Technology Center Analysis

Kristin Danielle Sapp FRIT 7738 - spring 2012 Technology Program Administrator Technology Center Analysis Activity

Technology Center Analysis

Technology Center Analysis Index

Executive Summary .pg. 3-5 Organizational Chart pg. 5-7 Methods ...pg. 8 Center Context and Goals pg. 8-10 Center Activities ..pg. 10-12 Evaluation pg. 13-21 Monthly Report pg. 22-23 Appendix 24-28 Reference 29

Technology Center Analysis

Technology Center Analysis Executive Summary:

Long county school system is a rural Title I school system in Southeast Georgia serving approximately 2500 students. The technology coordinator is over all three schools K-12 schools in the county as well as the board of education office. This technology coordinator reports to the superintendent, instructional coordinators, and administration at each of the schools. Currently, she is in her sixth year with this particular school system. Before becoming a technology director, she was a high school teacher. She mentioned that her expectations for the technology position were the same as expectation for teaching which were very different than the actual job. The job includes many more responsibilities other than simply technology. Since this is a very small school system, there is only one technology director who has multiple responsibilities. She feels that working in this small school district makes her job more difficult. The technology department is responsible for an abundance of technology including any problems with technology from the internet, network connections, computer problems, smart boards, phones, and more many technologies become her responsibility. However, she feels that she learns a lot more and has much more experience than other technology coordinators in larger school districts. To assist the technology coordinator, there are two maintenance assistants who work to handle computer issues. She contracts an engineer who visits the school as needed for technology work. An SIS, system information specialist, also assists the technology director. This person is in charge of the schools data such as students records in the computer. Many employees in the curriculum department, including administrators, instructional coaches assist in handling the instructional technology duties of assisting teachers with the implementing of technology into

Technology Center Analysis

Technology Center Analysis everyday instruction. It was very interesting to find out that most of the curriculum support of technology is managed by the Instructional Coordinators.

The technology departments main goal at this time is to perform routine maintenance and need repairs on networks, hardware, and software. They believe that if all technology is working properly, it makes that technology more effective. Technology technicians try to answer all helpdesk tickets logged by employees within 24 school hours. Most repairs can be performed in the classroom. If there is a major problem, they fix it as quickly as possible and return the technology to the teachers classroom. The classrooms in Long County Schools are filled with technologies such as teacher and student computers, projectors, Smart Boards, Elmos, Airlines, Apple I-Pads, online student resources, and e-instruction materials such as Classroom Performance Systems and Mobi interactive tablets. Technology is also incorporated through exploratory/special classes. These classes include keyboarding, business education, and extended learning time activities. Keyboard teaches students to use the keyboard and to type a productive speed. Business education introduces and teaches the students how to use all Microsoft Office technologies. The ELT, extended learning time class, provides extra support to struggling students. The classworks program is used in these classes to tailor instruction and provide lessons on each students level to build and increase reading and math skills. To evaluate the technology departments effectiveness, I observed technology classes in action, interviewed several school employees, and collected teacher surveys. I found strong and weak points of the technology center. Technology maintenance is handled seriously, quickly, and effectively. The internet and network connections are strong and reliable.

Technology Center Analysis

Technology Center Analysis The classrooms in Long County Schools are filled with technology which is a positive aspect in my report. All teachers have personal laptops and projectors. Most classrooms also

include Classroom Performance Systems, Smart Boards, and Elmos. When you walk through the classrooms, you will observe teachers and students using the available technology. While the school system has a vast variety of technologies available in the classroom, they lack in the amount of student computers available. Another weak point deals with the amount of teacher support and professional development. The majority of teachers agree that they could benefit from classes on how to use and implement that technology into instruction. Some teachers, who are not as technology savvy, admitted to not using technology due to the lack of training.

Evaluation Organizational charts: Technology Department and Responsibilities: In long county schools, the technology department officially has four employees. However, there are many other school employees that are involved in the use and evaluation of technology. This includes teachers, instructional coaches and supervisors, administrators, and office personal. To shed light on all technology responsibilities, I created a chart. The chart is divided into two key departments dealing with technology. These departments are the technology department and the curriculum department. According to my interview and observations, the technology coordinator is considered to be part of both departments and in charge of all technology responsibilities. Bratton stated, I am the one that will be asked the questions at the end. Therefore any technology responsibility will eventually go through me. Most decisions are approved by me, and mot mistakes are blamed on me, she stated jokingly.

