EDLD 5363 Week 5 Blog

This week was probably the most difficult part of the course as we discovered that it was hard to incorporate all the necessary elements required in the rubric in so little time. The time allocated for the video was only sixty seconds however we felt that was not nearly enough time for the message to be portrayed. In our group video we decided to film students and we acquired the necessary parental release forms to film the students. I was surprised to see the overwhelming response and enthusiasm from willing participants (students). The students I selected were quite eager to be on camera and promote the topic of banning texting and driving. They did their own research on the topic and suggested their own lines for the film. Unfortunately, we stuck to our plan and script because their lines were lengthier and made the film go over 3 minutes. In the post production process we ran into other technical difficulties. First was the elimination of the background noise. The students were filmed in a rather quiet place however the camera still picked up unwanted background noise. We attempted to remove the background noise using Audacity software. It worked to a certain extent but did not remove all of the noise. Once the audio was imported into iMovie we were able to remove some additional noise but it was still noticeable when finalized. Also, the external microphone did not work well and the students voice was rather low. Again, we used iMovie to increase voice as much as possible. Overall, I believe our team succeeded in creating a sound a coherent PSA that encourages viewers to avoid texting and driving. Our team worked rather well despite the time and distance constraints. I was made the leader of the team and I took on the editing role. As mentioned in my reflections for this course, I need to improve my collaboration skills. All of the photos and text used for this video was credited at the end of the video. Although our video turned out great, our video would have been better if we collaborated more often in real time and perhaps met in person. Nonetheless, I was surprised to see that despite the barriers and constraints of online collaboration, projects and assignments can certainly be completed and be of high quality!

*The video is unlisted and can only be seen with the link provided to protect the students identity.

EDLD 5363 Week 1 Personal Digital Story Reflection

There are a couple of issues that I ran into right from the beginning. I decided to create a personal digital story in form of a timeline biography for a popular man that I admire by the name of Steve Jobs. I posted my script and interview questions on a Google Doc for review. The peer interview questions gave me direction and certainty of how I would like to proceed with the digital photo story. I decided to use iMovie since I only have a Macbook and have used iMovie before for some basic video editing. I had never used it before for a photo story though. I was impressed with the simplicity and versatility options on the new iMovie software. I was able to obtain various high quality images from Google images that supplemented the biography. The first issue I ran into was the length of the video. The rubric stated that it must be short and sweet however my video was initially over 7 minutes in length. I reduced it to about 5 and a half minutes and decided to leave it at that. I felt that if I reduced video length, I would ruin the production value and the message would be incomplete. I considered reducing the script but again the message would have been affected. Another issue I ran across was the quality of the voice over recording. I initially used the built-in microphone and noticed that there was too much echo and it sounded horrible. Luckily, I remembered that my CTE department had ordered a pair of Behringer podcast studios. This was exactly what my video needed. The sound quality was superb and I am excited to use it again in the future. Last, I contemplated whether or not to add music to the video. In the end, I decided to use one of Steve Jobs favorite songs in the video. The song certainly increased the value and significance. If you ever have issues with sound recording, I recommend purchasing a Podcaststudio by Behringer. The cost is only $99 and you can find it at music stores like Guitar Center. See pic below.

Week 5, Part 2: Course Reflections

When I enrolled in EDLD 5306 I was wondering if there was enough technology research and topics to cover a whole technology course. Truth is, I was shocked to find out that there was so much about technology in education that I could ever imagine. From the beginning, I envisioned having research based strategies, relevant examples to use in the classroom and lots of hands on experience. This class did just that. Most courses I have taken present strategies strictly from one book or one source (author) but this course presented various forms of sources through a wide array of articles and a textbook. In those articles, I found many examples I could present to other teachers or use in my own classroom. Prior to this class, I had never joined a wiki or written in a blog. This course made it a requirement to use Web 2.0 tools which I found to be the most beneficial to me. My long term goal is to become a Technology Director one day. This course provided me with a lot of insightful information on topics that Technology Directors deal with everyday such as: E-rate, STaR Charts, Texas Long Range Plan, Asset Management, PEIMS, and Acceptable Use Policies. Before I become a Technology Director, I need to become a classroom technology leader. Since I am still a classroom teacher, most of the information I learned will still be applicable to me and there will be plenty of time to implement ideas and evaluate their outcome. I am currently the campus technology coordinator and because of that role, the internship plan and activities will be easier to implement because of the access I have to various technology resources. I can't really say that there were outcomes that I didn't achieve because I was not too sure what the class was about prior to enrolling. The assignments in this course were not difficult however they were very time consuming. I am glad that I decided to start in the summer otherwise I am not sure how I would of managed to complete all assignments. The same cannot be said about upcoming courses that I do have to take during the school year. I am not sure how I will manage. Overall, I learned a lot from this course especially that there is a lot of support from government and other organizations to make technology and education a top priority. I also understand the pressures and resistance I will have to face from administration, teachers and students in achieving technology educational goals. I may not have many leadership skills however through the internship and other Lamar courses, I hope to gain confidence, credibility and experience to become a great technology leader one day.

