The 21st Century Learner

Technology Integration Action Research Plan

Development of an organization chart integrating technology

Job Title	Role & Responsibilities
Superintendent	1.To look at incoming and outgoing data over technology used by teachers and students. 2.To help determine what new technology needs to be integrated and the professional development that needs to go with it. 3. To help school board and campuses come to an agreement when creating the district and campus level Technology Plan 4. To look at and aide in creating technology budget based on data received from campuses, school board, and the State.
Technology Director	1.To look into new technology that can be used in the classroom by the teachers and students 2.To buy existing technology for classroom use 3.To ensure that technology is installed correctly for classroom use. 4.To create, co-create, and implement professional developments over technology, new and used, for teachers to better understand the technology’s full capabilities for classroom use.
Curriculum Director	1.To aide in creating professional developments over technology, new and used, for teachers to better understand the technology’s full capabilities for classroom use. 2.To provide resources, both technological and old school, for teachers and students to use in the classroom based on content being taught.
Principal: needs to observe and evaluate what his/her campus instructors are doing within the classroom, reporting back his/her results to Central office. Plus he/she needs to communicate effectively with campus expectations for faculty given by Central office.	1.To look at lesson plans, data received from testings, and evaluate technology being used. 2.To ensure that teachers are implementing the use of technology in the classroom on a regular basis through class observations 3.To create a report of technology needed for campus based on student & teacher need, as well as creating a technology budget for the campus.
Assistant Principal	1.To assist the principal in his role and responsibilities
Certified Classroom Teachers	1.To follow content TEKS, and technology plans from the State and Federal Government. 2. To create lessons that allow for students to use and master technology. 3. To teach students how to use sed technology correctly and ethically.
Librarian	1.To aide the students in using various technologies.
Certified Special Edu. Teachers	1.To help struggling students, identified as special edu, with how to use technology per classroom instruction and as a useful tool for their own learning.
Classroom Aides	1.To help any struggling student with how to use technology per classroom instruction and as a useful tool for their own learning.

Professional Development Planning

1. Create a needs assessment survey given to all faculty members to see what they need help in learning how to use specific technologies for their classrooms.

2. Based on Needs Survey, create a professional developments, both in person sessions and online sessions, for those technologies identified as needing help in order to use effectively in the classroom.

· Create beginning, intermediate, and advanced level PD’s to ensure all levels are being addressed for differentiated learning amongst the teachers.

3. Create and implement small group PD’s over how to use the Campus website effectively in the classroom as a tool for holding students accountable to their own learning and as a means to communicate with the parents.

4. Create and provide a more in-depth and continued PD pertaining to the analysis of specific data and how it relates to overall class development and student development.

· Should include data analysis using TELPAS results, TAKS results, Gradebook, Attendance, and other various but pertinent data from resources are our hands.

5. Create and provide long term PD support with an online aspect for specific technologies that are used in the classroom regularly and periodically.

6. Have teachers come up on a specific date and showcase the technology they use in class and how they use it to other faculty members.

Evaluation Planning for Action Plan

1. Needs survey for technology professional developments is one assessment tool to be used at the beginning and ending of every school year.

2. Compare sign-up’s sheet for technology specific PD’s to the sign-in sheets the day of PD’s.

3. Principals & Assistant Principal monthly to weekly classroom observations to double check that technology is actually being used in the classroom by both instructor and student.

4. Lesson plans should include what technology is included in lesson.

5. Get monthly report on who uses Campus Website, and report to both campus faculty members as well as central office.

6. For all PD’s, have faculty fill out two surveys, one upon entering to gage teacher awareness of technology covered in PD; and second one upon leaving PD to gage how comfortable teacher feels implementing this piece of technology in the classroom after PD.

7. Create a teacher and student survey for the end of the year, content should include what technology was used by instructor and student most often, how comfortable they each feel using this technology, and what technology do they still feel they need more practice with or help learning how to use.

