EDLD 5345 asked us to review Chapter 247 of the Texas Administrative Code (TAC), "Educators' Code of Ethics," and conduct observations and/or interviews our school, and use the results of those observations/interviews to complete the "Code of Ethics Mindwalk."
There are several areas addressed in the Educators’ Code of Ethics. My interviews and observations focused on TEA Correspondence and Complaints Management, including who can lodge a complaint and what the complaint has to include, the ethical standards under each of the three main areas of Chapter 247 of the TAC and possible consequences of personnel engaging in any of these ethical conflicts. The strategies I used to complete this assignment included interviewing my principal and superintendent about ethical violations they are aware of either with staff at this school or any of their former schools. I practiced comparing our local school policies to the policies listed on the TAC website and by using Walsh’s School Law text. (Walsh, Kemerer & Maniotis, 2010)
My learning and interaction from colleagues gave me some insight in to how slippery a slope employee conflicts can be. Administrators must follow the letter of the law and most still rely on the advice of the school legal counsel. A life-long learning skill I also discovered is that it may be crucial to seek the help of reference materials when constructing a case for employee discipline. I will keep an updated copy of some school law resource information handy. The past interactions with teachers who may not follow the letter or the spirit of school laws and guidelines has shown me that schools actually have a lot of leeway in dealing with insubordination, stealing and bad treatment of students and parents. One lesson I’ve learned both from the internship text is that to be a good leader, “you must do what you tell others to do.” (Martin, Wright, Danzig, Flanary & Brown, 2005) “A good leader has an exemplary character. It is of utmost importance that a leader is trustworthy to lead others. A leader needs to be trusted and be known to live their life with honestly and integrity. A good leader ‘walks the talk’ and in doing so earns the right to have responsibility for others.” (White, 1997)
Martin, G. E., Wright, W. F., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Brown, F. (2005). School leader internship. (2nd, p. 60). Parsippany: UB Communications.
Walsh, I., Kemerer, F., & Maniotis, L. (2010). The educator's guide to texas school law, seventh edition. (7th ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
White, B. (1997). Seven qualities of a good leader. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from http://www.groco.com/readingroom/bus_goodleader.aspx
Sunday, October 30, 2011
EDLD 5370 Reflection over 5363 Part 4.3
This course was my third course and the first one that I considered fun. Multimedia and Video Technology introduced me to exactly the kind of learning for which I was hoping.
Multimedia and Video Technology was an entry into digital storytelling, podcasting and long-distance group projects. The two embedded assignments were modified in this course after it began. We were initially supposed to create a video podcast including RSS feeds, video, audio and digital images. We were then required to post them to the web. The assignment was changed to include an audio podcast regarding an analysis of 3 different video editing programs. The second assignment originally charged us with designing a six hour professional development activity for a group of 8-10 teachers instructing them on how to create a photostory they could then use as a model for their students. That assignment was changed to an exercise in which we simply created a digital story using PhotoStory 3.
I gained a lot of new knowledge about Web 2.0 tools that will continue my drive to learn about new tools in the future. I learned how digital storytelling can help students practice introspection in a way they might not if using a pencil and paper. I also learned that podcasts are quite easy and that students have many avenues to publish creative works to the web. The old information that I held included thinking that projects with video required hours of training with expensive video editing software and that podcasts were difficult to put online. My new knowledge about Web 2.0 tools reflects their ease of use. I think that Web 2.0 tools were created because digital tools are way too cool to be hard to use. Someone very smart told themselves that the tools HAD to be simplified and free for the masses. “Using technology tools to solve problems or create original products can aid students in constructing meaning and demonstrating their learning—often in ways similar to practicing professionals in the field.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p.33) I now have every student in my classes bring 10 personal photos the first week of school to teach several skills including scanning and saving to network folders. The pictures also serve the purpose of making a Photostory presentation. It always surprises me just how creative students are when they don't know that they're learning. I wasn't aware of digital storytelling until taking this course but have since seen it in many technology articles and in online bookstores.”Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. …as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music.” (University of Houston, 2011) “Simply put, digital stories are short 2 to 3 minute multimedia movies that combine photographs, video, animation, sound, music, text, and often a narrative voice. Digital stories may be used as an expressive medium within the classroom…”(Digital Storytelling, n.d.) Students who can't find a voice to write about themselves on paper seem to breeze through sharing themselves with digital tools.
Digital Storytelling. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling
University of Houston. (2011). The educational uses of digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards, what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
Multimedia and Video Technology was an entry into digital storytelling, podcasting and long-distance group projects. The two embedded assignments were modified in this course after it began. We were initially supposed to create a video podcast including RSS feeds, video, audio and digital images. We were then required to post them to the web. The assignment was changed to include an audio podcast regarding an analysis of 3 different video editing programs. The second assignment originally charged us with designing a six hour professional development activity for a group of 8-10 teachers instructing them on how to create a photostory they could then use as a model for their students. That assignment was changed to an exercise in which we simply created a digital story using PhotoStory 3.
I gained a lot of new knowledge about Web 2.0 tools that will continue my drive to learn about new tools in the future. I learned how digital storytelling can help students practice introspection in a way they might not if using a pencil and paper. I also learned that podcasts are quite easy and that students have many avenues to publish creative works to the web. The old information that I held included thinking that projects with video required hours of training with expensive video editing software and that podcasts were difficult to put online. My new knowledge about Web 2.0 tools reflects their ease of use. I think that Web 2.0 tools were created because digital tools are way too cool to be hard to use. Someone very smart told themselves that the tools HAD to be simplified and free for the masses. “Using technology tools to solve problems or create original products can aid students in constructing meaning and demonstrating their learning—often in ways similar to practicing professionals in the field.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p.33) I now have every student in my classes bring 10 personal photos the first week of school to teach several skills including scanning and saving to network folders. The pictures also serve the purpose of making a Photostory presentation. It always surprises me just how creative students are when they don't know that they're learning. I wasn't aware of digital storytelling until taking this course but have since seen it in many technology articles and in online bookstores.”Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. …as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music.” (University of Houston, 2011) “Simply put, digital stories are short 2 to 3 minute multimedia movies that combine photographs, video, animation, sound, music, text, and often a narrative voice. Digital stories may be used as an expressive medium within the classroom…”(Digital Storytelling, n.d.) Students who can't find a voice to write about themselves on paper seem to breeze through sharing themselves with digital tools.
Digital Storytelling. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling
University of Houston. (2011). The educational uses of digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards, what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
Week 4 Part 4.6 TF Standard VIII Reflection
All planning and implementation of technology in a school travels from top down. Strong insightful leadership is required to develop a 21st century district. Leadership must embrace technology and digital tools for them to be implemented and the leadership must include knowledgeable technologists who can provide good advice. The more informed the decision-makers are, the more likely a school will have a technology-rich curriculum. Whitehead, Jensen & Boschee (2003, p. 21) contend that "capable leadership and careful planning are critical factors that are constantly interwoven within the fabric of successful school technology initiatives."
Williamson & Redish (2009, p. 178-179) point out that although Standards VII and VIII are heavily focused on leadership, Standard VIII focuses more on vision, goals and inspiration than on budgeting and policy. The three major aspects of Standard VIII are aligning and motivating people and establishing a direction. "Inspiring a diverse group of people to establish and accomplish common goals is a crucial enabling factor in the success of any school improvement effort." (Anderson & Dexter, 2000)
I'm sad to say that my school does not currently have a strong vision and technology is not being used to its potential. I have learned over the past 18 months that this is not likely to improve if all stakeholders do not develop and believe in a shared vision for both technology and our school in general. Constructing, creating and sustaining vision has been a reoccurring topic in both our leadership and technology classes. Fundamentals of Technology Education, Leadership for Accountability and this course all specifically had us consider and begin developing our personal visions. Williamson & Redish (2009, p.179) explain that because it is difficult for stakeholders to conceptualize technology supported instruction, technologists try to display technology rich environment for them.
It is my opinion, after 18 months, that stakeholders must be included in technology planning and exposed to technology rich experiences to fully understand reasons for producing 21st century learners. I have learned that technology plans must be focused on student learning and be simple, useful and measurable. I plan to revisit my own technology plan as a result of these findings and appeal for help from additional stakeholders. My colleagues can provide input by conveying to me their wishes and concerns. As a lifelong learner, I plan to keep attending professional development at my Education Service Center and to continue donating my time in the spring to peer review Region XVII technology plans.
Anderson, R., & Dexter, S. (2000). School technology leadership: Incidence and impact. Retrieved on August 29, 2007, from www.crito.uci.edu/tlc/findings/report_6/startpage.html
Whitehead, B., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. (2003). Planning for technology: A guide for school administrators, technology coordinators, and curriculum leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards, what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
Williamson & Redish (2009, p. 178-179) point out that although Standards VII and VIII are heavily focused on leadership, Standard VIII focuses more on vision, goals and inspiration than on budgeting and policy. The three major aspects of Standard VIII are aligning and motivating people and establishing a direction. "Inspiring a diverse group of people to establish and accomplish common goals is a crucial enabling factor in the success of any school improvement effort." (Anderson & Dexter, 2000)
I'm sad to say that my school does not currently have a strong vision and technology is not being used to its potential. I have learned over the past 18 months that this is not likely to improve if all stakeholders do not develop and believe in a shared vision for both technology and our school in general. Constructing, creating and sustaining vision has been a reoccurring topic in both our leadership and technology classes. Fundamentals of Technology Education, Leadership for Accountability and this course all specifically had us consider and begin developing our personal visions. Williamson & Redish (2009, p.179) explain that because it is difficult for stakeholders to conceptualize technology supported instruction, technologists try to display technology rich environment for them.
It is my opinion, after 18 months, that stakeholders must be included in technology planning and exposed to technology rich experiences to fully understand reasons for producing 21st century learners. I have learned that technology plans must be focused on student learning and be simple, useful and measurable. I plan to revisit my own technology plan as a result of these findings and appeal for help from additional stakeholders. My colleagues can provide input by conveying to me their wishes and concerns. As a lifelong learner, I plan to keep attending professional development at my Education Service Center and to continue donating my time in the spring to peer review Region XVII technology plans.
Anderson, R., & Dexter, S. (2000). School technology leadership: Incidence and impact. Retrieved on August 29, 2007, from www.crito.uci.edu/tlc/findings/report_6/startpage.html
Whitehead, B., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. (2003). Planning for technology: A guide for school administrators, technology coordinators, and curriculum leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards, what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
Week 4 Part 4.5 TF Standard VII Reflection
A good technology program doesn't just “happen” and that is where Standard VII plays a part. As the District Technology Coordinator, my job encompasses technology procedures, policies, planning and budgeting. My superintendent and I work closely developing both short and long-term goals. One long-term goal includes developing a desktop computer rotation that provides updated machines to the users who need them and one short term goal is updating our infrastructure with Erate funding. A good technology program is dependent upon technologists who "establish a stable technological infrastructure to support the effective use of technology in school." (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p.147)
In order to provide students with a 21st century education, schools must provide teachers with both 21st-century digital tools and the professional development to implement them. Technology procedures must be in place to ensure quality training. "Without adequate infrastructure support, teachers are easily frustrated and prone to abandon technology..." (Sandholtz & Reilly, 2004) Professional development is a crucial part of Standard VII because if the teachers don't know how to use the tools purchased for them, the money will be wasted. I have learned that there are four main duties to provide access to technology in a school. In my school, the first step of planning for technology occurs between the administration and me. The actual acquisition of the hardware and software takes place between me and the vendors, and one other person and I are in charge of implementing maintaining and monitoring the network and the hardware in the district.
In my opinion, Standard VII is the foundation upon which all of the other standards rest and strong leadership should strive to make intelligent thoughtful decisions. I've learned that a needs assessment should drive a budget that will accommodate infrastructure, hardware, software, maintenance and professional development. The field based activities I performed to satisfy Standard VII are jobs that I do regularly and have been doing for 13 years.
Two things that were reoccurring concerns voiced by my colleagues over the last 18 months were lack of professional development and lack of practice with new technologies. “Scheduling training after hardware and software implementation stage ensures that users have access to their new equipment or services upon the conclusion of training, and they can begin to apply their new skills immediately-a factor frequently linked to improved learning and performance.” (Broad & Newstrom, 1992) My past interactions and collaborations with colleagues have caused me to offer more technology training to teachers who want to use technology in the classroom. As a lifelong learner, I will continue to attend the monthly technology meetings at my Education Service Center to stay informed of new technologies, services and professional development offered at their location.
Broad, M. & Newstrom, J. (1992). Transfer of training: Action-packed strategies to ensure high payoff from training investments. New York: Perseus.
Sandholtz, J., & Reilly, B. (2004). Teacher, not technicians: rethinking technical expectations for teachers. Teachers College Record, 106, 487-512.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards, what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
In order to provide students with a 21st century education, schools must provide teachers with both 21st-century digital tools and the professional development to implement them. Technology procedures must be in place to ensure quality training. "Without adequate infrastructure support, teachers are easily frustrated and prone to abandon technology..." (Sandholtz & Reilly, 2004) Professional development is a crucial part of Standard VII because if the teachers don't know how to use the tools purchased for them, the money will be wasted. I have learned that there are four main duties to provide access to technology in a school. In my school, the first step of planning for technology occurs between the administration and me. The actual acquisition of the hardware and software takes place between me and the vendors, and one other person and I are in charge of implementing maintaining and monitoring the network and the hardware in the district.
In my opinion, Standard VII is the foundation upon which all of the other standards rest and strong leadership should strive to make intelligent thoughtful decisions. I've learned that a needs assessment should drive a budget that will accommodate infrastructure, hardware, software, maintenance and professional development. The field based activities I performed to satisfy Standard VII are jobs that I do regularly and have been doing for 13 years.
Two things that were reoccurring concerns voiced by my colleagues over the last 18 months were lack of professional development and lack of practice with new technologies. “Scheduling training after hardware and software implementation stage ensures that users have access to their new equipment or services upon the conclusion of training, and they can begin to apply their new skills immediately-a factor frequently linked to improved learning and performance.” (Broad & Newstrom, 1992) My past interactions and collaborations with colleagues have caused me to offer more technology training to teachers who want to use technology in the classroom. As a lifelong learner, I will continue to attend the monthly technology meetings at my Education Service Center to stay informed of new technologies, services and professional development offered at their location.
Broad, M. & Newstrom, J. (1992). Transfer of training: Action-packed strategies to ensure high payoff from training investments. New York: Perseus.
Sandholtz, J., & Reilly, B. (2004). Teacher, not technicians: rethinking technical expectations for teachers. Teachers College Record, 106, 487-512.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards, what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
EDLD 5370 Week 4 Web Conference 10/29/2011
Dr. A told us that we needed 10 citations in all for our comp exam and not 3 per course reflection. She mentioned that she would check to see if they were formatted correctly and that the citations in the paper matched up with the reference page so to be careful with it. Michelle asked about the reflection standards on the course embedded assignments and Dr. A told her that she would check her papers for her.
Sharron asked that Week 5 be opened early so we could begin working in it if we were done with Week 4 and Dr. A indicated that she would change the date in the gradebook so it would open. Dr. A also mentioned that there were several people in our class that had not been keeping up and hadn’t turned in any work. She asked that we get in touch with them and encourage them to not quit.
One student expressed concern that the people who had kept up to date on all the work were at a disadvantage because the handbook switched on us midstream and now some of the work we had done wasn’t fitting the new standards.
Raye asked if it was still possible to walk during graduation if the deadline had been missed and Dr. A assured her that she could walk, but her name wouldn’t be In the program. Dr. A went on to explain the events of the day and Lynne promptly threw Sharron and I RIGHT UNDER THE BUS by telling Dr. A that we weren’t walking at graduation. Sharron told everyone that we would sit in the audience and yell for them! ;-)
Dr. A told us that the registrar’s office, among others, say that the Ed Tech Leadership people have the highest grades and cause less problems than any other bunch that comes through there. She also told us that she believes that that is because we participate in more web conferences and interact more with each other than other groups do. Sharron and Lynne both commented on how close of friends that we have become in our Skype group and encouraged Lamar to urge all groups to form groups for support.