E-Rate and Mercedes ISD Technology

E-Rate and Mercedes ISD Technology

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National Educational Technology Plan

I would rename this plan “Educational Technology Bible”. If you’ve read this plan, then you probably feel overwhelmed with the amount of research put into this plan. According to the plan, it took over 9-months to develop this plan by ten of thousands of people including the public. What’s more impressive is that it was worked on through “collaboration” using “state-of the-art communications tools”. This is important to know because it shows a real life example of how collaboration and teamwork can accomplish great things, such as a comprehensive and well written plan (in my opinion). This plan has 5 goals in place for states, districts, the federal government and other stakeholders and most importantly provides recommendations to achieve these goals. The first goal is directed towards learning and states that “All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and outside of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society”. In respect to learning, the plan recommends four actions and most notably is the recommendation to “develop and adopt learning resources that exploit the flexibility and power of technology to reach all learners anytime and anywhere”. This is important because the plan mentions learning when students are not in school. The “on demand” approach to learning is important because of the vast opportunities it presents with no restrictions on place and time. Some examples of on demand learning include: online “collaboratories”, powerful learning applications such as musical instrument simulators or language learning tools, or augmented reality platforms and games (NETP, 2010). The second goal of the national technology plan is directed towards the improvement of assessment. This goal states, “our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement”. The plan recommends several actions to reach the goal. The most interesting approach is to “conduct research and development that explore how gaming technology, simulations, collaborative environments, and virtual worlds can be used in assessments to engage and motivate learners and to assess complex skills and performance embedded in standards”. Although this is mostly theory at this point, the plan does recommend that schools should adopt these systems “as they become validated and available” (NETP, 2010). This is very interesting considering how much time today’s learners spend playing games. The authors credit games as a form of assessing data because it is “engaging” and “provides immediate performance feedback so that players always know how they are doing” (NETP, 2010). The third goal calls for improvements in the professional development, new ways to locate best teaching practices in efforts to teach better. The goal states, “professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that can empower and inspire them to provide more effective teaching for all learners”. The authors of the plan feel empathy towards teachers. They believe educators do not have the appropriate tools to do their job. In addition they feel that teachers work in “isolation” with not interaction and with other teachers or experts (NETP, 2010). The authors feel that an appropriate action to remedy this is to “design, develop, and adopt technology-based content, resources, and online learning communities that create opportunities for educators to collaborate for more effective teaching, inspire and attract new people into the profession, and encourage our best educators to continue teaching”. In respect to educator professional development, “Research shows that U.S teachers have less time in their work week for professional development” and “increasing the time for our educators to engage in professional learning will require processes that cross time and space boundaries” (NEPT, 2010). The plan wants new innovative ways for teachers to complete professional development as well as have various forms of resources available anytime for teachers that showcases best practices and the opportunity to communicate with effective colleagues and experts. The fourth goal of the plan talks about improvements to infrastructure. “All students and educators will have access to comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it.” You’ll find detailed information about programs such as E-rate, open source applications and my favorite next-generation computing such as cloud computing. The plan suggests five actions to help support the goal of infrastructure. My favorite is the recommendation to explore the “open educational resources to promote innovations and creative opportunities for all learners and accelerate the development and adoption of new open technology-based learning tools and courses”. The greatest benefit of cloud computing is that it holds the key to providing access to the same learning material and resources in and out of school, through any type of internet ready device to both students and teachers. On greater scale, it can help both academic and administrative services task be accomplished “anywhere and anytime” (NETP, 2010). The last goal of the plan tries to accomplish the following: more learning using fewer resources. The goal states, “our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money and staff”. This section of the plan calls for consideration in areas such as reorganizing teaching and learning (seat time vs competencies), extending learning time, reducing barriers to postsecondary education and moving to meaningful use. I have a major concern about the meaningful use of data. It is a very small section and if you blink you will miss it. It is a very important section especially to those who are enrolled in EDLD 5306. The authors are telling us that there is little to no information on “how technology is actually used in supporting teaching, learning, and assessment is collected and communicated systematically and only by shifting our focus to collecting data on how and when technology is used will we be able to determine the difference it makes and use that knowledge to improve learning outcomes and the productivity of our education system” (NETP, 2010). We know we need to prepare students to become collaborative, continuous and innovative learners for the 21st century. We also know that technology has revolutionized we work and play. So why then is very little has been done to track the relationship between these two? I find this a bit odd considering all the extensive research in all the other areas. I’ll leave it at that!


