Course Reflections

This has been an amazing five weeks. This course was so much more than I envisioned. I realize now that what I had envisioned would not have produced the knowledge output that I needed. The outcomes I envisioned for this course were to obtain a working knowledge on what types of technology was out there and available for use. I thought that we would be working on in class projects with technology to submit to our professors and share with our cohort. I did learn more about the types of technologies that are out there to be used. I did not know a lot about Wikis or blogs before this course.   The course did align to learning more about the technologies that are available. However, I did not produce any types of lesson plans as I thought I would.

            The outcomes that I achieved are very relevant to the work that I do. I plan on using the knowledge that I obtained in this course in my future assignments in my class. I will definitely be more mindful of how my students use the technology that we have available. I know more about the behind the scene part of technology that I never thought of before.Students will be using Wikis and Blogs to communicate with myself and others. I plan on having professionals from around the world looking at my students work and working with them to make it better.  I knew about activities that were available and thought I was well versed in types of technology simply because I knew the basics about how to make a podcast and put it out for the world to see. I have grown in my depth of knowledge of technology. I often felt like I was on the same page with my students as far as technology. I feel that I still am however, I do now realize that there are teachers around me that keep the students in the dark, not connected while they are at school. I am going to work harder to help these teachers connect their students in their subject area.

            I did not  learn how other teachers use technology in their classroom. I really thought I would come out of the course with other teachers’ lesson plans. This course was not designed for that and in hind sight I see why. I am glad that is not what the course was designed to do. Once one knows the behind the scenes part of technology it is easier to design those lessons for students that will keep cyber ethics and safety first and foremost in my lesson plans.It is also easier to design the lesson plans once you understand where students are coming from.  As I design lessons for my class I will change how and why of the lesson plans to reflect other aspects of technology.

            I felt as if I was very successful carrying out the course assignments. There were nights that I thought I might have to throw in the towel and not complete one or more of the assignments, but I would persevere through and before I knew it I had researched enough to figure out what was needed in the assignment. Time was hard for me to manage. Once school got out I felt that I did much better. Also, I did not have a working knowledge of APA style and that has been a struggle for me. I am currently trying to get better at writing in APA format. Working on my curriculum vitae and internship plan this early in my studies surprised me. I am glad that we did because I feel more focused on my outcome for this course.

            I have learned a lot about myself as I went through this course. One of the things that I learned was that I could actually ask someone for help if I need to. In the past I felt that asking questions was a sign of weaknessor lack of intellegence and would muddle my way through something and rather than ask. I have learned that I have minimal knowledge of technology use and what is required within the school and why we can’t just go out and purchase new technology as it comes available. There is a lot to be weighed out in the purchasing of that new equipment. I learned about cyber ethics, safety online, and venues for allowing students to publish work, as well as what has to be considered when using technology. I learned that I can be a leader within my school and can influence others about proper use of technology for students. I look forward to working with teachers as they design lessons to use in their classroom with the current technology available, as well as I look forward to helping budget out and purchase new technologies for my school district.

Technology Plan - MISD

McGregor ISD Campus Technology Plan Overview

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District Technology Plan

McGregor Independent School District Technology Plan is implemented by Melissa Seward, Technology Director.  One of the goals of the districts technology plan is to improve academic achievement and technology literacy of all students by incorporating advanced technologies into all areas of teaching and learning. This will be implemented by getting a copy of all Technology TEKs into the hands of all teachers, providing all teachers and staff with technology tools and resources that can be used in the classroom; such as, probes, calculators, Lego robots, and digital microscopes. This will also include distant learning through ongoing video conferences and helping teachers maintain a website, as well as, use Wikis and Blogs for educational use. Another goal of the district is to provide ongoing professional development on integrating technology into teaching and learning, instructional management and administration.  This goal will be implemented by continual planning through the administration and the technology committee. The teachers will be involved in mandatory professional development, as well as professional development provided online and after school each day. Use technology effectively to enhance the quality of data management, parental involvement and communications, community partnerships, support services and technology planning is another goal of the district. This goal will be implemented through the ongoing use of Skyward, parent meetings, and the use of the district website. The last goal of the district technology plan is to increase and maintain the districts technology and telecommunications infrastructure to provide a safe, reliable, and scalable environment which supports promising practices in instruction and learning, leadership and operations. The district will continue to do this through the ongoing exploration of the personal use of computing devices as well as maintaining fiber optic cables, circuits, LAN’s, and updating hard and software.   The budget for telecommunication and Internet is  E-Rate of $56,760.19, State Tech Allotment of $14,190.05, and local budget of $2,000.  This will be sufficient to keep technology in McGregor ISD moving forward.

