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Running head: INDIVIDUAL TEACHER TECHONOLOGY ASSESSMENT Page 1
Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative
Anastasia W. Caphart v1
Kennesaw State University
INDIVIDUAL TEACHER TECHONOLOGY ASSESSMENT Page 2
Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative
The subject of this assessment Mrs. Osanu is a seventeen-year veteran and second grade
teacher at Clayton County Schools. Mrs. Osanu has been with the district for ten years. Prior to
meeting with Mrs. Osanu, she submitted to my request to complete two surveys intended to
determine levels to which she implements technology and her willingness to adopt technology.
Currently, there are 26 students in her homeroom and she teaches all subjects. Her room
is equipped with a Promethean Board, six desktop computers, one document camera, 1 DVD
player, VCR, and cassette player. In addition to these, she has access to checkout grade level
laptops and iPod carts (30 per cart) assigned to the primary grade level. Students operate on an
alternate schedule to attend computer and smart table labs twice a week for 40 minutes. There are
50 desktop computers in the computer lab.
Levels of Technology Use and Adoption
Based on Mrs. Osanu’s response to the Level of Technology Implementation survey, she
considers herself proficient. She indicates her proficiency in using laptop, taking attendance
online, lesson planning, uploading and downloading data/documents, Promethean Board,
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, math manipulatives, email, e-books, and online assessments. In
further interview with Mrs. Osanu regarding her proficiency, she indicated, “First of all, I won’t
be able to survive this system if I were not proficient in using technology. Everything we do is
done online-attendance, lesson plans, communication with administration, require technology.
Every day, I use the whiteboard to project charts that I prepare from PowerPoint or charts, from
e-book and other resources for teaching. I am proficient in what I do” (Osanu, personal
communication, February 2017). At this point, I was convinced that technology plays an integral
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role in her duties and responsibilities as a teacher. However, when analyzing her response to the
survey question, she indicated that she “Strongly disagree” that technology plays an essential
part in her daily activities. Meanwhile, when asked whether she uses digital presentation during
instruction, she responded that she uses charts, PowerPoint videos and interactive websites.
Further, in the survey when asked about how often she uses standard-based digital resources, she
responded “never”. Based on these responses, I deduced that they were contradictory and did not
reflect previous responses and activities stated.
When asked about specific technology resources she used across the curriculum to
address students varied needs, Mrs. Osanu mentioned that the system purchased programs such
as Clever Georgia reading program that includes leveled assessment which students can assess on
the laptops, math diagnostic and formative assessments, .IXL reading and math online, My
Own, Edu Track science and math unit test, e-books for math, reading, social studies and Brain
Pop. She further stated that she is grateful to have these resources, as they provide needed data
for planning, redirecting instruction, and differentiated activities that would support students’
varied needs. Data collected also helps her in grouping her students and selecting appropriate
strategies to meet their needs. While, she is grateful for these resources, she is also concerned
that she has not engaged her students in collaborative online projects, which she believes, will be
beneficial for her students in promoting higher-order thinking, problem solving and decision
making skills.
In addressing her, use of productivity and collaborative tools Ms. O stated that she
“dropped the ball”, despite using technology daily with her students. She further revealed that she
used Edmodo last year, but chose to use Class Dojo this year. Although she set up Class Dojo,
but has been unable to implement due to her busy schedule. Furthermore, in the survey, she
provided no response to whether she provides opportunities for students to collaborate using
INDIVIDUAL TEACHER TECHONOLOGY ASSESSMENT Page 4
digital resources; neither did she identify collaborative projects students were engaged in. Her
response indicated limited use of digital resources. Consequently, she seeks to increase her level
of technology implementation.
Mrs. Osanu is proficient in her use of technology. She uses technology quite well in her
day-to-day activities. According to her, the students are independent in their use of technology in
completing daily tasks. Based on the survey and interview, Mrs. Osanu would likely be placed on
LoTi Level 2 (Exploration) which indicates the instructional focus emphasizes content
understanding and supports mastery learning and direct instruction. While, it is evident that
students use technology routinely. Meanwhile, based on Ms. Osanu’s proficiency on the use of
technology, she is classified on LoTi Level 3 (Infusion) which indicates that digital and/or
environmental resources are used by the teacher to execute teacher-directed tasks that emphasize
higher levels of student cognitive processing relating to the content standards.