Royal High School's STaR Chart Results

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National Education & Technology Plan

In the National Educational Technology Plan, it discusses how to transform American education using technology efficiently and cost effectively in these down-trodden economic times. It doesn’t actually come out and tell the districts how to use the technology around us cost-effectively, just that it can and should be used in such a manner. I agree that technology needs to be used more, but more so by the students, and less by the teachers. I’m not quite sure that I’m totally on board with personalizing each individual’s learning experience within the classroom setting, as I have over 100 students and only 45minutes to engage them in the learning process. In order to do as this plan suggests, I believe there needs to be a major overhaul on how our society sets up the academic calendar and day. I know from experience that creating 5 lessons for one class period, which is expected for differentiation purposes, is pretty much impossible to do every day 6 times a day. So, I’m guessing 100 different lessons to create is not going to happen; I sound cynical, well I am. At this point, most teachers are over worked and very much under appreciated, I know in my district doing a fantastic job, creating an engaging lesson, and doing your job doesn’t count for much. There are plenty who do nothing, and still have the same evaluation as I do; it’s enough to make me want to quit this profession.

However, I digress, in this particular plan it discusses how people learn, how we should teach, how we should assess, the infrastructure needed, and lastly, the concept of productivity. Of course, it’s goals and recommendations are as vague in guidance as can be.

The goals of this plan are:

1. Learning

“All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and outside of

school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in

our globally networked society” (10).

2. Assessment

“Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what

matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement” (10).

3. Teaching

“Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that

connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that enable

and inspire more effective teaching for all learners” (3).

4. Infrastructure

“All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning

when and where they need it” (11).

5. Productivity

“Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage

of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of

time, money, and staff” (12).

For it’s recommendations, starting with the “learning goal,” it recommends that the states, districts, and teachers, redesign their curriculum to look more like the real world in the 21st century using technology as a means to engage, guide, and develop self-reflective, motivated, ethical, and life-long learners.

Recommendations for “Assessment” are something that I could get behind. I have never thought that one standardized test can measure what a student has learned, and this plan’s first recommendation is to do just that. It says, “ Design, develop, and adopt assessments that give students, educators, and other

stakeholders timely and actionable feedback about student learning to improve achievement

and instructional practices” (10). It furthers discusses the idea of using technology as a tool for us to better our assessment materials, assessments, etc. It disgusts me to see some teachers only teaching to the TAKS test this day in age, however it does happen. Some ideas that are given as a means for possible research into feasible assessments are gaming technology, virtual worlds, simulations (like SimCity), collaboration environments (like wikis). And of course, us educators need a way to analyze the assessments that follows privacy laws, but still uses technology to disperse the information to the student and parents.

“Teaching” recommendations are easily briefed up, like students, we educators should use the technology as a means to share and connect with fellow educators to ensure that the curriculum taught is relevant to today’s learners. I feel that the “Infrastructure” and the “Productivity” are a little self explanatory. Basically the plan wants every student and teacher to have access to all necessary resources and technologies needed round the clock. One major issue with this is, I work in a very low socio-economic area, where most of my students don’t have computers, or if they do then they don’t have internet capability. I worry that teachers will begin to rely too heavily on technology and these students will be left behind because they don’t have the same silver-spoon as others. And with “Productivity,” the plan wants the local districts to come up with a common vision that reflects the communities goals whilst still complying with the Federal plan.

SAVE ME!!! Campus Leaders Need to Step Up & Help All Learners Keep Up w/ Technology

“Help me!!! I don’t know how to use this new software or technology!!!” This is an almost daily shriek from some on my campus, yet my administrators seem deaf to it. Don’t get me wrong, my administrators are great listeners in the moment, but the follow through seems to be some what lacking.

While we educators are getting used to new trends and fads coming at us every which way, people, and by people I mean administrators, need to realize that when massive new software is thrust upon us it is unrealistic to expect mastering of the new technology in less than a week with less than an hour’s training over the technology/software. Yes, that did happen in my district. Now come to find out, after many stressful nights and days, attempting to finish what was expected of us, we learned that they never expected us to master it within sed deadline.

According to the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020: Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support; or Infrastructure for Technology, one of the administrator’s major roles is to, “provide opportunities for sustained, relevant and timely staff development…” (30). When in a leadership position, one must realize that the needs of the learners, be they the educators or the students, are vast and varying. One must act like a leader and lead his/her campus every day by example. I hear my administrators say that on a regular basis, yet they have fallen short on their end when it comes to leading by example.

