EDLD 5362 Information Systems Management Reflection

This assignment was interesting for me, in that it had to deal with something that I have some control over, technology infrastructure and the student information system, but looked at it from a different perspective, financial. In the past I had a really rudimentary view on the financial part of the school district, only discussing what I would like to do and then basically being told whether it was feasible or not financially. The same can be said about my view of our student information system in that I had a basic overview of the system, but didn’t really give much thought to items such as training, support, and features. Having to take an objective look at our student information system and the financial side of the technology within the school district has given me a platform to either promote or shoot down ideas and tools for the district and schools. In the past there has been technology that has been purchased that had no real reason, or was not needed within the school district and now that I have a greater understanding of the financial side of the district I can critically review proposed services, hardware, and software to ensure that we get the most out of our investments. In addition to this I have been forced to take an objective look at our SIS, student information system, and weigh out the good and the bad with the system as compared to other systems.

The way that I approached these assignments was to try to remove myself from the district and try to approach everything as an outsider, with no experience in either our technology or SIS. The interviews and research that I did for both subjects helped me to make this objective observation and analyze the data without being too biased. I assessed my performance by speaking and presenting my findings to the technology director. This was a great way to get an opinion from someone who has been a teacher as well as an administrator within the school district, and could give me differing ideas and facts that I had not thought about before. I have since been able to have better communication and coordination when implementing new technology and services to our SIS with our technology director because of my greater understanding of these items and how they fit into the larger picture.

This project has been able to create an understanding between myself, the finance director, and the technology director that has, and will, enable us to make a coordinated effort to keep the district up to date from a technology standpoint. Understanding how, where, and why items are budgeted has enabled me to have a greater understanding and view of the district as a whole and where technology financially fits into the school. Having this knowledge and open communication will enable me to be a greater asset to the school district and create a school that is not only technologically up to date, but financially feasible. Since I have had to objectively look at the SIS for this project I have been actively researching different aspects of the SIS, such as things that are offered and we as a district are not using, and how these services could impact the district.

Web Chat Reflections 1

I was not able to attend this week’s web conference since I did not have the link to the conference until after Saturday afternoon. I went over the transcript for the conference and found some very useful information. The first bit of information that I was able to obtain was the difference between internship hours that I thought we had to obtain, 100, and the actual hours we needed, 50. At the beginning of the program I we were required to have 50 hours, but at one point I received something stating that it had been changed to 100. This was not a real issue in that I have over 100 hours, but it is nice to have the verification that since I am in Cohort 8 we only need 50 hours. The other piece of information that I received from the chat session was the clarification of the “Introduction” paragraph on our comprehensive examination. In the past I have always had a section called “Introduction”, it was good to know ahead of time that this was not acceptable. After finding this out I went back over the new APA standards to verify that the mechanics of my paper were correct.

Reflections on Technology Facilitator Standard II: Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences

Standard II, planning and designing learning environments and experiences, was closely aligned with Standard I which enabled me to combine the standards into at least one of my field based projects. Before starting my classes, covering the standards, and gaining more insight I had a difficult time sympathizing with teachers about them not using the technology that was placed in their classroom. The district or school would spend an immense amount of money and I would take a great deal of time installing hardware and software for the classrooms, and the teachers would rarely use the equipment or software. Previously I had assumed it was simply because they either didn’t care or didn’t want to use the software, but I came to realize that the majority of the time it is simply that they don’t know how to effectively use the tools to enhance the students education, this is where I found Standard II to fit in wonderfully. Understanding this had a great impact on me when I created the professional development class for teachers in EDLD 5333, ensuring that I included not only information on how to enrich the students education, but how to use the technology currently in their classroom to produce positive results. Using the technologies that are in the classroom to enrich the student’s education is something that is vitally important, and becoming more important with dwindling budgets. Because of this, Standard II is something that I feel I will be referring to on a regular basis the entire time I am working in the educational system.

The primary strategy that I used when implementing this standard was to ensure that teachers were able and trained on using the technology that they currently have in their classroom. This is especially important with this standard when dealing with the technology at the high school level for me since there is an immense amount of technology already in place. Using currently installed and implemented technologies is very important to schools in that it enables them to fully utilize their investment in technologies that are already in place without purchasing and implementing new, and possibly unused tools. Covering this standard really made me take a critical look at the tools that have been installed over the past three or four years and understand that there are ways to use these tools in new and powerful ways as long as the teachers know how to use them. My interactions with my colleagues when going over this standard were primarily based in speaking with the classroom teachers and finding out that the teachers really wanted to know how to use the technologies in their classrooms to help the students, but they did not have the time and resources to research how to use these tools.

