EDLD 5370 Week 4.6 Assignment - Reflection on Standard TF - VIII

TF-VIII: Educational technology facilitators will contribute to the shared vision for campus integration of technology, and foster and environment and culture conductive to the realization of the vision.

It seems to be a challenge to get people on board with something, especially when it involves change. I found this to be very true in school environments where people like to stick to what they know and nothing else. "Those who did not grow up with technology find it difficult to imagine how new technologies can support educational endeavors. This limited awareness may create apathy, or even resistance, to technology programs" (Williamson and Redish, 2009, p. 179).

To get everyone on board towards a goal or vision of technology, its good to model it. I have taught a handful of classes to educators on various software programs. Usually they are pre-occupied by the fact that it may be foreign to them. I try to get them to realize the potential uses first, as a motivator to learn the program. I thought it was a great idea that those who are the stakeholders need to see exactly how technology can transform a classroom. "Technology implementation not only increases student learning, understanding, and achievement but also augments motivation to learn, encourages collaborative learning, and supports the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007, p. 3). From this standard, I concluded that you need to be motivated about technolgoy and its direction for the classroom in order for others to get motivated as well.

The Texas Education Agency has put together the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology spanning 2006-2020. "Having this plan allows schools to construct a cohesive vision for technology, set measureable goals, chare an action plan, and monitor progress" (Williamson, 2009, p. 180). I know that my district has used this plan to build their own technology plan, along with a timeline of short term and long term goals. According to the Ennis Independant School District (2010), their technology plan ends bef0re the 2011-2012 school year. Hopefully before the plans ends, they have been able to provide data on progress toward their goals. Because of the potential cut backs in the schools of Texas here in the next year, I wonder how that will change the technology plans. I know that my budget for my class will be cut, as will others. What will these set backs do to the district goals?

I like being able to share my current knowledge with others about implementing technology into the classroom, so I know that is something I would like to continue working with. To assess what type of technology needs to be focused on, I should survey teachers about their current knowledge. From there, steps can be taken in the right direction to our shared district technology plans.

Ennis Independant School District (2010). Ennis ISD Technology Plan. Retrieved from http://www.ennis.k12.tx.us/files/209233/eisdtechplan10-11.pdf

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., and Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria: VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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

EDLD 5370 Week 4.5 Assignment - Reflection on Standard TF- VII

TF Standard VII-Educational technology facilitators promote the devleopment and implementation of technology infrastructure, procedures, plans, and budgets for P-12 schools.

"School technologists must work closely with educators to create and support modern learning facilities. This including providing access to modern computers for teaching and learning" (Williamson and Redish, 2009, p. 148). I believe that getting computers in the classroom is the first step in technology. From there you can add high speed internet and a multitiude of other technology devices.

However, there are several steps that are recommended to provide students with the technology they need. To me, the first stage would be the most important: planning. The planning includes the biggest hurdle, in my opinion, the budgeting for technology. If money was not a factor, then all schools would have the latest technology. I have never thought about how much goes into planning sufficient technology for a school. Typically I have just thought of the one time cost of a product but not upkeep, upgrades, professional development, and infrastructure. According to the Texas Education Agency (2006, p. 107), you should allow 30% of your technology budget to go towards professional development. That seems like a large portion to me. I know that my district only trains a few people and then has them train everyone else. This seems like a great money saver, but not so great on time. Having a few people train many people crunches your time limit and may not fully prepare the educators on the technology. I would like to question my Instructional Technology Administrator further to see exaclty how much of our technology budget goes to professional development and who exactly is allowed to use this money.

After completing the planning phase, you must begin to acquire the technologies and services you are looking for. Since I am a technology teacher, I have my own budget for my classroom and its needs. I do my best to shop around for the best prices, but am limited to certain companies. To complete my transaction, I just have to get department approval. "For large scale purchases, they are often subject to more stringent policies" (Williamson, 2009, p. 158).

Implementing the new technology is the next step after the products and services are delivered. There must be a timeline attached to this technology. Having a timeline will help you achieve your goal.

