ESSENTIAL CONDITION ONE: ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY · Web viewOnly used by a small percentage of...

ITEC 7410/EDL 7105 SWOT Analysis Technology Planning Needs Assessment What is the current reality in our school?

Name: Peggy Jones Semester: Summer 2017

ESSENTIAL CONDITION ONE: Effective Instructional Uses of Technology Embedded in Standards-Based,Student-Centered Learning

ISTE Definition: Use of information and communication technology (ICT) to facilitate engaging approaches to learning.Guiding Questions:

How is technology being used in our school? How frequently is it being used? By whom? For what purposes? To what extent is student technology use targeted toward student achievement of the Georgia Learning Standards (GPSs,

CCSs)? To what extent is student technology use aligned to research-based, best practices that are most likely to support student

engagement, deep understanding of content, and transfer of knowledge? Is day-to-day instruction aligned to research-based best practices?

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsState of the art technology offered (hardware and internet)

Day-to-Day instruction is aligned to research-based best practices.

Not used as often as possible

Only used by a small percentage of teachers

Technology is not mostly aligned to research-based, best practices.

Much more technology available than being offered

We have highly qualified teachers that are masters in their area of the curriculum; technology could very much supplement their instruction to a much higher level.

If available technology was aligned to research-based, best practices students would be more engaged; students would develop a deep understanding of content, and transfer knowledge.

Student’s inappropriate use of internet.

Teachers letting students use internet for “free-time” usage, not always being assigned academic assignments.

Summary of Results/Conclusions:Compared to surrounding county schools, Ware County High School has state of the art technology offered in the building. The state of art technology includes appropriate hardware and sufficient internet to meet administrators, teachers, support staff, and student needs. The day-to-day instruction is aligned to research-based best practices, with majority of teachers performing at a level 3 on the


TEKS observation tool program. A weakness at WCHS is that only a small percentage of teachers use technology as often as possible. When technology is used in the classroom, in most cases the usage is not aligned to research-based, best practices. A major opportunity at WCHS is that there is a lot more technology to be utilized than are currently being utilized. The staff at WCHS is made up of highly qualified teachers that are masters in their area of curriculum; with technology supplementing the excellent teaching strategies our students could receive a higher level of education. If our highly qualified teachers would consistently align technology to their already best practices; students would develop a deep understanding of content and transfer knowledge. Treats that WCHS currently faces are students inappropriately using the internet. Some teachers have a misconception that if they let students use devices and access the internet that they are using technology in their classes. Students freely surfing the internet without direct academic assignments is a dangerous situation.

Recommendations from Gap Analysis: The student-centered learning area received a 67/100 from ISTE’s Diagnostic Tool. According to ISTE’s Essential Conditions teachers can improve in this area by addressing “content standards in ways that not only support the material, but also help students develop the essential digital skills”. WCHS could improve this area by making sure that the teachers are working in-line with the ISTE Standards for Teachers. Two ISTE standards that teachers could focus on are: Standard 1: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity and Standard 4: Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. WCHS’s teachers have the tools to provide a technology rich student-centered learning by effectively utilizing the available resources in an appropriate manner. If teachers utilize the available resources with fidelity, they can transform the “school’s culture into one that unleashes the creativity of students so they can create artifacts of learning that demonstrate conceptual mastery (Sheninger, 2014).”

Data Sources:ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

http://ericsheninger.com/

ESSENTIAL CONDITION TWO: Shared Vision

ISTE Definition: Proactive leadership in developing a shared vision for educational technology among school personnel, students, parents, and the community.Guiding Questions:

Is there an official vision for technology use in the district/school? Is it aligned to research-best practices? Is it aligned to state and national visions? Are teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other community members aware of the vision?

http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers


To what extent do teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other community members have a vision for how technology can be used to enhance student learning? What do they believe about technology and what types of technology uses we should encourage in the future? Are their visions similar or different? To what extent are their beliefs about these ideal, preferred technology uses in the future aligned to research and best practice?