Sharron asked that Week 5 be opened early so we could begin working in it if we were done with Week 4 and Dr. A indicated that she would change the date in the gradebook so it would open. Dr. A also mentioned that there were several people in our class that had not been keeping up and hadn’t turned in any work. She asked that we get in touch with them and encourage them to not quit.
One student expressed concern that the people who had kept up to date on all the work were at a disadvantage because the handbook switched on us midstream and now some of the work we had done wasn’t fitting the new standards.
Raye asked if it was still possible to walk during graduation if the deadline had been missed and Dr. A assured her that she could walk, but her name wouldn’t be In the program. Dr. A went on to explain the events of the day and Lynne promptly threw Sharron and I RIGHT UNDER THE BUS by telling Dr. A that we weren’t walking at graduation. Sharron told everyone that we would sit in the audience and yell for them! ;-)
Dr. A told us that the registrar’s office, among others, say that the Ed Tech Leadership people have the highest grades and cause less problems than any other bunch that comes through there. She also told us that she believes that that is because we participate in more web conferences and interact more with each other than other groups do. Sharron and Lynne both commented on how close of friends that we have become in our Skype group and encouraged Lamar to urge all groups to form groups for support.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
EDLD 5370 Week 4 Comprehensive Exam addition
Educational Technology or Educational Administration: My Digital Journey to Leadership
Shannon Dawn Copeland
Lamar University
Fall 2011
Educational Technology or Educational Administration: My Digital Journey to Leadership
I began teaching at my current school district in 1991 and was asked to be the District Technology Coordinator in 1998 due to my extensive use of technology in my Special Education classroom. This appointment began a long term relationship with educational technology. My technology experience also readied me to be my district’s choice for the Technology Application certification in 1992 when TIFF grants paid for the technology boon in Texas education. I tried, at that time, to continue my technology training to receive an Educational Technology masters through the University of North Texas, but no one else in my cohort responded positively and my local professor-of-record didn’t pursue it. I do, however, feel fortunate to have been involved in that ground-breaking endeavor.
As a result of my Technology Application certification, I promptly began teaching Webmastery, Digital Graphics/Multimedia, Video Editing, and Desktop Publishing. The experience I gained teaching these technology application courses helped me immensely when I was asked to serve as District TAKS Coordinator in 2004. It is stunning to realize how heavily the web of test coordinator duties relies on technology.
Everything I do is increasingly tied to computers and I have, at last count, 18 passwords for everything from my online grade book to my Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE) accounts, to the online assessment ordering website, www.texasassessment.com. I originally began this master’s to stop my CPA husband from jokingly brandishing his master’s in accounting at me but my attitude changed after a couple of courses when I decided that I would like to also study for my principal’s certification. It seems that my mid-life crisis expenditure will result in life-long learning tools and possibly open job opportunity doors concurrently.
Position and Leadership Goals
I would like to begin this section on a personal note summarizing a conversation between my husband and me. We were discussing the title of this comprehensive exam and I mentioned that I wanted my title to convey the turn my degree plan and my attitude took when Dr. Abernathy announced that we could add the leadership component to Educational Technology and be eligible to take the principal certification exam. I have been in leadership positions in my school since I was asked to become the District Technology Coordinator in 1997 and my colleagues seemed to follow my lead easily. I began wondering what it was about me that caused co-workers to come to me with anything from retirement plan questions to marriage woes! I do not like writing about myself in this manner, but introspection is introspection, even if a person doesn’t like doing it. I told my husband that while thinking about the portions of assignment one in 5370, I couldn’t separate my educational technology experiences from my leadership experiences, which both began long before I ever heard of Lamar University. I have discovered that educational technology and leadership are intertwined within me and I’ll have to write this paper accordingly. His response was to tell me that “you have lived that path and you can talk in detail about how they (technology and leadership) inter-relate, especially in today’s electronically-enhanced society and if that is the way you see this journey, then I think it would be both easier for you to write and it should make it an interesting read”.
I like my current position as District Technology Coordinator, but have always believed that I should continue studies in the area of technology to stay current with the rapidly changing digital world. This masters program began as a project to fill my time and to better my classroom instruction, but blossomed into a full blown endeavor to make an upward move to, possibly, a technology curriculum director position with a larger school. The principal certification was just a bonus and even though I do not want to be a principal at this time, but I believe that the certification’s presence on my vitae and my SBEC certification will be advantageous while pursuing future jobs. In addition to increased knowledge of new technologies, I have also been given more responsibility in areas not associated with technology or assessment at my school since beginning this course of study. My principal came to me in early October and asked my thoughts on our grading policy and what changes I’d like to see made to it. I feel like this master’s in technology with the leadership component are already opening doors for me.
Developing high-quality leadership goals is something that occurs with time and experience. I hope to lead with strong ethics and compassion for all stakeholders, including parents, teachers and students. A leader must also have an idea or vision of the direction he/she wants the campus to follow and what he/she wants the campus to resemble in the future because curriculum development, staffing patterns, needs assessments and collaboration among stakeholders are huge tasks for one person to try to implement and articulate. A good leader must also, as referred to in one of the standards, be able to distribute, or delegate authority. I don't think that I'm at the point where my vision is entirely clear, but the experiences that I've gained over the last 20 years definitely color my perceptions about all these aspects and I feel like I'm beginning to pull all of this insight together into a plan. If my prior experiences and the training that I’ve received in this course of study have helped me grow as an educator and possibly a future school leader, then perhaps I’ll be able to recognize pitfalls while becoming a good proactive leader.
Classroom of the Future: Built for Creation and Presentation
Schools and classrooms of the future will take advantage of a number of new technologies outlined in the 2010 Horizon Report. This resource explains the exciting new services that are becoming mainstream. Cloud computing, collaborative environments, game-based learning, mobiles, augmented reality and flexible displays are discussed at length in this report. These technologies are broken down into the categories of near-term, mid-term and far-term depending on their entry into mainstream use in schools. They also show great potential for teaching, learning and creative expression. (Johnson, Smith, Levine & Haywood, 2010) Cloud computing seems to be the cornerstone for all of these technologies, with collaborative environments and mobile and augmented reality apps based in the “cloud” already. I find cloud computing a remarkable step towards unlimited storage space and application availability. We are sure to by-pass physical hard-drives completely someday, having thin client computers that take advantage of cloud-based applications and storage exclusively.
Amazon.com recently launched its cloud drive offering 5 GB of free storage, access from any computer and secure storage. This service made me wonder about how long the concept of cloud computing has been around. I was astounded to find an article written in 1996 that actually describes an idea that would become what we know as cloud computing today. More astonishing is the fact that the author even refers to “a concept of a kernel (seen as a fix point, real place allowing social interaction and direct contact of learners with ‘live’ knowledge) and the concept of a cloud (seen as a virtual place allowing remote access to or interaction with knowledge and people)”.(Vivet, 1996, p.664) Vivet envisioned online learning communities operating with real-time communication such as Skype, chatrooms, facebook and the many other social and educational sites available to the masses.
The classroom of the near future will have access to all these technologies and more. I think I would use many of the ideas produced in the “Classroom of the Future” video for my classroom. (mediaineducation, 2007) My classroom would be designed specifically for creation and presentation of projects and ideas. If I could design a classroom from barebones to fully functional, I would begin with power concerns. There would have to be power available by means of wall-length, mounted power strips on every wall and multi-outlets in the floors. There would be wireless access with maximum frequency bands for use with mobile devices, such as cell phones, iTouches, iPads, laptops and streaming video delivery systems. Most of the mobile devices would lend themselves to game-based learning. I have students in my current classroom using iPads to play games presenting a number of strategic games and logic activities. I heard a speaker at ESC17 mention one time that all students have an attention span, we just have to find what holds it. If traditional means of teaching don’t keep students interested, many times game-based learning does. I do worry that this generation is becoming more isolated and withdrawn in real social situations, even though they are quite prolific in their online “lives”.
There will be two Promethean smart boards (one for my instruction and one for student presentations) and a document camera for presenting both student work and teacher instruction. I’ll also expect 1 to 1 computing with all computers mapped to a shared server and students with their own logins. The computer pods will all have networked scanners and printers. Although flexible displays are mentioned with the far-term technologies in the Horizon Report, I have seen, on television, desktops that worked much like a giant iPad or touch-phone. The designers were using a table-top computer screen the size of an office desktop. It reminded me of a cross between an iPad and a Promethean board in its functionality. The classroom desks will be modular as to accommodate several students into cooperative learning groups as mentioned above in the description of the learning pods. The walls will be covered with whiteboards that can be used as either writing surfaces or projection displays. My current classroom has both whiteboards and cork bulletin boards for student collaboration and presentation of projects. I’ve noticed that our English teachers are also using whiteboards in their classrooms, but not attached to the wall. Three of them have gone to Lowe’s Home Improvement and purchased “shower boards” and had our maintenance department cut them into sizes that can be placed in the middle of groups of students for collaboration and brainstorming. The students all use different color markers to show evidence of their work.
All of this design and planning must go hand in hand with sound teaching, leading and learning. Instructors must provide problems for students to solve and practice at solving them. Learning must also be presented in logical sequences allowing exposure to pre-requisites before more complex tasks and students need instructor-guided learning in conjunction with collaborative and self-directed learning to be successful. We have learned a great deal since I became a teacher 20 years ago. Students are now more experimental learners who are interactive and social. They have become multi-taskers and are less linear thinkers than my generation. That concept hits close to home with me due to my position as District TAKS Coordinator. I haven’t been able to train anyone to help me with TAKS testing because I’m such linear thinker that I can’t hand any part of the process over without severing some of my internal checks and balances for the procedures. Today’s students also EXPECT technology to be a integral part of their teaching and learning. It is up to school administrators to direct teachers to get the training they need to deliver this type of instruction.
In addition to being the District TAKS Coordinator, I’m also the District Technology Coordinator. This means that I authored our District Technology Plan and had it very much in mind when designing this classroom of the future. My district conducted a needs assessment and found that “Our research indicates that there is a need to expand the use of technology in our classrooms, across our campuses, and in our community. For this to be done successfully, the teachers must receive in-service instruction to effectively integrate technology into their teaching strategies.” (Copeland, 2009) Our goals and objectives clearly state the needs for our students and district. We have 3 main goals: Anton ISD will prepare students for a technologically advancing world, AISD will access and utilize current technologies, and AISD will form a partnership with the community to provide opportunities involving current technology. These 3 goals are supported with numerous objectives and strategies that will be described more completely in Week 5’s assignment detailing our technology plans.
Technology Leadership Skills, My Attitudes and Myself: What Have I Learned?
This has been a journey that began with a desire to hold a master’s degree in a subject that consumes my life. Every aspect of my job includes technology in some way. Whether I’m ordering TAKS/STAAR tests online, teaching digital graphics or explaining why an email video of someone’s grandchild won’t deliver because it’s too big, I’m using technology. Along the way, I began to formulate what is still becoming my vision of technology and leadership in respect to not only my current job, but also a job that I might hold in the future. Technology can no longer be an “extra” in school. It must be an integral part of our curriculum and cannot be taught in isolation because our world is becoming less industrial and more digital.
I learned a few hard and irritating lessons about myself during this journey. It was about this time that I began strongly questioning the teaching methods in my school and became suspicious that in order to teach these kids without boring them to death, we needed to stop giving notes in lecture form and start getting them out of their seats and into groups brainstorming, collaborating and researching with digital tools. I WAS one of the teachers that kept students in their seats quietly working before I began teaching technology applications courses several years ago. I guess I experienced an “awakening” of sorts in that I began to see years ago what I want my colleagues to know now. The Teaching with Technology course illustrated to me how the UDL philosophy allows us, as educators, to rethink materials, methods, goals and assessments using its multiple means of introducing and learning concepts. If our students are motivated to create and learn using digital tools, then we need to provide them with the opportunity to do so. “Effort is the only controllable source of success and students who truly believe that they can be successful have more motivation and initiative than other students.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 155) I believe that even if the task outcome isn’t a success, the reinforcement of it is and students will continue to work towards the achievement of goals. Our students need to “learn how to learn” because there is too much to memorize. I recently attended a conference in which the presenter used Google as an example of why students need to learn how to question. He simply typed an inquiry and his point wasn’t with how many hits were returned, but with how fast the information was returned. This re-enforced my belief that today’s kids need to know how to THINK. Linda Darling-Hammond (2007) expressed in a video that school teachers and leaders need training to be emotionally and socially intelligent in order to educate the whole child. I believe this would allow children to handle the stress in their lives and to relate well to a variety of peers if collaborate careers are our future.
I feel like my school is always one step behind with technology that other schools seem to have now. The challenge of providing our students with the technology tools they need to be successful in the world, both today and tomorrow, isn’t an isolated problem. It seems that the same obstacles abound in many areas and there are various reasons for this. We have administrators in my school and elsewhere who don’t want to try any new technology due to fiscal or logistical issues or to competing demands on time and resources. Solomon and Schrum (2007) say, however, that some schools are taking the first steps in the process of including full integration of technology into their classrooms. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a major contributor that helps to sponsor a great many of these full integration schools. It’s frustrating for me, as a potential administrator, to see and read about the schools that use technology seamlessly in their everyday lessons and know that other schools are just struggling to pay for the unfunded mandates being meted out by our state.
My unenthusiastic attitude over the last few years was the momentum I needed to push me toward returning to school. I was burned out teaching the same things that I’d been teaching since receiving my Technology Applications certification in 2003 and I felt as though I was standing on the sidelines of something awesome. I knew that there were so many new tools and so much open source material available and this knowledge was one of the reasons I sought out a degree program that would place me squarely in the present using the most current digital tools.
"Information also flows free of the containers that we previously managed as the gatekeepers” (Warlick, 2007, p. 20) I’m excited about teaching again because of the new avenues that have been opened for me. We are no long the keepers of the information and we, as teachers, should be learning right alongside the students. I am definitely more compassionate toward core subject area teachers who are preparing students for state assessments and try to use the knowledge that I’m gaining both through this master’s program and through my own research to help them have successful outcomes. As a life-long learner, I have subscribed to a new educational theory that includes students, teachers and administrators all learning and growing together.
The Six Most Influential Courses of this Journey
EDLD 5306 Fundamentals of Educational Technology
EDLD 5306 was a great initial course for both re-orienting myself with college level course work and learning about pioneering digital research by the likes of Warlick and Prensky. Although I am very familiar with the Texas STaR Chart and The Long Range Plan for Technology, I had not done a multiyear analysis to discern at what level my teachers were functioning and the findings were not positive. I was also introduced to final word protocol in this course and began to see how it is used to expand a group’s understanding of a topic in a limited amount of time. This is only a fraction of the new learning I began 18 months ago.
I was intrigued by Warlick’s (2007, p. 20) statement that for the first time in history we, as educators, are preparing kids for a future that we cannot describe. I also found that digital inequity is a terrible problem facing many small schools. "The digital divide refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels with regard to both their opportunities to access information and communication technologies..." ("Digital Divide", 2011, para. 1) This statement is one of the cornerstones of my developing philosophy. Another vision-shaping idea for me is that of digital inequity. How do we as educators provide low socioeconomic, low tax base districts with technology comparable to larger districts? Are our students leaving school at a disadvantage?
EDLD 5344 School Law
School Law contained the bases for many of the procedures I followed as a special education teacher. This course covered a lot of special education topics including FERPA, No Child Left Behind and IEP’s. It was interesting to finally see in print why so many guidelines regarding handicapped students are needed.
Due process for teachers was an issue at my school during the time I took this course and Walsh’s school law book became well-worn by both my superintendent and me. The intricacies of due process for students could be quite intimidating for a new principal and I'm glad to have gotten a glimpse at issues that could arise.
In light of today's obsession with social media, rights to free speech is also a hot topic. I used information from this course to update our Acceptable Use Policy to reflect new digital tools available to students and policies were also adopted by the school board regarding teacher-student contact using social media and texting.
Last year’s actions by many schools trying to lighten their personnel load were of particular interest to me after learning about contracts and property rights. The probationary, term and continuing contract information was useful to me when trying to decide if I could be dismissed by a reduction in force. I had several coursemates who didn’t like school law due to its limited technology content but I found it fascinating.
