EDLD5352 Week 5 Assignment - Reflection

I was not really sure what to expect from this class. The outcomes I had envisioned were to become more knowledgeable in different aspect of technology for example, different types of technology to use and implement in my classroom and take with me as a principal. I did not achieve the outcome of how to use different types of technology. I did though learn more about the workings and behind the scenes for principals in the area of technology. For example, copyright laws are not something I have ever thought about. I did not give any thought to the laws in regards to work done at school, lessons created by teachers, or protection for a school. So, although my vision of what I wanted to take away from this course did not come to tuition, I still learned more than I already knew and I will still be able to use this information in the future.

The knowledge that I gained through this course is relevant to the work I do in my school. A great part of our course dealt with the protection of our students and teachers. I must admit that I have not talked to my students about online safety, mainly because we do not use the computer/Internet in my class much, if at all. But, my students still need to be made aware of dangers and ethics when using the Internet. As for the teachers, I will be able to share what I have learned about protecting my passwords and copyrighting my work. I can also share ideas of technology use such as blogging, websites, integrating power points into projects, and communicating with parents and stakeholders online.

The outcomes I did not achieve were those of hands-on technology. The only technology source we learned to use in the course was a blog. I am sure there are many other sources that we could tap into to help us in our classrooms or developing a professional development for our staff one day. I have not been subjected to different types of ways to use technology in my classroom. When we have professional developments regarding technology, it is for the use of a new upgrade or a new program for the teachers. We rarely have a professional development on the equipment available or the sources in which we can improve our classrooms. Lack of previous knowledge and useage of technology before coming into this course, I feel, helped prevented me from achieving my outcome.

I was, for the most part, successful in carrying out the course assignments. On several occasions though, it was very hard to understand what exactly the assignment was. For example, on one week, some of the assignment was excluded but we were notified through email…not on the assignment page. The rubric, weekly assignment page, and emails did not always match up and so I was confused at times on which one to actually follow. I look to the assignment page and rubric for the information I need. It seemed that much of it could be written more fluently. The assignments were at times hard to decipher. I know that there is a need for this type of course but at times I felt that it was more quantity of the work and not the quality of the assignment that hindered me from being successful. I also feel that it is a disservice to the students when the academic coaches are not consistent in their grading. In one course, I get credit for at least attempting the assignment. In another course I am graded almost excessively for not doing it to the letter.

What I did learn from this course is that there are many things an administrator must consider and ponder that the faculty never sees. The articles were beneficial in their knowledge of each area they discussed and helped lay a foundation for me to grow on. I feel that this knowledge will help me in my dealings with the “techies” and teachers when it comes to the technology on my campus. The course also helped me see how much I did not know. From copyright laws to cyberbullies, it was all new to me. There are many areas in which I still need to do more work and research on and this course has helped point out my weak points.

I am really not sure how I feel about blogging. This is my first experience as a blogger. I do not see how it was beneficial for this class other than learning how to do it. I can understand that if one is to think outside of the box and create activities and lessons for the blog it would work great for the 21st century learner. If this was the only way of communication between teacher and student, it could be very beneficial. Comments could be posted and assessments could be made. I did not feel this way during the course though. There was no direction or comments when posts were made. I sometimes felt like I was doing the assignments twice. Posting them in one area and then again on the blog. I think blogs should make things easier; not more time consuming.

With all the communication going online with students, I can see that blogging may be a bit out dated for the students. I think they would find it interesting at first, but like many assignments they would soon find it boring. Teachers would need to make sure they kept the blogs up to date and interesting. I feel that the students would definitely need to be taught online ethics and the proper way to respond when discussing with classmates.

When using blogging with stakeholders, I am not sure what a blog would do differently for me than email and a website. Like I stated earlier in this reflection, this course has opened my eyes to many new technological avenues that I have not used before. I need to do more research, check into other blogs that are used by districts, and see what the benefits and downfalls to having a blog might be. In some aspects I think it could be a good thing by being able to show your use of technology and being able to reach a different level of people. I could use it as an informational site so that parents, students, and stakeholders can see what is going on in my classroom, school, and district. I will definitely look into this area more and see what other uses I can come up with for blogging.

Action plan and Evaluation

To begin a professional development, my plan would be to first evaluate last year’s STaR Chart to see what areas need to be addressed. I would also address the campus plan to see where we need to be. A survey out to the teachers would be another direction to go. We could see what technology the teachers would like to use more in their classes, what they feel they would like to be trained on. This professional development could be separated into an afternoon for either grade level, subject level, or interest level. Once I determined what areas were to be covered, how it would be spread out, and how long it needed to take, I would then seek out who could do our training. We may have teachers on our campus who are qualified in that area of technology and use it on a regular basis and would like to teach their peers. We could also look within our district for presenters. Equipment would be needed for teaching each area and it would be beneficial if teachers brought with them an idea of a lesson they would like to use with this technology. They would need to be given the opportunity to apply what they have been taught to do at the end or during their training. We would want them comfortable using this technology before they left the professional development.

For evaluation the Action Plan for the professional development, we need to get feedback from the individuals in the PD. One good way to get feedback in mass is www.surveymonkey.com. We can put in questions to directly see what worked for the teachers, what they would like to be done differently, and how we could improve the next one. In the following year, we can go back and compare the STaR Chart results to see if any improvement was made.