Lastly, providing maintenance and support is the last step of implementing technology. Our district is lucky to have a team of workers who are quick to answer our calls of help when needed. At a district I taught at previously, there was one lone person who took on the entire district. That means that the one technology teacher also had to help everyone. That person was me. Having to aid others cut into my teaching and personal time which I did not agree with. If you are going to get the latest in technology, you need to be able to back it all up. "Take care of your computers. If you neglect them, they will end up costing you more money over time. A strategy that includes preventive budgeting and maintenance will help to ensure the success of your computer systems and your organization" (Kenyon, 2000, para. 12).

Kenyon, J. (7 August 2000). Technology Budgeting Basics. Retrieved from http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/techplan/archives/page9806.cfm

Texas Education Agency. (2006). Long range plan for technology 2006-2020. Retrieved from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=2147494562

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

EDLD 5370 4.4 Assignment - EDLD 5365 Web Design Reflection

In EDLD 5365, we had to start out like we were just hired as the Webmaster of our school district. I didn't know much about our district's web design, so I had to go talk directly to the Technology Director. Our district had recently changed their web development model. Previously, there was a single webmaster who did all the work. Personally, I believe you could tell this because everything was so outdated and there was not much information to give website visitors. "This causes a website to lack interactivity with the user" (Dobe, 2010). Currently, there is now a more diversified modular design that allows fewer controls by one person and puts the website information responsiblities in the hands of the local entitiy. Each department or principal can add information to the site. The Technology Director just ensures its functionality and keeps collaboration in tact between all parties. With this information, I was to make a web policy. In creating this web policy, it was interesting to see what my school district did not have updated and did not have aligned with their goals. Building the web policy also made my dive further into my district's Acceptable Use Policy which in turn made me discover some items that I had not seen prior to this assignment.

In week 2, as a the webmaster, we were to create a website plan with objectives as well as a timeline of completion. To do this, I had to evaluate what was the function to a website. I believed it was usability. "A user-friendly web site encourages visitors to return is one that allows those visitors to find information and complete tasks swiftly and simply. Truely user-friendly web sites provide visitors with multiple ways to find the information and functionality they need" (Kaiser, 2006, p. 61). I compared our district's web site to others in our area that had similar school population. This method also helped me detect the negatives and positives within our website. In turn, this made me reflect on my own classroom website. Since its debut last year, I had been adding and changing it around but I felt no one even used it. I would like to look into getting a counter to see how many visitors come to the site as well as get some personal feedback on it.

Content management was the focus of week 3. I had an analyze all the files to be included on the website, including the author and when it was last updated. When working with this, it was apparent to me that many files had not been updated or they could not be found on my district's current site. I notified my Technology Director of this issue and was able to get things organized as they should have been. I was to also create memo thoroughly describing what services and I needed. When creating this list of services, I learned how much the teacher web sites at the time did now allow. Since then, however, we have changed teacher web site companies and most of the features asked for at the time is now possible.

Adding interactivity to our school site was topic of week 4. One way to do this was to have a classroom blog. This was a new topic to me. I had seen blogging in other areas, but not for the classroom. "A blog can let outsiders see what what school or the classrom is all about. It can let others see things that are occuring in the school" (Soloman and Schrum, 2007, p. 124). At the Texas Computer Educators Association Conference earlier this year, blogging for the classroom was a hot topic. Teachers and students alike are getting into being bloggers. Lastly, I was to create procedures for content management that outlined how to enter text and upload image files, post to blog, and create a podcast. I do these type of procedures quite often since I teach technology to both educators and students. One thing in making procedures like this, you must assume the reader knows nothing or you might accidently leave out a step.

During the last week of EDLD 5365 we were to make provisions for the website pre-launch and post-launch. Using "Deliver First CLass Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists" by Shirley Kaiser was key. This book provided quite a bit of information throughout the course not previously known to me. From this book, I will be able to assess websites and what functions of the site are positive and negative. This is something I can also pass along to my students when we look at business websites and how they market their product/service.


