5370 Week Four Assignment, Part 4.5

Self –Assessment

Because access to technology is an important part of its implementation in schools, technology facilitators need to be aware of all the procedures, policies, and procurement plans available in schools. Standard seven requires facilitators be cognizant of these needs and ready to help create and maintain technology for administration and instruction. This standard “focuses on the managerial and technical tasks associated with providing educators and students with high-quality access to technology” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 148).

During my internship, I had the privilege of attending a meeting of campus instructional technologists where the discussion centered on a future bond election of November 2011. Technology is a large portion of that bond. Boerne ISD is a chapter 41 district required to make Robin Hood payments in the millions from their Maintenance and Operation (M&O) part of the budget. The Interest and Shrinking (I&S) portion of the tax funds are not subject to Robin Hood payments therefore it is wise to push those purchases into the I&S tax fund and this includes technology. This bond election includes upgraded Wi-Fi, new computers and phones, Smart boards, LCD projectors, infrastructure and new computers for older campuses.
My only contribution to this meeting after listening to all the viewpoints was that I thought they should prioritize what they needed and not pare down the list. Several other groups would be paring down the requests and they knew it would be reduced. I thought they should go for it all and see what they got. New information I learned was seeing what a school needs, what factors are driving up the costs and how schools try to control those expenses.


Learn as a Learner

To learn about Standard seven for my internship, I attended meetings planning for the technology portion of the bond election. I also contacted Kathy Alvarez and Laurien Monaghen to ask about how their districts handle technology support issues for teachers and students. Because I am not a school employee, I had no opportunity actually to fix a computer issue, but I did go vote YES in the bond election.

I also learned from my Skype group how their district implemented technology. Especially from Shannon C., who is both a teacher, testing coordinator and the school technologist. She discussed aspects of her job with the group and the frustrations faced.

Lifelong Learning Skills

The lifelong learning I have gained in promoting technology development and procurement has been through my conversations with those that deal with these issues daily. I do understand the need for bond elections to procure technology upgrades. Because of this, I will participate in future bond elections whenever I can.
Through the content of the course Information Systems, I also learned the most productive technology choices for advancing technology use in a schools and how to choose a student information system. During this course, I learned about using network software packages for managing student information and data storage. I interviewed our district’s technology director, Steve Stewart, who explained the components and factors necessitating the purchase of new student data software last year. We also discussed mass storage of student data and the benefits of our proximity to the new data storage facility made retrieval, professional development and troubleshooting help more efficient. This year I have learned to use that software as a parent and it is wonderful. One article I thought was most practical was “How to Buy a Student Information System”. Richard Hoffman writes about how the CIO of Prince George’s County Public Schools, Wesley Watts, systematically and deliberately controlled the process of selecting the next software program for data management. Hoffman writes that the district desired a program that had easy “reporting, school-to-parent communication, scheduling, attendance, and enrollment” changes (Hoffman, 2006, para. 3). “The district’s overarching goal: accessing real-time, accurate data across the board” (Hoffman, 2006, para. 3)

During my Lamar program, I also analyzed the district’s technology five-year plan and compared it to the state and national plans.

Because Lamar Academic Partnerships is an online program, I was able to use distance and online learning extensively from May 2011 until now. Although practitioners and teachers of online courses have a high concern for connecting with students through various forms of interaction, this is not a problem within the Educational Technology Department (Beldarrain, 2006). Students in this program had multiple opportunities to interact with professors during web conferences, email, texting, cell phone calls and through the EPIC course ware. I also was able to help a student sign up for online courses through Texas Tech University.

Bibliography

Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance education trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. Distance Education , 139-153.

Hoffman, R. (2006, July 17). How to buy a student information system. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from School CIO: http://www.schoolcio.com/ShowArticle.aspx

Williamson, J., & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Eugene: International Society for Technology in Education.