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The organizer that I created illustrates the two departments, employees in that department, and technology responsibilities of those employees. Visit the following link to view the organizer: www.gliffy.com/publish/3440255/ Evaluation Categories: Through many hours of observation in the technology center, instruction coachs daily tasks, regular education and special education classrooms, and exploratory classes, I gained much knowledge regarding all of the many aspects of technology in schools. Using teacher interviews, surveys, and observations, I brainstormed the most important components of effective use of technology in the classroom. Then, I formed questions to help with the evaluation process. The following organizational chart shows these points and questions Technology Department Maintenance Help Desk Internet Connections Technology support Technology functioning Is maintenance performed? How often? Are these answered quickly and effectively? Is the connection reliable and quick? What support is provided? Do teachers need more support? Are the technology resources in the classroom working properly?

Professional Development: Resources provided for teachers Training Technology usage What technology is available for teachers to use in their classroom? What professional development for using technology opportunities are available? How often is technology being used in the classroom? What type of technology? What factors could help increase technology

Technology Center Analysis

Technology Center Analysis usages? What do teachers feel are technology needs in their classroom? What is needed in the classroom to enhance student learning? Teacher Technology Beliefs: Instruction Effects Collaboration Management Reliability Can technology enhance instruction? Can technology change instruction? Does technology help with teacher collaboration? How does technology help teachers manage their students and classrooms? Do teachers feel that technology is easy to use and reliable?

Teacher Needs Student Needs

Methods for Collecting Data: I collected data through observation, interviews, and surveys created with survey monkey. The survey was meant to help gather information from teachers throughout the county. I spent my observation day in the technology center, computer labs, and many classrooms where technology is prevalent. First, the technology coordinator introduced me to all of the technology employees and explained their responsibilities. In this county, there is only one technology coordinator and two technology specialists. I interviewed two of the technology employees for this report. Next, I visited the elementary school library and computer lab, as well as two third grade classroom teachers who frequently use technology. After that, I visited the middle schools computer lab

Technology Center Analysis

Technology Center Analysis teachers in their classroom setting. Lab instruction consists of a key boarding class, a business

class, and a remediation class. For remediation, in both elementary and middle school settings, the Classworks system is in place. I spent the rest of my day with the instructional coach. I assisted with walk through observations of instruction. We also visited the I-Pad pilot classroom where I observed eighth graders engaged in technology instruction using apps on a class set of Apple Ipads. Center Context and Goals: Technology Center of Long County Schools consists of four employees including the technology coordinator. The center also usually has one to two volunteers on staff. Instructional coaches at the three schools also work closely with the technology department and educators. Both IT technicians both have computer based degrees earn through technical colleges. Their degrees trained them to repair computer software and hardware. They can usually fix any problem that arises with all technology in the system. The technology coordinator is the only one with an educational background. She was a high school teacher for over ten years before earning her technology degree. Volunteers include high school and college students who need experiences with technology. The instructional coaches were all once educators who have earned Masters degrees in various areas. While they link the technology department to the teachers at their school, they are not truly considered employees with the technology department. The primary stakeholders of implemented technology programs are students, teachers, parents, instructional coaches, administration, technology director, and technology specialists. The teachers and the students are both stakeholders mainly because they are the ones who must use the technology for learning purposes. The students learning can be affected by the technology used in the classrooms and for remediation. The teachers are responsible for implementing technology into

