Week 5 Reflections

Instructional Leadership
Week 5 Assignment
Course Reflections

Question 1
What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?
Looking back, when I first enrolled in this course, I expected that Instructional Leadership would deal with using my personal experiences and being exposed to the latest educational research to be better prepared to guide teachers in applying best practices and teaching methods to improve the academic achievement of their students. After reading the course syllabus, I found that the class would focus more on the application of technology in the classroom. Although, based on research referenced in this class, the use of technology is one of the up and coming best practices. I feel this class focused solely on the use of technology as an instructional tool, and other instructional practices may have been overlooked or only minimally explored. The title of the course may have been misleading, but after reviewing the performance outcomes, I do feel that the course did provide activities to ensure that the participants had experience with various forms of technology that can be used to enhance learning in the classroom. The use of blogs, and other telecommunications systems was used to apply and report data from a variety of sources. Perhaps the results from this course that had the greatest impact included the actual creation of a personal blog, a tool I had never before used, and the identification of a variety of data sources such as the Texas STaR chart, the NET*S technology evaluation criteria and the Vision 2020: Long-Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020. Even though my original vision and expectations for this course were slightly different from the professors’ vision, overall, I would say this was a valuable learning experience.

Question 2
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 outcomes suggest that participants in the class will be able to use data to make informed decisions, recognize the digital needs of students and campuses, help to meet technology goals, and identify social, legal and ethical use of technology. Additionally, participants would analyze current research in technology, use technology to monitor and evaluate the changing needs of schools, and use technology and telecommunications systems to enhance teaching and learning. All of these goals are very relevant to my current position and the future positions that I hope to be better prepared for through the completion of this program. This course has helped me to better understand the principal’s role in providing the necessary technology for teachers to be successful in the implementation of technology in the classroom, but more importantly, it has helped me to recognize the changing needs of students and how the teacher and administration must work together to provide a curriculum and experiences that best meet the needs of those students and their academic achievement.

Question 3
What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?
Two the course outcomes dealt directly with promoting the success of students, by “advocating, nurturing and sustaining a campus culture . . . through leadership, and management of the organization, operations and resources. . . .” As a participant in this class, I was exposed to the importance of fulfilling this obligation; however, I do not feel that I ever actually had a chance to make a lasting difference on my campus. We have learned that lasting change on a campus is a slow process, and this is no different. With the short duration of this course, no lasting change can truly be evaluated, but the experiences in this course have prepared me to seek out ways that our campus could benefit from greater application of technology in the classroom. I hope to take these experiences and not only apply them in my classroom, but to share my uses of technology with others so that they too may incorporate a greater use of technology. I am not currently in a position where I can mandate the use of technology, but I can serve as an advocate and through modeling the use of technology, I may be able to impact how other teachers on my campus use technology in their classroom.

Question 4
Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?
Based on my grades from the first three weeks of the course, I was successful in completing all of the course assignments. I have received 100% credit for each of those assignments. I have not received grades for Week 4 or Week 5 (obviously) yet, so I am not sure how successful I will be on those assignments. I believe that if I am not successful on any of the weekly assignments, it will be the Week 4 assignment. I was very confused on what the exact requirements for the Week 4 Technology Plan. I did not feel that the directions were explicit enough; a specific format would have been helpful. The professors may have purposely been ambiguous with the directions for this assignment to allow students to express their own creativity, but many of the directions were so convoluted with educational jargon that I, along with many of my colleagues were unclear on exactly what the professors wanted and what needed to be included in the Technology Plan. After reviewing many of the Technology Plans created by my colleagues, I am not sure if the assignment I turned in was appropriate or not. I do think that my work fulfilled all of the requirements set forth in the rubric. Many of my colleagues used varying degrees of depth to cover each of the requirements, and I feel that my work falls squarely in the middle of the efforts put forth my colleagues. I think that overall, I will find myself successful on this project, but with more explicit directions, I could be more certain.




