This class focused on managing educational technology services. That included looking at laws that have implications for using technology as well as setting up a technology integration plan for a school district. We spent time discussing FERPA, CIPA, ESL, and IDEA. One of the assignments that I completed was an organization readiness assessment. For this assignment I looked at the ISTE standards to create my rubric. I set my rubric up as a checklist for each of the categories of the ISTE teaching standards. Upon completion of the rubric I used a point system to determine if a school/district was ready for instructional reform. Here is the rubric that I created. When using the rubric within my own school I found that in some categories we were already meeting standards, but in other areas we had room for growth. When looking at the teachers in my building as learners I found that as a school we weren't using current research. We have a great staff that is constantly sharing tips and tricks, many of which probably hold up with current research, but we aren't actually sharing the research that is out there or the reasons why our tips/tricks are working. Another area in which my school could improve is that of citizen. We currently don't have much of a social media presence, meaning we don't have much out there as a model for students how to be a positive citizen on the internet. This rubric really showed where my school is and where it has room to grow.
The majority of this class was spent putting together an instructional technology plan. Here is my final plan that I created. The biggest thing that I learned from this assignment was how important it is to have a team creating a technology plan. Many of the things that we worked on I had no experience in, and it is important to have people with a variety of backgrounds to complete all parts of the plan. A huge part of the plan is maintaining the network. For this section it is important to have people who work in IT and understand all the ins and outs of a network. It is also important to have someone familiar with the current laws, to make sure that when allowing students access to the Internet they are protected. You need to have someone who is familiar with budgeting to make sure finances are being used responsibly. Teachers should also be a part of coming up with a technology plan, they know which software programs are going to be useful, as well as user friendly for staff and students. It is also important to communicate throughout the process with staff, to make sure that they have the training that they need to implement the new technology being provided. This is a big undertaking and not something that should be done alone. The most important thing that I learned from this assignment was to use your resources. If you are able to have a technology team it needs to includes teachers, administrators, and IT personnel to be successful.Image Credits:
