Web Conference Experience

Saturday I participated in the webconference hosted by Dr. Abernathy. The conference was another way for us to communicate with each other and with others in different sections, as well as with Dr. Abernathy. The conference took a while to get set up and the audio faded in and out. I participated through the chat function, since I do not have a webcam or a microphone.  There were only a handful of us participating which made it easier to keep up with the conversation.  Questions were clarified by both Dr. Abernathy and students. I would say that this experience was one of a typical web chat I have participated in before.

Texas S Ta R Chart: What Is It and Where Does Our Campus Fit?

This powerpoint is a summary of the Texas STar Chart and also my campus's results for the previous three years. It also contains reccomendations on how to use the information to improve technology on the campus.

Texas S Ta R Chart

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Week 2, Using a Blog--STaR Chart Area

     Infrastructure for Technology is on Key Area of the STar Chart survey that Campuses and Teachers take across the state annually. Infrastructure deals with the technology and support that is in the school and classrooms. Specifically the areas addresssed are the numbers of students per computers, the availability of internet access as it deals with connections and speed of the connections, the use of other technology in the classrooms, technical support available, Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) access, and the avialabilty of distance learning.  All of the six sub-areas mentioned are critical to the other three areas surveyed on the STaR Chart.  Looking at this area is critical so that legislators as well as school boards can provide funding to support this.
     Looking at this area across national, state, and local levels, progress has been made, but at some levels it has been very slow.  At the federal level legislators are beginning to realize the need to provide funding for more computers and technology in the classrooms. However not every school across the nation has realized this need.  Educators and Legislators are beginning to see the need for increasing this area to help improve our society move into the 21st century.  At the state level their has been more planning to help increase the effectiveness of the infrastructure. The state has put into place the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020. The state has also been working with the federal government to help improve and make way for an infrastructure that contains the necessary tools and softare for students to be a successful part of the 21st century. However, one roadblock is having enough funding to keep the infrastructure in place and to have all districts in equillibrium with each other.   At the district level, relating to my campus, there is not much progress being made.  For the previous three years the sub-area scores have stayed the same, neither decreasing or increasing.  This is an area that needs to be improved due to the lack of progress.
     Along with progress in this area at the local, state, and federal levels, there are trends that can be found. With regards to the state and federal levels, both are working together to improve those basic tools that students need be successful at using technology in the classroom.  On the other hand, another trend is that districts and campuses all across the nation do not have amount of technology tools that other campuses have.  So the trend is that campuses are still recieving equality with regards to the technology infrastructure. On the state level another trend is that classrooms have less than 4 students per computer , and students in at least three-fourths of the classrooms have direct access to the internet. On the local level, looking at my campus, The trend is that there are between five and nine students per computer in each classroom, which is a lot of students throughout the day who might never get to use the computer. Another trend is there is only one technical support personnel per 501-750 computers.  This equates to one technical support person on campus, which is usually a teacher.
     Since this is a critical component I feel that on the local level more support needs to be given.  For one, There should be more technical support staff at each campus.  This also needs to be a teacher who has more technology experience than just a classroom teacher who deals with technology issues on his/her off time. Distance learnig needs to be improved as well.  Not only for the teachers, but for the students as well.  Having teachers and students participating in learning online will not only help increase teacher knowledge, but also help students learn to collaborate and interact with each other.

Pre-K Technology Standards

     The Texas Pre-K guidelines, lay the foundation for all other curriculum standards. These standards are broken into five different areas, Social and emotional development, language and communication, emergent literacy: reading, emergent literacy: writing and mathematics. Social and emotional development deals with giving the students the  skills needed to help them control themselves and to make them more comfortable in the class setting.  The language and communication setting deals with having students learn to communicate appropriately. Their language skills such as speech are scaffolded to build upon each other. Emergent literacy: reading allows for students to become comfortable with concepts of print.  Students are able to see and hear teachers reading to them and modeling good reading.  They also start to learn about phonological awareness.  Emergent Literacy: Writing deals with getting them to start writing and getting them used to being comfortable with what they are writing.  Students are increasingly more comfortable with what they are writing and the letters they are forming and are constantly building upon these.  The last domain is Mathematics. Here students are introduced to the very basic of math skills. Students are able to work math activities  that are integrated into the curriculum.
     The Pre-K TEKS lay a foundation or the K-12 teachers to work on the curriculum before them and allow the students to be successful.  In Pre-K, students are given the opportunity to become comfortable in the skills they will soon be working on.  Giving the students this opportunity will help them when they start using technology.
     A spiraling or scaffolding curriculum is a curriculum that continually builds upon itself.  In the case of the Technology Application Standards, students start with a basic understanding in the lower grades and continually build upon those skill as they progress each year.  For example, In kindergarten though second grade, students in the information acquisition strand are expected to know how to acquire information using a variety of sources including audio, text, video and graphics (TEK 5a).  When looking at this same strand in grades 3 through 5, the same skills are expected.  Looking at grades 6 through 8, students are expected to build upon these skills previously expected for mastery and they are now given more specific audio sources and graphic media to use (TEK 5 a and b).  They are expected to know if they should use a bit map file or a jpeg file. They are also expected to use and access remote storage devices. Finally, in grades 9 through 12, students are building even more upon these previous skills.  They are now expected to use the same skills used to acquire information and this time apply it to programming projects (TEK 5b). In this curriculum the students are constantly building upon given expectations and given multiple opportunities to master them.