To what extent do educators view technology as critical for improving student achievement of the GPS/CCSs? To preparing tomorrow’s workforce? For motivating digital-age learners?

What strategies have been deployed to date to create a research-based shared vision? What needs to be done to achieve broad-scale adoption of a research-based vision for technology use that is likely to lead to

improved student achievement?Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

The district does have an official vision for technology.

Stakeholders believe that technology in education can encourage the future.

We have a Technology Innovation Professional Learning Community being led by teachers for teachers.

The district vision is not aligned to research-best practices.

The district vision only detailed in the technology hardware and Wi-Fi specifics, the vision is not aligned to state and national visions.

Teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other community members are not aware of the technology vision.

Teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other community members have a vision for how technology can be used to enhance student learning.

Our educators view technology as critical for improving student achievement so the educators are understanding the importance of supplementing instruction with technology.

Our students are digital-age learners, and we have to utilize our technology resources to prepare them for tomorrow’s workforce.

A research-based vision team needs to be created in order to create a technology shared vision where everyone in the school is working toward the same technology goal.

Teachers are open to using technology, but they do not want to research and find the best technology practices for their subject. Teachers want a specific training, “this is how you do it”.

Since there is not a research-based vision, all teachers are working toward implementing technology, but we do not have a common goal to reach.


Summary of Results/Conclusions: Ware County District does have an official vision for technology, but the vision is not very instructional detailed. All stakeholders involved with WCHS believe that technology in education can encourage the future by preparing students for tomorrow’s workforce. Prior to fully implementing professional learning communities in our school, we have a teacher led PLC named Technology Innovation PLC. A weakness that our school faces is that the district vision is not aligned to research-best practices. The technology vision is only detailed with technology hardware and Wi-Fi specifications, and teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other community members are not aware of the district technology vision. WCHS has many opportunities to build off of to establish a strong shared vision. One opportunity is that teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other community members understand that technology can be used to enhance student learning; therefore, we have stakeholder technology buy-in. Our teachers view technology as being critical to improving student achievement, and they understand the importance of supplementing research-based instruction with technology. We have the technology resources to prepare our digital learners for tomorrow’s workforce. In order to capitalize on our opportunities, a research-based vision team needs to be created in order to create a technology shared vision where all stakeholders in the school are working toward the same technology goal. A threat that our school is silently dealing with is that all teachers are working toward implementing technology, but no one has a common goal to reach so everyone is shooting in the dark on the appropriate technology to implement in their class. Also, many teachers are not thinking out of the box on how to supplement his/her instruction with technology; they are waiting on someone to say, “this is how you do it”.Recommendations from Gap Analysis: The shared vision area received a 66/100 from ISTE’s Diagnostic Tool so this is an area for WCHS to pursue improvement. According to the ISTE’s Essential Conditions can be improved by establishing a “proactive leadership in developing a shared vision for educational technology among all education stakeholders, including teachers and support staff, school and district administrators, teacher educators, students, parents, and the community.” The shared vision can be created by a team that seeks input from all stakeholders. Everyone that the shared vision will affect needs to have input into the creation. The team then needs to develop a vision statement that defines the direction the school is working toward. Gabriel and Farmer (2009) give an example of creating a vision statement by looking at the creation like you are planning a trip with several friends. The friends are planning a trip to a largemouth bass fishing location, and one would assume that everyone is going there to catch the ultimate largemouth bass. One person plans on spotting eagles, another is looking for lakefront property, another wants to catch anything that will pull on the line, and one is there for sun and leisure. By presenting this scenario to the potential shared vision team, the team will be able to understand the importance of creating a common plan to work toward. Gabriel and Farmer (2009) give some guiding questions that would have prevented the trip confusion: What is the purpose?; What are the goals?; How does everyone envision this working out?; and Has everyone shared their thoughts on the goals with each other? Starting the shared vision team off with a strong foundation of what they are trying to accomplish will help establish a successful shared vision.

