Standard+VIII

**Reflections on Technology Facilitator Standard VIII: Leadership and Vision**

Standard VIII of ISTE’s Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards (Williamson & Redish, 2009) focuses on the abilities to help “lead the community in constructing a community-based vision and a long-range strategic plan for the comprehensive use of technology” (p. 185). Specifically, this standard outlines the need for technologists to inspire a shared vision, create goals and strategies, and continually garner support for this vision (p. 178).

I have experienced a couple of performance tasks during this program for Standard VIII, addressing the evaluation of the school technology environment. First of all, I completed the teacher and campus STAR chart, which is required by law (TF-VIII.D.2). This survey helps agencies and districts conduct a needs assessment for teachers and campuses across the state. Also, I created a PowerPoint presentation on the technology used in my district, campus, and classroom. In this presentation I identified and discussed national, state, and district standards for integrating technology into the school environment (TF-VIII.D.3).

By completing the STAR chart, I can really determine where I am as an educator technologically and what the target level is supposed to be. I learned to determine where my campus ranks on the STAR chart scale (Beginning, Developing, Advanced, or Target Stage) and to also identify areas of strength and weakness. Knowing how to analyze the STAR chart data can help provide more effective professional development specifically designed for our campus needs.

Creating the PowerPoint presentation on our district, campus, and classroom technology helped me learn about all of the technology our district has and how it is being utilized. In my research, I also found on our district website a technology implementation plan for elementary, middle, and high schools in LISD. I knew about the NETS and the Texas Long-Range Technology Plan, but I had never seen our local plan for technology.

Personally, researching this technology also helped me learn how many resources are being underutilized. In the math department, all teachers have document cameras, yet some teachers are still using overhead projectors. Also, we have one CPS system per every two math teachers, and some systems are just sitting in their bags and never being used.

I definitely feel like the technology is there for teachers to use. After revisiting that plan, I noticed that on our campus, we have almost everything described on the Long-Range Technology Plan for LISD high schools. I know that most teachers on our campus feel like we have the technology available for us to use, but not all teachers know how to use it effectively. Professional Development is supposed to constitute 15-30% (p. 157) of the total technology budget, but most teachers on my campus feel like they are “throwing all this technology at us, but not teaching us how to use it.” If teachers want to learn how to use the technology we have, they must definitely be proactive about it—they must seek out the directions, ask the technology facilitators for help, or ask someone else on campus to show them how to use it. This is not an effective district strategy for making sure educators are implementing technology into the classroom.

My question is why doesn’t LISD create a plan for training and implementing new technology at the same time they develop the distribution plan? To make my point, here is the LISD Instructional Technology Vision Statement: **Technology is an essential tool in achieving high-level student learning requiring buy-in (administrator, teacher, student), access (hardware, software, training), and support (collaboration and communication). ** Training educators barely made it into the vision statement! You can get all the technology you want and hire all the technology facilitators and leaders you want, but if you aren’t developing and implementing a plan for teaching, modeling, and training teachers how to use it in the classroom, TEACHERS WON’T USE IT!!! I am still puzzled by the fact that LISD has spent a lot of money on technology, but very little towards showing educators how to use it. 

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