Week 1, Part 3: Key Ideas of the Long-range Plan for Technology

Looking at the Long-Range Plan for Technology, I have relized what the state's plan for improving technology in the school system is. Numerous pieces of data sources have been examined to help understand the growing demands and the impact of technology in the classroom.  Leaders are realizing that education is no longer something that works as a "one size fits all" way to teach students. Students are constantly changing and they way they learn is different for every child.  Bringing technology into the classroom is a way to differentiate the curriculum, which also helps met the demands of No Child Left Behind. As an aspiring administrator I have come to realize the impact I am going to have on my staff and students if I am able to lead them with the changing technology we are faced with everyday. As teachers graduate from college, they are going to be coming out more technology literate than previous teachers, which creates the need to provide current teachers with the training needed to keep up with the new teachers. As an instructional leader I have to budget for technology resources on my campus as well as  communicate with the staff what is expected of them. I have to assess the needs of teachers for staff development and bring in appropriate trainers to help. I also will need to allow for planning time so that teachers can discuss how to integrate it throughout the curricuum so that students are able to learn and collaborate with each other in a more meaningful and engaging way.  I will also need to use the technology myself that I want the staff to use, even if it means going into the classroom and modeling a lesson with the students using technology in a content area. 

Technology Inventories- week 1 part 2

     In looking at my strengths and weaknesses in technology, especially using technology in the educational setting, I took three assessments.  The first of these assessments was the Technology Applications Inventory. In this inventory,  four domains were looked at. These four domains were foundations, information acquisition, solving problems, and communication.  This inventory looked at how I use technology and how well I understand technology applications and terminology.  The inventory also looked at how I integrate these skills into the classroom trough the major content areas. Out of the four domains addressed with this inventory,  the strongest area for me is communication. I agree with this since I use the internet, as well as other technology applications to communicate with others.  Communication is necessary and so I have to be knowledgeable in this area to be able to do my job.  The weakest area for me is solving problems.  For the most part I try to solve as many problems with technology issues as I can. However, there are those times when I have trouble understanding what the problem is or do not know how to fix it. This is definitely an area I need to work on more.
     The second assessment I took to help analyze my knowledge of technology and the skills involved was the SETDA survey in the role of the teacher.In this survey I was asked questions about using technology at my school and in my classroom.  A few of the questions also dealt with technology use out of the classroom.  In reviewing the survey, I have realized that one area I need to work on is the ways in which my students use technology.  I need to work on having them collaborate with each other in order to help them with not only technology skills, but also with communication skills.  Collaboration is important to any area, and can help students improve. 
     The third assessment is The Rubric for Administrative Technology.  In this assessment, information use with technology is looked at through an administrator's eyes.  Not only does it look at how the administrator uses technology for information regarding students, and budgets, but it addresses how the administrators feels his or her staff uses the technology. I agree with this assessment since it relies on the administrator taking a step back and looking at themselves and their staff.  This assessment could be very powerful in trying to determine areas of need.
     In looking at all three of these together communicating with others using technology is definitely one of my strengths.  On the otherhand, using technology across the content areas, as well as giving students more opportunities throughout the school day to use technology is a weakness.  I want to address these areas as well as being able to fix issues with technology and improve them.  In doing so I will be a more effective teacher and leader. These three assessments also are valuable tools to help guide technolgy improvement on campuses.  All of these surveys seem to address multiple areas on a campus where technology would bem used and really make the participants to a look at how they are using the technology.