My first goal is technology: Elementary teachers will be trained in simple troubleshooting tips for everyday computer use in order to leave more time for technology workers to focus more on large scale technology problems and achieve 70% accuracy when being assessed in the trouble shooting test at the end of the trainings.
My second goal is management: Trainings will be offered according to elementary teacher requests. Part of funding for professional development shall be withheld so teachers would be able to request technology trainings according to their needs. These trainings will be beneficial to teachers because it will be the types of trainings that they want. This will produce more highly qualified teachers because they will have picked some of the trainings that they wanted to go to.
2. Identify the major steps required to accomplish technological goals.
Objective 1- The first step that needs to be taken is to find out how much your staff already knows and figure out where there weak points and strong points are. A survey will be a great way to see who knows what and how you could best help your teachers. The next step is to find the required technology to help train the staff in simple problem soling techniques. Using the site by Moore, (2012) will allow teachers to access trouble shooting tips in order to help fix some of your technology problems. The next step would be to find out which teachers are interested in getting this type of training. Perhaps an incentive should be offered to encourage teachers to participate in the troubleshooting training. Something that our district offers frequently is jean passes. These are something that teachers really enjoy but cost nothing to the district.
Objective 2- When teachers are together at professional development meetings, suggestions for what others want would be a great starting point. Teachers can be encourage to to find the actual trainings they want to go to or just give topics that they want to be involved in. The funding needs to also be set aside so that there is money to get teachers to those trainings.
3. Develop assessment instruments to test the objectives for the technology plan. Describe the desired instrument/s under each objective.
Assessment 1 for Objective 1: Teachers will be given problem solving scenarios and have to give the needed steps to trouble shoot on their own. They will be able to use the handouts and websites they were given during trainings and look back at notes to help them with the scenarios. There would be 5 or so scenarios and they would need to get 75% or more correct in order to get credit for the trainings.
Assessment 2: At the end of the year there would be a survey for all teachers to fill out. They would rate their professional development experiences. They would need to say where the strengths were and where the weaknesses were. There also would be a comment section as to if they believe that their suggestions were taken into account. The surveys would be anonymous in order to give teachers the ability to speak truthfully.
Moore, B. (2012). Net Results LLC. Retrieved
February 26, 2012 , from Computer Training and Troubleshooting:
http://www.mooreresults.com/
Bridget,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you are aligning to the need for teachers to be able to troubleshoot their own computer systems, I am addressing that as part of my objective for my plan also. I am curious as to what you feel your teachers need with regards to integrating technology into their classroom instruction? How do you see them addressing ISTE objective 1 for teachers facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity by using technology? Is this one of the areas that you will pose in your survey?
I look forward to seeing how you're plans develop.
Deborah
Resource:
ISTE. (2011). The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T). Retrieved November 28, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS-T_Standards.sflb.ashx
I'm glad that I am not the only one who wants to help teachers with trouble shooting! I just think it would save valuable time and money for the technology department and the districts involved.
DeleteAs far as Objective 1, I think that new teachers just need to be made aware of technologies that the district subscribes to and ones that veteran teachers are using frequently. I feel it would be very beneficial to have a page for teachers on the school website that shows which sites and programs the district is involved in. This would be a quick reference sheet for new teachers to refer to. Another thing that I personally have done is created an excel spread sheet of different websites I have used or have been suggested to me, along with a brief description so that I can keep track of those. I do not get to look at each one right away, but by saving these I can go back to them at any point and make notes on ones I used or did not feel were helpful.
I like to give my students a few examples of websites to use and let them see which ones they like best. This way I can see the sites that are more beneficial and which ones even the students do not enjoy using.
I also have considered using Second Life. I'm not sure if all elementary grades would be able to use it, but I think that 3rd and 4th grade would be able to possibly use it in pairs. They would get to create their own avatar and participate in classroom discussions.
How do you plan on getting more teachers to want to use these new technologies in the classroom?
Bridget,
ReplyDeleteI just love the idea of allowing teachers to wear jeans to promote the use of technology. We recently implemented an incentive program to decrease the days to completion of troubletickets for our technicians. I feel that this has worked because the students get excited about the free pizza for their efforts.
This is just one way that we are working on making sure that we are providing "rapid responses to technical support needs" of our clients where their expectations are getting higher and higher with time (Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006).
Jeans passes are a great resource that our school has really begun utilizing. They cost nothing to the district yet many teachers will go to great lengths to receive jeans passes ( I am included in those teachers!) Our district has been offering them for going to certain conferences, going to board meetings, and other important things that they want more people to be involved in. It has really shown to be beneficial and it makes the teachers happy as well!
DeleteBridget,
ReplyDeleteThe survey at the end of the year would be a great tool. If your teachers fill out the STaR Chart at the beginning of the year you could also create a duplicate chart for the teachers to complete at the end of the year also so you can easily measure the growth or regressions by objectives for each teacher and address the needs by objectives.
Marlise
Star Chart. (2012). Retrieved February 12, 2012, from www.starchart.epsilen.com
I like the idea of doing it at both times Marlise! That is a great idea because it will show growth over the year. It also will allow teachers to maybe search for new technology over the summer when they are off. Thanks for the fabulous idea!
DeleteBridget, please elaborate the funding goals and objectives. Also, the assessment plans should be included more details based on the objectives you proposed.
ReplyDeletePlease provide your feedback to the reviewers. Thanks!
Dr. Shannon, do you want details about what questions I would ask in the survey or more how I plan to implement the survey? Or are you asking because you are not sure if the survey will match up with my objectives?
Delete