EDLD+5362+Reflection

Our district technology plan has been located on our website for a number of years, however prior to this course I never knew it was there. Reading this document gave me insight into the goals of our district as related to technology. Speaking with the district Director of Technology and a member of the Technology Task Force helped to shed light on a number of the goals. Since taking this course and completing this assignment, a number of factors have changed. The most important being budgets. I was able to sit in on a Technology Task Force meeting this year and it is devastating to see the effect of the state and school budget crisis on technology integration. This new situation allows me to see the technology plan in a new way. Another important factor to the future of technology use and the technology plan.Our superintendent's vision for technology use in our district is ambitious but reasonable. I would love to see the difference in this assignment if I were to complete it today, over a year after the original.
 * Reflection Part A**
 * __Self – Assessment__**

In completing this assignment, I gathered information from a number of sources. I spoke with our Director of Technology and used the district’s technology plan. Since the completion of this course, I have found a number of alternatives I can use including Screenr which I have most recently used for an upcoming staff development. I hope to continue to learn and use a variety of software and web-based applications. I feel this will better assist me when helping teachers to find the best technology to integrate into their lessons. Focusing my efforts on utilizing open source software will also help to minimize costs and allow for budgets to be used on equipment and other programs (Guhlin, 2007, p. 18), an important consideration with today’s budget crisis.
 * __Learn as a Learner__**

A large focus in our district technology plan is on the issue of technology literacy and technology applications requirements. “Although Title ll, part D of NCLB succeeded in placing a new emphasis on technology literacy educators were left with little energy to tackle the issue” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 82). Teachers now have even more on their plates with regards to what they are required to include and teach their students. Even with this, the state has decided to eliminate the Technology Applications graduate requirement. This is in direct opposition to TEA’s goal to “continue to support the Technology Applications high school courses and their roll in teaching advanced technology knowledge and skills while supporting core curriculum content” (Texas Education Agency, 2006, p. 19). Without this requirement, some students are graduating high school with no technology training. Luckily our district has passed a local graduation requirement, with help from our Director of Technology and other technology staff across the district. Next school year, all freshmen will be required to take Principles of Information Technology. I hope that our district continues to value the importance of technology use by teachers and students.
 * __Lifelong Learning Skills__**

Guhlin, M. (2007, February). The case for open source. //Technology & Learning//, p. 18. Texas Education Agency. (2006). //Long-Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020.// > Austin: Texas Education Agency. Williamson, J., & Redish, T. (2009). //ISTE's Technology Facilitation and// > //Leadership Standards:// //What Every K-12 Leaders Should Know and// > //Be Able to Do.// Eugene: International Society for Technology in Education.
 * __Bibliography__**

**Reflection Part B**
After interviewing our Director of Technology and our campus PEIMS coordinator, I was given a lot of insight into the amount of consideration that went into purchasing our new student information system. Previously our school had a separate system; one was strictly for student information and attendance. Another program was used for keeping student grades and tracking them from year-to-year was done in the student information system. I know this was difficult for teachers and students as there was not one central location for all information. Through this assignment, I was able to learn of the additional reasons for choosing Skyward as our student information system. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was one of the major reasons for the change. With Skyward our district was better able to fulfill “the NCLB requirement for parent involvement by making it possible for parents to access information on their child” (Darby & Hughes, 2005, para. 8). Prior to Skyward parents had limited information access, mainly grades only. Now they are able to see all information for their child. I see this as a huge benefit for the parents and the district.
 * __Self – Assessment__**

When completing this assignment, it was easy to discuss the issues with the PEIMS coordinator at my campus. I conducted the interview with our Director of Technology through e-mail. I found the e-mail interview as the best option throughout all of my courses. It allowed me to have written copies of all of the interviewees answers. The interviews helped me to understand how student information systems are essential to school districts and how expensive they can be. When purchasing Skyward, our district bought the base software and then paid for additional modules (Chachere, 2010). Before this course and these interviews, I had thought that the SIS would include everything (gradebook, graduation requirements, health requirements, PEIMS, test scores, and Family & Student Access) in the base price and that paying extra was not necessary.
 * __Learn as a Learner__**

It was interesting to see what the advantages Skyward had, along with its drawbacks. Both of the people I spoke with mentioned Skyward’s lack of adequate help and help documentation. There were some tutorials that many found to be confusing and opposite of helpful. There was also no documentation given to the district with regard on how to complete certain tasks, how to setup a grade book, dropping students, sending messages, and more all had to be figured out by the user and then shared with others. I personally would see this as a negative to this as a viable SIS option. It was eye-opening to see that this wasn’t a priority. The performance of the software outweighed that as a consideration. As a technology leader, I would see this as an opportunity to create help documentation specific to our district and our district’s needs. It would open the door for online tutorials, screencasts, and online collaboration tools to help develop and distribute help to the staff (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p. 22).
 * __Lifelong Learning Skills__**

Chachere, S. (2010, January 20). Skyward. (L. Roberts, Interviewer) Darby, R., & Hughes, T. (2005). The evolution of student information systems. > //THE Journal//. Williamson, J., & Redish, T. (2009). //ISTE's Technology Facilitation and// > //Leadership Standards:// //What Every K-12 Leaders Should Know and// > //Be Able to Do.// Eugene: International Society for Technology in Education.
 * __Bibliography__**