Course Reflections EDLD 5306

What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?

This course was called Concept of Educational Technology and when I read the title, it came to me the idea that it was going to be some kind of overview. As an overview, you normally expect subjects to be covered lightly and with some examples but no practice or outcomes to achieve. I did get what I was expecting,  I believe the course gave me that and more. It cover information that never cross my mind could be part of the content. The alignment is correct, go through the basis and cover some areas in detail. Well, detail  is not the word. I believe is the practice that makes the difference. The fact that you read, practice and then develop a product helps to reinforce part of the information read or seen. Somehow I knew that internet tool were going to be covered and the content was appropriate to my expectations.

To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?

The extent was good but was not target to be used immediately into the classroom environment. Simply because some of the examples are general, many choices and possibilities to answer. I will use most of them to enrich my students learning. Relevant it is at some degree. I could use some of those applications that I have practiced to develop activities to engage my students into something new. I know that this will keep them interested and they will learn too. The development of ideas to introduce content might delay this process. Then we come to the point, I know how to use it and I recognize that using them could help my students, but not sure how to introduce the content. The reason that it couldn't be relevant is simply because no curricula specifically covers o target the advances of technology at this level for my students. The benefit could be expected in the future years.

What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

The content, is not totally achieved. The reason has to be the amount of information and the short amount of time to cover. To be concrete, I would say the standards require more study. I know where to find them but at this time my knowledge is general. Standards are not required for my actual function and there are vague if not apply immediately. Definitely are important and I would go in detail if I need them. Some of the tools were designed to collaborate and we didn't do effectively. It took time to lost the fear of the unknown. I feel more confident now and I'm sure we will collaborate efficiently in the coming courses. Another one could be my blog and wiki. The blog needs more interaction and my wiki appearance is not the best one. The way I see it, all I needed was more time to practice.

Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

I believe I was successful to deliver most of my assignments. To me, my limitation are my work and my family. They both require some of my attentions and that limits my time to study and the time to prepare my assignments. My week was planned to do my study during the night and by them I was a extremely tired. I did my best to read my articles and watched the videos. Noticed that readings were a great background for the assignments and I did cover all of them. I wasn't discouraged at all. I felt a bit nervous at the beginning since it is my first time having and online education. Then overwhelmed by the amount of work . Finally, relief at the end of the first week. My grade was not the best but gave me something important, confidence. My schedule took shape and I did stay on task day by day.

What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

I thought I had a good understanding of the educational technology and this course made me realize that it wasn't true. My use of internet tools is limited when it comes to classroom applications and I must follow the rules to be able to teach my students. The importance to educate of the potential dangers of the technology and how responsible we need to be when handling information . About me, I still have that desire to learn and it was good to feel it. Make me realize how my students feel, well, at least some of them. I must focus on develop my leadership skills, I can see from my plan that I need to educate me and practice more. When it comes to technology, I finally understood that is not just the equipment but the how to use it to make students learn and be prepared for the uncertainties of the future. 

N.S.E. Technology Plan: E-rate

Executive Summary.

E rate

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Web Conference.

This week I had the opportunity to meet my mentor and colleagues on a video conference. It was quite an experience. Having the chance to interact and share ideas was refreshing. The software platform was very friendly. It had a chat window where everyone seems to be ready to interact. The center window provided the video and audio for the users. The next on the right allow the moderator to share the presentation. Unfortunately it was a bit small and we couldn't see it. A final window on the right provided the users activity or a flag whenever they wanted to provide an input.One thing I notice is the time consuming on getting everyone ready to join. Access network, speed and hardware play a vital role on this application.

Nice control over the conference by our coordinator Sheryl Abshire. She was clear to mention how important is to be on target and start working early during the week. Time management is a must to be able to complete assignments by the due day. It was mentioned the length of the internship and how important is to keep a copy of documents and work since that could be a great source to help during the final summative report. EPIC was briefly discussed and Sheryl mention the importance to verify email, account daily to keep current with details and posting comments on the discussion board timely.

I must say that at the end I felt a little bit more relax. Noticing that everyone experienced a couple of difficulties made me realize that I'm not the only one feeling stressed about taking it ON LINE!