EDLD 5333 Leadership for Accountability
My position as District TAKS Coordinator familiarized me with virtually all of the content found and 5333 but there is no such thing as too much training when considering accountability. I gained more insight into No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress just in time for it all to be reauthorized. I wish the state and federal accountability were more compatible
This course also reintroduced both personal and shared school vision. We took this course in May and my superintendent charged our faculty with developing ideas for a plan to institute a shared vision for our district over the summer. It seems as though several of these courses occurred at the exact time I needed them and I was able to return to school this year with good resources and a plan of action for gathering stakeholders for a shared vision meeting.
The activity we did to identify strengths and weaknesses using our own school data was definitely an eye-opener. The data gleaned from exercise almost identical to this one caused our district to apply for and receive an Algebra One Readiness grant that allowed us to hire a math coach and implement a double blocked math schedule for junior high.
EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics
I can say without a doubt that Digital Graphics was the course that my Technology Application students liked the best. It provided me and then them a glimpse into many open-source design tools that we could use at school and home. I used the design principles information and a logo maker to create the school logo for our Facebook and Twitter accounts and the cheerleaders I have in class used them to create the poster they submitted to a local news channel for a competition. During Week 3 of this course, my students and I began watching Scratch animation tutorials. They were really excited to start working with the animation software. We all learned a lot working, experimenting and exploring animation together. I downloaded Google SketchUp, Pivot, Stykz and Scratch and we practiced a bit with each tool. I know that I always learn more from working with my students than from sitting by myself trying to figure it out. We created simple animations using the free animation tools.
The skills and resources I gained in this course also helped me provide new opportunities for diverse learners. The special education students I teach love the creative aspects of design, animation and video production. It is just as easy to gauge learning using digital tools and rubrics as it is with pencil and paper and the students seem to gain a deeper degree of learning with digital tools. I love seeing my students fidget with excitement to leave their desks to create on the computers or iPads.
EDLD 5362 Informational Systems Management
My creative side prickled with a hint of excitement upon reading the syllabus for 5362 and finding that we could design a classroom of the future with unlimited funds. It was akin to a person asking themselves what they would do with lottery winnings! It was fun discussing and planning with a colleague how we would build and arrange the perfect multimedia lab.
This course also led us through the analysis of our student management system. I am the security administrator and a novice user of the software so I had no idea of the cost or of the peripheral uses. The school nurse gave me an overview of the school health functions and the business manager showed me how she uses it for payroll and finance. My use has always been limited to setting up users and registration reports.
We also read several articles regarding Internet filtering and the widening gap between students and their schools. These are two topics that directly impact my job. We are responsible for protecting students “from harmful, obscene and otherwise unworthy websites.” ( Ullman, 2009) There was also a whole page of products used by other schools across the nation and I like having choices if our web filtering system ever needs to be changed. I was also particularly interested in a study done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project regarding the growing digital disconnect in our schools. The study explored the amount of Internet use occurring in and out of school. It pointed out that the students are absorbed with technology at home but many schools still use traditional paper and pencil lecture techniques for teaching and information delivery. “Many schools and teachers have not yet recognized, much less responded to, the new way students communicate and access information over the Internet.” (Levin & Arafeh, 2002, p. iii) No wonder our students are disinterested in school.
EDLD 5363 Multimedia Video Technology
Multimedia and Video Technology was an entry into both digital storytelling and long-distance group projects. I now have every student in my classes bring 10 personal photos the first week of school to teach several skills including scanning and saving to network folders. The pictures also serve the purpose of making a Photostory presentation. It always surprises me just how creative students are when they don't know they're learning. I wasn't aware of digital storytelling until taking this course but have since seen it in many technology articles and in online bookstores. Students who can't find a voice to write about themselves on paper seem to breeze through sharing themselves with digital tools.
I am usually the student who, for various reasons, would rather do assignments and projects by myself than with a group but was forced find a others for the Public Service Announcement. I dreaded trying to complete a long distance project and ended up being astonished at how easy it turned out to be. A Google wiki and a group Skype account was all we needed to create a great video encouraging people to vote in a bond election. This practice made the second group project even easier considering I was spending most of my time at the hospital with my 14 year old son and his broken back.
References
Armstrong, S., & Warlick, D. (2004, September). The new literacy: the 3rs evolve into 4es.
Technology and Learning, (25), 20-28
Copeland, S., (2009.) 2009-2012 District Technology Plan for Anton ISD. Retrieved May 3,
2011 from https://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/eplan/eplan.cgi
Edutopia.org (December 10, 2007). The collaborative classroom: an interview with linda darling
hammond. Filmed at the CASEL forum in New York City. Retrieved on Oct. 5, 2009
from http://www.edutopia.org/linda -darling-hammond-sel-video
Digital Divide. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2011, from
http://en.widipedia.org/wiki/Digital.divide
Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., & Haywood, K. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report: K-12
Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Levin, D., & Arafeh, S. (2002). The digital disconnect. The widening gap between internet-savvy
students and their schools. Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved on
November 17, 2009, from
http://pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2002/PIP_Schools_Internet_Report.pdf.pdf
mediaineducation. (2007, September 12). Classroom of the future hd: what's new in educational
tech [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcXEznPXj8k&safety_mode=true&persist_
safety_mode=1
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenosksi, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom
instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Schrum, L., & Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR..: International
Society for Technology in Education.
Ullman, E. (2009, July 23). Web filtering that works. Tech and Learning. Retrieved on
November 17, 2009, from: http://www.techlearning.com/article/safety-net-web-filtering
that-works/46219
Vivet, M. (1996). The classroom as one learning environment of the future. Journal of Universal
Computer Science, 2.
Warlick, D. (2007). Literacy in the new information landscape. Library Media Connection,
(26)1, 20-21.
Appendix
Shannon Copeland
• 101 E. 26th St., Littlefield, Texas, 79313 • 806.385.1357 • sdcope@aol.com
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/shannon-copeland/17/17/442
EDUCATION
Lamar University Beaumont, TX
Master’s Educational Technology Fall ’11
•In Progress
University of North Texas Denton, TX
Technology Applications Certification Spring ’02-Spring ‘03
Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX
Bachelor of Science Education Fall ’89-Spring ‘91
South Plains College Levelland, TX
PHI THETA KAPPA Fall ’86-Spring ‘89
EXPERIENCE
Anton ISD Anton, TX
August ’91-May ’92
K-12th Special Education
August ’92-May ‘04
7th-12th Special Education
August ’91-Present
District Special Education Supervisor
August ’98-Present
District Technology Coordinator
August ’01-Present
Webmastery, Digital Graphics, Video Editing, Multimedia, Desktop Publishing
August ’04-Present
District TAKS Coordinator
___________________________________________________________________________
Certifications – Texas State Board of Education
• Elementary Self-Contained, Grades (1-8)
• Elementary English, Grades (1-8)
• Secondary Reading, Grades (6-12)
• Secondary English, Grades (6-12)
• Generic Special Education, Grades (PK-12)
• Technology Applications, Grades (8-12)
• Principal (EC-12) completion Fall ‘11
___________________________________________________________________________
Committees
• District Site-based Committee
• Campus Site-based Committee\Leadership Committee
• Attendance Committee
• RtI Committee
• Crisis Prevention Team (aka Restraint Training)
___________________________________________________________________________
Job Responsibilities-
• TEASE/PFAI (Fitnessgram)- District Administrator
• AUDIT
• e-MEASUREMENT (Online TELPAS/STAAR) - District Administrator
• EPLAN/StaR Chart – District Administrator
• ITV – Technology Facilitator
• Texasassessment.com District Administrator (Online assessment website)
• Pearson Schoolhouse – District Administrator
• Case-e IEP software
• Accommodations Request Forms (ARFs)
• Website/Filtering
• Eduphoria – Administrator for Aware, PDAS 2012, Management
• CSCOPE – District Administrator
• NAEP – Site administrator
• Epsilen (Project Share) – District Administrator
• Renaissance Learning – District Administrator
• School Reach – District Administrator
• OdysseyWare – District Administrator
• Activity Accounts – Manage Excel workbook accounts
___________________________________________________________________________
Supervisory Experience
• District Special Education Supervisor
• District Technology Coordinator
• District TAKS/STAAR Coordinator
___________________________________________________________________________
Professional Development – Region 17 Education Service Center – Lubbock, TX
• Annual TAKS/STAAR/EOC training
• CSCOPE
• Student Sexual Abuse training
• Webpage building – (as presenter)
• TxEIS Gradebook – (as presenter)
• Eduphoria
• Annual Technology Conference
___________________________________________________________________________
Professional Development – continued
• Teaching Web Literacy
• eduphoria! Schoolobjects:aware Demonstration
• Interactive White Board Power Point Training
• Online Introduction to Moodle
• Integrating Technology for Elementary
• Technology Fair for Classroom Teachers
• Thinkfinity for Secondary
• 2 Day Apple Podcasting Training
• Adobe Photoshop for Beginners
• Technology Planning and STaR Chart Training
• Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint
• WebCCAT for District Level Users
• Beginning Adobe Acrobat
• 8e6 Training
• CODEC Training
• E-Rate Workshop 2004
• Microsoft Publisher - Level I
• Video Editing Tips
• Network Security Meeting
• Microsoft Access –Intermediate
• Adobe PageMaker
• Annual Regional Distance Learning Meeting
• Developing Technology Plans Responsive to District Needs
• Acceptable Use Policies and Internet Safety Plans
• Video Production
• Storyboarding
• Troubleshooting ITV
___________________________________________________________________________
References
Dwayne Chenault - Superintendent
Anton ISD- Wellman Union
806.787.3129 (M)
Joe Christan – Principal
Anton ISD
806.241.2653 (H)
Jeff Brazil – Principal
Smyer ISD
806.234.2935 (W)
___________________________________________________________________________
References – continued
Jim Fuller – Superintendent
Hamlin ISD
806.787.8761 (M)
806576.2722 (W)
Kathy Hutchinson – Special Education Director, South Plains Educational Coop
Levelland ISD
806.894.6858 (W)
Shannon Dawn Copeland
Lamar University
Fall 2011
Educational Technology or Educational Administration: My Digital Journey to Leadership
I began teaching at my current school district in 1991 and was asked to be the District Technology Coordinator in 1998 due to my extensive use of technology in my Special Education classroom. This appointment began a long term relationship with educational technology. My technology experience also readied me to be my district’s choice for the Technology Application certification in 1992 when TIFF grants paid for the technology boon in Texas education. I tried, at that time, to continue my technology training to receive an Educational Technology masters through the University of North Texas, but no one else in my cohort responded positively and my local professor-of-record didn’t pursue it. I do, however, feel fortunate to have been involved in that ground-breaking endeavor.
As a result of my Technology Application certification, I promptly began teaching Webmastery, Digital Graphics/Multimedia, Video Editing, and Desktop Publishing. The experience I gained teaching these technology application courses helped me immensely when I was asked to serve as District TAKS Coordinator in 2004. It is stunning to realize how heavily the web of test coordinator duties relies on technology.
Everything I do is increasingly tied to computers and I have, at last count, 18 passwords for everything from my online grade book to my Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE) accounts, to the online assessment ordering website, www.texasassessment.com. I originally began this master’s to stop my CPA husband from jokingly brandishing his master’s in accounting at me but my attitude changed after a couple of courses when I decided that I would like to also study for my principal’s certification. It seems that my mid-life crisis expenditure will result in life-long learning tools and possibly open job opportunity doors concurrently.
Position and Leadership Goals
I would like to begin this section on a personal note summarizing a conversation between my husband and me. We were discussing the title of this comprehensive exam and I mentioned that I wanted my title to convey the turn my degree plan and my attitude took when Dr. Abernathy announced that we could add the leadership component to Educational Technology and be eligible to take the principal certification exam. I have been in leadership positions in my school since I was asked to become the District Technology Coordinator in 1997 and my colleagues seemed to follow my lead easily. I began wondering what it was about me that caused co-workers to come to me with anything from retirement plan questions to marriage woes! I do not like writing about myself in this manner, but introspection is introspection, even if a person doesn’t like doing it. I told my husband that while thinking about the portions of assignment one in 5370, I couldn’t separate my educational technology experiences from my leadership experiences, which both began long before I ever heard of Lamar University. I have discovered that educational technology and leadership are intertwined within me and I’ll have to write this paper accordingly. His response was to tell me that “you have lived that path and you can talk in detail about how they (technology and leadership) inter-relate, especially in today’s electronically-enhanced society and if that is the way you see this journey, then I think it would be both easier for you to write and it should make it an interesting read”.
I like my current position as District Technology Coordinator, but have always believed that I should continue studies in the area of technology to stay current with the rapidly changing digital world. This masters program began as a project to fill my time and to better my classroom instruction, but blossomed into a full blown endeavor to make an upward move to, possibly, a technology curriculum director position with a larger school. The principal certification was just a bonus and even though I do not want to be a principal at this time, but I believe that the certification’s presence on my vitae and my SBEC certification will be advantageous while pursuing future jobs. In addition to increased knowledge of new technologies, I have also been given more responsibility in areas not associated with technology or assessment at my school since beginning this course of study. My principal came to me in early October and asked my thoughts on our grading policy and what changes I’d like to see made to it. I feel like this master’s in technology with the leadership component are already opening doors for me.
Developing high-quality leadership goals is something that occurs with time and experience. I hope to lead with strong ethics and compassion for all stakeholders, including parents, teachers and students. A leader must also have an idea or vision of the direction he/she wants the campus to follow and what he/she wants the campus to resemble in the future because curriculum development, staffing patterns, needs assessments and collaboration among stakeholders are huge tasks for one person to try to implement and articulate. A good leader must also, as referred to in one of the standards, be able to distribute, or delegate authority. I don't think that I'm at the point where my vision is entirely clear, but the experiences that I've gained over the last 20 years definitely color my perceptions about all these aspects and I feel like I'm beginning to pull all of this insight together into a plan. If my prior experiences and the training that I’ve received in this course of study have helped me grow as an educator and possibly a future school leader, then perhaps I’ll be able to recognize pitfalls while becoming a good proactive leader.
Classroom of the Future: Built for Creation and Presentation
Schools and classrooms of the future will take advantage of a number of new technologies outlined in the 2010 Horizon Report. This resource explains the exciting new services that are becoming mainstream. Cloud computing, collaborative environments, game-based learning, mobiles, augmented reality and flexible displays are discussed at length in this report. These technologies are broken down into the categories of near-term, mid-term and far-term depending on their entry into mainstream use in schools. They also show great potential for teaching, learning and creative expression. (Johnson, Smith, Levine & Haywood, 2010) Cloud computing seems to be the cornerstone for all of these technologies, with collaborative environments and mobile and augmented reality apps based in the “cloud” already. I find cloud computing a remarkable step towards unlimited storage space and application availability. We are sure to by-pass physical hard-drives completely someday, having thin client computers that take advantage of cloud-based applications and storage exclusively.
Amazon.com recently launched its cloud drive offering 5 GB of free storage, access from any computer and secure storage. This service made me wonder about how long the concept of cloud computing has been around. I was astounded to find an article written in 1996 that actually describes an idea that would become what we know as cloud computing today. More astonishing is the fact that the author even refers to “a concept of a kernel (seen as a fix point, real place allowing social interaction and direct contact of learners with ‘live’ knowledge) and the concept of a cloud (seen as a virtual place allowing remote access to or interaction with knowledge and people)”.(Vivet, 1996, p.664) Vivet envisioned online learning communities operating with real-time communication such as Skype, chatrooms, facebook and the many other social and educational sites available to the masses.
The classroom of the near future will have access to all these technologies and more. I think I would use many of the ideas produced in the “Classroom of the Future” video for my classroom. (mediaineducation, 2007) My classroom would be designed specifically for creation and presentation of projects and ideas. If I could design a classroom from barebones to fully functional, I would begin with power concerns. There would have to be power available by means of wall-length, mounted power strips on every wall and multi-outlets in the floors. There would be wireless access with maximum frequency bands for use with mobile devices, such as cell phones, iTouches, iPads, laptops and streaming video delivery systems. Most of the mobile devices would lend themselves to game-based learning. I have students in my current classroom using iPads to play games presenting a number of strategic games and logic activities. I heard a speaker at ESC17 mention one time that all students have an attention span, we just have to find what holds it. If traditional means of teaching don’t keep students interested, many times game-based learning does. I do worry that this generation is becoming more isolated and withdrawn in real social situations, even though they are quite prolific in their online “lives”.