Data Sources:ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)



Gabriel, J & Farmer, P. (2009) How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank. ASCD, Alexandria, VA. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107042/chapters/developing-a-vision-and-a-mission.aspx .

ESSENTIAL CONDITION THREE: Planning for Technology

ISTE Definition: A systematic plan aligned with a shared vision for school effectiveness and student learning through the infusion of ICT and digital learning resources.Guiding Questions:

Is there an adequate plan to guide technology use in your school? (either at the district or school level? Integrated into SIP?) What should be done to strengthen planning? In what ways does your school address the needs of diverse populations in the school or district to include how race, gender,

socio-economic, and geographic diversity giving consideration to how these factors commonly affect K-12 students’ access to school and beyond-school access to high-speed Internet, modern computing devices, software, knowledgeable technology mentors, culturally-relevant digital content, and other affordances critical to technology literacy acquisition.

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsThe needs of diverse populations are met by providing additional technology when specified by a student’s IEP.

All students have access to high-speed internet, modern computing devices, software,

WCHS does not have an adequate plan to guide technology usage, but we do have a vague plan at the district level.

Our school does not provide any additional resources for race, gender, socio-economic, and geographic diversity. All of the listed populations receive the same provided resources that regular education students.

We realize that we need to create a technology plan to strengthen planning.

Provide knowledgeable technology mentors.

Technology is not integrated into the SIP.

Culturally-relevant digital content is not provided.

Summary of Results/Conclusions: WCHS has strength of meeting the needs of students with disabilities since there is a very direct plan laid out in their IEP. Many students with an IEP receive additional technology to assist with their disability. Our school does provide access to high-speed internet, modern computing devices, and software to all students. A weakness for WCHS is that we do not have an adequate plan to guide technology usage; there is only a vague district level plan. Presently we are not providing any additional technology resources for race, gender, socio-economic, and geographic diversity. In short, our weakness here is that since

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107042/chapters/developing-a-vision-and-a-mission.aspx


we provide equal resources for all students we are contributing to the digital divide. WCHS has a few opportunities that we could benefit from: After doing the research on implementing a technology plan we realize that we need to strengthen our technology planning, and we have enough advanced teachers and students in our school that we could provide knowledgeable technology mentors to teachers and students. WCHS needs to overcome a few threats. The first threat is that technology is not integrated into the SIP, so funding and program evaluations will not be guaranteed. Another threat is a result of our population being diverse; we are not strong in providing culturally-relevant digital content.Recommendations from Gap Analysis: The implementation planning area received a 64/100 from ISTE’s Diagnostic Tool so this is an area for WCHS to pursue improvement. According to the ISTE’s Essential Conditions an implementation should be very detailed in its description of how technology will be deployed to meet educational goals. The plan should include: short-term and long-term goals, a detailed roadmap for how these goals will be accomplished, important milestones and timelines, and division of responsibilities and resources, including human, financial and time. When implementing the technology plan, we need to take into consideration additional diverse learning groups such as: race, gender, socio-economic, and geographic diversity. We currently provide additional technology resources for students with disabilities, but you will notice that there is a specific plan written to meet the needs of the SWD student. Many people do not think of the digital divide applying to genders, but it very much does. According to Ring (2008), educators need to take steps to interest girls in computer science careers by providing professional role models to engage young women to pursue technology careers. Our technology plan also needs to provide additional resources to socio-economic students because according to Devaney (2014), “high school students who have at-home internet access have higher graduation rates.” Graduation rates are totally tied to our SIP, but technology needs to be shown how it supplements the graduation rate. WCHS needs to immediately integrate technology into the SIP to ensure funding and evaluation of the technology process. We need to make sure we strategically list technology into the appropriate place in the SIP because technology alone does not educate students. If our plan is to educate all students, we have to provide culturally-relevant digital content for all students.

