Strategic Planning

During our group discussion regarding chapters 12 and 13 in the textbook: Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology, one of my questions to those who are apart of my group was how did school districts determine their budgets for technology, and if anyone knew exactly how much does a school district spend. I wanted to find out so that I could have a clear picture in my mind about the true costs and how some districts may go about funding their technology initiatives on a yearly basis.

The textbook tells us that as school districts begin to develop and plan their proposals for technology they should use a variety of sources. Picciano tells us "there are four major funding sources: school district budget, bond issues, governmental entities, and gifts and grants" (p. 260). In reading the text, I thought about how often I hear how the state of Alabama education lacks funding or there will be a budget shortfall etc., and/ or how school districts are not getting the same amount of funds from previous years. The question still remains on how does a school, district, board, or state fund any of its technology programs?

 I learned during our group discussion that the monies could reach into the millions, especially if  a district needs upgrades or replacements, purchase supplies, ongoing maintenance or just placing laptops or Chromebooks within each schools classrooms. Also, I learned that districts break down their costs from a per student basis. (see caption that shows total revenue per student in Jefferson County, Alabama for fiscal year 2012-2013, (Technology In Schools, 2002)). That's a lot of money to consider when creating your budgets, but I'm curious as to why some school districts seem to fall short or not have enough or at all to implement, develop and run full updated and maintain technology programs.


Planning. Strategic Planning. Throughout the text we've read how to plan for technology within school districts and how to evaluate your hardware, software, creating budgets, and sources of funding. "One of the major issues impeding the establishment of successful technology programs is the schools lack of careful and effective planning" (Picciano, 2011, p. 10). The video below gives administrators a look into 5 tips to create a strategic plan for your school district:

"In the planning process, budgets can inform the allocation of resources. Knowing what has been expended supports future planning by comparing prior inputs to expenditures and allows decisions to be made about relative priorities" (Technology In Schools, 2002). To begin this process school districts can use the tips as a baseline idea of what and how to get started with planning their budgets and seeking sources for funding. Picciano states that"The school district budget, generally, is the primary source of funds for implementing technology applications" (Picciano, 2011, p. 260).

 Through additional research I found a school district technology template that could be used to start the planning and begin to establish a budget to fund district computer technologies. Districts can then focus on getting support from their boards of education and seek out additional funding sources.

http://www.scilearn.com/sites/default/files/imported/alldocs/cp/school-district-technology-plan.pdf

Sources:

NJASA (2012, November 8). Five Tips to Create A Strategic Plan For Your School District. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from Youtube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7YW6DWn8v4

Picciano, A.G. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology (5th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Technology In Schools. (2002, November). National Center for Edcuational Statistics. Retrieved April 28, 2016, from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/tech_schools/index.asp

Intentional

Researching for an education topic to blog about was not an easy task. I thought randomly looking at tweets, Facebook pages, newsfeeds on Flipboard, etc., would be a simple search to find an education topic that showed social interaction on the Web. It was not as simple as I had thought. Research has never been simple, it does take time and it's not a hurried, look it up quickly task. As I pondered on what I was going to look for and from where, I had to remember the general idea when it comes to crafting digital writing. The MAPS heuristic comes to mind and on page 20 of Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres, Troy Hicks states that when we craft we should consider:

• Mode: the genre of a text
• Media: the form(s) in which a text is created
• Audience: the reader, listener, or viewer of the text, both intended and incidental
• Purpose: the action the author takes, in both an academic and a personal sense
• Situation: the context for the writer herself or himself, as well as the demands of the writing task

This framework provides a guide in helping students to be intentional in their writing or 'craft'. "Being intentional with the writing, we need to ask: What is the purpose of the message?" (Hicks 2013, pg. 46). As I looked for educational topics, I kept saying over and over to myself, what is it that I want my readers to see from this blog and how the MAPS heuristic is being applied. 

I chose to review the website of Alabama Education Association Facebook page and view their posts and responses. This particular post caught my attention:

https://www.facebook.com/AlabamaEducationAssociation/posts/1218022601541198

In reviewing this post and the responses to it, I thought about what was the writers intent when she begin writing? What was her purpose when she began writing? And who is her audience and was she expecting the responses she received? In reading the post, I can see that she was very intentional in getting her point across about her thoughts and feelings on the ACT Aspire testing policies and procedures with regards to teacher evaluations. She provided several examples on how it can become a huge problem and how the test results be  unfairly used to evaluate teachers. She encouraged all educators to contact the Senators and State Board of Education by providing a link to a Google doc listing the Senators contact information, as well as the email contacts for the State Board of Education at the end of her post.