There will be two Promethean smart boards (one for my instruction and one for student presentations) and a document camera for presenting both student work and teacher instruction. I’ll also expect 1 to 1 computing with all computers mapped to a shared server and students with their own logins. The computer pods will all have networked scanners and printers. Although flexible displays are mentioned with the far-term technologies in the Horizon Report, I have seen, on television, desktops that worked much like a giant iPad or touch-phone. The designers were using a table-top computer screen the size of an office desktop. It reminded me of a cross between an iPad and a Promethean board in its functionality. The classroom desks will be modular as to accommodate several students into cooperative learning groups as mentioned above in the description of the learning pods. The walls will be covered with whiteboards that can be used as either writing surfaces or projection displays. My current classroom has both whiteboards and cork bulletin boards for student collaboration and presentation of projects. I’ve noticed that our English teachers are also using whiteboards in their classrooms, but not attached to the wall. Three of them have gone to Lowe’s Home Improvement and purchased “shower boards” and had our maintenance department cut them into sizes that can be placed in the middle of groups of students for collaboration and brainstorming. The students all use different color markers to show evidence of their work.
All of this design and planning must go hand in hand with sound teaching, leading and learning. Instructors must provide problems for students to solve and practice at solving them. Learning must also be presented in logical sequences allowing exposure to pre-requisites before more complex tasks and students need instructor-guided learning in conjunction with collaborative and self-directed learning to be successful. We have learned a great deal since I became a teacher 20 years ago. Students are now more experimental learners who are interactive and social. They have become multi-taskers and are less linear thinkers than my generation. That concept hits close to home with me due to my position as District TAKS Coordinator. I haven’t been able to train anyone to help me with TAKS testing because I’m such linear thinker that I can’t hand any part of the process over without severing some of my internal checks and balances for the procedures. Today’s students also EXPECT technology to be a integral part of their teaching and learning. It is up to school administrators to direct teachers to get the training they need to deliver this type of instruction.
In addition to being the District TAKS Coordinator, I’m also the District Technology Coordinator. This means that I authored our District Technology Plan and had it very much in mind when designing this classroom of the future. My district conducted a needs assessment and found that “Our research indicates that there is a need to expand the use of technology in our classrooms, across our campuses, and in our community. For this to be done successfully, the teachers must receive in-service instruction to effectively integrate technology into their teaching strategies.” (Copeland, 2009) Our goals and objectives clearly state the needs for our students and district. We have 3 main goals: Anton ISD will prepare students for a technologically advancing world, AISD will access and utilize current technologies, and AISD will form a partnership with the community to provide opportunities involving current technology. These 3 goals are supported with numerous objectives and strategies that will be described more completely in Week 5’s assignment detailing our technology plans.
Technology Leadership Skills, My Attitudes and Myself: What Have I Learned?
This has been a journey that began with a desire to hold a master’s degree in a subject that consumes my life. Every aspect of my job includes technology in some way. Whether I’m ordering TAKS/STAAR tests online, teaching digital graphics or explaining why an email video of someone’s grandchild won’t deliver because it’s too big, I’m using technology. Along the way, I began to formulate what is still becoming my vision of technology and leadership in respect to not only my current job, but also a job that I might hold in the future. Technology can no longer be an “extra” in school. It must be an integral part of our curriculum and cannot be taught in isolation because our world is becoming less industrial and more digital.
I learned a few hard and irritating lessons about myself during this journey. It was about this time that I began strongly questioning the teaching methods in my school and became suspicious that in order to teach these kids without boring them to death, we needed to stop giving notes in lecture form and start getting them out of their seats and into groups brainstorming, collaborating and researching with digital tools. I WAS one of the teachers that kept students in their seats quietly working before I began teaching technology applications courses several years ago. I guess I experienced an “awakening” of sorts in that I began to see years ago what I want my colleagues to know now. The Teaching with Technology course illustrated to me how the UDL philosophy allows us, as educators, to rethink materials, methods, goals and assessments using its multiple means of introducing and learning concepts. If our students are motivated to create and learn using digital tools, then we need to provide them with the opportunity to do so. “Effort is the only controllable source of success and students who truly believe that they can be successful have more motivation and initiative than other students.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 155) I believe that even if the task outcome isn’t a success, the reinforcement of it is and students will continue to work towards the achievement of goals. Our students need to “learn how to learn” because there is too much to memorize. I recently attended a conference in which the presenter used Google as an example of why students need to learn how to question. He simply typed an inquiry and his point wasn’t with how many hits were returned, but with how fast the information was returned. This re-enforced my belief that today’s kids need to know how to THINK. Linda Darling-Hammond (2007) expressed in a video that school teachers and leaders need training to be emotionally and socially intelligent in order to educate the whole child. I believe this would allow children to handle the stress in their lives and to relate well to a variety of peers if collaborate careers are our future.
I feel like my school is always one step behind with technology that other schools seem to have now. The challenge of providing our students with the technology tools they need to be successful in the world, both today and tomorrow, isn’t an isolated problem. It seems that the same obstacles abound in many areas and there are various reasons for this. We have administrators in my school and elsewhere who don’t want to try any new technology due to fiscal or logistical issues or to competing demands on time and resources. Solomon and Schrum (2007) say, however, that some schools are taking the first steps in the process of including full integration of technology into their classrooms. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a major contributor that helps to sponsor a great many of these full integration schools. It’s frustrating for me, as a potential administrator, to see and read about the schools that use technology seamlessly in their everyday lessons and know that other schools are just struggling to pay for the unfunded mandates being meted out by our state.
My unenthusiastic attitude over the last few years was the momentum I needed to push me toward returning to school. I was burned out teaching the same things that I’d been teaching since receiving my Technology Applications certification in 2003 and I felt as though I was standing on the sidelines of something awesome. I knew that there were so many new tools and so much open source material available and this knowledge was one of the reasons I sought out a degree program that would place me squarely in the present using the most current digital tools.
"Information also flows free of the containers that we previously managed as the gatekeepers” (Warlick, 2007, p. 20) I’m excited about teaching again because of the new avenues that have been opened for me. We are no long the keepers of the information and we, as teachers, should be learning right alongside the students. I am definitely more compassionate toward core subject area teachers who are preparing students for state assessments and try to use the knowledge that I’m gaining both through this master’s program and through my own research to help them have successful outcomes. As a life-long learner, I have subscribed to a new educational theory that includes students, teachers and administrators all learning and growing together.
The Six Most Influential Courses of this Journey
EDLD 5306 Fundamentals of Educational Technology
EDLD 5306 was a great initial course for both re-orienting myself with college level course work and learning about pioneering digital research by the likes of Warlick and Prensky. Although I am very familiar with the Texas STaR Chart and The Long Range Plan for Technology, I had not done a multiyear analysis to discern at what level my teachers were functioning and the findings were not positive. I was also introduced to final word protocol in this course and began to see how it is used to expand a group’s understanding of a topic in a limited amount of time. This is only a fraction of the new learning I began 18 months ago.
I was intrigued by Warlick’s (2007, p. 20) statement that for the first time in history we, as educators, are preparing kids for a future that we cannot describe. I also found that digital inequity is a terrible problem facing many small schools. "The digital divide refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels with regard to both their opportunities to access information and communication technologies..." ("Digital Divide", 2011, para. 1) This statement is one of the cornerstones of my developing philosophy. Another vision-shaping idea for me is that of digital inequity. How do we as educators provide low socioeconomic, low tax base districts with technology comparable to larger districts? Are our students leaving school at a disadvantage?
EDLD 5344 School Law
School Law contained the bases for many of the procedures I followed as a special education teacher. This course covered a lot of special education topics including FERPA, No Child Left Behind and IEP’s. It was interesting to finally see in print why so many guidelines regarding handicapped students are needed.
Due process for teachers was an issue at my school during the time I took this course and Walsh’s school law book became well-worn by both my superintendent and me. The intricacies of due process for students could be quite intimidating for a new principal and I'm glad to have gotten a glimpse at issues that could arise.
In light of today's obsession with social media, rights to free speech is also a hot topic. I used information from this course to update our Acceptable Use Policy to reflect new digital tools available to students and policies were also adopted by the school board regarding teacher-student contact using social media and texting.
Last year’s actions by many schools trying to lighten their personnel load were of particular interest to me after learning about contracts and property rights. The probationary, term and continuing contract information was useful to me when trying to decide if I could be dismissed by a reduction in force. I had several coursemates who didn’t like school law due to its limited technology content but I found it fascinating.
EDLD 5333 Leadership for Accountability
My position as District TAKS Coordinator familiarized me with virtually all of the content found and 5333 but there is no such thing as too much training when considering accountability. I gained more insight into No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress just in time for it all to be reauthorized. I wish the state and federal accountability were more compatible
This course also reintroduced both personal and shared school vision. We took this course in May and my superintendent charged our faculty with developing ideas for a plan to institute a shared vision for our district over the summer. It seems as though several of these courses occurred at the exact time I needed them and I was able to return to school this year with good resources and a plan of action for gathering stakeholders for a shared vision meeting.
The activity we did to identify strengths and weaknesses using our own school data was definitely an eye-opener. The data gleaned from exercise almost identical to this one caused our district to apply for and receive an Algebra One Readiness grant that allowed us to hire a math coach and implement a double blocked math schedule for junior high.
EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics
I can say without a doubt that Digital Graphics was the course that my Technology Application students liked the best. It provided me and then them a glimpse into many open-source design tools that we could use at school and home. I used the design principles information and a logo maker to create the school logo for our Facebook and Twitter accounts and the cheerleaders I have in class used them to create the poster they submitted to a local news channel for a competition. During Week 3 of this course, my students and I began watching Scratch animation tutorials. They were really excited to start working with the animation software. We all learned a lot working, experimenting and exploring animation together. I downloaded Google SketchUp, Pivot, Stykz and Scratch and we practiced a bit with each tool. I know that I always learn more from working with my students than from sitting by myself trying to figure it out. We created simple animations using the free animation tools.
The skills and resources I gained in this course also helped me provide new opportunities for diverse learners. The special education students I teach love the creative aspects of design, animation and video production. It is just as easy to gauge learning using digital tools and rubrics as it is with pencil and paper and the students seem to gain a deeper degree of learning with digital tools. I love seeing my students fidget with excitement to leave their desks to create on the computers or iPads.
EDLD 5362 Informational Systems Management
My creative side prickled with a hint of excitement upon reading the syllabus for 5362 and finding that we could design a classroom of the future with unlimited funds. It was akin to a person asking themselves what they would do with lottery winnings! It was fun discussing and planning with a colleague how we would build and arrange the perfect multimedia lab.
This course also led us through the analysis of our student management system. I am the security administrator and a novice user of the software so I had no idea of the cost or of the peripheral uses. The school nurse gave me an overview of the school health functions and the business manager showed me how she uses it for payroll and finance. My use has always been limited to setting up users and registration reports.
We also read several articles regarding Internet filtering and the widening gap between students and their schools. These are two topics that directly impact my job. We are responsible for protecting students “from harmful, obscene and otherwise unworthy websites.” ( Ullman, 2009) There was also a whole page of products used by other schools across the nation and I like having choices if our web filtering system ever needs to be changed. I was also particularly interested in a study done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project regarding the growing digital disconnect in our schools. The study explored the amount of Internet use occurring in and out of school. It pointed out that the students are absorbed with technology at home but many schools still use traditional paper and pencil lecture techniques for teaching and information delivery. “Many schools and teachers have not yet recognized, much less responded to, the new way students communicate and access information over the Internet.” (Levin & Arafeh, 2002, p. iii) No wonder our students are disinterested in school.
EDLD 5363 Multimedia Video Technology
Multimedia and Video Technology was an entry into both digital storytelling and long-distance group projects. I now have every student in my classes bring 10 personal photos the first week of school to teach several skills including scanning and saving to network folders. The pictures also serve the purpose of making a Photostory presentation. It always surprises me just how creative students are when they don't know they're learning. I wasn't aware of digital storytelling until taking this course but have since seen it in many technology articles and in online bookstores. Students who can't find a voice to write about themselves on paper seem to breeze through sharing themselves with digital tools.
I am usually the student who, for various reasons, would rather do assignments and projects by myself than with a group but was forced find a others for the Public Service Announcement. I dreaded trying to complete a long distance project and ended up being astonished at how easy it turned out to be. A Google wiki and a group Skype account was all we needed to create a great video encouraging people to vote in a bond election. This practice made the second group project even easier considering I was spending most of my time at the hospital with my 14 year old son and his broken back.
References
Armstrong, S., & Warlick, D. (2004, September). The new literacy: the 3rs evolve into 4es.
Technology and Learning, (25), 20-28
Copeland, S., (2009.) 2009-2012 District Technology Plan for Anton ISD. Retrieved May 3,
2011 from https://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/eplan/eplan.cgi
Edutopia.org (December 10, 2007). The collaborative classroom: an interview with linda darling
hammond. Filmed at the CASEL forum in New York City. Retrieved on Oct. 5, 2009
from http://www.edutopia.org/linda -darling-hammond-sel-video
Digital Divide. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2011, from
http://en.widipedia.org/wiki/Digital.divide
Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., & Haywood, K. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report: K-12
Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Levin, D., & Arafeh, S. (2002). The digital disconnect. The widening gap between internet-savvy
students and their schools. Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved on
November 17, 2009, from
http://pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2002/PIP_Schools_Internet_Report.pdf.pdf
mediaineducation. (2007, September 12). Classroom of the future hd: what's new in educational
tech [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcXEznPXj8k&safety_mode=true&persist_
safety_mode=1
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenosksi, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom
instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Schrum, L., & Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR..: International
Society for Technology in Education.
Ullman, E. (2009, July 23). Web filtering that works. Tech and Learning. Retrieved on
November 17, 2009, from: http://www.techlearning.com/article/safety-net-web-filtering
that-works/46219
Vivet, M. (1996). The classroom as one learning environment of the future. Journal of Universal
Computer Science, 2.
Warlick, D. (2007). Literacy in the new information landscape. Library Media Connection,
(26)1, 20-21.