Data Sources:ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)Devaney, L. (2014). 7 reasons digital equity is a social justice issue. eSchool News. Retrieved from

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/11/12/digital-equity-access-938/ .Ring, S. (2008). Tech gURLs: Closing the Technological Gender Gap. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/computer-science-

technology-gender-gap .

ESSENTIAL CONDITION FOUR: Equitable Access (Specifically Low SES and gender groups)

ISTE Definition: Robust and reliable access to current and emerging technologies and digital resources.

https://www.edutopia.org/computer-science-technology-gender-gap


https://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/11/12/digital-equity-access-938/


Guiding Questions: To what extent do students, teachers, administrators, and parents have access to computers and digital resources necessary to

support engaging, standards-based, student-centered learning? To what extent is technology arrange/distributed to maximize access for engaging, standards-based, student-centered

learning? What tools are needed and why? To what extent are strategies needed to address equity issues among Low SES and gender groups? What are examples of

strategies that would benefit your school/district? (required) Do students/parents/community need/have beyond school access to support the shared vision for learning?

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsStudents, teachers, administrators, and parents have access to computers and digital resources immediately before school, during school hours, and during after school activities.

Established PLC groups can share technology and access tips with each other.

Low SES do not have access to computers and digital resources after school hours.

Low SES students and gender groups need after school hours technology access.

High quality technology is available to students while on school grounds for engaging, standards-based, student-centered learning.

Strategies needed to address equity issues:

- Gender specific group time to allow for comfortable digital exploration.

- Low SES students need digital citizenship training.

- Low SES groups need additional after hours technology availability.

o Extend Media Center hours

o Businesses sponsor a family by providing internet access.

o Low SES and gender groups need digital mentors.

The technology hardware is accessible to any teacher wanting to check-out the hardware, but it is not efficiently being used for engaging, standards-based, student-centered learning.

Low SES groups do not have technology access beyond school to support the shared vision for learning.

Summary of Results/Conclusions: WCHS has the strength of providing students, teachers, administrators, and parents access to high quality digital resources immediately before school, during school hours, and during after school activities. Teachers already have


established time to share with other teachers during their PLC on tips for providing technology support to students. A major weakness that WCHS is facing is that we are not providing Low SES and gender groups after school hour’s technology support. Our current system is allowing teachers to present students with high quality digital assignments, and students are allowed to work on the assignments during school hours, but after school higher socio-economic students are going home to continue their research, and low socio-economic students are going home to do anything but extend their learning. WCHS does have some opportunities that we can capitalize upon. We already have high quality technology available to students while they are on school grounds to support standards-based, student-centered learning. Some possible strategies that our school needs to implement in order to serve all students are: gender specific groups for comfortable digital exploration, low SES need digital citizenship training, low SES groups need after hours technology availability possibly by providing: extended Media Center hours, having business sponsor a family by providing internet access, or possibly providing digital mentors. The treats that WCHS is facing is that even though we have technology hardware available for teacher check-out, the technology is not being efficiently used for engaging, standards-based, student-centered learning. The biggest threat for WCHS is that we are adding to the digital divide because low SES groups do not have technology access beyond school to support our shared visions for learning.

Recommendations from Gap Analysis: The equitable access area received a 70/100 from ISTE’s Diagnostic Tool; surprisingly this was one of the highest scores from the 14 different areas on the Diagnostic Tool. According to the ISTE’s Essential Conditions “leaders should develop a strong foundation of policies addressing the various elements needed for equal access. These policies should: Ensure individuals know how to access the technology; Outline where to go for help getting access; and Be flexible enough to accommodate diverse learners and instructional needs.” From the 70 score that the Diagnostic Tool reveled, we are doing a pretty good job in the area of equitable access, but we are missing the additional access for low SES, we do not have a written plan for getting help, and the flexibility. Eliminating the digital access gap should be a high priority because according to Devaney (2014) “Economic inequities and anytime, anywhere access beyond school–or lack of such access–contribute to differences in the kind of learning students experience when they have their own devices and can access resources and tools whenever they please.” In order to eliminate our equitable access gap for low SES, we need to build alliances with business in our local community to build a list of possible solutions. After the list is developed, we need to test each possibility of providing high quality anytime technology access for our students.Data Sources:ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)Devaney, L. (2014). 7 reasons digital equity is a social justice issue. eSchool News. Retrieved from

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/11/12/digital-equity-access-938/ .

