Reflection: EDTC 6992 Technology Specialist in K-12 School Systems

State the competency, or standard that is appropriate for your degree and licensure area. 

Standards leading to licensure are the 18079 Special Endorsement in Computer Education and 077 advanced licensure for technology coordinators in North Carolina. See ISTE Advanced Standards for digital coaches or North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Standards. When appropriate you may use standards from the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT). Choose one or two standards that are most representative of your artifact. The reflection should include discussion for each of the standards you've identified for the artifact.

Standards:  From ISTE Advanced Standards for digital coaches

1. Visionary leadership

Technology Coaches inspire and participate in the development and implementation of a shared vision for the comprehensive integration of technology to promote excellence and support transformational change throughout the instructional environment.

a. Contribute to the development, communication, and implementation of a shared vision for the comprehensive use of technology to support a digital-age education for all students

b. Contribute to the planning, development, communication, implementation, and evaluation of technology-infused strategic plans at the district and school levels.

3. Digital age learning environments

Technology coaches create and support effective digital age learning environments to maximize the learning of all students.

a. Model effective classroom management and collaborative learning strategies to maximize teacher and student use of digital tools and resources and access to technology-rich learning environments

b. Maintain and manage a variety of digital tools and resources for teacher and student use in technology-rich learning environments

Describe the requirements for the artifact. 

What was assigned and how did you complete the project? Approximately 100 to 150 words are needed for this section.  Include a theoretical base or foundation for what you did in the project.  Draw on the knowledge base developed by scholars and practitioners to justify the work you did.  Include references to textbook authors, readings, and online resources discussed in your courses.

I enrolled in EDTC 6992 Technology Specialist in K-12 School Systems in the fall of 2014.  The course was taught by Dr. Carol Brown. The artifact for this course was the Internship Final Report that included information and reflection about all aspects of the 110 hour internship.  The report was a table of a logic model that matched the activities of the internship with the standards for licensure for 077.  The outcomes were matched to national standards for Instructional Technology Coaches. The activities in the internship included a session of professional development for teachers, a community service project, 10 hours of shadowing a licensed Instructional Technology Facilitator, building a data base of technology resources and working with teachers to incorporate technology into instruction. 

            The text for this course was titled, Sit and Get Does Not Grow Dendrites, by Marcia Tate.  Other readings were provided on the topics of servant leaders and standards for quality professional development. 

Explain how your artifact is a good example of the objective, competency, or standard. 

Defend your evidence as if you were a lawyer defending the validity of evidence submitted for the trial. Include references to theory in Instructional Design and Technology.

The internship was the culminating event of my journey toward my MAEd in Instructional Technology.  During the internship I demonstrated leadership in fulfilling the goals of my school and school district with regards to the integration of technology to affect student achievement.  ISTE’s Standard I, Visionary Leadership for Coaches states, “Technology Coaches inspire and participate in the development and implementation of a shared vision for the comprehensive integration of technology to promote excellence and support transformational change throughout the instructional environment (ISTE, 2014). During my internship I provided staff development and support to teachers to directly address my school districts 1:1 initiative and school-wide literacy goals.  My professional development module was guided by activities Tate (2012) suggests as engaging for adult learners.  I incorporated both brainstorming, discussion and technology into my instruction. This professional development provided instruction on four digital tools the county was implementing for use in PLCs, meetings and professional development and in the one to one environment with students.  Therefore this training was in direct support of the county’s vision.

            According to Learning Forward (2014) professional development should not be a one shot deal but instead follow up with job imbedded support for teachers in order for them to successfully adopt the new learning into their teaching practice.  As and instructional technology coach it is my job to provide such support to the teachers at my school. After the professional development session was conducted I followed up with each participant to see if they had used the technology tools that were introduced in the session.  Additional support for planning and using the tools from the workshop in the classroom was given on an individual basis to each teacher who attended.  Standard 3 states “Technology coaches create and support effective digital age learning environments to maximize the learning of all students” (ISTE, 2014, standard 3). This additional support to teachers directly meets this standard.

