Key Concept 17: Educational Technology Resources

As a part of my internship process, I created a website that provided information about the different technology platforms for creating formative assessments we used as well as some others that teachers might decide to use on their own. I included the results of our initial brainstorming sessions and trial and error period to help current and future teachers quickly find a platform that might fit what they have in mind. Each technology platform had its own subpage that linked directly to the help or how-to portion of the platform's website. I also included instructions on how to create accounts, what the advantages and disadvantages are for free versus premium accounts when those existed, and information on ways to broadcast assignment information to our students. By primarily using the technology platform's own help page, I hope to reduce the amount of updating that this page will need in the future as we look to start a new school year.

In ET 680 with Dr. McGinn we crafted a Funding Paper which was tailored to fulfill any needs we might need based on our specific school and internship idea. In analyzing my school's needs, I found that it was less a need for stuff as we had just undergone a building remodel and modernization which included a large injection of technology, and more a need for training. I zeroed in on a handful of teacher development grants that would allow a select group of staff to receive some ongoing professional development (PD) of our own selection. This PD would focus on best practices for implementing technology in instruction as the majority of our staff were assessed at being in the introductory levels in the ACOT model. The most promising grant for our future needs was the McCarthy Dressman Education Foundation Teacher Development Grant.