Question 5
What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

This class has forced me to analyze my own views of technology and its applications in the classroom. I have come to the conclusion that I am probably slightly ahead of most of my colleagues in the use of technology in the classroom, but I still have a long way to go. I still feel that good old fashioned teaching methods have an important place in the classroom, but this course has helped me to understand that the integration of technology can support those classical teaching methods to better impact student learning. I have worked this year to integrate technology more regularly in my classroom. With the implementation of the new English TEKS, which include specific research skills that students are required to master, I have chosen to incorporate a year-long research project. Since modern research is so heavily based in technology, I have been able to utilize the schools technology on a more regular basis. I have learned that many of my students who think they are very proficient on in the use of technology, are not quite as savvy as they claim. Time in my classroom has been spent explaining the different types of resources available on the internet such as databases. Students are fairly proficient in using search engines, but I have found that many of them never look any further into the results than the first available site. When they do look at multiple sites, they have difficulty deciding which sites are the most reliable. As I have identified these problems, I have created lessons, much of which are based on information from this class, to help students evaluate the reliability of web sites. As with any new lesson that I am having success with, I have shared this lesson with those around me, and in turn, they have used my experience in this course to impact the learning of their students. I think having impact outside of those with whom you have direct contact is a sign of a good leader.

Question 6
What is the educational value of blogs and blogging to the 21st century learner?

Blogging was a fairly new experience for me when I started this class. I had participated in blogging only once before, and the experience was not exactly pleasant. Blogging in this class was a much more valuable experience. As we blogged in this class, I found many valuable ways that blogs could be used in education. One activity in which blogging would be valuable, would be to create a class blog in which students could post questions and responses to a piece of literature that the class is studying. This way, they have a 24 hour “help line” available when they are having difficulty in understanding the material. Blogs can also be a useful tool in research. Students could use blogs to seek out and pose questions to professionals in a variety of subject matter that they may be researching. Additionally, a blog would be a great alternative to student journals used by many teachers as a class entry or exit activity. Teachers too can use blogs to supplement their educational experiences. Teachers can blog with one another to gain insight into activities that have been proven successful in getting students to understand a specific concept, or to gain insight from professionals on any subject a class may be studying.

Question 7

What are the concerns of blogs and blogging in education?

The major concern with blogs, as with any form of technology in education, is security. With most blogs being open forums, anyone can become a follower and post any comment they want on a blog. This can be avoided, or at least regulated, by using private blogging services or school regulated intranet blogs. A second concern with using blogs comes from reliability. Since anyone can start a blog on any subject, if students use a blog as a resource, its reliability has to be called into question. Students need to address the authority of the blog to see if the blogger has enough background in the subject to be able to provide reliable information. A final concern about using blogs as a classroom tool is access. We have seen that not all students have access to the Internet at home, and of course there are always inconsistencies in internet service providers (which students are quick to exploit). If students are asked to post to blogs as part of an assignment, many students may not be able to have easy access to the Internet to be able to make their posts. This could be avoided if all posts are completed during class time, or if students have adequate access to school computer labs. Teachers must be careful that if they require any technology based assignment, that they also provide adequate access and time for students to complete the assignment.

Question 8

How can you use blogging to communicate with school stakeholders?
Blogging can be a useful tool for both teachers and administrators in communicating with students and parents. Teachers can use blogs to communicate with students by posting assignments and answering questions online. Parental support can also be bolstered by creating a parent blog where teachers can inform parents of class activities. Parents too could communicate via the blog to express concerns about assignments or to offer their expertise in material that is being covered in classes. The administration can use blogs to communicate with parents about activities in the school or to promote the school’s successes. By interacting online, students, parents, teachers, administrators and other stakeholders have access to communication at their convenience. This form of communication also reduces instances of miscommunication among stakeholders or the complete breakdown of communication when students fail to deliver important messages to their parents. By using a blog, all stakeholders have access to identical information and no stakeholders have a reason to claim that they were not privy to information distributed by the school.

Action Plan

View more documents from kdstokes.

"Digital Native, Digital Immigrants Part 1" by Marc Prensky

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants: Part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

"Although most attempts at "edutainment" to date have essentially failed from both the education and entertainment perspective, we can - and will I predict - do better."