In addressing questions about embracing new technology, Mrs. Osanu specified
that she embraces new innovations and is willing to integrate into her lessons. She further
indicated willingness to try new apps that would meet the needs of her students. Mrs. Osanu is
aware of her shortcomings which she attributes to her workload and other school related
activities which sometimes do not allow her to do as much as she would like to. However, she is
excited about trying new innovations. Based on the survey, Ms. Osanu is receptive toward
technology and will improve on goals to use apps in class and to engage students in collaborative
projects.
Mrs. Osanu is an active participant at professional development, which she attends
once a month covering topics that include technology integration, Edmodo, software, etc. She
also participants in grade level meetings and shares new technologies with her team. Ms.
Osanu’s willingness to embrace technology without persuasion clearly indicates that she is an
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early adopter. “Early adopters use the data provided by the innovators’ implementation and
confirmation of the innovation to make their own adoption decisions” (Orr, 2003). She
recognizes the benefits of the innovation and the impact it will have on her students. Hence,
she made the decision to engage in the coaching exercise that will allow her to embrace the
innovation. Already, Ms. Osanu has undergone three of five steps in the Mechanism of
Diffusion (Orr, 2003).
Technology Perspective
During my interview with Mrs. Osanu, I learned that she fully understands and is
committed to providing opportunities for her students to engage in collaborative projects
while utilizing digital resources. She is also aware that her students need to collaborate online
with audiences outside the classroom. She wants to use apps in her classroom to meet the
varied needs of her students. She is convinced that although proficient in other areas of
technology, it is important that she focus on professional development that would train her in
using collaboration tools.
Besides training, time management is also a concern of hers. She needs to manage her
time well so that she will be able to plan and implement the activities. She acknowledges that
she has to make time in order for technology to work. Then when asked if she still believes
that technology does not play an integral role in her duties and responsibilities as a teacher,
she affirmed that technology is very important. She said it must have been an oversight, as she
would not downplay the importance of technology especially in the 21st century classroom.
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Technology Training Needs and Coaching
Mrs. Osanu communicated that her most pressing need for coaching is to learn more
about doing a collaborative online project with class. Hearing her need, I was to prompted to ask
her to explain what she envisions a collaborative project to be. She explained that she wants her
students to engage in online projects like some of the ones in the wikis I shared. We discussed
and shared ideas about the topic. Regarding her preference for coaching, she expressed
preference for one-to-one coaching that would take place after school. Because she is a visual
learner, she prefers pictorial representation and modeling that will help her in “enduring
understanding”. Clearly, Ms. Osanu would benefit from coaching that is collaborative and offers
one-on-one coaching, while utilizing advance and post organizers, modeling, high- level
questioning, and quality assignment (Knight, 2007). The plan would then be to work with Ms.
Osanu in using the advanced organizer to map out targets, digital tools and activities for the wiki.
I will model expected skills for her to emulate, and practice, while engaging her in high-level
questioning. Opportunities for independent practice will be provided to establish understanding,
while quality assignment will be used to “to enhance impact of instruction”. The finished
product- wiki will represent post organizer and reflection piece. Mrs. Osanu and I will reflect on
the process of creating a wiki, lessons learned and way forward. She will be encouraged to
outline plan for working with team members in creating class wikis for collaboration. Lastly, Ms.
Osanu will share the wiki with her class and they will work together to create pages for the wikis
collaborate on grade level project.
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References
Knight, J. (2007). Focusing on the big four. In Instructional coaching: a partnership approach to
improving instruction (p. 162). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Orr, G. (2003). Diffusion of innovations, by everett rogers (1995). Retrieved from
https://teamlead.dukenus.edu.sg/vapfiles_ocs/2011/edu/Diffusion_of_Innovations_by_Ev
erett_Rogers_1995.p
df C. Osanu, personal interview, February 2017