Source: National Educational Technology Plan 2010 or NETP 2010
http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf

Post Web Conference Reflection

Post Web Conference Activity:

Today I participated in my second web conference and it was much smoother than the first one. What I valued most about this web conference is that many of the other class members expressed many of the same concerns I had. I felt a big relief knowing that. I feel a little overwhelmed but luckily school wont start up for another month. I think it is important to have these web conferences weekly as a way remind us about upcoming assignments. This week's the web conference really focused on the internship part of the course. Dr. Borel stressed that we need look at the handbook and all the forms that accompany it. I just called my assistant principal and he said to sign him up as a mentor, that is one more thing I can cross out from my list. I learned more about the class wiki and why I cannot access it using my yahoo or Lamar account so I'm going to email Dr. Borel my new GMail account. I read by feedback from Assignment 1 and it looks like I need work on citations and APA format. My weakest communication skill has always been writing but I am going to try my best in the upcoming weeks to turn in higher quality work.

Jose Vasquez

District Technology Plan Summary

After spending two days searching for our district technology plan and calling our Technology department, I finally got my hands on it.
Mercedes ISD has a very comprehensive technology plan that is headed in the right direction. The four core goals the plan outlined are:

1.Provide technology based solutions which support the instructional needs of teachers and the learning needs of students.

2.Provide technology based professional development for staff to further the effective use of technology.

3.Provide technology based solutions which support the effective and efficient administrative staff.

4.Establish and maintain a robust technology infrastructure that promotes communication and learning for students, staff and the community.

The total budget for technology (2010-2011) is $545,352 and is broken down like so:

The strategies to achieve Goal #1 include: using online applications such as Easy Tech and Learning.com to help students apply learned technology skills to everyday class work, provide integrated subject lessons, Technology integrations will be part of Campus Improvement Plan, implement student driven multimedia projects using on-line research in content areas, develop relationships with postsecondary institutions to provide additional concurrent opportunities for students to name a few.

The strategies to achieve Goal #2 include: offer just-in-time training to teachers and librarians utilizing campus technology coordinators for training, provide just-in-time training to assist teachers, librarians, and administrators that meet SBEC standards, distance learning will be used to provide staff development as appropriate.

The strategies to achieve Goal #3 include: a centralized website will provide online access to electronic documents, campuses will analyze data to set campus goals and make decisions regarding the improvement of student achievement, the district website will promote best teaching practices, staff are encouraged to assist/pursue in grant writing for further funding and pursuing collaborative grant relationships.

The strategies to achieve Goal #4 include: leverage grants and subsidies to enhance technology for students and staff, standardized web based multimedia services will be provided district-wide, and shared used of specialized technologies such as video conferencing systems, digital cameras, scanners, projection devices and digital video cameras in place on every campus in the district.

Our technology director and his secretary are in charge of coordinating the professional development opportunities and with a budget of $70,000 it seems that either our own district technology coordinators or our local Region 1 ESC will do most of the professional development. I believe that the funds allocated for professional development are not enough to teach the staff the effective use of technology. There will be a conflict with time resources since most campus technology coordinators are teachers and it would be difficult to schedule professional developments due to lack of time.

I believe there is a sufficient budget for the support of infrastructure and that not covered by special discount rates such as e-rate. A large amount of funds are allocated to achieving this goal. Last 2 years, most of the funds were spend on buying new equipment and since the renovation is about 100%, most of the funds will be directed to support the already in place robust technology infrastructure.

The process that enables Mercedes ISD to monitor the progress toward specified goals and make mid-course corrections in response to new developments and opportunities as well as assess the improved student learning include a wide array of formats. Evaluation methods include: surveys of the staff conducted yearly, informal interviews conducted once a semester, records of staff member participation in technology training, yearly inventory of hardware and software. Most importantly, in my opinion, by monitoring the process and accountability measures that evaluate the extent to which activities in the plan are effective in:
-increasing the ability of teachers to teach
-integrating technology into the curricula and instruction
-enabling students to reach challenging state academic standards
-acquiring and deploying technologies and telecommunication services

Overall the plan is very comprehensive but certain changes should be made such as allocate more funds and resources to helping teachers get more exposure and training (goal #2) on how to effectively run student-centered technology based classroom activities. I’m not saying teachers need to be technology experts but helping them become more acquainted with technology will help the district achieve goal #1 with greater ease.

To view the Mercedes ISD 2010-2011 Technology Plan please enter this URL into your browser, for some reason the add a link function did not work.

http://misdtx.schoolwires.com/13932082722333390/lib/13932082722333390/_files/MERCEDES_ISD_E-Plan_2010-2011.pdf