Finally, a Prensky quote I can at least live with. First he admits that "edutainment" has failed. I am not too concerned with it failing as entertainment, there is plenty of that out there, but I am glad to see he admits that it is failing educationally. I have said before that I can see that his theories are theoretically sound, but not realistic. The end of his quote says a lot. "we can - I PREDICT - to do better. " We all know how well predictions work in education. If predictions of the 1950's had come true, we would all me commuting to work via jet packs and spending vacations on the moon. Predictions do not produce results. I may not use "edutainment" or rely solely on technology to teach my students. I do see the benefits of incorporating it with some of the old tried and true methods of teaching. The old tried and true methods have produced results: tangible, quantitative results that are noticeably absent from Prensky's articles. Maybe I can jump on the Prensky bandwagon when his PREDICTIONS are substantiated with results. Until then, I will continue producing socially and academically successful students who are successful, productive, in the real world using my mix of technology and good old fashion teaching. I will produce the well educated student, and he can continue to produce theories and predictions.

"Listen to the Natives" - LISTEN TO REALITY!

Below is a slightly altered version of my latest discussion post on an article by Marc Prensky. I has such great comments on the last post here that I thought I would add some more.

ENJOY!!!

"Listen to the Natives" by Marc Prensky

Prensky, M. (2005/2006). Listen to the natives. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8-13.

"Teachers must practice putting engagement before content when teaching."

Apparently Mr. Prensky has never taken Curriculum Management. One of the key tenets of that course was "the written, taught, and tested curriculum MUST be aligned." Since the state of has written the content into the TEKS, and the TEKS are what is tested on the TAKS, that is what must be taught. We simply make sure kids are engaged, or we would not be aligning the taught curriculum with the written and tested curriculum. Maybe Mr. Prensky was to busy designing videogames (yes, according to the footnote at the end of this article, that is his job), to figure that out.


I did some checking on Mr. Prensky because I thought that I might not be giving him a fair chance. Apparently, I was. His website lists him as a "visionary, consultant, speaker, inventor, game designer, learning designer and futurist." I think TEACHER is conspicuously missing.
I have a very difficult time accepting teaching advise from someone who has never been a teacher, especially when he makes his money by simply dishing out advice. Did anyone else notice his lack of research or hard evidence (such as student success rates) to support his theories? Maybe I was just too incensed by his indictment of modern teachers to find it. If you do find hard evidence, PLEASE let me know.

Although some of his ideas are theoretically intriguing, I think they are unrealistic.

"Turning on the Lights' by Marc Prensky

As part of the Week 3 assignment for my Instructional Leadership class, I had to read "Turning on the Lights," and article by Marc Prensky. Unfortunately, the article really set me off. I have decided to share my response here, in a more open forum, in hope that I might get some responses from some others who have read this article. Below you will find my original post.


"Turning On the Lights" by Marc Prensky

Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45.

"Long before they ever get into school, kids have seen a tremendous amount of the world."

Maybe it is just that this is Monday after a holiday, and we all had to return to work today, or maybe I am just being bitter, but this article really set me off. Prensky sites modern students' "tremendous [knowledge] of the world" as if it is something new, as if students who entered school previous to this technological age came in completely devoid of knowledge. They didn't. They may not have known about global events, but they did have a working knowledge of the world around them. It was then up to the teachers to develop that knowledge and hone it for productive use. Prensky claims that students who have seen lunar landings are learning math and science, and that the math taught in schools is irrelevant because "it's 1,200-year-old algebra and 4,000-year-old Egyptian geometry (2008)." Where does he think technology comes from? That "1,200-year-old algebra and 4,000-year-old Egyptian geometry" was the basis of the learning for the scientists who put the lunar rovers on the moon. He continues by claiming, "a kid who master's the electronic games Caesar III, Age of Kings, Age of Empires, Civilization IV, and Rise of Nations. . .knows a lot about world history. Yes, maybe they know the violence that comes from history, but they hardly know the causes of those character's actions or the results that came from their actions. History is a spiraling continuum of causes and effects that students will not clearly understand without some guidance. Prensky does say that, "Teachers would not longer be the providers of information but instead would be the explainers, the context providers, the meaning makers, and the evaluators of information that kids find on their own (2008)." A good teacher has always been one that can take information that is important to students and make them have a clearer understanding of all of the concepts that go along with that information. In the past, that information might have been the science of raising crops, or the math involved in selling a harvest, but that is what students came to school knowing; it was important to them and their way of life. I will agree, the breadth of knowledge that students can access is greater in this technological age, but to think that just because a student has read Harry Potter, that they understand sentence structure, plot development, archetypes and other fine details in literature is absurd. I believe that the information that students bring into the classroom is a valuable starting point, but there still has to be room to use that knowledge as a framework to teach some of the basic skills that everyone needs to be a successful communicator and productive citizen when they step away from their computer.