Appendix
Shannon Copeland
• 101 E. 26th St., Littlefield, Texas, 79313 • 806.385.1357 • sdcope@aol.com
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/shannon-copeland/17/17/442
EDUCATION
Lamar University Beaumont, TX
Master’s Educational Technology Fall ’11
•In Progress
University of North Texas Denton, TX
Technology Applications Certification Spring ’02-Spring ‘03
Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX
Bachelor of Science Education Fall ’89-Spring ‘91
South Plains College Levelland, TX
PHI THETA KAPPA Fall ’86-Spring ‘89
EXPERIENCE
Anton ISD Anton, TX
August ’91-May ’92
K-12th Special Education
August ’92-May ‘04
7th-12th Special Education
August ’91-Present
District Special Education Supervisor
August ’98-Present
District Technology Coordinator
August ’01-Present
Webmastery, Digital Graphics, Video Editing, Multimedia, Desktop Publishing
August ’04-Present
District TAKS Coordinator
___________________________________________________________________________
Certifications – Texas State Board of Education
• Elementary Self-Contained, Grades (1-8)
• Elementary English, Grades (1-8)
• Secondary Reading, Grades (6-12)
• Secondary English, Grades (6-12)
• Generic Special Education, Grades (PK-12)
• Technology Applications, Grades (8-12)
• Principal (EC-12) completion Fall ‘11
___________________________________________________________________________
Committees
• District Site-based Committee
• Campus Site-based Committee\Leadership Committee
• Attendance Committee
• RtI Committee
• Crisis Prevention Team (aka Restraint Training)
___________________________________________________________________________
Job Responsibilities-
• TEASE/PFAI (Fitnessgram)- District Administrator
• AUDIT
• e-MEASUREMENT (Online TELPAS/STAAR) - District Administrator
• EPLAN/StaR Chart – District Administrator
• ITV – Technology Facilitator
• Texasassessment.com District Administrator (Online assessment website)
• Pearson Schoolhouse – District Administrator
• Case-e IEP software
• Accommodations Request Forms (ARFs)
• Website/Filtering
• Eduphoria – Administrator for Aware, PDAS 2012, Management
• CSCOPE – District Administrator
• NAEP – Site administrator
• Epsilen (Project Share) – District Administrator
• Renaissance Learning – District Administrator
• School Reach – District Administrator
• OdysseyWare – District Administrator
• Activity Accounts – Manage Excel workbook accounts
___________________________________________________________________________
Supervisory Experience
• District Special Education Supervisor
• District Technology Coordinator
• District TAKS/STAAR Coordinator
___________________________________________________________________________
Professional Development – Region 17 Education Service Center – Lubbock, TX
• Annual TAKS/STAAR/EOC training
• CSCOPE
• Student Sexual Abuse training
• Webpage building – (as presenter)
• TxEIS Gradebook – (as presenter)
• Eduphoria
• Annual Technology Conference
___________________________________________________________________________
Professional Development – continued
• Teaching Web Literacy
• eduphoria! Schoolobjects:aware Demonstration
• Interactive White Board Power Point Training
• Online Introduction to Moodle
• Integrating Technology for Elementary
• Technology Fair for Classroom Teachers
• Thinkfinity for Secondary
• 2 Day Apple Podcasting Training
• Adobe Photoshop for Beginners
• Technology Planning and STaR Chart Training
• Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint
• WebCCAT for District Level Users
• Beginning Adobe Acrobat
• 8e6 Training
• CODEC Training
• E-Rate Workshop 2004
• Microsoft Publisher - Level I
• Video Editing Tips
• Network Security Meeting
• Microsoft Access –Intermediate
• Adobe PageMaker
• Annual Regional Distance Learning Meeting
• Developing Technology Plans Responsive to District Needs
• Acceptable Use Policies and Internet Safety Plans
• Video Production
• Storyboarding
• Troubleshooting ITV
___________________________________________________________________________
References
Dwayne Chenault - Superintendent
Anton ISD- Wellman Union
806.787.3129 (M)
Joe Christan – Principal
Anton ISD
806.241.2653 (H)
Jeff Brazil – Principal
Smyer ISD
806.234.2935 (W)
___________________________________________________________________________
References – continued
Jim Fuller – Superintendent
Hamlin ISD
806.787.8761 (M)
806576.2722 (W)
Kathy Hutchinson – Special Education Director, South Plains Educational Coop
Levelland ISD
806.894.6858 (W)
Sunday, October 23, 2011
EDLD 5370 Week 3 Web Conference
This morning’s web conference began with Dr. A finally getting the web cam working. We discussed several people’s children and a 6th grade band contest that one person was attending. There were two students that discussed with Dr. A about finishing 5370 and still having to take the Digital Graphics course and how much they appreciated Dr. A letting them do the courses in this order.
Dr. A explained to us how the Ed Admin and Ed Tech master’s programs were combining soon and I offered both regret that Ed Tech is losing its own identity and also my content with how it will probably be good that new principals learn more tech in order to become better 21st century leaders.
Dr. A explained again how the reflections, course embedded activities and the field activities are supposed to work together and how TEA must be able to see that each person offered up as a master’s recipient actually does know the standards.
Dr. A explained to us how the Ed Admin and Ed Tech master’s programs were combining soon and I offered both regret that Ed Tech is losing its own identity and also my content with how it will probably be good that new principals learn more tech in order to become better 21st century leaders.
Dr. A explained again how the reflections, course embedded activities and the field activities are supposed to work together and how TEA must be able to see that each person offered up as a master’s recipient actually does know the standards.
Friday, October 14, 2011
EDLD 5370 Week 3 Reflection over 5326
Domain 1 Competency 002 EDLD 5326
Log 1 6hrs
In 5326, we were charged with developing a plan for a family-school-community partnership(s) to increase student achievement. During this activity, I learned that one of my school’s goals is to actively involve parents, and community to benefit the education of students and to provide opportunities for parents and the community to actively participate in the educational process. One strategy toward this goal states that AISD will strive to ensure that the community is informed and notified of campus information and the community, including internal and external participants, is kept informed by a number of outlets. I didn’t understand or realize that this goal was in our District Improvement Plan (DIP) to satisfy a requirement of NCLB until after I took this course. Previously, I thought that the superintendent was trying add things to our DIP that the school board wanted, but now I know that it’s more important than that. I can now visualize how this collaboration among school/community/family fits into building a strong network of stakeholders who collectively benefit the school.
When I consider the surrounding schools that are known to have great assessment scores and extracurricular programs, I see the strong community bonds. To keep our community informed, my school maintains Facebook and Twitter accounts and a school website. In addition, I assist the superintendent in publishing a newsletter every 6 weeks that is distributed around town and published on the school website. Also, a staff newsletter is circulated monthly with information about the latest school board meeting. Many student accomplishments are published in the local newspaper and on the school website. Our counselor created her own counseling Facebook page to keep parents informed of scholarship opportunities. We've developed a VIP program for parents to come to the school and volunteer to help students and teachers.
As a learner, I feel as though I understand the relationship between great schools and their stakeholders better after completing this course and these assignments. My approach and strategies toward achieving this understanding came from considering the circumstances of my own school and our fall from the previous status of having many parent volunteers and business supporters. I want to return to the days in which the school was held to a higher standard than it is now. I know that the collective vision of a community can produce a top notch school that provides many more opportunities for its students. Communities that partner with their schools benefit by having successful students who can be productive citizens both during and after their public school careers.
My future learning will include resources that will outline what other schools in our position have done to gain more community partnerships and support. I plan to continue to collaborate with teachers to learn their ideas on how to make their classrooms more successful in regards to parent volunteers and community support. The questions I continue to have concerning community involvement are: How do we have community/business involvement in such a depressed town when there are no businesses to BE involved? How do we educate parents who didn’t finish school themselves on how important it is to help their children at home? How do we get parents whose only involvement with the school is negative to volunteer their time?
Domain 1 Competency 002 EDLD 5326
Log 2 6hrs
A second activity for 5326 was to develop a presentation to be given to key stakeholders in my school that emphasized the importance of parental-community involvement to student achievement. I addressed the District SBDM on January 11, 2011 with a presentation indicating all the activities we are doing at the school to keep the community involved and informed about the events. I reviewed the goal in our District Improvement Plan (DIP) that describes the school's efforts to involve community. I explained to them that strategy 1 states that AISD will strive to ensure that the community is informed and notified of campus information. The community, including internal and external participants, is kept informed by a number of outlets. I speak before the site based committee often since I’ve been a member of it for about 15 years. There wasn’t necessarily any new learning that occurred with this activity because it was a routine occurrence for me. There was no new or old learning that took place.
I relied on previously used strategies to complete this assignment by simply preparing my information and presenting it in an easy to understand format. My performance in completing the assignment was at least acceptable because some parents asked questions about my presentation and expressed positive feedback. My collaboration with a colleague before the presentation helped me in preparing a handout for the parents with the school website, Facebook and Twitter information printed for their use.
As a learner, I like hearing how the stakeholders view the school and how they feel we could do a better job of including them. I plan to research in the future how other schools involve their communities and businesses. I also continue to collaborate with my faculty and with my Lamar cohort members to see what topics some of my research should include and what programs they have implemented in their schools. Some of my questions include: What types of successful programs do other schools have to include community? What are the TEA regulations of having parent volunteers on the school campuses? How do other schools set up work/study programs for students not college-bound?
Log 1 6hrs
In 5326, we were charged with developing a plan for a family-school-community partnership(s) to increase student achievement. During this activity, I learned that one of my school’s goals is to actively involve parents, and community to benefit the education of students and to provide opportunities for parents and the community to actively participate in the educational process. One strategy toward this goal states that AISD will strive to ensure that the community is informed and notified of campus information and the community, including internal and external participants, is kept informed by a number of outlets. I didn’t understand or realize that this goal was in our District Improvement Plan (DIP) to satisfy a requirement of NCLB until after I took this course. Previously, I thought that the superintendent was trying add things to our DIP that the school board wanted, but now I know that it’s more important than that. I can now visualize how this collaboration among school/community/family fits into building a strong network of stakeholders who collectively benefit the school.
When I consider the surrounding schools that are known to have great assessment scores and extracurricular programs, I see the strong community bonds. To keep our community informed, my school maintains Facebook and Twitter accounts and a school website. In addition, I assist the superintendent in publishing a newsletter every 6 weeks that is distributed around town and published on the school website. Also, a staff newsletter is circulated monthly with information about the latest school board meeting. Many student accomplishments are published in the local newspaper and on the school website. Our counselor created her own counseling Facebook page to keep parents informed of scholarship opportunities. We've developed a VIP program for parents to come to the school and volunteer to help students and teachers.
As a learner, I feel as though I understand the relationship between great schools and their stakeholders better after completing this course and these assignments. My approach and strategies toward achieving this understanding came from considering the circumstances of my own school and our fall from the previous status of having many parent volunteers and business supporters. I want to return to the days in which the school was held to a higher standard than it is now. I know that the collective vision of a community can produce a top notch school that provides many more opportunities for its students. Communities that partner with their schools benefit by having successful students who can be productive citizens both during and after their public school careers.
My future learning will include resources that will outline what other schools in our position have done to gain more community partnerships and support. I plan to continue to collaborate with teachers to learn their ideas on how to make their classrooms more successful in regards to parent volunteers and community support. The questions I continue to have concerning community involvement are: How do we have community/business involvement in such a depressed town when there are no businesses to BE involved? How do we educate parents who didn’t finish school themselves on how important it is to help their children at home? How do we get parents whose only involvement with the school is negative to volunteer their time?
Domain 1 Competency 002 EDLD 5326
Log 2 6hrs
A second activity for 5326 was to develop a presentation to be given to key stakeholders in my school that emphasized the importance of parental-community involvement to student achievement. I addressed the District SBDM on January 11, 2011 with a presentation indicating all the activities we are doing at the school to keep the community involved and informed about the events. I reviewed the goal in our District Improvement Plan (DIP) that describes the school's efforts to involve community. I explained to them that strategy 1 states that AISD will strive to ensure that the community is informed and notified of campus information. The community, including internal and external participants, is kept informed by a number of outlets. I speak before the site based committee often since I’ve been a member of it for about 15 years. There wasn’t necessarily any new learning that occurred with this activity because it was a routine occurrence for me. There was no new or old learning that took place.
I relied on previously used strategies to complete this assignment by simply preparing my information and presenting it in an easy to understand format. My performance in completing the assignment was at least acceptable because some parents asked questions about my presentation and expressed positive feedback. My collaboration with a colleague before the presentation helped me in preparing a handout for the parents with the school website, Facebook and Twitter information printed for their use.
As a learner, I like hearing how the stakeholders view the school and how they feel we could do a better job of including them. I plan to research in the future how other schools involve their communities and businesses. I also continue to collaborate with my faculty and with my Lamar cohort members to see what topics some of my research should include and what programs they have implemented in their schools. Some of my questions include: What types of successful programs do other schools have to include community? What are the TEA regulations of having parent volunteers on the school campuses? How do other schools set up work/study programs for students not college-bound?
EDLD 5370 Week 3 Reflection over 5366
EDLD 5366 included a course embedded activity that had us design and produce a four-page newsletter with a consistent design theme throughout. There were several design guidelines given and the newsletter had to serve an obvious function and contain contact information.
I began blogging about 5366 before the course even became active. This was one of the courses I anticipated because it had been 6 years since taking a design class. I’m not very good at design and don’t have an “eye” for it so I really have to work hard to get something that looks remotely “professional”. I do feel that I’ve gotten better over the years and 5366 helped me a great deal both as a teacher and as a learner. There were numerous Web 2.0 tools that I became familiar with while researching my activity. I HAD to research new tools because after dragging out my old copy of PageMaker, I realized quickly that I no longer remembered how to use it.
“Today’s world demands graphic design and pictures for communication to work.”(Yearwood, 2009) Many DTP programs have templates addressing the four design principles and the user needs only to insert personal information. “Visual organization helps a lot. Chiefly, alignment, contrast, and proximity help readers associate and track visual information” (Yearwood, 2009). I benefitted greatly by the refresher on design principles. I settled on Publisher because I’m familiar with it, but knew that one obstacle would be gathering enough interesting information for readers.
After considering the questions of “audience, purpose and content” (Lamb, 2005), I created a functional newsletter that I used at school. With all the changes at my school, I had more than enough stories to fill a 4 page newsletter. I had trouble choosing a template that I liked, but eventually found one. It’s a challenge to maintain an attractive, balanced work when you start changing fonts and image locations, even in a template. I was satisfied with my performance in creating a pleasing, usable newsletter and actually published it to the school website. Also, I relied on the videos and readings to guide my creation. I now use it as template for our school newsletter.
My future learning has been greatly impacted by the introduction of so many open-source and freeware programs. My students and I are researching animation and DTP software on SourceForge now. My colleagues at work have been attending short technology sessions with me to learn how to use these fun tools.
Lamb, A. (2005). Desktop publishing: planning newsletters. Retrieved
from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/publishing/planning.htm
Yearwood, J. (July 2009). Basic elements of page design. Beaumont, TX: Lamar University.
Yearwood, J. (2009). Opening lecture: graphic communication in context, a brief overview of
the history of writing [PDF document]. Retrieved from
https://lamar.epiclms.net/Learn/Player.aspx?enrollmentid=1578965
I began blogging about 5366 before the course even became active. This was one of the courses I anticipated because it had been 6 years since taking a design class. I’m not very good at design and don’t have an “eye” for it so I really have to work hard to get something that looks remotely “professional”. I do feel that I’ve gotten better over the years and 5366 helped me a great deal both as a teacher and as a learner. There were numerous Web 2.0 tools that I became familiar with while researching my activity. I HAD to research new tools because after dragging out my old copy of PageMaker, I realized quickly that I no longer remembered how to use it.
“Today’s world demands graphic design and pictures for communication to work.”(Yearwood, 2009) Many DTP programs have templates addressing the four design principles and the user needs only to insert personal information. “Visual organization helps a lot. Chiefly, alignment, contrast, and proximity help readers associate and track visual information” (Yearwood, 2009). I benefitted greatly by the refresher on design principles. I settled on Publisher because I’m familiar with it, but knew that one obstacle would be gathering enough interesting information for readers.
After considering the questions of “audience, purpose and content” (Lamb, 2005), I created a functional newsletter that I used at school. With all the changes at my school, I had more than enough stories to fill a 4 page newsletter. I had trouble choosing a template that I liked, but eventually found one. It’s a challenge to maintain an attractive, balanced work when you start changing fonts and image locations, even in a template. I was satisfied with my performance in creating a pleasing, usable newsletter and actually published it to the school website. Also, I relied on the videos and readings to guide my creation. I now use it as template for our school newsletter.
My future learning has been greatly impacted by the introduction of so many open-source and freeware programs. My students and I are researching animation and DTP software on SourceForge now. My colleagues at work have been attending short technology sessions with me to learn how to use these fun tools.
Lamb, A. (2005). Desktop publishing: planning newsletters. Retrieved
from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/publishing/planning.htm
Yearwood, J. (July 2009). Basic elements of page design. Beaumont, TX: Lamar University.
Yearwood, J. (2009). Opening lecture: graphic communication in context, a brief overview of
the history of writing [PDF document]. Retrieved from
https://lamar.epiclms.net/Learn/Player.aspx?enrollmentid=1578965
EDLD 5370 Week 3 TF/TL Standard VI
“… technology uses will envoke new types of situations, and technologists will operate in areas lacking clear guidelines.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 123) Educational technology can be a leap into the unknown when working with children and there are many guidelines and safeguards that must be followed in regards to technology in schools. The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) are two examples of legislation created for student safety. The tough thing about technology is that it is like a living thing always growing and changing and the schools must stay current in regards to safety guidelines. There are countless fun, interesting and productive digital tools available that may not fall under any established guidelines. In these instances schools look to the technology leaders and facilitators for clarification.