ESSENTIAL CONDITION FIVE: Skilled Personnel



ISTE Definition: Educators and support staff skilled in the use of ICT appropriate for their job responsibilities.Guiding Questions:

To what extent are educators and support staff skilled in the use of technology appropriate for their job responsibilities? What do they currently know and are able to do? What are knowledge and skills do they need to acquire?

(Note: No need to discuss professional learning here. Discuss knowledge and skills. This is your needs assessment for professional learning. The essential conditions focus on “personnel,” which includes administrators, staff, technology specialists, and teachers. However, in this limited project, you may be wise to focus primarily or even solely on teachers; although you may choose to address the proficiency of other educators/staff IF the need is critical. You must include an assessment of teacher proficiencies.)

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsAll teachers are highly-qualified to teacher their area of expertise.

Teachers use research-based instructional strategies.

About 50% of teachers are considered skilled in the use of technology.

Very few teachers know if their technology usage is supplementing their instruction.

Teachers know how important technology is to society.

Teachers understand that there are numerous uses of technology in the classroom.

All teachers are savvy in using presentation technology in the classroom such as Smartboards.

Teachers are not efficient in trouble shooting their technology equipment in their classroom.

Teachers do not know how to monitor student’s computer usage.

Summary of Results/Conclusions: WCHS has the strength of employing highly qualified teachers in every content area. Our teachers are efficient in using research-based instructional strategies. The weakness in our teacher’s instruction is they to do know for sure if their technology is supplementing their instruction. Only about 50% of our teachers feel that they are skilled in the technology area. WCHS does have several opportunities we could capitalize upon. One opportunity is that our teachers know how important technology is to society. Another opportunity is that teachers understand that there are numerous uses of technology in the classroom; they just need to figure out which technology meets their instruction personality. Currently, all teachers in our building are savvy in using the Smartboard presentation technology. A possible threat that we have at WCHS is that not all teachers know how to troubleshoot the classroom technology equipment. The threat from not knowing how to trouble shoot the equipment is that the teacher


may have to scrap their well-planned lesson due to a simple problem with the equipment. If teachers have to scrap plans very often due to equipment complications, this will cause them to plan without the use of the classroom technology. A huge threat for our school is that our teachers do not know how to efficiently monitor students using technology in the classroom. Our administrators spend a lot of time tracking and disciplining students that misuse the internet and equipment.

Recommendations from Gap Analysis: The skilled personnel area received a 64/100 from ISTE’s Diagnostic Tool; this is an area that we need to improve. According to the ISTE’s Essential Conditions having skilled personnel looks like skilled personnel “distributed throughout a standards-ready system in a variety of roles, from technology specialists to volunteers to students with technology proficiency. All individuals know whom to turn to for assistance, enabling teachers and students to find answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.” I agree with our rating of 64/100 because we are more than half-way there in accomplishing this condition. We only need to provide our teachers with the skill of supplementing their instruction with appropriate technology. Our school will be fully implementing professional learning communities during the next school year. I feel that we have the answer in educating the other 50% of teachers on technology usage by utilizing our PLC. Edutopia (2017) supports the PLC purpose, “We know that collaborating with fellow teachers on helping students is one of the best ways to make great strides in student performance. A member of a teacher team or professional learning community (PLC) can have a great influence in the productivity of their group around that collaboration.”

Data Sources:ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)Johnson, B. (2017) Giving Your Teacher Team a Boost. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/giving-your-teacher-

team-boost-ben-johnson .

