ELRC 7420 Administration of Technology Programs

Educational Technology Plan Reflection

As an undergrad, the only thing I knew when it came to my future was that basketball was going to be a part of it. My entire being was obsessed with every part that came with the game of basketball; preparation, working out (working on my game) was something I would do after and before practice, in my free time, whenever I could. I would use my phone to record what I was doing so I can see where I needed to improve or what I needed to fix. Studying; I’ve never been a learner that had to study, with me, I know it or I don’t, but with basketball, I could watch endless film on my phone end and try to incorporate what I could into my own game. Playing; I couldn’t get enough of the playing part, I played every day, on top of everything else. This also was recorded. I had no idea that I was going to end up being a teacher (that’s an origin story for another day), but I was using technology for education the entire time!

               I didn’t even know that Education Technology was a thing before I started here at LSU, but I’ve been the biggest proprietor of it in my 3 years of being an educator. I always tried to incorporate things like Google Classroom, YouTube, and other technological tools to help make education more fun for learners. Getting introduced to BlackBoard in undergrad was something eye opening for me, and I’ve always wanted to find a way to get us to use it in my school. Moodle is another Ed Tech tool that is revolutionary and should be used in high school.

This class, along with my others here at LSU did wonders to opening my eyes to the endless possibilities. I’m going to use some exerts and citations from the forum posts that we created in this class to help reflect on the knowledge gained from this course and how I plan to use the course knowledge in practice going forward.

"The 21st century challenge in education will be to assess curricular and technology credibility in a systematic and sustained way (Abilock, 2012) (Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. A. (2013). Planning for Technology: A Guide for School Administrators, Technology Coordinators, and Curriculum Leaders (2 ed.): Corwin. Page 27)." Technology planning for schools and educational institutions is important because there are a lot of different student needs. The text echoes this sentiment and I wholeheartedly agree. You have to be able to meet EVERY students' needs, so proper planning is crucial in developing scaffolds and supports for those who need them. Also, there the monetary factor. Every student must have access to the Ed Tech, so without proper planning, you could be short Chromebooks or headphones, I've seen this happen live, during state testing, it is a real thing. This excerpt from the Module 2 Forum post talking about leadership & planning in Ed Tech taught me that without the proper planning, it’s impossible to make sure that the needs of every student are met when it comes to Education Technology. Administration, leadership, they play a pivotal role, and in the future, I plan on using that knowledge to make sure that things stay pressurized from the educators up to them. Can’t stress how important that is.

"By building awareness and strategic alliances, teachers can, and often do, make a significant difference in the lives of their students. It is for this reason that instituting high-quality professional development, as well as the application of up-to-date educational technology, is so vital to school reform and change. (Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. A. (2013). Planning for Technology: A Guide for School Administrators, Technology Coordinators, and Curriculum Leaders (2 ed.): Corwin. Page 60)." Being an educator is all about preparing these learners for the next stage of their lives, whether it's college or the workforce. We have to be in touch with the current state of the world we live in. This excerpt from the  Module 3 Forum Post embodied all of the important things that go unnoticed or ignored when we talk about Professional Development. This module taught me that when it comes to PD, there’s useful information that could and should be being imparted, especially when it comes to Ed Tech. I definitely plan on encouraging useful PDs in the future, having things planned out and bringing them to administration so they could elevate them to the district.

 "For the 2024-25 school year, 82.3% of the district’s budget will come from state aid, 9.3% from city taxes, 7.7% from an excess fund balance, and 0.7% coming from other local and federal aid (Jessie Gomez (2024). NJ Spotlight News. Chalkbeat Newark)." There's different types of funding, we'll give two examples of each in my school district of Newark, NJ. The smallest percentage of funding will come from Local aid. Student services and food services are two examples of things that local funding is pulled from. Most of the local funding is from property taxes. This bit from the Module 4 Forum Post was an example of the financial aspect of Ed Technology. It taught me a lot; I had no idea where the money for anything came from specifically, and the breakdown was eye opening. Money is the root of everything, sadly, even in education. You have to have funding for these bright Ed Tech ideas, and so knowing where and how to go about getting access to it was invaluable to learn and will be invaluable in the future when trying to acquire funding for new Ed Technology.

"Infrastructure is composed of equipment, communication lines, networking systems, and software that support education technology in a school or district. Within this are also state and federal regulations for technology. This is a very technically complicated area (Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. A. (2013). Planning for Technology: A Guide for School Administrators, Technology Coordinators, and Curriculum Leaders (2 ed.): Corwin. Page 198)." By definition, infrastructure is pretty much cut and dry when talking about Education Technology. If your district has the proper funding, it's not out of the world to be able to have a solid technological infrastructure. This Module 5 Forum Post bit taught me how easy it is to have a solid Ed Tech infrastructure. Everything will always circle back to funding in Module 4. Your district plays a huge role in infrastructure, you have to make sure you choose to be in a district that shares similar values as you when it comes to Ed Tech, something I didn’t know beforehand. In the future, I definitely plan on using my newfound knowledge on infrastructure to offer poignant suggestions and feedback to help strengthen our infrastructure here in my district.

“Long gone are the days of overhead projectors and handwritten papers. Today’s teachers have robust technology at their disposal, and students have grown up in an increasingly digital world. But, with so many software applications, devices and other technologies on the market, it’s easy for teachers to become overwhelmed with the array of opportunities available to them (Alexandra Shimalla (2024). Ed Tech Magazine. Digital Workspace https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2024/03/what-educational-technology-ed-tech-and-why-should-schools-invest-it-perfcon ).” Ed Tech is here, and we must get with the times. Classes like ELRC 7420 are monumental in getting us there. An abundance of information that will stick with me for my time as a teacher.

 I’ll leave you with one last quote from a scholarly research study on Ed Technology. “Additional reported benefits included student-centered, individualized, and project-based learning enhanced learner engagement and enthusiasm. Additionally, the authors found that students using one-to-one laptop programs tended to use technology more frequently than in non-laptop classrooms, and as a result, they developed a range of skills (e.g., information skills, media skills, technology skills, organizational skills) (Timotheou S, Miliou O, Dimitriadis Y, Sobrino SV, Giannoutsou N, Cachia R, Monés AM, Ioannou A. Impacts of digital technologies on education and factors influencing schools' digital capacity and transformation: A literature review. 2023. PMC PubMed Central. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9684747/  ).”

References

Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. (2013). Planning for Technology: A guide for school administrators, technology coordinators, and Curriculum leaders. Corwin, a Sage Company.

Jessie Gomez (2024). NJ Spotlight News. Chalkbeat Newark https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2024/07/state-promises-to-replace-13-newark-schools-as-district-mulls-bond-for-other-projects/

Alexandra Shimalla (2024). Ed Tech Magazine. Digital Workspace https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2024/03/what-educational-technology-ed-tech-and-why-should-schools-invest-it-perfcon

Timotheou S, Miliou O, Dimitriadis Y, Sobrino SV, Giannoutsou N, Cachia R, Monés AM, Ioannou A. Impacts of digital technologies on education and factors influencing schools' digital capacity and transformation: A literature review. 2023. PMC PubMed Central. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9684747/