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their everyday instruction. The teachers are also stakeholders because they are the main person in charge of monitoring student progress, mastery level of the standards, meeting all students needs, plan instruction that prepares students for the CRCT to insure that student perform successfully to assist their school in meeting state standards of AYP. Administrators are considered stakeholders because they are responsible for ensuring that their school is meeting standards and achieving state AYP goals. The administration could be re-assigned or lose their job if they do not show that they can lead a high performing school. They are responsible for the whole picture of using technology and interventions to reach all students. Parents are stakeholders because they rely on schools to educate their children. Parent involvement is also very important to the students success in school, behavior, attendance, and life-long learning at home. The technology director will be the one who must answer and repair any technical problems that arise. The technology specialists will be the ones responsible for maintaining and ensuring that all the technology is working properly. Instructional coaches hold a stake in all programs and technology, because they are the ones who educators will depend on to help with implementing new programs into everyday instruction. The mission of the center is to maintain all networks, hardware, software, email, Power School resource, copies, phones, and wireless connections. If all aspects of technology are running smoothly, then technology can be used and implemented properly into classroom instruction. The employees of the center work to their best ability to answer all helpdesk logged tickets each day. Problems are used addressed at the scene as long as in can be resolved easily in the classroom without removal of the hardware. The technology coordinators mission is to keep the technology in the classroom running properly in there homes. One goal of the technology team is to bring technology into every class. They would like every teacher to implement the newest technologies into their classrooms. Moving away from

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pencil and paper, use of online books, finding and using available resources from the world wide web, and instruction tailored toward all students are a few of the goals that the team believes can be met through the use of technology. The technology team and technology coordinator both agree that their main goal is to implement I-Pads into every classroom.

Center Activities: Technology Department: The technology center employees include the head Technology Specialists, program operation secretary, and two IT technicians. The IT technicians also have high school and college volunteers who help with assisting teachers with technology and technology inventories. These employees share responsibilities of all three schools in the county and the board of education office. The technicians office is located in the Annex building at the Board of Education. This is located within walking distance of the high school and the middle school. However, technicians must drive to the elementary school. The two IT computer technicians along with volunteer students have a classroom size area with desks and computer repair areas. Any computer, printer, copier, or other hardware that is nonoperational is sent here in hopes that it can be revived. The IT employees are often out visiting schools, because they are in charge of all teacher technology help desk logs as well. The technology specialist and programs operations secretary are in their own office. The program operations secretary is mainly in charge of the Power School software database which stores all student information, attendance, and teacher grades. She serves as a secretary to technology specialist as well. The technology specialist is the head of the entire technology department.

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Technology Center Analysis All jobs discussed during the interview are displayed on the website: http://www.gliffy.com/publish/2909107/.

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The system uses the problem Help Desk to manage all communication between school employees and the technology department. If an employee has any technical program, they must login to the Help Desk. Once logged in, they are to submit a ticket stating their name, room number, and technology problem. The ticket is received by the IT technicians and addressed according to time of submission and importance of the problems. For the most part, they are addressed on a first come first serve basis. However, the Technology Specialists also rank the importance of the technology problem, the most urgent request are answered first. The specialists are also responsible for periodic maintenance to networks, software, wireless networks, and all technology hardware. There are periodic maintenance checklists that most be followed weekly, monthly, and yearly. As more technology is introduced into the classroom, the technicians are adding more responsibilities such as knowledge operating, repairing, and maintaining the new resource. Computer Labs: Classworks program: The elementary and middle schools both use two computers labs during student specials. These classes are used to assist teachers and students in the Tier II of RTI process. Students, who are struggling with Reading and Math, are enrolled in the Extra Learning Time lab special. During this time, the classworks computer program is used as the main form of instruction. Classworks provides extra activities to increase students Reading level and Math skills. The students take a pretest to determine their current level. Each student begins on their own level of questions, and they work through modules. These modules are meant to allow students to work up to their current

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grade level or one above their level. Once the students are passing modules and assessments at grade level, they graduate from the class. If students continue to struggle or show extreme difficulty, they are moved to the Tier III phase of intervention, where they are tested for special education services. The middle school and high school have two other computers labs each which are also used in specials or electives. These are used for word processing and business classes. Therefore, all current computer labs are used for technology classes. There is not a computer lab for check out or for whole class visits. All media centers have computers for student use. However, the numbers are not enough for the amount of students in an ordinary class. The middle and high school library have nine computers, while the elementary school has twelve computers. Technology Center Evaluation: In order to evaluation the technology center properly, I gathered information from many stakeholders through several forms. First, I visited the technology center where I interviewed all employees including the technology coordinator. Next, I observed regular education classrooms to view if technology was being used and with what means. If the teacher could talk, I conducted a brief interview concerning the lesson. During classroom observations, I visited library and classroom computer laps. This gave important information about student computers that were available and how they are used throughout the day. Since classworks is a computer based program used for interventions for struggling students. I observed classes in action using the classworks program. I also interviewed the technology teachers of the Extended Learning Time classroom concerning their experience using classworks. Last, I created an online technology survey for all teachers in Long County School System to complete. At first the amount of information was overwhelming. However, I divided all of the responsibilities into several categories and questions.