ESSENTIAL CONDITION SIX: Ongoing Professional Learning

ISTE Definition: Technology-related professional learning plans and opportunities with dedicated time to practice and share ideas.Guiding Questions:

What professional learning opportunities are available to educators? Are they well-attended? Why or why not? Are the current professional learning opportunities matched to the knowledge and skills educators need to acquire? (see

Skilled Personnel) Do professional learning opportunities reflect the national standards for professional learning (NSDC/Learning Forward)? Do educators have both formal and informal opportunities to learn? Is technology-related professional learning integrated into all professional learning opportunities or isolated as a separate

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/giving-your-teacher-team-boost-ben-johnson



topic? How must professional learning improve/change in order to achieve the shared vision?

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsWCHS Professional Learning Communities – implemented next school year

PLC will help professional development reflect the NSDC/Learning Forward Standards.

Classic professional development is not working. – Not attended well

College – higher degrees – very few take advantage of the additional education

Teachers observing teachers – not commonly practiced at WCHS

Internet – Well attended

PLC Groups will provide differentiation for professional development for teachers.

Educators have formal and informal opportunities to learn.

The PLCs has the possibility of integrating technology into all professional learning opportunities to meet our shared vision.

Classic professional development has not been differentiated to teacher needs.

Past professional learning opportunities did not meet the NSD/Learning Forward Standards.

Technology-related professional learning is not integrated into all professional learning opportunities, it is a separate topic.

Summary of Results/Conclusions: WCHS invested time to set-up professional learning communities for the upcoming school year. The implementation of the PLCs is strength in the on-going professional learning column. The establishment of PLCs will guide our professional development to meet the NSDC/Learning Forward Standards. A weakness that is hopefully in our history is that our classic professional development was not working; the attendance was very poor because teachers tried everything they could to get out of attending the meeting. There are many college opportunities for teachers to obtain higher degrees and the latest trends, but very few teachers take advantage of the additional education. Another opportunity is that teachers that are fluent with technology could be observed by other teachers to learn more about technology, but very few teachers take advantage. Most teachers do take advantage of surfing the internet to find the latest technology trends, but when the school year starts teacher’s time is very limited which limits the research. Many teachers have voiced that current professional development is not tailored to their needs, with the implementation of PLC groups professional development will be more differentiated for teachers. Formal opportunities for educators to learn are


available from college classes and PLC, and informal opportunities to learn are available on-line and also from PLC. Professional Learning Communities seems to be a major opportunity that WCHS can take advantage of the PLCs even has the possibility of integrating technology into all professional learning opportunities to meet our shared vision. WCHS is facing some threats in the area of on-going professional learning. A recent threat that according to next school year predications we have overcome is that classic professional development has not been differentiated to teacher needs; therefore, teachers have felt like the trainings were a waste of time. Past professional learning opportunities have also not met the NSD/Learning Forward Standards. Also a threat is that instructional strategies and technology have been presented as separate topics, leading teachers to keep them separated in their mind.

Recommendations from Gap Analysis: The on-going professional learning area received a 57/100 from ISTE’s Diagnostic Tool; this is an area that we need to improve. According to the ISTE’s Essential Conditions on-going professional learning looks like “online courses, virtual classroom coaching and asynchronous collaborative teams allow professional learning to be relevant, job embedded and just in time.” The implementation of PLC at the beginning of the next school year is a large step in the correct direction in overcoming the on-going professional learning gap. The PLC groups are going to need to stay on topic in the meetings. Teachers are going to need to be aware of their professional development need to make sure they are a part of the correct PLC group. The current trend is leading teachers to be in charge of their own professional development, it is no longer the sole responsibility for the school to provide general professional development and hope that teachers jump on board. Teachers need to be proactive in seeking the professional development needed by: attending PLC meetings, observing teachers that do certain skills well, and seek advanced degrees. According to Provini (2012), “in a nutshell, PLCs entail whole-staff involvement in a process of intensive reflection upon instructional practices and desired student benchmarks, as well as monitoring of outcomes to ensure success. PLCs enable teachers to continually learn from one another via shared visioning and planning, as well as in-depth critical examination of what does and doesn’t work to enhance student achievement.” When teachers are allowed to work on pressing their pressing issues and share experiences with each other technology on-going professional development will occur.