With most great things come disadvantages and most people recognize a few of these disadvantages immediately. Online safety at school, privacy laws and students’ understanding of copyright procedures are a few issues that are most discussed and understood but as I learned in an earlier course the “digital divide” or digital inequity is a huge problem in schools. Districts that cannot provide students with 21st Century skills are turning out graduates who will be greatly disadvantaged because, as Warlick (2007, p. 20) states, for the first time in history we, as educators, are preparing kids for a future that we cannot describe. Digital inequity is a terrible problem facing many small schools. "The digital divide refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels with regard to both their opportunities to access information and communication technologies..." ("Digital Divide", 2011, para. 1)
Schools must understand and abide by laws governing collection reporting and storing of student information. FERPA mandates that certain portions of educational records remind private and cannot be disseminated without permission. Other aspects of technology not covered by CIPA or FERPA are left to a school’s discretion, but adhering to internet safety and acceptable use policies are dependent on the school's decision to accept certain funding.
I have found in my capacity as District Technology Coordinator that I occasionally need help from our school attorney to clarify concerns. Most of my inquiries are about social media at school. I needed assistance when setting up the school Facebook and Twitter accounts and have also asked questions about teacher wikis and blogs.
The activities I have done in Standard VI tie directly to the five indicators. I began my year by teaching a unit on Internet safety and copyright laws to my students and by e-mailing the teachers the acceptable use policy (AUP) and requiring a signature showing that they had read the policy. (TF/TL VI.A.,D.) Indicator B states that technology resources should be available to empower and enable diverse learners success. My district provides software that can translate text into speech in several languages and we have digital tools available to assist special education students in completing assignments. We use various streaming media tools in our vocational programs to display diverse cultures to satisfy Indicator C. The last indicator discusses providing equitable access to technology for all students. All of our seniors currently have the privilege of checking laptops out of the library to keep all year and all of our ITV students are issued a laptop for use with their college courses. My district also has plans to purchase two Apple iPad carts for our junior high to use in core subject areas. My school has a low student to computer ratio and our students and teachers have access to three computer labs.
Digital Divide. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2011, from
http://en.widipedia.org/wiki/Digital.divide
Warlick, D. (2007). Literacy in the new information landscape. Library Media Connection,
(26)1, 20-21.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
With most great things come disadvantages and most people recognize a few of these disadvantages immediately. Online safety at school, privacy laws and students’ understanding of copyright procedures are a few issues that are most discussed and understood but as I learned in an earlier course the “digital divide” or digital inequity is a huge problem in schools. Districts that cannot provide students with 21st Century skills are turning out graduates who will be greatly disadvantaged because, as Warlick (2007, p. 20) states, for the first time in history we, as educators, are preparing kids for a future that we cannot describe. Digital inequity is a terrible problem facing many small schools. "The digital divide refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels with regard to both their opportunities to access information and communication technologies..." ("Digital Divide", 2011, para. 1)
Schools must understand and abide by laws governing collection reporting and storing of student information. FERPA mandates that certain portions of educational records remind private and cannot be disseminated without permission. Other aspects of technology not covered by CIPA or FERPA are left to a school’s discretion, but adhering to internet safety and acceptable use policies are dependent on the school's decision to accept certain funding.
I have found in my capacity as District Technology Coordinator that I occasionally need help from our school attorney to clarify concerns. Most of my inquiries are about social media at school. I needed assistance when setting up the school Facebook and Twitter accounts and have also asked questions about teacher wikis and blogs.
The activities I have done in Standard VI tie directly to the five indicators. I began my year by teaching a unit on Internet safety and copyright laws to my students and by e-mailing the teachers the acceptable use policy (AUP) and requiring a signature showing that they had read the policy. (TF/TL VI.A.,D.) Indicator B states that technology resources should be available to empower and enable diverse learners success. My district provides software that can translate text into speech in several languages and we have digital tools available to assist special education students in completing assignments. We use various streaming media tools in our vocational programs to display diverse cultures to satisfy Indicator C. The last indicator discusses providing equitable access to technology for all students. All of our seniors currently have the privilege of checking laptops out of the library to keep all year and all of our ITV students are issued a laptop for use with their college courses. My district also has plans to purchase two Apple iPad carts for our junior high to use in core subject areas. My school has a low student to computer ratio and our students and teachers have access to three computer labs.
Digital Divide. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2011, from
http://en.widipedia.org/wiki/Digital.divide
Warlick, D. (2007). Literacy in the new information landscape. Library Media Connection,
(26)1, 20-21.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
EDLD 5370 Week 3 TF/TL Standard V
“… standards also benefit indirectly when educators use technology to enhance their own productivity and professional practice.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 101) Technology timesavers can make educators more efficient with digital tools. Premade lesson plans, streaming media lessons, data disaggregation software and collaborative meeting places are just that a few of tools available to help teachers provide quality instruction and address professional tasks faster and better. As a teacher, these tools help me reduce the time I once spent assembling all the materials I needed for my lessons, and as a learner, I love exploring educational publications and RSS feeds for new ideas that I can both use myself and share with my colleagues.
There is also a downside to all the time saving technology. I have seen in my own school teachers who are stretched to their limits by the demands placed on them by the principal, parents and the curriculum. My district bought into CSCOPE completely and the timelines required by the curriculum allow for very little other instruction. As a result, my teachers don't have time to practice the digital tools that have been provided to them. I have visited with the teachers in my school and the most prominent complaint is that they don't know how most of the digital tools can be helpful for them. They indicate that the learning curve is too great and the amount of practice it takes to become proficient with technology is hard to come by. I tell them that that's where I come in! I'm a technology coordinator and I can help them become better technology users if they’ll just tell me what they want to achieve with their digital tools. Many of my teachers want to be able to use the productivity tools they been given in the complex ways they’ve seen at workshops and conferences. For example, they tell me that they can all use the Internet to search topics and can all use Microsoft Word to type a letter, but want to be able to use the tools together to be more productive. I understand, as a facilitator and a teacher, that this is difficult when stumbling through it alone.
My idea for improving these types of technology problems would be to combine three aspects of learning. I would like to implement collaborative learning groups among the teachers, provide them with professional development using the tools and then create a technology skills assessment. This would provide a plan for training, peer assistance and measurable evaluation. I believe that I have a strong background in facilitating technology learning both with students and with teachers. As a teacher, I can teach them, as a colleague, I can help them form peer groups and as a leader, I evaluate their progress. Hopefully with this experience I can make improvements and positive changes in attitudes concerning technology in my district.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
There is also a downside to all the time saving technology. I have seen in my own school teachers who are stretched to their limits by the demands placed on them by the principal, parents and the curriculum. My district bought into CSCOPE completely and the timelines required by the curriculum allow for very little other instruction. As a result, my teachers don't have time to practice the digital tools that have been provided to them. I have visited with the teachers in my school and the most prominent complaint is that they don't know how most of the digital tools can be helpful for them. They indicate that the learning curve is too great and the amount of practice it takes to become proficient with technology is hard to come by. I tell them that that's where I come in! I'm a technology coordinator and I can help them become better technology users if they’ll just tell me what they want to achieve with their digital tools. Many of my teachers want to be able to use the productivity tools they been given in the complex ways they’ve seen at workshops and conferences. For example, they tell me that they can all use the Internet to search topics and can all use Microsoft Word to type a letter, but want to be able to use the tools together to be more productive. I understand, as a facilitator and a teacher, that this is difficult when stumbling through it alone.
My idea for improving these types of technology problems would be to combine three aspects of learning. I would like to implement collaborative learning groups among the teachers, provide them with professional development using the tools and then create a technology skills assessment. This would provide a plan for training, peer assistance and measurable evaluation. I believe that I have a strong background in facilitating technology learning both with students and with teachers. As a teacher, I can teach them, as a colleague, I can help them form peer groups and as a leader, I evaluate their progress. Hopefully with this experience I can make improvements and positive changes in attitudes concerning technology in my district.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
EDLD 5370 Week 3 Comprehensive Exam
Educational Technology or Educational Administration: My Digital Journey to Leadership
Shannon Dawn Copeland
Lamar University
Fall 2011
Educational Technology or Educational Administration: My Digital Journey to Leadership
I began teaching at my current school district in 1991 and was asked to be the District Technology Coordinator in 1998 due to my extensive use of technology in my Special Education classroom. This appointment began a long term relationship with educational technology. My technology experience also readied me to be my district’s choice for the Technology Application certification in 1992 when TIFF grants paid for the technology boon in Texas education. I tried, at that time, to continue my technology training to receive an Educational Technology masters through the University of North Texas, but no one else in my cohort responded positively and my local professor-of-record didn’t pursue it. I do, however, feel fortunate to have been involved in that ground-breaking endeavor.
As a result of my Technology Application certification, I promptly began teaching Webmastery, Digital Graphics/Multimedia, Video Editing, and Desktop Publishing. The experience I gained teaching these technology application courses helped me immensely when I was asked to serve as District TAKS Coordinator in 2004. It is stunning to realize how heavily the web of test coordinator duties relies on technology.
Everything I do is increasingly tied to computers and I have, at last count, 18 passwords for everything from my online grade book to my Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE) accounts, to the online assessment ordering website, www.texasassessment.com. I originally began this master’s to stop my CPA husband from jokingly brandishing his master’s in accounting at me but my attitude changed after a couple of courses when I decided that I would like to also study for my principal’s certification. It seems that my mid-life crisis expenditure will result in life-long learning tools and possibly open job opportunity doors concurrently.
Position and Leadership Goals
I would like to begin this section on a personal note summarizing a conversation between my husband and me. We were discussing the title of this comprehensive exam and I mentioned that I wanted my title to convey the turn my degree plan and my attitude took when Dr. Abernathy announced that we could add the leadership component to Educational Technology and be eligible to take the principal certification exam. I have been in leadership positions in my school since I was asked to become the District Technology Coordinator in 1997 and my colleagues seemed to follow my lead easily. I began wondering what it was about me that caused co-workers to come to me with anything from retirement plan questions to marriage woes! I do not like writing about myself in this manner, but introspection is introspection, even if a person doesn’t like doing it. I told my husband that while thinking about the portions of assignment one in 5370, I couldn’t separate my educational technology experiences from my leadership experiences, which both began long before I ever heard of Lamar University. I have discovered that educational technology and leadership are intertwined within me and I’ll have to write this paper accordingly. His response was to tell me that “you have lived that path and you can talk in detail about how they (technology and leadership) inter-relate, especially in today’s electronically-enhanced society and if that is the way you see this journey, then I think it would be both easier for you to write and it should make it an interesting read”.
I like my current position as District Technology Coordinator, but have always believed that I should continue studies in the area of technology to stay current with the rapidly changing digital world. This masters program began as a project to fill my time and to better my classroom instruction, but blossomed into a full blown endeavor to make an upward move to, possibly, a technology curriculum director position with a larger school. The principal certification was just a bonus and even though I do not want to be a principal at this time, but I believe that the certification’s presence on my vitae and my SBEC certification will be advantageous while pursuing future jobs. In addition to increased knowledge of new technologies, I have also been given more responsibility in areas not associated with technology or assessment at my school since beginning this course of study. My principal came to me in early October and asked my thoughts on our grading policy and what changes I’d like to see made to it. I feel like this master’s in technology with the leadership component are already opening doors for me.
Developing high-quality leadership goals is something that occurs with time and experience. I hope to lead with strong ethics and compassion for all stakeholders, including parents, teachers and students. A leader must also have an idea or vision of the direction he/she wants the campus to follow and what he/she wants the campus to resemble in the future because curriculum development, staffing patterns, needs assessments and collaboration among stakeholders are huge tasks for one person to try to implement and articulate. A good leader must also, as referred to in one of the standards, be able to distribute, or delegate authority. I don't think that I'm at the point where my vision is entirely clear, but the experiences that I've gained over the last 20 years definitely color my perceptions about all these aspects and I feel like I'm beginning to pull all of this insight together into a plan. If my prior experiences and the training that I’ve received in this course of study have helped me grow as an educator and possibly a future school leader, then perhaps I’ll be able to recognize pitfalls while becoming a good proactive leader.
Classroom of the Future: Built for Creation and Presentation
Schools and classrooms of the future will take advantage of a number of new technologies outlined in the 2010 Horizon Report. This resource explains the exciting new services that are becoming mainstream. Cloud computing, collaborative environments, game-based learning, mobiles, augmented reality and flexible displays are discussed at length in this report. These technologies are broken down into the categories of near-term, mid-term and far-term depending on their entry into mainstream use in schools. They also show great potential for teaching, learning and creative expression. (Johnson, Smith, Levine & Haywood, 2010) Cloud computing seems to be the cornerstone for all of these technologies, with collaborative environments and mobile and augmented reality apps based in the “cloud” already. I find cloud computing a remarkable step towards unlimited storage space and application availability. We are sure to by-pass physical hard-drives completely someday, having thin client computers that take advantage of cloud-based applications and storage exclusively.
Amazon.com recently launched its cloud drive offering 5 GB of free storage, access from any computer and secure storage. This service made me wonder about how long the concept of cloud computing has been around. I was astounded to find an article written in 1996 that actually describes an idea that would become what we know as cloud computing today. More astonishing is the fact that the author even refers to “a concept of a kernel (seen as a fix point, real place allowing social interaction and direct contact of learners with ‘live’ knowledge) and the concept of a cloud (seen as a virtual place allowing remote access to or interaction with knowledge and people)”.(Vivet, 1996, p.664) Vivet envisioned online learning communities operating with real-time communication such as Skype, chatrooms, facebook and the many other social and educational sites available to the masses.
The classroom of the near future will have access to all these technologies and more. I think I would use many of the ideas produced in the “Classroom of the Future” video for my classroom. (mediaineducation, 2007) My classroom would be designed specifically for creation and presentation of projects and ideas. If I could design a classroom from barebones to fully functional, I would begin with power concerns. There would have to be power available by means of wall-length, mounted power strips on every wall and multi-outlets in the floors. There would be wireless access with maximum frequency bands for use with mobile devices, such as cell phones, iTouches, iPads, laptops and streaming video delivery systems. Most of the mobile devices would lend themselves to game-based learning. I have students in my current classroom using iPads to play games presenting a number of strategic games and logic activities. I heard a speaker at ESC17 mention one time that all students have an attention span, we just have to find what holds it. If traditional means of teaching don’t keep students interested, many times game-based learning does. I do worry that this generation is becoming more isolated and withdrawn in real social situations, even though they are quite prolific in their online “lives”.
There will be two Promethean smart boards (one for my instruction and one for student presentations) and a document camera for presenting both student work and teacher instruction. I’ll also expect 1 to 1 computing with all computers mapped to a shared server and students with their own logins. The computer pods will all have networked scanners and printers. Although flexible displays are mentioned with the far-term technologies in the Horizon Report, I have seen, on television, desktops that worked much like a giant iPad or touch-phone. The designers were using a table-top computer screen the size of an office desktop. It reminded me of a cross between an iPad and a Promethean board in its functionality. The classroom desks will be modular as to accommodate several students into cooperative learning groups as mentioned above in the description of the learning pods. The walls will be covered with whiteboards that can be used as either writing surfaces or projection displays. My current classroom has both whiteboards and cork bulletin boards for student collaboration and presentation of projects. I’ve noticed that our English teachers are also using whiteboards in their classrooms, but not attached to the wall. Three of them have gone to Lowe’s Home Improvement and purchased “shower boards” and had our maintenance department cut them into sizes that can be placed in the middle of groups of students for collaboration and brainstorming. The students all use different color markers to show evidence of their work.
All of this design and planning must go hand in hand with sound teaching, leading and learning. Instructors must provide problems for students to solve and practice at solving them. Learning must also be presented in logical sequences allowing exposure to pre-requisites before more complex tasks and students need instructor-guided learning in conjunction with collaborative and self-directed learning to be successful. We have learned a great deal since I became a teacher 20 years ago. Students are now more experimental learners who are interactive and social. They have become multi-taskers and are less linear thinkers than my generation. That concept hits close to home with me due to my position as District TAKS Coordinator. I haven’t been able to train anyone to help me with TAKS testing because I’m such linear thinker that I can’t hand any part of the process over without severing some of my internal checks and balances for the procedures. Today’s students also EXPECT technology to be a integral part of their teaching and learning. It is up to school administrators to direct teachers to get the training they need to deliver this type of instruction.