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Each heading is a responsibility of the technology center that I felt was valuable to the overall evaluation. Technology Maintenance: Helpdesk is used to submit technology maintenance requests. Every teacher in the county can login and submit a technology request ticket. These tickets are responded by a technology technician visit to the classroom. The technology coordinator enforces a 24 hour rule where all tickets must get a response within one to two school days. Usually the problem is solved within that time. However, if the problem with technology is severe, the technology will be moved to the tech shop for repairs and returned as soon as possible. The teacher survey validated that technology requested are answered quickly and effectively. Most of the technology in the classroom is working properly. However, 38% said that some of their technology wasnt currently working as they would like. Some technologies, such as student computers, are out of date and load slowly. Another problem with having a limited staff is the fact that teachers are expected to perform some maintenance on the technology in their classrooms. This proves to be difficult for some who have little experience with computers. Internet Connection: According to teacher technology surveys, the internet connection seems to be working effectively. All teachers agreed that the internet has occasional problems, but not enough to interfere with instruction. Overall they felt that the internet connection was reliable and steady. Of course, they answered that they could always use faster internet, but stated that it was not a top priority or necessity. However, in their surveys and interviews, the teachers mentioned that educational websites are often blocked when needed to use in the classroom. Many teachers have experienced using a website with a class in the morning, but the same page being blocked for their

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afternoon classes. One problem that I noticed during observation of the I-Pad instruction class is that older students know how to use loop holes in the internet security to visit games, facebook, and other social networking blogs. Technology Use: Long County schools seem to be up to date with their technology and have a vast amount of resources available for teachers. Every classroom in the elementary school and all fourth and fifth grade classrooms in the middle school have a teacher laptop, at least two student desktop computers, Smart Board, projector, elmo, classroom performance system, and wireless mouse airliners. The 6th through 8th grade classrooms include all of these technologies as well except for Smart Boards. However, about half of these classrooms are equip with Smart boards. The technology director and instructional coaches have a goal of purchasing boards for all upper grades middle school teachers. Even though there is more technology needed in some areas, the technology available in the classrooms is used for instructional purposes. According to their teacher surveys, the majority of teachers implement technology resources into their instruction. All teachers use their laptop everyday. Other forms of technology are used daily by 92% of teachers. According to the survey results, 70% use their projectors daily with the other 30% use their projectors weekly. Smart Boards are used daily by 80% and weekly by 20%. Overall, the teachers seem to have positive attitudes towards the use of technology. All teachers agreed that technology has changed the way that they teach, enhanced their instruction, improved teacher communication and collaboration, and have proved to be reliable. On the other hand, a trend that I found through all three schools, elementary middle, and high, is that access to more student computers is greatly needed. Each teacher in the three schools

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has access to two through six student computers in their classrooms. However, they admit that it is still not enough for students to have many interactions with the technology. The elementary library has twelve computers available for use. However, the middle and high school share a library. This library has nine working computers for middle and high school students. Teachers can sign up to check out these computers, but it isnt enough for an entire class. All computer labs in these schools are used for classes and are not available for class check out. The middle school had a rolling laptop computer cart available for class check out. Nevertheless, this year, the administrator distributed these computers between the gifted education teacher and other classroom teachers. The technology coordinator and administrators are trying to solve this problem by purchasing used computers and I-pads for instruction. Their goal for next year is to have I-pad carts available for each grade level and eventually have I-pads available for each student. As of now, each school has one pilot class testing the use of I-pads for instruction. When I interviewed these teachers, they were very positive about their experiences. They agreed that the students took time learning how to use the technology especially for educational purposes as students would rather play games. But the teachers agreed that monitor students was fairly easy. One eighth grade teacher allowed for observation of her classroom. She demonstrated using edmoto for daily class assignments, homework, and parent contacts. The students came into the classroom, took I-pad for the cart according to their assigned number, and started their class assignment quietly. From what I observed, all students were engaged and on task. I think that these could benefit instruction. Professional Development: Ninety two percent of teachers agreed that school systems often provide new