In this technology driven world, the state of Texas, the Federal government, the global community, all realize the importance of using technology as a tool for engaging our students in the learning process. It is vitally important that the leaders of every school campus create a shared vision, using students, parents, teachers, staff members, community members, etc., for how the district will embark on meeting the demands of the ever changing world of technology and still meeting the mandated requirements by state and federal law. We all believe that it takes a village to raise a child, so let’s use that village when coming up with our vision and plan for technology use within our schools, it can only help us all understand the importance of continuing our education after high school. The administrator/leader also has the added stress of mapping out a budget, and monitoring it as well as the vision and plan that has been created and adopted by all within the community. The administrator must not just provide opportunities for their staff to keep up to date, but must make sure the environment of the school is conducive to keeping up with the evolving technology, and that students have access to the resources they need. Lastly, since it is expected of teachers to use data effectively in their lesson planning, it must also be used by administrators to review what the teachers need help with, further impacting more of what the students will learn and master.

My advice, I leave you with… LISTEN UP!!! Listen to your faculty, they need your help, just as much as the students need our help!

Overview of Action Research Project

EXAMINING THE WORK

Through various meetings with other teachers, faculty members, administrators and outside sources, it has become apparent that the traditional idea of parent involvement is low and that there is a disconnect between what the school feels is positive and good parental involvement and the what the parents believe. Thus, adding to poor student academic performance, in a mass population on my campus. . After quick emails and phone chats with my site supervisor we decided I would narrow my action research to answering the question ‘How can more parental involvement, at the secondary level, help not only the students in the short run but the community and students in the long run?’

ANALYZING DATA

I will use a bunch of data gathering activities such as internet searches for tools and resources to help in creating interview and survey questions. I will do another search looking for accessible information that shows correlations to student success rates and positive school/parent interactions and use this information to more fully develop interview questions and surveys for further data collection.

DEVELOPING DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

The above information will help me design possible solutions and help me to focus my research. Using Tool 3.1 (Selecting data Collection Techniques) Harris et al. (2010) will help me distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of the various data sources used. With the results from this tool, I will settle on the different types of data that will be the most relevant. Then, I will use my information and create focus group questions for students, parents and community members to help me understand how to create a more positive and friendly school/parent interaction on my campus.

ENGAGE IN SELF REFLECTION

I will start to ask reflective questions concerning the advantages and challenges of creating and sponsoring a PTA or PTO to aide in beginning to involve more parents.

EXPLORING PROGRAMMATIC PATTERNS

Following up with more research and with answering the reflective questions, I will begin to consider a more specific solution (hopefully the PTA or PTO) and investigate the effect, pros and cons of executing these possible results. I will meet with my site supervisor, the parent liaison, other teachers and counselors to discuss the feasibility of executing the proposed solutions. Through these get-togethers, I will decide if there are enough resources, and support to follow preferred solution.

DETERMINING DIRECTION

I will reflect on my approach to executing the action research project by answering the following questions:

A. Am I clear on what I am attempting to solve?

B. Have I adequately addressed the skills and resource questions?

C. Have I established a collaborative approach to the issue?

D. Are my timelines realistic?

E. Do I have a reasonable plan to monitor the project?

F. Do I have a reasonable plan to determine the level of success? How do I evaluate if the plan is effective?

G. How will I revise and improve the plan based on monitoring and evaluation?

TAKING ACTION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

I will organize a selected focus group of community members and possible PTA or PTO to facilitate me with this project. I will write a plan of action using the template tool 7.1 Harris et al (2010) to guide the execution of the research project. I will monitor the project with a measurable rubric decided upon by the selected focus group and present the findings of the project.

SUSTAIN IMPROVEMENT

The findings that improved better school and parent interaction and involvement achieving better student performance will be shown in a presentation and communicated with co-workers and key stakeholders including the community. I will also post the most relevant and useful findings on the school’s web site and my blog for further discussion and investigation. I will also use the processes and skills learned to increase my skills and know-how in new areas of my career.

Sorry about last week!!!

So last week I forgot the blog post but I was working on doing some of my research for my action project. One way that parents will get involved is when they feel welcomed and I have not always seen that on my campus. Most of the time it is preached to us to contact parents when students are doing well, not just when we are disappointed. However, I don't see the upper levels making the effort to do just that, not even when with their own people.

With that being stated, last week I tried to find some kind of written documentation discussing my campus' or even districts' policy regarding parent communication. I could find none. When I called people, and these people weren't only teachers but also people who are in positions to make policy, and they couldn't even tell me about the districts' policy. Now, I will concede to the fact that I have not made contact with my superintendent and he is very next on my list, but there doesn't seem to be any guiding document for teachers or administrators to follow regarding parent communication beyond informing them of grades and behavior. This is something, along with my action research project, I would like to draw up and have adopted by my campus if not the whole district before the end of the year.