In addition to being the District TAKS Coordinator, I’m also the District Technology Coordinator. This means that I authored our District Technology Plan and had it very much in mind when designing this classroom of the future. My district conducted a needs assessment and found that “Our research indicates that there is a need to expand the use of technology in our classrooms, across our campuses, and in our community. For this to be done successfully, the teachers must receive in-service instruction to effectively integrate technology into their teaching strategies.” (Copeland, 2009) Our goals and objective clearly state the needs for our students and district. We have 3 main goals: Anton ISD will prepare students for a technologically advancing world, AISD will access and utilize current technologies, and AISD will form a partnership with the community to provide opportunities involving current technology. These 3 goals are supported with numerous objectives and strategies that will be described more completely in Week 5’s assignment detailing our technology plans.
Technology Leadership Skills, My Attitudes and Myself: What Have I Learned?
This has been a journey that began with a desire to hold a master’s degree in a subject that consumes my life. Every aspect of my job includes technology in some way. Whether I’m ordering TAKS/STAAR tests online, teaching digital graphics or explaining why an email video of someone’s grandchild won’t deliver because it’s too big, I’m using technology. Along the way, I began to formulate what is still becoming my vision of technology and leadership in respect to not only my current job, but also a job that I might hold in the future. Technology can no longer be an “extra” in school. It must be an integral part of our curriculum and cannot be taught in isolation because our world is becoming less industrial and more digital.
I learned a few hard and irritating lessons about myself during this journey. It was about this time that I began strongly questioning the teaching methods in my school and became suspicious that in order to teach these kids without boring them to death, we needed to stop giving notes in lecture form and start getting them out of their seats and into groups brainstorming, collaborating and researching with digital tools. I WAS one of the teachers that kept students in their seats quietly working before I began teaching technology applications courses several years ago. I guess I experienced an “awakening” of sorts in that I began to see years ago what I want my colleagues to know now. The Teaching with Technology course illustrated to me how the UDL philosophy allows us, as educators, to rethink materials, methods, goals and assessments using its multiple means of introducing and learning concepts. If our students are motivated to create and learn using digital tools, then we need to provide them with the opportunity to do so. “Effort is the only controllable source of success and students who truly believe that they can be successful have more motivation and initiative than other students.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 155) I believe that even if the task outcome isn’t a success, the reinforcement of it is and students will continue to work towards the achievement of goals. Our students need to “learn how to learn” because there is too much to memorize. I recently attended a conference in which the presenter used Google as an example of why students need to learn how to question. He simply typed an inquiry and his point wasn’t with how many hits were returned, but with how fast the information was returned. This re-enforced my belief that today’s kids need to know how to THINK. Linda Darling-Hammond (2007) expressed in a video this week that school teachers and leaders need training to be emotionally and socially intelligent in order to educate the whole child. I believe this would allow children to handle the stress in their lives and to relate well to a variety of peers if collaborate careers are our future.
I feel like my school is always one step behind with technology that other schools seem to have now. The challenge of providing our students with the technology tools they need to be successful in the world, both today and tomorrow, isn’t an isolated problem. It seems that the same obstacles abound in many areas and there are various reasons for this. We have administrators in my school and elsewhere who don’t want to try any new technology due to fiscal or logistical issues or to competing demands on time and resources. Solomon and Schrum (2007) say, however, that some schools are taking the first steps in the process of including full integration of technology into their classrooms. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a major contributor that helps to sponsor a great many of these full integration schools. It’s frustrating for me, as a potential administrator, to see and read about the schools that use technology seamlessly in their everyday lessons and know that other schools are just struggling to pay for the unfunded mandates being meted out by our state.
My unenthusiastic attitude over the last few years was the momentum I needed to push me toward returning to school. I was burned out teaching the same things that I’d been teaching since receiving my Technology Applications certification in 2003 and I felt as though I was standing on the sidelines of something awesome. I knew that there were so many new tools and so much open source material available and this knowledge was one of the reasons I sought out a degree program that would place me squarely in the present using the most current digital tools.
"Information also flows free of the containers that we previously managed as the gatekeepers” (Warlick, 2007, p. 20) I’m excited about teaching again because of the new avenues that have been opened for me. We are no long the keepers of the information and we, as teachers, should be learning right alongside the students. I am definitely more compassionate toward core subject area teachers who are preparing students for state assessments and try to use the knowledge that I’m gaining both through this master’s program and through my own research to help them have successful outcomes. As a life-long learner, I have subscribed to a new educational theory that includes students, teachers and administrators all learning and growing together.
References
Copeland, S., (2009.) 2009-2012 District Technology Plan for Anton ISD. Retrieved May 3,
2011 from https://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/eplan/eplan.cgi
Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., & Haywood, K. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report: K-12
Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
mediaineducation. (2007, September 12). Classroom of the future hd: what's new in educational
tech [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcXEznPXj8k&safety_mode=true&persist_
safety_mode=1
Vivet, M. (1996). The classroom as one learning environment of the future. Journal of Universal
Computer Science, 2.
Armstrong, S., & Warlick, D. (2004, September). The new literacy: the 3rs evolve into 4es.
Technology and Learning, (25), 20-28
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenosksi, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom
instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Edutopia.org (December 10, 2007). The collaborative classroom: an interview with linda darling
hammond. Filmed at the CASEL forum in New York City. Retrieved on Oct. 5, 2009
from http://www.edutopia.org/linda -darling-hammond-sel-video
Schrum, L., & Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR..: International
Society for Technology in Education.
Shannon Dawn Copeland
Lamar University
Fall 2011
Educational Technology or Educational Administration: My Digital Journey to Leadership
I began teaching at my current school district in 1991 and was asked to be the District Technology Coordinator in 1998 due to my extensive use of technology in my Special Education classroom. This appointment began a long term relationship with educational technology. My technology experience also readied me to be my district’s choice for the Technology Application certification in 1992 when TIFF grants paid for the technology boon in Texas education. I tried, at that time, to continue my technology training to receive an Educational Technology masters through the University of North Texas, but no one else in my cohort responded positively and my local professor-of-record didn’t pursue it. I do, however, feel fortunate to have been involved in that ground-breaking endeavor.
As a result of my Technology Application certification, I promptly began teaching Webmastery, Digital Graphics/Multimedia, Video Editing, and Desktop Publishing. The experience I gained teaching these technology application courses helped me immensely when I was asked to serve as District TAKS Coordinator in 2004. It is stunning to realize how heavily the web of test coordinator duties relies on technology.
Everything I do is increasingly tied to computers and I have, at last count, 18 passwords for everything from my online grade book to my Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE) accounts, to the online assessment ordering website, www.texasassessment.com. I originally began this master’s to stop my CPA husband from jokingly brandishing his master’s in accounting at me but my attitude changed after a couple of courses when I decided that I would like to also study for my principal’s certification. It seems that my mid-life crisis expenditure will result in life-long learning tools and possibly open job opportunity doors concurrently.
Position and Leadership Goals
I would like to begin this section on a personal note summarizing a conversation between my husband and me. We were discussing the title of this comprehensive exam and I mentioned that I wanted my title to convey the turn my degree plan and my attitude took when Dr. Abernathy announced that we could add the leadership component to Educational Technology and be eligible to take the principal certification exam. I have been in leadership positions in my school since I was asked to become the District Technology Coordinator in 1997 and my colleagues seemed to follow my lead easily. I began wondering what it was about me that caused co-workers to come to me with anything from retirement plan questions to marriage woes! I do not like writing about myself in this manner, but introspection is introspection, even if a person doesn’t like doing it. I told my husband that while thinking about the portions of assignment one in 5370, I couldn’t separate my educational technology experiences from my leadership experiences, which both began long before I ever heard of Lamar University. I have discovered that educational technology and leadership are intertwined within me and I’ll have to write this paper accordingly. His response was to tell me that “you have lived that path and you can talk in detail about how they (technology and leadership) inter-relate, especially in today’s electronically-enhanced society and if that is the way you see this journey, then I think it would be both easier for you to write and it should make it an interesting read”.
I like my current position as District Technology Coordinator, but have always believed that I should continue studies in the area of technology to stay current with the rapidly changing digital world. This masters program began as a project to fill my time and to better my classroom instruction, but blossomed into a full blown endeavor to make an upward move to, possibly, a technology curriculum director position with a larger school. The principal certification was just a bonus and even though I do not want to be a principal at this time, but I believe that the certification’s presence on my vitae and my SBEC certification will be advantageous while pursuing future jobs. In addition to increased knowledge of new technologies, I have also been given more responsibility in areas not associated with technology or assessment at my school since beginning this course of study. My principal came to me in early October and asked my thoughts on our grading policy and what changes I’d like to see made to it. I feel like this master’s in technology with the leadership component are already opening doors for me.
Developing high-quality leadership goals is something that occurs with time and experience. I hope to lead with strong ethics and compassion for all stakeholders, including parents, teachers and students. A leader must also have an idea or vision of the direction he/she wants the campus to follow and what he/she wants the campus to resemble in the future because curriculum development, staffing patterns, needs assessments and collaboration among stakeholders are huge tasks for one person to try to implement and articulate. A good leader must also, as referred to in one of the standards, be able to distribute, or delegate authority. I don't think that I'm at the point where my vision is entirely clear, but the experiences that I've gained over the last 20 years definitely color my perceptions about all these aspects and I feel like I'm beginning to pull all of this insight together into a plan. If my prior experiences and the training that I’ve received in this course of study have helped me grow as an educator and possibly a future school leader, then perhaps I’ll be able to recognize pitfalls while becoming a good proactive leader.
Classroom of the Future: Built for Creation and Presentation
Schools and classrooms of the future will take advantage of a number of new technologies outlined in the 2010 Horizon Report. This resource explains the exciting new services that are becoming mainstream. Cloud computing, collaborative environments, game-based learning, mobiles, augmented reality and flexible displays are discussed at length in this report. These technologies are broken down into the categories of near-term, mid-term and far-term depending on their entry into mainstream use in schools. They also show great potential for teaching, learning and creative expression. (Johnson, Smith, Levine & Haywood, 2010) Cloud computing seems to be the cornerstone for all of these technologies, with collaborative environments and mobile and augmented reality apps based in the “cloud” already. I find cloud computing a remarkable step towards unlimited storage space and application availability. We are sure to by-pass physical hard-drives completely someday, having thin client computers that take advantage of cloud-based applications and storage exclusively.
Amazon.com recently launched its cloud drive offering 5 GB of free storage, access from any computer and secure storage. This service made me wonder about how long the concept of cloud computing has been around. I was astounded to find an article written in 1996 that actually describes an idea that would become what we know as cloud computing today. More astonishing is the fact that the author even refers to “a concept of a kernel (seen as a fix point, real place allowing social interaction and direct contact of learners with ‘live’ knowledge) and the concept of a cloud (seen as a virtual place allowing remote access to or interaction with knowledge and people)”.(Vivet, 1996, p.664) Vivet envisioned online learning communities operating with real-time communication such as Skype, chatrooms, facebook and the many other social and educational sites available to the masses.
The classroom of the near future will have access to all these technologies and more. I think I would use many of the ideas produced in the “Classroom of the Future” video for my classroom. (mediaineducation, 2007) My classroom would be designed specifically for creation and presentation of projects and ideas. If I could design a classroom from barebones to fully functional, I would begin with power concerns. There would have to be power available by means of wall-length, mounted power strips on every wall and multi-outlets in the floors. There would be wireless access with maximum frequency bands for use with mobile devices, such as cell phones, iTouches, iPads, laptops and streaming video delivery systems. Most of the mobile devices would lend themselves to game-based learning. I have students in my current classroom using iPads to play games presenting a number of strategic games and logic activities. I heard a speaker at ESC17 mention one time that all students have an attention span, we just have to find what holds it. If traditional means of teaching don’t keep students interested, many times game-based learning does. I do worry that this generation is becoming more isolated and withdrawn in real social situations, even though they are quite prolific in their online “lives”.
There will be two Promethean smart boards (one for my instruction and one for student presentations) and a document camera for presenting both student work and teacher instruction. I’ll also expect 1 to 1 computing with all computers mapped to a shared server and students with their own logins. The computer pods will all have networked scanners and printers. Although flexible displays are mentioned with the far-term technologies in the Horizon Report, I have seen, on television, desktops that worked much like a giant iPad or touch-phone. The designers were using a table-top computer screen the size of an office desktop. It reminded me of a cross between an iPad and a Promethean board in its functionality. The classroom desks will be modular as to accommodate several students into cooperative learning groups as mentioned above in the description of the learning pods. The walls will be covered with whiteboards that can be used as either writing surfaces or projection displays. My current classroom has both whiteboards and cork bulletin boards for student collaboration and presentation of projects. I’ve noticed that our English teachers are also using whiteboards in their classrooms, but not attached to the wall. Three of them have gone to Lowe’s Home Improvement and purchased “shower boards” and had our maintenance department cut them into sizes that can be placed in the middle of groups of students for collaboration and brainstorming. The students all use different color markers to show evidence of their work.
All of this design and planning must go hand in hand with sound teaching, leading and learning. Instructors must provide problems for students to solve and practice at solving them. Learning must also be presented in logical sequences allowing exposure to pre-requisites before more complex tasks and students need instructor-guided learning in conjunction with collaborative and self-directed learning to be successful. We have learned a great deal since I became a teacher 20 years ago. Students are now more experimental learners who are interactive and social. They have become multi-taskers and are less linear thinkers than my generation. That concept hits close to home with me due to my position as District TAKS Coordinator. I haven’t been able to train anyone to help me with TAKS testing because I’m such linear thinker that I can’t hand any part of the process over without severing some of my internal checks and balances for the procedures. Today’s students also EXPECT technology to be a integral part of their teaching and learning. It is up to school administrators to direct teachers to get the training they need to deliver this type of instruction.
In addition to being the District TAKS Coordinator, I’m also the District Technology Coordinator. This means that I authored our District Technology Plan and had it very much in mind when designing this classroom of the future. My district conducted a needs assessment and found that “Our research indicates that there is a need to expand the use of technology in our classrooms, across our campuses, and in our community. For this to be done successfully, the teachers must receive in-service instruction to effectively integrate technology into their teaching strategies.” (Copeland, 2009) Our goals and objective clearly state the needs for our students and district. We have 3 main goals: Anton ISD will prepare students for a technologically advancing world, AISD will access and utilize current technologies, and AISD will form a partnership with the community to provide opportunities involving current technology. These 3 goals are supported with numerous objectives and strategies that will be described more completely in Week 5’s assignment detailing our technology plans.
Technology Leadership Skills, My Attitudes and Myself: What Have I Learned?
This has been a journey that began with a desire to hold a master’s degree in a subject that consumes my life. Every aspect of my job includes technology in some way. Whether I’m ordering TAKS/STAAR tests online, teaching digital graphics or explaining why an email video of someone’s grandchild won’t deliver because it’s too big, I’m using technology. Along the way, I began to formulate what is still becoming my vision of technology and leadership in respect to not only my current job, but also a job that I might hold in the future. Technology can no longer be an “extra” in school. It must be an integral part of our curriculum and cannot be taught in isolation because our world is becoming less industrial and more digital.
I learned a few hard and irritating lessons about myself during this journey. It was about this time that I began strongly questioning the teaching methods in my school and became suspicious that in order to teach these kids without boring them to death, we needed to stop giving notes in lecture form and start getting them out of their seats and into groups brainstorming, collaborating and researching with digital tools. I WAS one of the teachers that kept students in their seats quietly working before I began teaching technology applications courses several years ago. I guess I experienced an “awakening” of sorts in that I began to see years ago what I want my colleagues to know now. The Teaching with Technology course illustrated to me how the UDL philosophy allows us, as educators, to rethink materials, methods, goals and assessments using its multiple means of introducing and learning concepts. If our students are motivated to create and learn using digital tools, then we need to provide them with the opportunity to do so. “Effort is the only controllable source of success and students who truly believe that they can be successful have more motivation and initiative than other students.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 155) I believe that even if the task outcome isn’t a success, the reinforcement of it is and students will continue to work towards the achievement of goals. Our students need to “learn how to learn” because there is too much to memorize. I recently attended a conference in which the presenter used Google as an example of why students need to learn how to question. He simply typed an inquiry and his point wasn’t with how many hits were returned, but with how fast the information was returned. This re-enforced my belief that today’s kids need to know how to THINK. Linda Darling-Hammond (2007) expressed in a video this week that school teachers and leaders need training to be emotionally and socially intelligent in order to educate the whole child. I believe this would allow children to handle the stress in their lives and to relate well to a variety of peers if collaborate careers are our future.
