Web Conference #3 (8:00 PM, Thursday, July 28, 2011)

Monday night I hit a wall. The instructions for the Week 3 Assignment didn’t make sense to me. I felt totally alone and was seriously considering whether I should drop out of the program. I couldn’t see how I would keep up once school starts back. After talking to Professor Borel on Tuesday, I felt a little bit better. The web conference on Thursday sealed the deal. As I sat reading the comments and questions in the chat pod, my classmates began to take on personalities and I started to feel less alone. Members of the class were addressing questions and concerns of other members. The isolation of being in an online course stated to dissipate. As it turns out, I’m actually doing better than many others in cohort 22! That shouldn’t make me happy, but it does. I offered my phone number to others and today I received a call from a new friend and classmate. The web conferences are providing an opportunity to connect in a way that brings cohesion to our class. And now I am sure that, even after school begins, I can be successful in this program.

E-Rate and Technology Plan Presentation

More PowerPoint presentations from Sherri Heathcock

Blog Posting #3 – National Educational Technology Plan

The National Educational Technology Plan, Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology, provides guidelines and recommendations that they (the NETP) believe will move American education forward in the technology domain. There are five areas addressed in the document - learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity—that they say must be addressed if America is to have any chance of competing with other countries in the professional and technological world.

The NETP says that, first and foremost, we must use technology. We must also use the scientific information we have on brain function to guide us as we change the way we approach education. It states that the time has come to “rethink basic assumptions of the education system. Some of these include measurement of educational attainment through seat time, organization of students into age-determined groups, the structure of separate academic disciplines, the organization of learning into classes of roughly equal size, and the use of time blocks.” It recommends the use of technology based assessments that provide faster more achievement based feedback. The document also encourages more distance learning and open source instructional material. It, also, suggests that teachers have online access to professional development resources.

My favorite recommendation is found in section 3.5 “Develop a teaching force skilled in online instruction”.  I would ask also that they be skilled in not putting students to sleep! Not only are technology skills required to conduct an online class; but, there is a need for a great deal of presentation talent as well. I teach 8th grade US History. My students say they do not get as much out of my recorded lectures as they do from being in the classroom even if they were in the room when the recording was made. The personal interaction makes a great deal of difference. To compensate for that personal touch, an online teacher, especially of younger students, must possess a great deal of “stage appeal.”

The recommendations go on to say that all students must have access to the Internet and Wi-Fi (in and out of school) and to the hardware and software that go with it.

Every one of these items brings me back to the same two questions. Where is the money coming from and how can we expect teachers to take on one, or twenty, more responsibilities? Perhaps the answer is to find one really good, animated teacher in each subject area and video them. Students could sit in their living rooms and “watch” school.

Blog Posting #2 – School or District Technology Plan

The Executive Summary of the Klein ISD Technology Plan states that "Klein ISD's mission is to embrace the future and provide engaging learning experiences and resources in a safe and nurturing environment." To accomplish this all educational stakeholders (educators, students, parents and others in the community) will be encouraged to adopt an attitude that all technology should enhance teaching and learning; and, that learning about technology will take place only as a step in mastering the instructional objectives.

The Klein ISD technology plan includes the following four goals:

• Implement teaching and learning strategies that incorporate 21st century tools, context and content.
• Implement and sustain a high quality, on-going, systemic, job-embedded professional development program for all staff.
• Increase student and staff productivity through the use of technology.
• Provide a stable and secure infrastructure to deliver appropriate content and allow for growth.

Within those 4 goals there are 30 objectives and 83 strategies (77 of which are currently underway or are complete) for accomplishing the goals by the year 2013.

Currently, the district has 38 campuses and a student enrollment of 44746 with just over 1/3 of those students qualifying as economically disadvantaged. 100% of our classrooms already have direct connection to the Internet and, while the goal is to have a student to computers ratio of 1:1, our current student to computer ratio is fairly high at 3:1. The district’s economically disadvantaged factor presents an added issue in meeting our goals in that, as we implement our 1:1 platform district wide, we must also find a way to assure that all students have Internet access at home.