National Educational Technology Plan

The National Educational Technology Plan establish two general goals set by President Obama, these are the increment on the percentage of college graduates and equal education for everyone. This aggressive program tries to leverage the educational deficit that our country has been showing against similar economies. The use of technology is a common factor for the specific goals of the plan. Learning and Assessment require the use of reliable content for the students and teachers which based on their performance should be modified and update. Teaching has a unique challenge, evolving from an obsolete model (individual teaching) into a community of educators, all of them connected through the use of a robust network. This bring us to next specific goal, the appropriate Infrastructure accessible anywhere, anytime. One additional goal defined in this program is Productivity, teachers, students and leaders need to be responsible of the efficient use of resources and be able to modify or update the information needed for the individual to succeed.

Staff development of the educators is a key element. Having a large array of network educators, teachers learn effective methods and experiences from colleagues. Online learning systems are available to further develop technology skills. Educators role change to facilitators or collaborators in this new learning model.

There are great challenges for this program. Real time access systems to provide reliable feedback and suggest modules for improvement. A reliable set of tools and assessment across curriculum content. Everything based on a cost efficient model. Are ready to meet the challenge?

G.P.I.S.D. Technology Plan

I couldn't find reliable information about my school North Shore Elementary technology plan. Fortunately my district has a Technology Plan but dated 2008-2009. G.P.I.S.D. has two goals on the district technology plan. The first one describes the use of technology integration to explore, develop problem-solving skills, learn and encourage communication. It was revealing to find out that most of the budget is channel to the equipment (network, VoIP), software and support staff. Part of the budget is plan to be used on updating students computers and tools for the administrative task of the educators. There is a clear definition for the status of the hardware, software, services and the future outcome.

The second goal focus on the educator skill and abilities necessary to incorporate technology in the instruction. Going over the budget chart reveals different ideas. There are budget allocations for the telecommunications infrastructure, network equipment, training of the technical staff (TIS) and the administrative personnel. There was none for staff development to the educators and there is no detail description of the professional development. Everything described in the document seems to be general. There are individuals responsible for actions but not defined metrics to measure their success.

G.P.I.S.D. is using the government resources to establish a reliable network infrastructure, updating equipment and software. Staff development has been focus on technical and administrative individuals but not the actual educators. Hopefully, that would be cover on the next G.P.I.S.D. technology plan since the main goal is to prepare students to this technological era. 

Accessing Technology Assessment Data (Pros and Cons).

Information is useful only when it has a value for the individuals. We must define who are the individuals, the audience, before this information is disclosed. When we refer to those individuals as the decision makers, then all access should be given. The stake holders, administrators and leaders should have all the pieces of the puzzle available to be able analyze the details and take the appropriate decisions.

When it comes to the Pros, that information could be used to establish a new plan for the school, teacher, and students. The administrators could use reports like, Loti Digital Age Survey, PETI (Profiling Educational Technology Integration) and Technology Literacy which could tell about teachers advances accomplished during the year. The use of the STaR chart could help understand areas of improvement to consider for the school at the end of the year. Administrators could identify potential problems and resources could be allocated to full fill the objective.

The wrongly used of data could take administrators to eliminate certain teaching positions based on performance. Veterans teachers who have been part of the educational system might lose their positions. That could be unfair at some degree. Let's consider the experience, classroom management and desire to teach, skills who take time to be acquired (Keirsey Temperament Sorter and Multiple Intelligence Inventory reports). Instead, the information should be used to carefully plan practice time, mentoring sessions and staff development who might help speed classroom technology integration. Leaders should provide opportunities to develop but at the same time monitor progress.

All about me.

Many times during the years I've asked my students to tell me about them, just to get to know them. Didn't really work well but by the end of the school year I did. Hopefully my description below would give you and idea about me, or maybe not. It may take you 18 months to do that!

My name is Juan Zapata and I'm currently working at G.P.I.S.D as a 5th grade Bilingual elementary teacher. I've been in the district for about 7 years and always teaching Language Arts on TAKS grades. Before becoming a teacher I was into the Telecom market doing technical training. It was a great an demanding career and after 14 years of extensive traveling I decided it was time to settle down. No regrets. I love my job and I'm doing what I always did, training minds and sharing experiences. I do have great expectations on this course, hopefully sharing my knowledge to help my district reach the objective, helping my colleagues and of course, improving the learning experiences of my students.
I'm looking forward to collaborate with you all.