Blog Assignment 4

Does the educational system that you are affiliated with offer a shared storage area on the network for students or faculty? As teachers in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District, we all have access to an “H Drive,” which is a shared storage area.  Do you find this beneficial?  Up until this year, we were not allowed to save to our desktop.  I used the H drive when I wouldn’t have my jump drive with me, and had to create a document quickly.  So while it wasn’t used often, in a pinch it was great.  This year we are allowed to save to our desk top, so if I don’t have my jump with me, I just save the file to the desktop.  I don’t really use the shared storage area anymore. 

What type of Email System does your educational system implement? Our school district uses Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access connected to Microsoft Exchange.  This is what we have used since I have started with the district three years ago.  Do you use this mail system at school? I use e-mail all the time at school.  It is how faculty, staff and administrators stay in touch.  Our daily bulletin is sent via e-mail, to cut down on paper usage.  We also can send requests to the entire faculty for supplies or materials needed.  We recently switched reading groups, and teachers all over the building needed to switch reading materials to different reading levels.  Without our e-mail system, this would have been a nightmare.  I utilize our e-mail system from home, to check if something important is going on, since everyone can access e-mail from home, our principal usually will send important e-mail messages at nights or on weekends.  By checking my e-mail at home, I am able to know what is going on, without having to wait for the morning.  Teachers will also e-mail lesson plans in for a sub to a fellow teacher, if they didn’t have the plans out, or want to change something around.  Lastly, if I am working on something at home, without my jump drive, I can just email it to myself, and have access to it in the morning. 

Overall, from this chapter, the most important thing that I learned is about the AUP.  While I have examined and looked at and talked AUP’s in other classes, this part of the chapter brought to mind, just how important AUP’s are, and how bad it is, that as a district, our AUP is over 3 years old, and that we as faculty or the students are not required to sign them.  An updated AUP is something that should be pretty easy to do.  We are using the computers more and more, with each child in the elementary grades being scheduled to use the computer lab once every two weeks.  With this increased use, the AUP is something that needs to be updated and used. 

Blog Assignment 2

This is the start of my third year in the district, and I have not been asked my input as to technology integration, whether it be hardware of software.  If my district did utilize these forms, I figure that last year would have been an awesome opportunity to do so.  We just went through a massive technology upgrade with each teacher receiving a new workstation.  Each workstation has office 2010 loaded on it.  With all the new open source software available, was there even a discussion as to utilizing any of the free programs?  My guess is probably not.  If there was, it was probably on an administrative level. 

In my other class this semester, we talked about having a need for the technology before purchasing it.  Don’t put the cart before the horse theory.  Pretty much every teacher has a smart board in our district, but was there a need for every teacher, was there a want from every teacher?  I am sure that there were many teachers that would have been fine without a smart board.  Are they now going to sit unused, because a needs assessment wasn’t done?  I understand that the smart board is hardware, but the same process could be used for hardware as well. 

I think software selection forms would benefit teachers, because decisions can be made on who wants the technology, who will use the technology, and then award the technology to those teachers.  Selection forms can also help because if there is a mass desire for a piece of software, licenses can be purchased in bulk, often reducing the cost per license.  If there is a small demand for a particular software title, possible solutions could be looked into including freeware, and IU support. 

Using software selection forms also helps guide technology purchasing back to the teachers who have fresh ideas, and more recent schooling, instead of administrators and coordinators who may have very little recent background in technology and software applications. 

Comments

For those of you who commented on my blog assignement 1 post thanks and sorry I didn't get back to you...I didn't know I had comments...I am so used to the WebCT system where everything cascades, I didn't see the posts...so thanks and I plan to comment individually soon.

Amy

Chapter One

I just wanted to comment about how I liked that the book included the examples of the different technology leaders.  I found that, even though they aren't real people, it helped to read the examples.  I also liked that the book is very user friendly. 

The Technology Leader...blog assignment 1

After reading the chapter, I found that there could be a wide variety of challenges that I might face as a technology leader.  As a technology leader, you might be responsible for writing grants and securing funding for new initiatives.  Another issue you might face is getting teachers to be on board with new technology initiatives.  Older teachers are set in their ways; they don’t want to invest the time and energy into adding technology into the curriculum.  They have taught the way they are teaching for many years, and they don’t want to change the way they teach.  New teachers, while they may be willing to embrace the technology, are overwhelmed with trying to set up their classrooms, and make sense of the curriculum.  The key is finding a core group of teachers that are willing to try new things, and develop a bond and working relationship with them.  Another issue that you might face is the lack of staff to implement technology changes, and deal with issues.  In our district, every workstation was replaced over the summer.  There were many issues, and not enough staff to deal with them.  One issue, none of the new workstations were hooked up to the printers.  A decision was made to allow the teachers to install the printer drivers for their own machines, due to lack of technology staff to do it.  Older teachers were frustrated with this, and still had difficulties.  One final issue you may face is hardware and software issues.  Things break, and while as technology majors, we understand that these things happen and sometimes we can’t do anything about it, not everyone understands this. 

I think that our book nailed it right on the head, that in order to be a successful technology leader, you have to have four characteristics: broad background knowledge and a dedication to lifelong learning, knowledge of the education field, interpersonal skills, and a background in technology.  By embracing those skills, and applying those beliefs, you stand a better chance of being a successful technology leader.  Nobody wants to work with the creepy technology guy that is mean to everybody; likewise they don’t want the sweet technology guy with very little technology knowledge.  I definitely believe that by making sure you stay current in the technology field, by involving yourself in the latest educational trends, and by being warm and welcoming, you will be a successful technology leader. 

Trying a second Blog Post

Okay...so I still don't like this whole blog thing...I find it confusing to organize, and harder to follow than the posts in webCT...I also don't like the layout of moodle...I am glad that in the span of my 10 grad classes, I have only had one in Moodle...I don't know if this is going to post correctly or not...but I am trying it.

Have a great weekend everyone

Amy

My First Blog Ever

So I am now an official blogger...it takes me back to this past weekend when I watched Julie & Julia...the movie about a young lady who cooked her way through Julia Child's cook book and blogged about the experience...I feel somewhat aprehensive about tying my first blog.  What impact will I have on the world wide web, what impact will I have on the world of education, what impact will I have on the world period?

In the word of the great T-I-GG-ER

TTFN