all encompassing the plan is. I was not aware of the detail of the plan and the dogged determination of the TEA to make schools digital learning communities. This new learning clearly shows that as an administrator, I will need to place an elevated level of awareness on the implementation of technology in my building. As an administrator, I will need to provide the highest level of support to teachers who need to develop the necessary skills to move into the digital classroom. We will need to implement curriculum that uses technology to increase student interest and by extension student achievement.

Assignment 1 Part 2

The two technology assessments are good for showing you where you stand with the knowledge you currently possess. The Technology Applications Inventory seemed basic to me. Of the twenty eight questions, I answered two of them no. That’s not to say I’m an expert, but I think I can find my way through most of the applications asked about in the inventory. However, I’ve taught BCIS for almost twenty years and I’ve taken many staff development courses and been to many workshops for technology applications. I can see where people who aren’t constantly involved with technology would find it to be more enlightening as far as their lack of technology knowledge.
I took the SETDA survey for teachers and found it to be overwhelming. Twenty six pages? Come on, how many questions really need to be asked. Many of the questions seemed to be repeats of previously asked questions. Some questions asked me to check categories for subjects I teach. Yet, the subject I teach wasn’t a selection. I think that the information asked for in this survey can be obtained by slightly expanding the questioning of the Technology Applications Inventory.
I believe my strengths in technology are software based. I regularly use Microsoft Office. In the past, I’ve used editing software, web page design software, graphic design software, and I’ve managed networks for a school district. My weaknesses would be in software manipulation. I’m not saying that I would like to know how to become a hacker. However, one of our readings in the past two weeks was on open source software. I would like to become more familiar with this type of software use.