Data Sources:ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)Provini, C. (2012) Best Practices for Professional Learning Communities. Education World. Retrieved from

http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/best-practices-for-professional-learning-communities.shtml .

ESSENTIAL CONDITION SEVEN: Technical Support

ISTE Definition: Consistent and reliable assistance for maintaining, renewing, and using ICT and digital resources.Guiding Questions:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/best-practices-for-professional-learning-communities.shtml


To what extent is available equipment operable and reliable for instruction? Is there tech assistance available for technical issues when they arise? How responsive is tech support? Are current “down

time” averages acceptable? Is tech support knowledgeable? What training might they need? In addition to break/fix issues, are support staff available to help with instructional issues when teachers try to use technology

in the classroom?Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

Available equipment is operable and reliable for instruction almost all of the time.

Tech assistance is available when issues arise by putting in an electronic request for repair.

Tech support is responsive to tech requests that day or the next day.

Current downtimes are acceptable.

Tech support is very knowledgeable, no need for additional training.

Support staff is available to help with instructional issues when teachers are using technology in the classroom, but the technology coach is only at our school once every two weeks.

Summary of Results/Conclusions: Technology support is mainly strength for WCHS. The available equipment is operable and reliable for instruction 95% of the time. If an issue arises requiring tech support, we have a Google form to complete, and the request is automatically sent to the Tech Department. The Tech Department then responds to the request that day or the next. The current equipment downtimes are above being acceptable. The tech support team is very knowledgeable, and stays updated with the latest training. An opportunity that WCHS could capitalize on is providing prompt staff for instructional issues. We do have a technology coach available for assisting with instructional issues, but she is only at our school once every 2 weeks.Recommendations from Gap Analysis: The technical support area received at rating of 75/100 from ISTE’s Diagnostic Tool, this is an area that we can improve a little. According to the ISTE’s Essential Conditions technical support looks like, in a standards-ready


system, teachers are supported in their technology use — both in learning how to use it and in applying it to their classrooms. They know how to get technical help without significant lags.” Our school is doing really well in the technical support area for technology hardware. The gap that we need to solve is the support in learning how to use it and in applying it to the classroom. We currently have a technology coach that provides instructional support, but she is only available to our school a day or two a month. I am curious to know how many days that her time is not efficiently utilized due to a particular school not needing her services on a given day that she is at the school. I would like to see the technology coach work more like the hardware tech support team, by allowing teachers to put in support request tickets when help is needed. By having a technology instructional coach on hand takes the stress off of teachers that they have to research and test possible technology ideas. An article titled, Instructional Coaching: Driving Meaningful Tech Integration, from the Edutopia (2015) website gives an excellent description of how an on-site instructional technology coach would work, “he presence of a coach sharpens the school's focus on how technology can best make the learning more engaging and relevant for students, and gives teachers support in navigating the vast field of technology applications and devices.” WCHS is very close to not having a gap in the technical support area, we only need more access to the instructional technology coach.

Data Sources:ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)Instructional Coaching: Driving Meaningful Tech Integration. (2015) Edutopia. Retrieved from

https://www.edutopia.org/practice/instructional-coaching-driving-meaningful-tech-integration .

ESSENTIAL CONDITION EIGHT: Curriculum Framework

ISTE Definition: Content standards and related digital curriculum resources.Guiding Questions:

To what extent are educators, students, and parents aware of student technology standards? (ISTE Standards for Students) Are technology standards aligned to content standards to help teachers integrate technology skills into day-to-day instruction

and not teach technology as a separate subject? To what extent are there digital curriculum resources available to teachers so that they can integrate technology into the

GPS/CCS as appropriate? How is student technology literacy assessed?

https://www.edutopia.org/practice/instructional-coaching-driving-meaningful-tech-integration


Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsMany teachers teach technology as a separate subject.