The Department of Education NETP

Education should always be on the top of our priority list. The Department of Education in the Draft of the National Education Plan gave many examples as to how it should be place on the top of that list. The National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) calls for “revolutionary transformation rather than evolutionary tinkering.” This draft plan sets up two basic goals: 1) to close achievement gaps no matter what race or social economic status the student is to make sure they graduate from high school and are prepared for college, 2) to raise the proportion of college graduates from 39% to 60 % holding 2-4 year degrees. Teachers need to begin to focus on “connected learning.” Learning that connects to real life. Learning that will match what and how students learn, match what they need to know, how they learn, where and when the need to learn, as well as who needs to learn. Students need to be learning by being engage and empowered. Students need to be answering real life questions through their learning.  And the professional development and training needs to change to an “Always On” type of training. It should be available for student and teacher on a 24/7 type bases. We should be using “data to drive our continuous improvement.”  Issues are going to be finding the funding and revamping our entire educational structure. We have always structured our classrooms based on teacher imparts information and students learn it. However, we are going to have to change our entire thought process in order to change the way we are teaching and students are learning. I am afraid this will not be a change that can happen as quickly as 2020; however, we must try. Without this change we will continue to fall behind other countries.

(Office of Educational Technology US Department of Education, 2010)

Webconference. May 31, 2011

The class web conference held on May 31^st, was of great value to me. It was great getting to meet many of my classmates, and learn to use the tools available. It was a tad bit bumpy at start; but we as 21^st Century educators are quite use to that. I remember the first time I used computer based programs from the internet in my classroom with my principal in attendance. It was one of those days when nothing wanted to work correctly. It took us 10 minutes to finally get to where we were going to learn what we needed to learn. My principal at the time was a very “old school” teacher. At the end of the experience he told me that he was shocked by how well I and the students handled the experience and the wait time. He learned to love my “techy stuff.” So, even though it took us a bit to get going in the end it was definitely worthwhile. I think it would be great to get my students involved in something like this with students from other states, countries, or even just the school across town.  This web conference also helped me to get familiarized with the requirements of the course. It gave me that classroom time that we often miss when learning online.

Accessing Technology Knowledge and Skills

Accessing educators’ technology leadership knowledge and skills is essential to knowing what teachers are able to do in their classroom. According to the Texas STaR Chart, “In order to continue improvements in teaching and learning in Texas, educators must assure that the knowledge and skills students learn match the knowledge and skills needed to live and work in the 21^st Century.”  If we do not access their skills there is no possible way of knowing what they know and how they can and do use technology in a classroom.  A teacher may have a projector, iPods, and computers; but, if they are not using them, then they are of no educational value to the students. By accessing this teacher through tools such as the STaR, we learn what that teacher is capable of doing in the classroom, what tools they actually use in their classroom and what tools they need training on in order to help students work in the 21^st Century. Cons for using an assessment like this, would be that some teachers and students do not take time to read the questions or answer them accurately.

By accessing the students’ knowledge and skills we learn how far they have come as well as what we, as teachers, have guided and need to guide them in. Through accessing the student and finding out what they need we can better prepare our teachers for teaching them.   

(Texas Star Chart, 2006)