STaR Chart Summary: Educator Preparation

Upon study of the STAR chart information from my campus, the area that reflects the greatest weakness on my campus deals with educator preparation and development. The basic goal of this section of the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 is to provide teachers, new and veteran, with training that will allow them to better prepare students for the technologically based world that our students are currently living in, and more importantly to prepare them to be productive in this technology based society as they leave school to enter the “real world.” The plan outlines preparation and development programs for two different categories of teachers: new teachers, just entering the profession, and veteran teachers with years of experience. The plan for new teachers includes requirements that all teacher preparation programs model the appropriate use of technology and meet the Technology Applications standards. For veteran teachers, a program of ongoing, job-embedded professional development opportunities is suggested, to ensure that veteran teachers too can demonstrate mastery of the SBEC Technology Applications Standards.
Statewide, 74.2% of schools surveyed achieved “developing tech” rating (a 2 out of a possible 4), in the educator preparation section of the STaR Chart. This is also reflected in the local Star Chart for my campus. Characteristics of this rating include the use of technology for administrative tasks and classroom management, and the use of online resources by teachers. This rating also reflects the use of 6%-24% of the technology budget is allotted for professional development. My campus has remained fairly static in the development of this area, over the past three years, but most recently we have seen increases in our rating in the subcategories of “professional development experiences” and “access to professional development.” I believe this is a direct result of the hiring of a new principal and new curriculum specialist on our campus. These administrators have worked together, not only to encourage the use of technology, but to provide useful training on how to incorporate technology into the classroom. They have been very supportive in helping teachers to acquire hardware and software that will be of assistance in the classroom and have modeled their use of technology when administrating faculty meetings and staff development sessions. Their enthusiasm for technology has become contagious, and has started to bring about an increase in the use of technology on our campus.
As our campus starts to become more technologically advanced, we have been given greater access to different forms of technology. We have been given access and training on an evaluation program know as Eduphoria, which has revolutionized the way that we can compare student data and make better informed decisions about student achievement. We have also acquired a number of media carts which include LCD projectors, document cameras, and a laptop computer. Additionally, the school has invested in a number of mobile computer labs and updated the existing computer labs.
I believe that my campus is on the right track for becoming even more efficient in the use of technology to affect student achievement, but we still have a way to go. I believe that one of the greatest strides that we could make is to make the technology more accessible to every student. This could be done through extending the hours that the computer labs are open or, even better, following the lead of many other districts, and issuing every student a personal laptop computer. I also feel we need to expand the accessibility of internet access and the variety of software programs available to teachers and students at school and their homes. Although we have come a long way, the process has to be ongoing, and unfortunately, it is very slow. I am sure that in the future, we will continue to see strides toward a “target tech” rating in the “educator preparation” category of our campus STaR chart.

Web Conference

Well, I just finished my first web conference. I was a little frustrated at first, because I could not get into the conference. When I logged in, it kept telling me that the meeting had not yet started and that I should wait on the host. The meeting was supposed to start at 1:00, and by 1:30 I could still not get in. Finally, about 1:45 I got in. Apparently, there was some confusion on when the meeting was actually supposed to start.

After the meeting started, I was pleased to find it was a pleasant experience. I did not have a web cam or a mic, so I was limited to chatting via the chat window. That was fine with me. It was fun to get to see and hear some of the people that I have been collaborating with for nearly a year now. I did find it a little chaotic with so many people typing, and talking at the same time, but I think I could get used to it. I gained some valuable information about how other shcools are using technology. I have been inspired to invest in a web cam and mic so that I can interact more efficently in the next web conference.