            Standard 3 involves both managing digital age environments and modeling effective learning strategies. I further met this standard during my internship through directly working with teachers to plan and implement technology use with students by modeling the use of Edmodo as the learning management system being used for the one to one initiative in7th, 8^th, and 9^th grade classrooms in our county.  In addition, I worked closely with third, fourth and fifth grade teachers to set up, manage, and use tablets in their classrooms. I also modeled effective use of teacher websites by providing professional development on the use of the school website as a classroom tool for information, communication, and instruction.  Using my own website to build a data base of digital tools by subject for teachers I showed teachers how to make their websites a valuable tool for classroom instruction.  Schrum and Levin (2009) point out that today’s students have grown up with digital tools and “think differently and therefore need to be taught differently” (Schrum & Levine, 2009, p. 29).  Teachers need to find new ways to deliver instruction to their digital native students.  All of these activities support the digital age environment needed to support learning for today’s students.

            The community service project that was part of my internship was guided by the ideals of the servant leader.  Schmidt (2013) defines servant leadership as “a philosophy that emphasizes focusing first on others' needs.  Servant leaders are attentive to the growth and development of their stakeholders, including employees, customers, partners and the community” (Shmidt, 2013, p. 39).  I partnered with a teacher to hold a parent technology night that focused on helping parents use technology to keep informed of school events, communicate with teachers and follow their child’s progress.  In addition we included information about social media safety and privacy issues.   This service to the community supports the schools use of digital tools to communicate more effectively with parents and the community at large.  The parents who attended were particularly interested in the issue of social media and privacy and were able to fill out paperwork to get started with the parent portal to keep up with their child’s grades.

Discuss how you might change the content, strategy, or design of the artifact.    

If you see no need for change, elaborate on how the artifact is a good exemplar for the competency or standard.

            My artifact for EDTC 6992 Technology Specialist for K-12 School Systems was representative of well- rounded work as an Instructional Technology Coach.  It included two examples of professional development for teachers, working and planning with teachers for the integration of technology in their instruction, community outreach and school level leadership.  Each component of the artifact supports the vision of my school and county as it initiates a one to one program.  The one component that I would consider changing would be the community service project.  Although I feel my partner teacher and I were well planned and prepared we experience a low turnout for the event. My principal would like to see the event become a regular event that takes place at least once per semester and if that comes about I would look at how the event was publicized.  It was on the school website, school sign and announced but perhaps if the dates had been sent home to parents with the start of the school year paper work the news would have reached more parents.  

Discuss how the artifact is representative of future career goals and plans. 

            Upon completion of this degree program I will be employed as an official Technology Facilitator.  This artifact provides evidence that I am capable of carrying out all of the duties and responsibilities of that position.  The Final Internship Report is the culmination of my work as a technology leader in my assigned school.  It is a record of not just events I arranged or participated in but also the outcomes and impacts of those events.  For example my community service event invited parents to an evening to learn about the counties one to one initiative, learn about communication tools like school and teacher website and the parent portal to view their child’s grades.  Parents also received information about online safety and privacy with social media sites their children may be using.  The impact of this event is increased community support for the schools mission and more effective parent partnerships.

            In this artifact I implemented the use of the ADDIE model to systematically plan, implement and evaluate instruction.   A big part of my position as a Technology Facilitator will be to provide professional development in technology integration for classroom teachers. The knowledge and use of systems design models to produce professional development for my school is a key skill to produce effective instruction.

References

International Society for Technology in Education (2014). Standards for coaches. Retrieved from  http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-coaches.

Learning Forward. (2014). Standards for professional learning.  Retrieved from http://learningforward.org/standards/leadership#.U1RYZlVdXng.

Schmidt, M. (2013). At Your Service. Quality Progress, 46(11), 38-43.

Schrum, L. (2009). Leading 21^st century schools. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

Tate, M. (2012). “Sit & git” won’t grow dendrites (2^nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.