Standard+V


 * Reflections on Technology Facilitator Standard V: Productivity and Professional Practice **

ISTE’s Standard V focuses on educators learning about technology through professional development and professional learning communities. In addition, Standard V also concentrates on educators being able to contextualize (use it for their own subject) instructional technology and maximize its potential. Technology facilitators and leaders must educate teachers about the technology as well as show them how to use it in their particular classroom—this is the essence of being a technology leader in schools today. Over the last year and a half, I have completed more performance tasks from Standard V than any other ISTE Standard.

First, I have attended 2 professional development sessions on how to use and implement a Classroom Performance System (clickers) as a tool for formative and summative assessment (TF-V.A.1). I have learned how to import my classes into the CPS system from Gradespeed, set up lessons and activities, engage the program into teacher-led (everyone answering at the same time) or student-paced (students have a paper copy of the test and work through it at their own pace) lessons, and l how to analyze the data and create specific reports based on what I need at the time. I have even shown other teachers how to use and implement the system into their classrooms.

Next, I have evaluated the use of the clicker system as well as other technology and resources used in our district (TF-V.B.1). During our Master’s program, we had to create a PowerPoint analyzing 2 different teacher networks(TF-V.C.1). Not only did this task help me learn how to use the PowerPoint program, but I also learned how to analyze and evaluate a resource. There are a lot of teacher resources out there, and not all of them are good. It is important to be able to determine which ones are useful and worth the time, and which ones aren’t. We also created a PowerPoint presentation about the technology used in our district, school, and classroom. I was able to learn even more about PowerPoint (transitions, narrations, etc.) as well as research the types of technology used by our district (TF-V.C.1).

In addition to learning a lot about the CPS and PowerPoint programs, I have also learned more about the graphing calculator and its abilities (TF-V.C.3). I have always thought of myself as an expert on the graphing calculator, but I learned many new applications over the past year such as finding the cumulative sum, using the random number generator, and experimenting with the probability simulator. I have also used the CBL and motion detectors to collect, analyze, and graph real-world data on the calculator. I was also able to show collaborative team members and other math teachers how to use these functions.

To round out the performance tasks I have completed for Standard V, I have set up and maintained a web site for my math classes and set up a wiki site for new and veteran teachers at the International school I will be teaching in next year. On my school website, I updated it daily with class notes, assignments, a detailed description of what was done in class, and upcoming events(TF-V.D.4). Students were able to download the notes using Adobe Acrobat Reader (freeware) and see what we did in class or what was coming up. This was extremely helpful when students were absent or if parents wanted to monitor what was going on in the class. In addition to daily updates, I also listed helpful links, such as links to their online textbook, TEA website (for the TAKS test), or a website to make their own graph paper. I also learned a little HTML code to add color, bold, italicize, or underline text (as well as many other commands) within my web page, which I never knew how to do before this year. In addition to the school website, I was able to set up a wiki for all the new-hires for my new job in China (TF-V.D.2). We have been able to get to know each other a little and ask questions of the veteran faculty to prepare for our new adventure. It has been a very helpful resource for everyone involved.

During the extent of this course, I feel I have actively sought out opportunities to use and develop my technology skills. I was eager to try new lessons, learn about new technologies to use in the classroom, and share this information with my colleagues. Most of the time my team members were receptive to trying new material and even helped develop some of the lessons. We were able to give feedback to each other about “how it went” in our individual classes and make suggestions about what to do differently. It has been a learning process, and not always easy, but at least I am moving in the right direction towards meeting the needs of the 21st Century Learner.As I mentioned early, I am actively seeking out ways to incorporate technology into my classroom, but what about the teachers who still only use the computer for entering grades and taking attendance? And that’s because it’s the only way to do it! There are teachers at my school that still have a paper grade book (I haven’t used one of those in 13 years!!), don’t know how to use the copier to make a .pdf and email it to themselves, create and maintain a basic website (which uses a content management system), or even send off copies to the print shop via the web (they still fill out the triplicate form by hand and turn it in to the front office). I don’t even want to mention the lack of knowledge about web 2.0 tools! I wonder when LISD is going to actually make it mandatory for teachers to be able to do these things. They hire technology facilitators, and we have the technology, but no one is MAKING the teachers learn about it—it’s all optional. I have done my best to educate those around me, but the problem is much bigger than that.

I am puzzled by the lack of vision my district has shown. They want to be a district that is paving the way in the area of instructional technology. We have the tools and the facilitators, but no one holding educators accountable for learning and implementing it. LISD must set mandates for all teachers to learn certain technological skills, and give them a deadline to do it! It makes perfect sense to me, yet our district has yet to do this. Why?

Citations:

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). //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.