Course Reflections for EDLD 5306

What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?

I originally thought EDLD 5306 would give me an idea of some of the things that an instructional technologist does at the campus and district level. That is some of what we learned in this course, but we also learned how to use some of the Web 2.0 tools and how to evaluate them which is important if you are in the instructional technologist position. I hoped to gain knowledge of more tools and hopefully be able to share them with my fellow teachers and help them implement them into their class. I feel that I have achieved that in this introductory course. I think the course outcomes did not align with my expectations, but actually encompassed much more than what I had envisioned. I think having an introduction to the Texas Long Range Plan, StAR Chart and E-Rate was extremely helpful.

To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?

I think everything I learned in this course is extremely relevant to my current job. As a teacher, I want to know how to use these tools so that I will eventually be able to come up with a way to use them with my students. As a math teacher, I find it extremely difficult to find practical ways to use technology in my classroom, but I’m hoping that the more I learn and study for this degree; I will be able to implement more. My other goal is to help other teachers, especially math teachers, integrate more technology into their classrooms and lessons. I’m not sure that I’m at that point yet, but I can see that I will get there eventually. Some of the things we learned in this course are not necessarily relevant to my current job, but are still very interesting and helpful for the upcoming courses and internship.

What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

As far as outcomes I didn’t achieve, I didn’t really have many preconceived notions about what this course would be about, so I feel like I achieved more than I thought I would. Not that I had low expectations, but I felt like I wasn’t completely sure exactly what we would learn so everything we learned seemed useful to the course and relevant to the degree. My goal with all of my coursework is how I can enhance my own teaching with it or how I can use it in my classroom with my students. I feel like this course didn’t really help me too much with that, but given that it was meant to be introductory, it makes sense that it did not help me with that goal.

Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

I didn’t have a really hard time completing the course assignments, but I did often wait until the last minute on some things. As everyone else in this cohort, I am busy. I am a math teacher and assistant drill team director with after school practice every day plus football games every Friday night. I squeeze in these assignments whenever I can. It does take some time-management skills and you do have to start early in the week. I also learned to read the assignments carefully. It seems like at least two weeks I didn’t read carefully and on Monday afternoon I realized there was something more I had to do. The thing I had the hardest time with was reading the assignments. For some reason, I waited too long to start reading, when really I should have been reading ahead of time since all of the material was there. I suppose that is something I will need to work on in the upcoming courses.

What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

I did learn some things about myself during this course. One thing is that I really enjoy helping adults as much as I enjoy helping students. I feel very comfortable when working one-on-one with my colleagues or with a small group. I also learned that I know a lot more about technology than I thought and more than many of my co-workers. I have become the “go-to” person in my department as far as when something goes wrong or someone has a question about software such as our district grade book or Forethought which is our new lesson planning software. I am also really excited about leading a professional development for my campus colleagues to get them started with certain Web 2.0 tools.

Web Conference Week 4 (9/15/2010) - Reflection

This web conference was during the week that we were all reading our technology/leadership books. Professor Borel asked us to all tell what book we were reading and why we chose it. I chose “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms” by Will Richardson. The reason I chose it was because it seemed like it would have some practical uses for these tools for my classroom. During the web conference, we also went over how we were to go about getting our internship plan together and what kinds of activities we might want to put on it.

Web Conference Week 3 (9/8/2010) - Reflection

Truthfully, I wasn’t too excited about the idea of the web conference this week. It was only Wednesday and even though we had Monday off, I was already exhausted! But I did it and I’m so glad I did. There were only about 7 of us at the conference which gave us time to ask individual questions. Professor Borel gave us a chance to ask individual questions and explained a bit about our internship. The next two weeks will be the time when she will give us examples of what we can do to satisfy our internship hours. I found out that the technology steering committee my mentor signed me up to attend will count for hours. I was pretty excited about that. Anyway, it was actually really worthwhile and I was glad that I attended it.

Blog Posting #3 – National Educational Technology Plan - Week 2 - 9/6/2010

The National Educational Technology Plan has five goals in the areas of learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure and productivity. Learners will have authentic learning experiences both in and out of school and will be assessed on important topics and schools will use the data for improving instruction and learning. Educators will be supported by technology and in their use of technology. Students and teachers will have access to infrastructure where and when they need it. All schools will take advantage of technology to improve productivity. (Transforming American Education: Learning powered by Technology) Teaching and learning will be connected to the outside world. Instead of teaching in an isolated environment, teachers can now connect to anyone outside of the school that could help students see the real-world value of a topic. They can use web conferencing to connect to experts in a field or to someone who uses it in their job. This is a great way to engage students and show them ways that knowledge can be used. It can also connect classrooms to other classrooms around the country or in other countries so students can see what their peers are learning and doing. Technology also lends itself to teachers being innovative in their approaches to teaching and hopefully making learning more student-centered. In order for this to happen, teachers must have not only technology training but also have the latest technology to use in the classroom. Unfortunately, this doesn't always happen in our education system. The education system is behind technologically. Often there is only one computer per classroom and they are not the most updated. Although according to Eric Jones in his article Strategies to Put Instruction Ahead of Technology (2007) this shouldn't matter. Teachers can be trained to use what technology the do have to make instruction more student centered. Convincing teachers of this is actually the most difficult part.