Dobe, Michael (2010). EDLD 5365 Web Mastering: Week 1: Web Policy, Governance, and the Web 2.0 World.[PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from Lamar University Epic Player site: https://lamar.epiclms.net/resource/1459/web/welcome.htm?LoginPrefix=lamar&ReturnUrl=%2fLearn%2fHome.aspx

Kaiser, S. (2006). Deliver first class web sites: 101 essential checklists. Collingwood, VIC, Austrailia: Sitepoint.

Soloman, G. and Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

EDLD 5370 Week 4.3 Assignment - EDLD 5363 Video Technology & Multimedia Reflection

I was eager to begin EDLD 5363 prior to starting. I teach technology classes and knew that I would be able to use my current knowledge and hopefully learn something to add to it. The first assignment was to create a digital story. My first step was to collaborate with a friend of mine who is also in the master's program and get ideas for the project. I decided that I should gather the pictures then write the script from there. From experiences, sometimes gathering the visuals and then putting together the audio is the eaiser way to do it. Using PhotoStory was nothing new to me. I had used to make a video for my wedding rehearsal using pictures of my husband and I growing up and together as a couple. I had enjoyed that experience, as I did creating the story about my friend. As I was making mine, I helped her with the one she was doing about me. This slowed me down a bit, but my friend quickly caught on about using PhotoStory. From there, I uploaded it to YouTube which I was not so familiar with. I had used YouTube previously just for viewing videos, but had not actually uploaded any of my own. Since the completion of this assignment, I have created an entire library of videos for sharing. I have also incorporated PhotoStory into my curriculum because I had more experience using it. In using it, I have found that students retain more of the topic the PhotoStory they created was over.

In week 2, I was to create a podcast. At that time, I had a vague idea of what a podcast was, but had never created one. What an excellent way to incorporate writing with digital technology! "Students involved in creating podcasts must use higher levels of thinking and creativity as well as problem solving skills. They have the opportunity to use their imaginations by writing and acting out scripts while learning how to work with the technology itself" (Edwards, 2009, para. 1). Since this course, I have added podcasting to my curriculum for my entrepreneurship students to create a podcast on the business that they have created. But for this assignment, I was to create was a review on a video editing software. I chose Microsoft Movie Maker because it was easy to use and manipulate. This got me thinking about how I could use Windows Movie Maker in my marketing classes. "Integrating media production in your curriculum can help you find new access to students and help them find new access to the material. Media engages and excites; it leads to unexpected discoveries, increased self awareness and esteem, sharpened critical thinking, analytical skills, group work skills and the ability to communicate ideas" (Garrison, 1999, para. 1). This year, I chose to have my marketing classes make commercials on products with MovieMaker. A small percentage had ever used this software but after a quick lesson they found it easy to use as well.

Creating a public service annoucement with group members was the focus of weeks 3 through 5. This was a frustrating point during my master's course because I found it hard to collaborate with my team members. We decided to use email and Google docs as a communication toold. We met up and chatted in Google docs to work on our script, duties, etc. "Google docs gives real-time collaboration where up to 50 people can work on the same document at the same time, literally conducting letter-by-letter tug-of-wars over individual words" (Stone, 2010, para. 3). That was exactly what it felt like as well, a tug of war over who could do what better. The collaboration that should have only took an hour, took several. Another communication medium should have been used. They had various levels of technology experience and spent extensive time on the little details instead of the entire picture. I was disappointed in how our public service annoucement turned out, but knew I needed to focus on working as a team rather than as an individual. Personally, I would have just done things differently seeing as I have a marketing background. From this experience, I learned to take the lead when necessary so that things will get accomplished. I was also reminded how everyone has various levels of technology skills and patience is the key.