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technology with expectations that the classroom teacher will learn to use them independently. Often there is not any formal instruction or professional development workshops or websites provided to support the use of the technology. Half of the teachers admitted to not using a new technology often, quickly, or at all because of they did not feel comfortable with using the technology. All teachers agreed that they could benefit from training on using new technology, implementing technology, real classroom ideas, and pre-created lessons for technology usage. According to the technology coordinator, professional development training is a problem because the school system is small with a limited technology staff. She fills the position as the technology coordinator and instruction technologist. As the only technology coordinator for the entire county, she is in charge of the technicians, maintenance, networks, and any other technology issues. Therefore, although she would like, she doesnt have the time to fill the position of instruction technology. She believes that they should add an instructional technology position to the county especially with the amount of new technology pouring into the classroom. Classworks Program: In order to learn more about the classworks program, I used the program in my classroom, observed the computer lab classes, and interviewed the Extended Learning Time teachers who are in charge of using the system in their class. The classworks system is fairly easy to use for teachers and students. They program tailors assignments to each student according to their level of understanding based on pre-assessment results. There is an abundance of review activities and lessons for the students to complete. When the student completes a lesson with a passing grade, they may move on to the next lesson. Each lesson moves the students up a tiny bit on the level scale. The program slowly trains the students until ideally they are working on their grade level. Therefore the program really differentiates instruction and meets all students needs. According

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Technology Center Analysis my observations and interviews, assessment of students achievement reports can be easily

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assessed, printed, and used by the instruction. All teachers stated that they printed weekly reports for all students and lessons. The report of lessons would also give the teachers information about what review activities and/or lessons should be repeated by what student. As you compare all of the weekly reports, you can see students gains. All students showed some gains, and the majority of students gained at least one grade level in a month. On the other hand, there are some negatives points when using the classworks program. Another problem that I noticed was that the teacher had to visit each students computer to type in their pass code to allow them to proceed to the next test. This took much of the instructions time away from individually helping students in need. According to the teacher interviews, one aggravation of the program is that the program will require the student to take a certain quiz until they pass it, but it doesnt offer any type of review on some of the lesson. One major drawback of the problem is that some lessons have too many questions for the student to possible complete within one class period. If there was a way to save work in the program, the student could simply save and start back the next day. However, the students are not able to save, and they must start the lesson over from the beginning during the next class period. During my observation, I noticed several issues with technology operation and network set up issues that need to be address. First, all students were required to log on to the computer using their own personal login ID and password. Since the computers in the lab were a little old fashioned, it took a considerable amount of time for the students to login to the computer and open classworks. Two computers were completely down, and three would not logon properly. The students assigned to these sets had to move to a new computer where they had to login again which took up more class instruction time.

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Technology Center Analysis One day in the lab, there was a new student enrolled in the class. The student hadnt

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received a login ID, so the teacher had to assist him with logging into the computer. The student also was not entered into the classworks program. Therefore, the student couldnt begin working on the program, the student was told to play reading games on educationcity.com or funbrain.com for the class period. The teachers can to a consensus when asked the follow question; Would you recommend the use of classworks in the classroom and other schools? Why or Why not? All teachers answered that they would recommend the program to other educators, because the positive gains for students far outweigh the negative aspects of the program. They also agreed on the fact that when used properly, classworks can be a very effective classroom tool for struggling reading or math students. While there are some issues that need to be resolved, the class ran smoothly once every student became engaged in their lessons. The resources were kid friend and interesting. Students were engaged in assignments on their computers. Overall, I believe that the program is effective in benefiting students and reaching the goals of the ELT class. Final Recommendations: Based on the information above, it is concluded that the Long County Technology Center operates effectively according to its mission and goals. Stakeholders are given assist when needed and there is an understood process on how to receive needed assistance. Stakeholders feel that overall that the technology department successfully handles any technology issues quickly, effectively, and with little or no disruption to their classes.