Blog Posting #2 – School or District Technology Plan - Week 2 - 9/6/2010

Conroe ISD set lofty goals for technology hardware and technology use. The Assistant Superintendent for Technology saw where the technology field was going and set up the infrastructure to make it happen by creating wireless capability at all campuses, buying WOW Carts with 30 wireless WebPC’s per cart, and having iphone wireless as well. The stated goals of CISD are 1) to combine the tools of technology within a restructured teaching and learning environment to improve achievement and productivity, 2) to provide easily accessible and continuous support for the utilization of technology, 3) to provide technological connections for various applications between the school and the home as well as to access resources around the world, and 4) to provide continuous monitoring and updating of technology throughout the district. (www.conroeisd.net)

Teachers are offered professional development through the technology department given by the instructional technologists at the district level and at the campus level. Each campus has its own technology plan and the instructional specialists provide training specific to campus needs. There is an instructional survey every spring which is how the district technology department monitors how effective staff development was and it also helps them determine if they need more on certain topics or if there is a need in another area.

Conroe ISD has various ways of budgeting for technology. They use E-Rate, various grants and STaR Chart funds based on the STaR Chart survey filled out by every teacher in the district. They also include technology innovations and upgrades in the county bond elections.

Ways they monitor the utilization of technology vary. One factor that is reviewed is the distribution of computers throughout the district. If they buy new computers based on a need in one place, they will take the old ones and re-purpose them somewhere else. This is one way they can monitor where and how technology is being used by teachers and students. Another way they monitor is by assessing how many professional development offerings there were and how many people took advantage of it. They also monitor by viewing the implementation of individual campus technology plans. Evaluation of the development of these plans as well as the implementation helps the technology department determine where they go from here and how they are doing thus far. The individual campus technology committees meet once a month so that if an issue needs to be addressed, that is possible. This also allows campuses to make corrections and adjustments as needed.

E-Rate and Conroe ISD Technology - Week 2 - EDLD 5306

Week 2 technology presentation dickerman

View more presentations from amdickerman.

Blog Posting #1 – Technology Assessments - Week 2 - 9/6/2010

Education seems to have assessments for everything. In our current system, the technology assessments of teachers and students are one of the most important, so important that the state of Texas has implemented the STaR Chart assessment. “The Texas STaR Chart is a tool designed for use in technology planning, budgeting for resources, and evaluation of progress in local technology projects.” (Letter to all Texas Administrators, 2006) The STaR Chart has various areas in which a campus is assessed. The STaR Chart is completed by all teachers so that individual districts can evaluate where their district is in terms of technology use and what kinds of resources they need to budget for in the future. This is a reason to support technology assessment since it helps districts and the state budget for upcoming technology expenses. Probably the most important category of the STaR Chart is the Teaching and Learning area. “The traditional model of schooling with the teacher choosing what is to be learned and then serving as the source of knowledge is not adequate for 21st Century, world-class education. Roles of teacher and learner must continue to change.” (Texas Campus STaR Chart, p.4) This is the area that teachers should be the most interested in. We have to change the way we teach in order to help our students be successful in their future 21st century jobs. One of the possible problems that I see with technology assessment is the fact that perceptions may be skewed based on which teacher is answering the survey. For example, on some campuses, it seems that some teachers may not perceive a campus as advancing quickly enough. Unfortunately, teachers do not always see what is going on behind the scenes to upgrade technology in school districts. Students must also be assessed as to their technology skills. Most students are quick to pick up new technologies, but we must evaluate their skills with technology just as we evaluate teachers. We can do this at the school level using a self-assessment tool since there doesn’t seem to be an official assessment tool for students except for taking and successfully completing courses in technology.

Web Conference Week 2 (9/1/2010) - Reflection

I have now attended two web conferences for my first course EDLD 5306 Concepts of Educational Technology. More students attended the second conference which gave me the opportunity to see who my fellow students are. The web conference this past week was to discuss the internship requirement for this degree. I have to say, even though I had looked at the internship handbook ahead of time and had read about it, hearing about it and looking at how many hours it takes made me a little stressed out. Along with teaching math at Oak Ridge High School, I am also the assistant dance team director and the Mu Alpha Theta sponsor. I am also active in my church with hand bells, altar guild and a twice a month bible study with a great group of people. Needless to say, I am busy. We are all busy! We all have lots of things to do and have lives away from the computer. I am still excited about this program. However now I am wondering who I will get to be my mentor throughout this program. I hate to ask people to do things like that because when you read the handbook, it sounds like the mentor has a lot of obligations. I hope I can find someone who will agree to do it.

Web Conference Week 1 (8/25/2010) - Reflection

I enjoyed participating in the web conference the first week of EDLD 5306. The main reason I wanted to participate during the optional week is two-fold. First, I wanted to make sure everything was working properly and that I was able to access the conference as well as participate. Secondly, I wanted to hear what Dr. Borel had to say about the upcoming course. During the first week, I was feeling overwhelmed and a little intimidated by everything I had to do even though I have always been a semi-tech-savvy person. Both of my goals were accomplished during the conference on August 25th. I was able to access the conference as well as participate with my camera and microphone. I found out more about what was expected in the course and what was up-coming by listening to other people and what their questions were. Overall, it was a fun thing to do giving me a chance to see my fellow students instead of just reading posts on a discussion board.