Teachers have digital curriculum resources available to help integrate technology into the standard being taught where appropriate.

Teachers, students and parents are not aware of the ISTE Standards for Students.

Technology standards are not aligned to content standards to help teachers integrate technology skills into day-to-day instruction.

Student technology literacy is not assessed.

Summary of Results/Conclusions: WCHS does not have any strength in the curriculum framework area. A weakness is that teachers do teach technology, but it is not taught by supplementing the content curriculum. An opportunity for teachers is that we do have digital curriculum resources available to help integrate technology into the standard being taught. The curriculum framework area has several threats. One threat is that teachers, students and parents are not aware of the ISTE Standards for Students; therefore the technology standards are not aligned to content standards to help teachers integrate technology skills into day-to-day instruction. A final threat is that technology literacy is not assessed.

Recommendations from Gap Analysis: The curriculum framework area received at rating of 73/100 from ISTE’s Diagnostic Tool, this is an area that we have plenty of room for improvement. According to the ISTE’s Essential Conditions curriculum framework looks like: “Technology standards should inform and support the curriculum framework. For example, the Common Core State Standards include technology proficiencies in the array of knowledge and skills students are expected to build. In this way, technology use becomes part of the learning objective itself rather than simply a means of achieving it.” The ideal way to close the gap in the curriculum framework area is for teachers to go into their already planned units and add the supplemental technology. Georgia’s SLDS provides teachers with digital curriculum resources in order to help integrate technology into the standards being taught, with a little training teachers could easily take advantage of the digital resources. A major threat in this area is that teachers, students, and parents are not aware of the ISTE Standards for Students. Since teachers are not aware of the ISTE Standards, the technology standards are not aligned to content standards to help with day-to-day instruction. In addition, since teachers are not aware of the technology standards, the teachers do not have any means of assessing technology literacy. After teachers learn that student standards are in existence, they then learn that there are ISTE Standards for teachers as well. When teachers begin to implement the teacher’s standards then the student standards will begin to fall into place. Teacher ISTE Standard # 2 will help WCHS build some strengths and move away from the threats. Standard # 2 is: “Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments: Teachers design, develop and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources


to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes identified in the ISTE Standards•S.” Actions listed under this standard are: design and incorporate digital tools, develop technology enriched learning environments, personalize learning activities, and access students on content standards as well as technology standards.Data Sources:ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)

References

Instructional Coaching: Driving Meaningful Tech Integration. (2015) Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/practice/instructional-coaching-driving-meaningful-tech-integration .

ISTE Lead and Transform Diagnostic Tool (See Appendix A for results)

ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers .

Devaney, L. (2014). 7 reasons digital equity is a social justice issue. eSchool News. Retrieved from https://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/11/12/digital-equity-access-938/ .

Gabriel, J & Farmer, P. (2009) How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank. ASCD, Alexandria, VA. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107042/chapters/developing-a-vision-and-a-mission.aspx .

Johnson, B. (2017) Giving Your Teacher Team a Boost. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/giving-your-teacher-team-boost-ben-johnson .

Provini, C. (2012) Best Practices for Professional Learning Communities. Education World. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/best-practices-for-professional-learning-communities.shtml .

Ring, S. (2008). Tech gURLs: Closing the Technological Gender Gap. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/computer-science-technology-gender-gap .

Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. http://ericsheninger.com/ .

http://ericsheninger.com/



http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/best-practices-for-professional-learning-communities.shtml



http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107042/chapters/developing-a-vision-and-a-mission.aspx



https://www.edutopia.org/practice/instructional-coaching-driving-meaningful-tech-integration



Appendices

Appendix A: ISTE Diagnostic Tool for Essential Conditions

ESSENTIAL CONDITION ONE: ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY · Web viewOnly used by a small percentage of...

Documents

Transcript of ESSENTIAL CONDITION ONE: ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY · Web viewOnly used by a small percentage of...