I feel like my school is always one step behind with technology that other schools seem to have now. The challenge of providing our students with the technology tools they need to be successful in the world, both today and tomorrow, isn’t an isolated problem. It seems that the same obstacles abound in many areas and there are various reasons for this. We have administrators in my school and elsewhere who don’t want to try any new technology due to fiscal or logistical issues or to competing demands on time and resources. Solomon and Schrum (2007) say, however, that some schools are taking the first steps in the process of including full integration of technology into their classrooms. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a major contributor that helps to sponsor a great many of these full integration schools. It’s frustrating for me, as a potential administrator, to see and read about the schools that use technology seamlessly in their everyday lessons and know that other schools are just struggling to pay for the unfunded mandates being meted out by our state.
My unenthusiastic attitude over the last few years was the momentum I needed to push me toward returning to school. I was burned out teaching the same things that I’d been teaching since receiving my Technology Applications certification in 2003 and I felt as though I was standing on the sidelines of something awesome. I knew that there were so many new tools and so much open source material available and this knowledge was one of the reasons I sought out a degree program that would place me squarely in the present using the most current digital tools.
"Information also flows free of the containers that we previously managed as the gatekeepers” (Warlick, 2007, p. 20) I’m excited about teaching again because of the new avenues that have been opened for me. We are no long the keepers of the information and we, as teachers, should be learning right alongside the students. I am definitely more compassionate toward core subject area teachers who are preparing students for state assessments and try to use the knowledge that I’m gaining both through this master’s program and through my own research to help them have successful outcomes. As a life-long learner, I have subscribed to a new educational theory that includes students, teachers and administrators all learning and growing together.
References
Copeland, S., (2009.) 2009-2012 District Technology Plan for Anton ISD. Retrieved May 3,
2011 from https://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/eplan/eplan.cgi
Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., & Haywood, K. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report: K-12
Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
mediaineducation. (2007, September 12). Classroom of the future hd: what's new in educational
tech [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcXEznPXj8k&safety_mode=true&persist_
safety_mode=1
Vivet, M. (1996). The classroom as one learning environment of the future. Journal of Universal
Computer Science, 2.
Armstrong, S., & Warlick, D. (2004, September). The new literacy: the 3rs evolve into 4es.
Technology and Learning, (25), 20-28
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenosksi, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom
instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Edutopia.org (December 10, 2007). The collaborative classroom: an interview with linda darling
hammond. Filmed at the CASEL forum in New York City. Retrieved on Oct. 5, 2009
from http://www.edutopia.org/linda -darling-hammond-sel-video
Schrum, L., & Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR..: International
Society for Technology in Education.
Monday, October 10, 2011
EDLD 5370 Week 2 Part 2.6 TF/TL Standard IV
Technology Facilitator Standard IV includes student assessment and evaluation and using technology to analyze, interpret and manipulate student assessment data for the purpose of school improvement. No Child Left Behind has mandated that schools set goals for student achievement and has developed punitive actions for schools not maintaining Adequate Yearly Progress. This high stakes testing has created a huge market for products that can assist schools in becoming data-driven. I recently read an article that I have tried all morning to locate, but it indicated that one of the five characteristics for a successful school is that it be data-driven. The state of Texas has mandated that teachers be able to access student assessment data and, as a result, are developing a free portal through www.texasassessment.com. I’m used to getting unfunded mandates from the TEA, but it appears that it is developing this site for districts that do not have the funds to purchase disaggregation products. I logged into this porta and found that the teacher dashboard displays test results aggregated by class and at the individual student level. I’m not very familiar with this portal because my school has always used AEIS-IT and Eduphoria for our data disaggregation, but if teachers are to become data-driven, then they must have access to the data.
According to the text, Computer-based testing (CBT) is emerging as one of the most promising technologies to address these current needs.”CBT permits educators to quickly and efficiently identify and map student content areas to be assessed on tests, to create multiple forms of tests, to grade tests and to analyze results.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 78) The product that my school purchased for test disaggregation also performs all of these tasks. Our teachers can create benchmark assessments with Eduphoria Aware and then print scanable answer documents that, after completion, can be scanned directly back to the web-based website to join the state assessment data. There is no wonder why this product is so expensive. This ties back to Standard III, a bit, in that once again the teachers must be trained on the technologies provided to them in order to understand the “whole picture” of what be data-driven is all about. Gone are the days of teaching “love units” that don’t adhere to the readiness and supporting TEKS.
Administrators and principals cannot be blamed as the only ones who “don’t get it” when discussing student technology literacy. Technology educators know that if a school integrates digital tools there are numerous benefits including deeper understanding by students and more interaction by lower functioning students, but even the federal government as represented by NCLB lacks the same requirements for technology literacy assessment and reporting that it has for core subject areas. Of course schools are going to skirt the written requirements for technology literacy when there are no consequences and I’m not entirely unsympathetic to the reasons for this. Technology is expensive and it’s difficult to find people who will work for teacher wages when they could be in the private sector making more money. I’m frustrated because I see this big picture in my mind of what education should be, but several limitations and some policies actually work against the implementation of the technology education that our little 21st century learners need.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
According to the text, Computer-based testing (CBT) is emerging as one of the most promising technologies to address these current needs.”CBT permits educators to quickly and efficiently identify and map student content areas to be assessed on tests, to create multiple forms of tests, to grade tests and to analyze results.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 78) The product that my school purchased for test disaggregation also performs all of these tasks. Our teachers can create benchmark assessments with Eduphoria Aware and then print scanable answer documents that, after completion, can be scanned directly back to the web-based website to join the state assessment data. There is no wonder why this product is so expensive. This ties back to Standard III, a bit, in that once again the teachers must be trained on the technologies provided to them in order to understand the “whole picture” of what be data-driven is all about. Gone are the days of teaching “love units” that don’t adhere to the readiness and supporting TEKS.
Administrators and principals cannot be blamed as the only ones who “don’t get it” when discussing student technology literacy. Technology educators know that if a school integrates digital tools there are numerous benefits including deeper understanding by students and more interaction by lower functioning students, but even the federal government as represented by NCLB lacks the same requirements for technology literacy assessment and reporting that it has for core subject areas. Of course schools are going to skirt the written requirements for technology literacy when there are no consequences and I’m not entirely unsympathetic to the reasons for this. Technology is expensive and it’s difficult to find people who will work for teacher wages when they could be in the private sector making more money. I’m frustrated because I see this big picture in my mind of what education should be, but several limitations and some policies actually work against the implementation of the technology education that our little 21st century learners need.
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
EDLD 5370 Week 2 Part 2.5 TF/TL Standard III
This is the standard that was the driving force behind my return to school. I wanted the ability to better assist my teachers with applying and implementing curriculum plans that include methods and strategies for using technology to maximize student learning. How can I help these over-worked and over-whelmed teachers implement technology into their lessons? How can I make them understand that technology can motivate and draw out “wallflower” students? Technology, in my opinion, is an important piece of the puzzle that, when used correctly, can support and enhance the very learning that teachers want so dearly.
I’ve asked teachers in my district over the last 17 months why they don’t use the technology that has been provided for them. We have Promethean boards, top of the line color document cameras, Discovery Learning streaming media, laptops, and eInstruction clickers. The answer is invariably that they don’t have time to learn how to use all of it. I privately take this very personally! It’s MY job to make sure that they CAN use these technologies. However, my hands are tied because, in addition to my duties as District Technology Coordinator, I am also the District TAKS/STAAR/EOC Coordinator, Special Education Supervisor, HS computer teacher and Erate liaison. How can I change the minds of the administration and the faculty about how imperative it is that we integrate technology into instruction when I can barely spend 2 hours a day on it? Technology shouldn’t be a weekly trip to the computer lab or a kid working a math problem on the whiteboard. Technology must be an integral part of the school day to produce 21st century learners. I sometimes feel like West Texas is in a fishbowl looking out at everyone else making leaps and bounds with technology, but I noted while reading the Solomon and Schrum article, that they mention to readers that “you will notice that there are not a lot of examples as of yet in which an entire school system has re-conceptualized itself to incorporate technology…” (Schrum & Solomon, 2007, p. 23)
I have become more familiar with the curriculum strategies that support technology integration and am trying to implement them into my school. Texas requires that Technology Application TEKS be taught for all grade levels. We conducted a technology application TEKS comparison in one of our courses and found that the objectives spiral from one grade level to the next and are re-taught with increasing levels of rigor. My school purchased a web-based technology application product called Learning.com. This software program does an excellent job of teaching these TEKS at an appropriate level for our elementary and junior high students, but we are still a long way from implementing all of the curriculum strategies. We haven’t introduced technology requirements to the school board and we currently do not have grade specific benchmarks. After so many Texas schools fell in the accountability ratings this year, technology is not at the top of the priority list. Principals are scrambling so hard to find a magic bullet to regain their school’s coveted “Exemplary” or “Recognized” statuses that they are ignoring what might actually BE the magic bullet.
Perhaps with my shiny new Master’s in Educational Technology and my principal certification, I can help change the way educators in my school feel about technology. I can remember a veteran teacher who recently retired telling me that she was there to teach, not to entertain. I respect this woman very much, but she was wrong. We really have no choice about the students’ desire to learn with entertaining digital tools. Schools are being forced to change and incorporate more technology due to the sophistication of today’s students who do not consider technology an “extra”. Technology for these kids is a way of life and a major source of communication. Technology has changed the way today’s youth approach life. This is the way they communicate, research, learn, play and are challenged. Simply sitting in a classroom taking notes everyday doesn’t help them learn, it makes them resist. “This disparity threatens to alienate youth further and encourage the already growing student perceptions that schools are outdated and irrelevant to their interests and goals. (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 57)
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International
Society for Technology in Education
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
I’ve asked teachers in my district over the last 17 months why they don’t use the technology that has been provided for them. We have Promethean boards, top of the line color document cameras, Discovery Learning streaming media, laptops, and eInstruction clickers. The answer is invariably that they don’t have time to learn how to use all of it. I privately take this very personally! It’s MY job to make sure that they CAN use these technologies. However, my hands are tied because, in addition to my duties as District Technology Coordinator, I am also the District TAKS/STAAR/EOC Coordinator, Special Education Supervisor, HS computer teacher and Erate liaison. How can I change the minds of the administration and the faculty about how imperative it is that we integrate technology into instruction when I can barely spend 2 hours a day on it? Technology shouldn’t be a weekly trip to the computer lab or a kid working a math problem on the whiteboard. Technology must be an integral part of the school day to produce 21st century learners. I sometimes feel like West Texas is in a fishbowl looking out at everyone else making leaps and bounds with technology, but I noted while reading the Solomon and Schrum article, that they mention to readers that “you will notice that there are not a lot of examples as of yet in which an entire school system has re-conceptualized itself to incorporate technology…” (Schrum & Solomon, 2007, p. 23)
I have become more familiar with the curriculum strategies that support technology integration and am trying to implement them into my school. Texas requires that Technology Application TEKS be taught for all grade levels. We conducted a technology application TEKS comparison in one of our courses and found that the objectives spiral from one grade level to the next and are re-taught with increasing levels of rigor. My school purchased a web-based technology application product called Learning.com. This software program does an excellent job of teaching these TEKS at an appropriate level for our elementary and junior high students, but we are still a long way from implementing all of the curriculum strategies. We haven’t introduced technology requirements to the school board and we currently do not have grade specific benchmarks. After so many Texas schools fell in the accountability ratings this year, technology is not at the top of the priority list. Principals are scrambling so hard to find a magic bullet to regain their school’s coveted “Exemplary” or “Recognized” statuses that they are ignoring what might actually BE the magic bullet.
Perhaps with my shiny new Master’s in Educational Technology and my principal certification, I can help change the way educators in my school feel about technology. I can remember a veteran teacher who recently retired telling me that she was there to teach, not to entertain. I respect this woman very much, but she was wrong. We really have no choice about the students’ desire to learn with entertaining digital tools. Schools are being forced to change and incorporate more technology due to the sophistication of today’s students who do not consider technology an “extra”. Technology for these kids is a way of life and a major source of communication. Technology has changed the way today’s youth approach life. This is the way they communicate, research, learn, play and are challenged. Simply sitting in a classroom taking notes everyday doesn’t help them learn, it makes them resist. “This disparity threatens to alienate youth further and encourage the already growing student perceptions that schools are outdated and irrelevant to their interests and goals. (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 57)
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International
Society for Technology in Education
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
EDLD 5370 Reflection over 5364
The two course embedded activities for 5364 were to demonstrate skills to support teachers as they implement curriculum plans integrating technology to enhance student learning and to create a wiki-based study group who create a lesson using UDL at the CAST Lesson Builder and a sample electronic book. I would never have thought that a lesson of this magnitude could be created by 3 people who are hundreds of miles apart. I learned how to use a wiki and Skype to facilitate the creation of a multipart lesson for several different learning styles and with accommodations for handicapped students. I now know that online collaboration tools can be used to create long distance projects and I researched more tools for a colleague who wanted to implement a “paperless” classroom this year using wikis, Moodle, Skype and Dropbox. This course showed me how all of this can be planned and executed.
In my portion of the lesson, the intent was to tie the constructivist learning theory and CAST’s 3 brain networks together (Rose and Meyer, 2002). My team wanted to concentrate on the recognition network with activities addressing fact gathering, the strategic network to show the planning and organizing of ideas and the affective network showing that the students would be engaged and challenged. Constructivism lends itself well to these network activities. The UDL philosophy allowed us, as educators, to rethink materials, methods, goals and assessments using its multiple means of introducing and learning concepts. I was aware of constructivism, but really didn’t know what it entailed until taking this course.
I knew that integrating technology into the lesson would be fun since we had no restrictions on funding. iPads have turned out to be quite a motivational tool in my classroom. I have 4 of the devices and allow students to earn free time to use them. The Williamson and Redish text went to great lengths to present ways that teachers could use “computing devices and software designed to help users complete specific tasks.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 102) Technology training and learning is not always for students. A school with highly trained teachers will be more productive and better. Pitler’s activities using word processors and spreadsheets give specific tasks that could not be achieved without technology. The chapter discussing effort being a teachable skill gives examples of using a spreadsheet to compare extra effort with increased grades could not have easily be done without technology. (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 158)
References
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenosksi, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom
instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Rose, D., & Meyer, A., (2002) Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for
learning. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology web site. Chapter 6.
Retrieved March 7, 2011 from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
In my portion of the lesson, the intent was to tie the constructivist learning theory and CAST’s 3 brain networks together (Rose and Meyer, 2002). My team wanted to concentrate on the recognition network with activities addressing fact gathering, the strategic network to show the planning and organizing of ideas and the affective network showing that the students would be engaged and challenged. Constructivism lends itself well to these network activities. The UDL philosophy allowed us, as educators, to rethink materials, methods, goals and assessments using its multiple means of introducing and learning concepts. I was aware of constructivism, but really didn’t know what it entailed until taking this course.
I knew that integrating technology into the lesson would be fun since we had no restrictions on funding. iPads have turned out to be quite a motivational tool in my classroom. I have 4 of the devices and allow students to earn free time to use them. The Williamson and Redish text went to great lengths to present ways that teachers could use “computing devices and software designed to help users complete specific tasks.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 102) Technology training and learning is not always for students. A school with highly trained teachers will be more productive and better. Pitler’s activities using word processors and spreadsheets give specific tasks that could not be achieved without technology. The chapter discussing effort being a teachable skill gives examples of using a spreadsheet to compare extra effort with increased grades could not have easily be done without technology. (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 158)
References
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenosksi, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom
instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Rose, D., & Meyer, A., (2002) Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for
learning. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology web site. Chapter 6.
Retrieved March 7, 2011 from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards,
what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in
Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527
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