Edwards, B. (18, October 2009). The Benefits of Using Podcasting in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://teachhistory.com/2009/10/18/the-benefits-of-using-podcasting-in-the-classroom/

Garrison, A. (Winter 1999). Video basics and production projects for the classroom. Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved from http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article3.html

Stone, B. (2010, April 12). New Collaborative Google Docs Unveiled. Retrieved from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/new-collaborative-google-docs-unveiled/

EDLD 5370 - Week 3.6 Assignment - TF VI Standard

TF VI - Educational technology facilitators understand the social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology in P-12 schools and assist teachers in applying the understanding in their practice.

Integrating technology into our schools brings so many positives, but it also brings so many more hurdles to work with. One area is the so-called 'digital divide'. My first year of teaching, I was working in a small 2A district that I knew had previous financial troubles. When I went into my classroom the first day, a computer lab, half of the room was brand new computers that had Windows XP and the other half contained computers that were older and had Windows 98 on them. The book I was teaching out of was for XP. It was quite a trying year figuring out what I needed to modify and when. Digital equity is what schools and states should strive for even though it is getting better. "K-12 technology professionals must continually monitor these concerns. Too often, race, gender, income, and locale continue to correlate to digital inequities" (Williamson and Redish, 2009, p. 126).

Online safety has become a large concern for parents and educators alike in the past few years. "Initial concerns related to Internet safety in schools centered on students' access to inappropriate content on the Web" (Williamson, 2009, p. 128). However, the focus now is the privacy and security of students while online. "There are concerns about sex offenders and other adults preying on young people they've met through social-networking Web sites such as MySpace" (Hochberg, 2007, para. 2). I taught a couple of classes to educators on internet safety and what we need to share with our students. Of course, the students think they are invincible and that they information is something they already understand, but it still needs to be discussed every year. They should know not to give out personal information just as well as they know to 'stop, drop, and roll'.

I was glad that this masters degree required us to read "Cyber Law" by Aimee Bissonette. I learned so much pertinant information from that book. As a technology teacher, I thought I knew the laws pretty well, but I was wrong. The TF VI Standard states for us to know the legal and ethical issues of using technology in schools and many probably break those issues without even knowing it. "School leaders do not need to feel hog-tied by copyright law, but they do need to accept reponsibility for educating all users of the school Internet system about legal uses of copyrighted material and how to steer clear of infringement" (Bissonette, 2009, p. 70). In another class for the masters degree, we were introduced to something called Creative Commons. Seeking out types of work with creative commons could have helped me, and my students in the past.

Bissonette, A. (2009). Cyber law: Maximizing safety and minimizing risk in classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Hochberg, A. (17 September, 2007). Back to School: Reading, Writing, and Internet Safety. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14427020

Williamson, J. and Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's technology facilitation and leadership standards. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

EDLD 5370 - Week 3.5 Assignment - TF V Standard

TF V - Educational technology facilitators apply technology to enhance and improve personal productivity and professional practice.

"Although student technology use may always take center stage-and appropriately so-educators also need modern technologies in professional practice and enhancing professional learning" (Williamson and Redish, 2009, p. 101). There are so many resources out there for educators to use, but educators just have to take advantage of them. I just recently sat down with two colleagues of mine that wanted to know more about Edmodo, a educational social networking site. I had been telling them for months the benefits of this site and how I have implemented it into my classroom and made my classroom more productive. Not once did they sit down on their own to investigate this. They waited until I gave up my own time to teach them the basics. Why do many people do this? I found out about this site by being curious and playing around with it, why couldn't they? It reduces time spent on grading and retrieving student files. This is a prime example of Standard TF-V. However, you as an educator must be willing to learn and then apply the technology.

"There is delay productivity during the implementation of new technology. Yet after the delay typically follows enhanced productivity" (Williamson, 2009, p. 103). I will agree with statement in that when I have taught new technology to educators, they at first seem quite perplexed about it. Yet after some careful practice and implementation, they usually get the hang of the technology and eventually become comfortable with using it. To integrate new technology in my district and get them comfortable with it (and excited) we have something called Tech Camp every summer. There are sessions on emerging technology that can be used in the classroom. Having this type of training available to educators, in my opinion, aids them to integrate technology easier and faster into the classroom setting.