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While the center in effective in the operations and maintenance of technology. There are some recommendations that can be made to help the center reach all needs of the stakeholders to further reach their final mission and goals. With new technology emerging and growing rapidly in the classroom, my first recommendation would be to add a new Instructional Technology position to the technology department. I based this recommendation on the teacher surveys, technology employees interviews, and instruction coach interviews. The consensus between the technology coordinator and instruction coaches was that they have too many other responsibilities to really focus on technology training and assisting teachers with using the technology in their classrooms. The teacher surveys also confirmed that this was an issue. The majority of teachers answered that they could benefit from more professional development training on using and implementing technology into the classroom. Many feel that new technology is often purchased and disturbed without formal training. Although most teachers train themselves to use the technology, others let the technology go unused. I believe that adding an instructional technology coordinator would increase instruction with technology, give teachers the confidence to use new technologies such as I-Pads, and assist with correcting technology issues. My second recommendation for this school system deals with student computers. It seems that there is a lack of student computers available. Even though the school has computer labs, they are used for instructional classes. Based on my observations of the computer classes, I do not believe that the computer classes should be terminated. The exploratory computer classes are effective and important to the education process. Therefore, as a short term goal, I think that they should add at least one computer lab that can be checked out by teachers for class visits. Based on

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my observations of the I-pad pilot class, I agree that the school system should continuing working on their long term goal of purchasing I-pads class sets for the entire staff. Along with the recommendation to keep the exploratory computer classes, I do believe that one or more of those classes should remain an Extended Learning Class to help struggling students. According to my observation and the computer teacher interviews, I would recommend that the classworks program should continue to be implemented for interventions. My final recommendation addresses internet and network issues. Based on teacher interviews and surveys, accessing educational websites can be difficult at times. However, other times, students can navigate to inappropriate websites. I think that they should reformat or use a different program for pop-up blocking. Also, there needs to be an easy way for educators to unblock a website for educational purposes. The main problem that teachers are experiencing is that during planning, and/or first class period, they can access a website. However, when I try to open the educational website with classes, they have been blocked which interprets class time. Another recommendation that I would make deals with the network login system. This recommendation came from my classroom observations and teacher surveys. I would change the network so that every student does not have to login to use the computers. This was especially a problem for the younger students. I observed that login consumes class time, interprets teacher from interacting with students for educational purposes, and causes confusion at times. Throughout the evaluation portion of this report, I discussed many specific technology topics. For each topic, there is an explanation of the technology, teacher interview and survey results, and strengths and weaknesses of each topic. I selected the most important weaknesses to form my recommendations.

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Part B: Monthly / Quarterly Report: Throughout this school year, the technology and curriculum departments have joined together to reach goals of becoming a technology focused school. They have made important purchases, changes, and filled needs of teachers and students. Many new purchases have been made during this school year to help the technology use in the classroom grow. A few of the new technology hardware purchases include e-instruction resources such as classroom performance systems and Mobi mobile writing tablets. The school system has also take a step towards their goal of implementing I-Pads into the classrooms by adding one pilot class to every school. These pilot classes are issued a class set of I-pads for student use during the learning process. Recent technology purchases also include resources for students. Subscriptions to sumdog.com and educationcity.com were recently purchased. These programs give students their own login Its. When they login, they play math, reading, and language arts games to earn points. They can compete against students in their class, school, state, or even other countries. These resources can be used a school or home and have sparked healthy competitions between students.

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Technology Center Analysis The wireless internet connection has improved dramatically this quarter due to new

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wireless routers added at the ends of every hallway. In years past, there was one wireless router on the ceiling in the center of the hallway for all classes. However, these were only effective for those middle classrooms. The ones at the end of the hallway had very weak signals if they were picking up the wireless signal at all. Since the new routers have been installed, all laptops can connect to internet very effectively. The technology department has been using high school and college student volunteers to assist teachers in periodical maintenance and cleaning up computer files. They are installing Adaware and Malwarebytes programs to the student and teacher computers. These are quick and easy programs that teachers can run weekly or biweekly to keep the computers running smoothly. Not only are the cleaning the files on the computers, they are taking the computer apart and using canned air to dust inside modems and keyboards. These volunteers have also been in charge of a new technology inventory system. Usually the teachers fill in a paper technology inventory at the end of the year. However, this is extremely time-consuming to sort and many teachers record the wrong identification number. With the help of these volunteers, every piece of technology will have a barcode which will contain important information, such as type of technology, year, model, and location. This is a better system for obtaining an exact count and tracking system of all the technology in Long County Schools. By having the help of these volunteers, the technicians have been able to make more classroom visits and answer helpdesk more quickly and effectively. All helpdesk tickets have been answered within one class day verses the normal 24 hour rule. Most have been quickly resolved in the classroom on that date. Helpdesk tickets have also decreased by 15% this month. Technicians have also had time to clean email systems, update network options, and add more features to the