When looking at this standard as a lifetime learner I realize that there is much to be done, and will always have to be done to help teachers understand and be able to fully utilize current technologies in their classrooms. As I have stated before with dwindling budgets it is even more important to fully use tools that are already in place, in addition to that schools and districts have to ensure that future technologies that they purchase will be used by the teachers and students, thus making training and research extraordinarily important. My experiences when working through this project will resonate within me when evaluating new technologies for the schools and district and will be one of the major deciding factors when making suggestions about these technologies to other district administrators and school principals. Research and understanding will, and must, be key when making important decisions about future educational technology; this includes not only hardware and software support, but faculty support as well including training and ongoing support for these tools because putting technology in a classroom does no good if the teachers don’t know how to use it.

Reflections on Technology Facilitator Standard I: Technology Operations and Concepts

Standard 1 is something that is something that directly impacts me on a daily basis in Information Technology, if teachers don’t know how to use the technology or are scared to try it, they generally will not use it. Most of the information that is contained within the first chapter of our text I am was aware of before reading, but it did address issues such as how to combat the problems that teachers face and empower them to use new technologies. Amazingly much of what was suggested is relatively easy and could be easily implemented. A few weeks ago I came across a flow chart on a website and thought that it seemed relevant to what I do, and what teachers can try to do when they are unsure about something that happens on their computer.

(http://xkcd.com/627/, n.d.)

This standard was very important to me about a year ago when we were in the process of implementing 1 to 1 at the high school campus. I was involved in the deployment and setup of the servers and laptops, so I had to ensure that items such as our internal blog and wiki server were setup correctly and that the teachers knew how to access these tools. What I did was to create a handout that gave the teachers instructions on how to access the sites and a general FAQ, frequently asked question, sheet for the teachers. This was immensely helpful in enabling the teachers to use the tool that we setup for them so that they could effectively use this in the classroom. My general approach to this was to ensure that a stable infrastructure was in place, and then ensure that I had easy to understand instructions for the teachers so that they could use the blog and wiki. Assessing my performance on this task was relatively simple since I am able to see how much the blog and wiki servers are used by the teachers and students without me having to personally guide them through the process. The only real interaction with colleagues was with the technology director when we discussed the uses and setup of the servers initially. I wanted to ensure that the tools and options were in place so that the teachers could use the blogs, such as allowing the students to subscribe to a blog through iTunes.

The primary thing that I took away from this standard is how easy it can be to have a large impact on the daily lives of teachers and staff. With relatively little time and effort someone who is technologically inclined can help teachers to feel more at ease with the technology that is in their classroom so that they can utilize the tools that are available to them. The interactions that I had with colleagues during this process will greatly impact my future implementation of this standard in that I now know how easy it is to help the teachers and the knowledge that individuals such as the technology director are great resources that I can use to create training for the teachers. One of the questions that I am left with after reviewing this standard is with the dwindling budgets of schools, how will the schools be able to keep up to date with the current technology trends that are happening in the world.

(n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2011, from http://xkcd.com/627/

EDLD 5333 Reflection

This, as with many others, was a really difficult assignment for me. I have never been involved in creating a professional development class, and have only attended a handful, so I had really very little to go off of except for what I was learning in the class and from the weekly readings. This was also the class in which I was introduced to the AEIS report. The idea of the AEIS report is simple, but using that data to create a class that will positively affect the students and teachers was an entirely different matter. I found it difficult to find specific, and inexpensive, ideas that could be used for a professional development class for the teachers.

I had in the past, not really given much thought about the hard work that goes into creating a professional development class for teachers. Upon creating this class I have a new found respect for the hard work, research, and planning that goes into creating a professional development class that is not only informative, but entertaining and that aligns to the state standards. In addition to the initial class, I had never thought about the follow-up that is critically important, in the success of the classes.

The primary thing that I wanted to accomplish with this task was to create an effective and reasonable professional development class for the high school. My initial issue was to narrow down what was actually needed at the school and then to find training that would fit the needs and improvements for that need. Most of the research was done by searching the Internet for solutions to the problems. The Internet has such a vast array of information that expands and changes rapidly, which allowed me to find current, relevant, information and tools. This form of research, I believe, is something that will not change in the future, only becoming more powerful and useful as more information is posted online. I was able to assess my project when I presented the completed project to the math department and was given the “thumbs up”. They were excited about the information within the training session, how it was presented, and that a follow-up was included in the plan. I only had minimal interaction with colleagues during the creation of this project, waiting until after the project was finished to present it to the math department.

One of the rewarding aspects of this project was that I now know I have the ability and knowledge, or at least know where to get the knowledge, to create a professional development class for the teachers. Having this knowledge and will help me to become more involved in creating and suggesting future classes for the teachers so that the school and district can become more effective and better learning environment for the students. This course has also given me a better understanding of what different departments at the campus level go through to ensure that classes that they present to the teachers are relevant and productive. This understanding will help me when creating future classes for the district that will be well received by the teachers attending and the administration. One of the challenges that I did find when creating the class was to ensure that it is entertaining and engaging enough to keep the teachers attention through the duration of the class. This is something that I feel must be addressed and researched since teachers can have a tendency to become “distracted” during training sessions. Ensuring that teachers are engaged will help alleviate some of this and ensure that the time spent taking the class is productive.