The district is committed to continuing the allocation of at least 30% of the technology budget allotment to technology professional development. However, the focus of professional development will move from using the computer as a tool to produce an end product, such as a PowerPoint, to using it as a way of transforming the teaching and learning process. Of course with the increase in the number of computers and applications being used, the need for more technology support personnel and technology staff development facilitators will increase as well.

A budget of $48,926,722 has been approved for Technology Expenditures. The breakdown by STAR chart summary areas is as follows:

- Teaching and Learning Budget: $12,741,200.00

- Educator Preparation and Development Budget: $4,045,000.00

- Leadership, Administration and Support Budget: $2,174,266.00

- Infrastructure for Technology Budget: $29,966,256.00

That translates to $1,093.43 allocated toward the technology needs of each student.

While we are ahead of most districts in meeting the Texas long range goals, there is still much work to be done.  The Klein ISD Technology plan ascertains that will know that we have fulfilled our responsibilities because “Our students will demonstrate academic achievement, productive citizenship, career development, a healthy lifestyle, and lifelong learning.”

Blog Posting #1 – Technology Assessments

How does a school, district, or state know just where it stands on technology skills? It’s simple, they assess. They assess administrators, teachers, librarians, and students. They ask the same question in a multitude of different ways. Always hoping that, in the end, the data produced will reflect some measure of truth and accuracy. In order to make wise decisions we must know what skills are already strong and which ones need to be improved. Asking the ones who are working with the technology seems to be the most accurate and least expensive avenue.

Technology questionnaires, however, are often long and wordy. Teachers, at least the one’s that I eat lunch with, do not appreciate being asked to add another 20 minute task to their already overcrowded schedules. Therefore, they complete the survey (to keep the administration at bay) but do not take the assessments seriously and often answer at random.

The answer choices on the surveys sometime do not seem to fit. For instance the LoTi Digital-Age Questionnaire uses the following scale, "Never, At least once a year, At least once a semester, At least once a month, A few times a month, A least once a week, A few times a week, and At least once a day." Those answers seem to cover all situations, until you ask, “Does it mean once a day or does it really want to know if I do it every day that we use technology?” The surveyie, if there is such a word, then finds themselves second guessing and changing their answers. In reality, few teachers use technology every day. Some days are, as my department head says, “Sit and Git” days. Note taking on paper or reading from an old fashioned textbook one day a week would change my answer from “once a day” to “a few times a week”, thus decreasing the validity of the assessment.

My LoTi survey said that I “may not have the confidence or feel comfortable troubleshooting simple “technology” problems or glitches as they arise. At school, their use of computers may be limited to a grade book or attendance program.” I am one of a handful of people in my school that others come to when they need help troubleshooting technology issues. Because the survey results appear so far off in one area, at least in my mind, the validity of all of the results become suspect.

There are too many variables to have much confidence in the results obtained from these questionnaires. 

Web Conference #2 (8:00 PM, Wednesday, July 20, 2011)

Last week, I fixed my hair, checked my make-up, and at 7:30, with an odd combination of anticipation and trepidation, settled into my Lazyboy for my very first web conference. Much to my chagrin I quickly discovered that the web camera adds 50 pounds and 10 years! I easily found the conference room and was delighted when my camera and microphone worked exactly as they should on the first try. At the end of the hour I felt like an old pro and was ready for the “required” conference this week.

On Wednesday, I, again, fixed the hair and make-up. This week, however, I sought out a shirt that would be a bit more flattering for the camera. Much to my disdain, we didn’t even need the camera. This time, the process of getting into the room didn’t prove quite as flawless as before. Each time I entered the room I was met with a message stating “The host has ended this meeting. Thank you for attending.” I tried again and again with no luck. I was about to panic when, just before 8:00, I remembered the original Information for Web Conference document. There it was! “Sometimes clicking the URL or ‘Cut and Paste’ does not work. You may need to TYPE the URL.” I quickly typed in the URL and, presto, I was in!

I think I’m going to like web conferences. It's a good way to share potentially tedious information. The ability to clarify instruction and ask questions in real time is helpful. Also, seeing Professor Borel's monitor as she explains where to find a link or how to use a function on a website is a tremendous asset. I can’t wait for the next web conference.