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Technology Center Analysis Power School attendance and grading program. All of these items have improved the use of technology on a daily basis to improve classroom instruction.

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Technology Center Analysis Appendix A: Classworks Computer Lab Interviews: 1. How many students do you currently have in your classroom per grade level? 4th5th6th7th8th2. How would you rate the ease of use for the classroom teacher? 12345very difficult difficult medium fairly easy very easy

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3. How would you rate the ease of use of the students? 12345very difficult difficult medium fairly easy very easy

4. Have you noticed student achievement/ improvement when using classworks? 5. How did you access achievement? 6. What are some drawbacks of classworks? 7. Would you recommend classworks be used in the classroom and at other schools? Why or Why not? 8. What is the new schedule for classworks? 9. Other comments.. (record other responses)

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Technology Center Analysis Appendix B: Teacher Technology survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J8HGHNX

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1. Internet Connections:
Connects automatically without problems occasional problems daily problems with connection connection unreliable

2. Use of website:
Websites are available when needed Websites are usually working / but sometimes blocked Websites needed are unreliable due to blocks Websites that I need are blocked often

3. Teacher labtop:
works perfectly some glitchessome days some glitches--everyday many glitches major problems that affect use of this computer

4. Hardware in classroom- computers, elmo, SmartBoard, etc..

all technology is currently working most technology is currently working many technologies are broken all technology has some problem all technology is not working

5. How often do you use the following technologies?

Never Technology Description Computer Yearly Monthly Weekly Daily

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Technology Center Analysis Never Television VCR/VHS tapes DVD Player Projector ActivBoard Digital cameras (still) Yearly Monthly Weekly Daily

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6. I believe....
STRONGLY STRONGLY AGREE DISAGREE AGREE DISAGREE Technology can enhance instruction Technology has changed the way that I teach School systems expect us to learn new technologies without formal training Technology is a good tool for collaboration with other teachers when building unit plans Technology is useful in managing student data, such as attendance and grades Technology is unreliable

7. Technology needs
1- 2- I 3- Would 54not could improve Greatly Needed at all use instruction needed More training to use technology Technology Center Analysis 26

Technology Center Analysis 1- 2- I 3- Would 54not could improve Greatly Needed at all use instruction needed More support from administration when it comes to my technology needs More technical support to keep computers and software running Access to more student computers More curriculum-based software More reliable access to the internet for students More opportunities to collaborate with colleagues on how to use technology in my discipline Faster access to the internet

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Technology Center Analysis Appendix C: Classroom Observations: Teacher: Question What technology is available in the classroom? Is technology being used in instruction? What hardware and software are used? How are they being used? Are students using technology? Are students engaged in the lesson? Technology Problems Observed (if any) Teacher / Student comments concerning technology. Additional Observation (Evaluation) Grade: Notes on Observation

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Technology Center Analysis References Brannen, C. (February 28, 2012). Technology Specialist, Personal Communication. Bratton, L. (January 12, 2012). Technology Director, Personal Communication. Deloach, J. (2012). Technology Specialist, Personal Communication. Long County Public School Systems. (2012). Technology Plan. Retrieved from: http://www.longcountyps.com/Departments/Technology_Dept/AUP.pdf Rogers, M. (March 22, 2012). Classroom Teacher, Personal Communication. Sikes, A. (March 8, 2012). Walker Middle School, Extended Learning Time Computer Instructor, Personal Communication. Survey Monkey, (March 30, 2012). Personal Communication Survey, Retrieved from: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J8HGHNX.

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