To me, e-mail is the number one tool in the workplace that enhances and improves productivity. Its quick, easy, and convenient. "In one school, the teachers found that 92 percent of parents had an e-mail address they could access at home, work or both" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007, p. 37). In my classroom, I don't have access to all email addresses, but when I do, I find that I get a quicker response from parents, or atleast a reply about their child. Whereas when I call a parent, I have to find time to actually call them and then I may or may not get in contact with them.

Although not currently used with my department, I can see where a wikispace would be a great collaborative tool to enhance both productivity and personal practice in the classroom. I have 3 other ladies in my department and we often share ideas with each via email. Why not create a wikispace to store our ideas, websites, etc ? This would save each person some time on emailing and sharing ideas helps everyone overall. "When teachers become collaborative with school improvement practices it correlates to to student achievement" (McClure, 2008, para. 4).


McClure, C. (September 2008). The Benefits of Teacher Collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1682

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., and Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria: VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Williamson, J. and Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's technology facilitation and leadership standards. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

EDLD 5370 - Week 3.3 Assignment - Reflection of EDLD 5368

To begin EDLD 5368 Instructional Design, I took an inventory analysis over the different types of learning theories. The one taken before all the readings and videos of the week came out that my focus as a teacher was making the student fully responsible for their educational experience. I would agree with this analysis because of the structure of my classroom. I teach technology and therefore I model what needs to be done and then students work at the computer on their own and complete what they need to. After digging more deeply into the learning theories, I could see that I needed to play a larger role in the learning process. As for my teaching style, the analysis I took says I focus on practical applications. As a business teacher and technology, I am constantly looking for ways to integrate the lesson to a real world application. If a student can apply previous knowledge to new knowledge then they may be more likely to recall it easier.
In week 2, we were to begin designing on online course. I wrote my lessons over using and reconciling a bank account. We were asked to look at the end result first and work our way backwards designing the lesson. This was nothing new to me. I have a habit of looking at the end result and finding what ways work best to get to that result.

We worked with Schoology in week 3 where we set up an account with the website. In doing so, I could see such a need for this type of site. "Students are finding opportunity, flexibility, and convenience through online learning. Teachers are discovering a new way to reach students, many of whom were not successful in traditional schools and courses. Administrators are exploring ways to offer a wider range of courses to students and professional devleopment opportunities to teachers" (Watson, 2007, p. 8). I am able to achieve a masters degree while working full time with a husband and a three year old son. This would not have possible to me without online courses. As our district is having budget constraints, I recommended summer school via online courses to our superintendent. This would save on utilities for the building and you could pay the instructor a slight difference because they can work from the convenience of their home. Hopefully it will be an item considered in the coming year. In regards to professional development, there is little, if no, opportunity to do courses online through our district. I think teachers would be very receptive to the concept of fulfulling their professional development hours on their own terms. One feature of the online classes that seems to be successful is the discussion board. "Having the feature of a discussion board gives indisputable records of class participation and opens the lines for teachers of various backgrounds to share with one another" (Coleman, n.d., para. 3).

In week 4 of Instructional Design we were to go more in depth with our online course lesson and provide activities and lessons to thoroughly engage the students. For me, this included videos, examples, and hands on activities.

Overall, this class gave me some interesting insight into online education. "On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction" (Lohr, 2009, para. 1). Why not embrace this fact and offer what you can to students who are looking to succeed? I would like to look further into online education for the high school level. I think it would be a great way to offer students credit recovery or summer school. In fact, I shared this information learned from this course as a way of saving money while still offering summer school with my superintendant. The Schoology site was down when I shared this, but she was able to gather a picture of what such a program might look like.

Coleman, S. (n.d.). Benefits of Online Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-articles/benefits-of-teaching-online.htm

Lohr, S. (2009, August 19). Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom. Retrieved from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/

Watson, J. (April 2009). A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning. Retrieved from http://www.inacol.org/research/docs/national_report.pdf