  I do believe the writer's intent was to inform and cause her audience to act. She provided her thoughts and supported them with examples. She then provided additional information to provoke her audience to take action. To make this post more digitally enhanced, I would suggest she make a video using an online video editor such as WeVideo (www.wevideo.com), with her voice recording and speak her concerns. The content of the video could be different photos of students testing, teachers being shown as proctors, and/or students with thought bubbles over their heads showing the comments the students made to her about the test. As the video moves through these 'scenes', you will hear her voice recording. These scenes could be a series of panning in and out, zooming in/out, rotating scenes, showing emphasis on certain photos, and maybe adding some text to photos as they changed throughout the video. (view example personal narrative video)

At the end of her post, I would keep the doc with the contact information and the BOE contact list but making sure that the hyper links are activated on the doc so that it would be easier to just click and create the email she suggested. 



I would also suggest she start a Twitter feed and use a hashtag#, for example #VotENoSB316, to reach more people and get buy in and began a continuous conversation about the bill as well as generate other ideas to get others to act quickly. (see video on how to create a hashtag#)

I'm sure there are other ways that this writer could have done to be more digitally enhanced in her posting. These are just a few suggestions that I thought of as I reflected back on the text written by Troy Hicks. Focusing on the MAPS heuristic while developing your text or video allows the writer to become intentional and allowing them to think deeply and creatively. While this writer is a professional educator she could have created her post as Hicks suggests on page 144, to "Analyze.Discern.Participate". She could have employed these concepts and her voice could have made a huge impact and touched a larger audience. 

References:

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ml331sbWtE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYmmGYNCavQ

Video Resubmission

In thinking about my video resubmission, I wasn't sure if I wanted to edit my initial introduction video or just create a new one. After reviewing the text again, I decided to edit my initial video because it would be more challenging for me to be creative and cause me to consider several options in editing. If I wanted to add music, use graphics, use texts, flip in/ out, etc. Although the same can be considered with creating a new video, I invited the challenge of just editing the existing one.

In his text, Hicks writes there are several considerations when editing digital video:

• Narration
• Panning and zooming
• Repetition
• Time effects
• Film effects
• Transitions
• Sound effects and music
• Captions and text

(Hicks 2013 p. 110), as I looked over these, I knew that I was going to edit my introduction video but how was I going to make it different than before. The MAPS heuristic provides writers with ways in which they can craft their digital texts to begin editing their videos. This approach allows us to write out our ideas for creating and develop them with meaning.

My video is considered a personal narrative story that gives details about me. In my initial creation, I wanted to provide the audience with information as to who I am. I also wanted to be creative in the delivery and how it was being presented while at the same time keeping most of the initial elements. In the book DigiTales; The Art of Telling Digital Stories (2005), Bernajean Porter "suggests that we use media elements judiciously, asking whether we are merely decorating our story, illustrating a concept, or illuminating our viewers through the combination of media elements. Digital writers should ask themselves whether the media they are choosing are being used  simply because they can be or whether there is a rhetorical purpose for that use".

As I edited my video, I wanted to decorate my initial introduction video by adding music, cut out some of the details, using text and using transitions. I then wanted to illustrate to others who view my video the different ways you can edit a video, and the variety of options you have when developing. And lastly, I wanted to illuminate the video by showing students to create or craft with multiple effects and engaging texts.

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Porter, B. (2005). DigiTales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories (1st ed.). Denver, CO: bjpconsulting.

Evaluations

Since I've been learning to blog, I have chosen random topics from our textbooks that were meaningful and thought provoking. I have mentioned the challenges we face on our campus regarding our not having the technology to meet the current needs of students wanting to take online courses. Planning for technology for a small business, organization, school district, or even college is a huge task. One of the many hopes that I would like to see take place is that we have planned, coordinated, implemented successfully a complete distance learning education system for our students.

When planning, there are many decisions we must make and take into consideration. Evaluating hardware and software for our institution will be one of the many steps we will need to take. Choosing the right hardware and software that will benefit our institution for years to come should be a goal while in the planning process. According to Picciano, "planning for computer hardware requires planning for the long range" (Picciano, p.187), and administration should take this into consideration as they evaluate hardware that will be used to support the learning system. 

With the existing computer hardware that the campus is using, the evaluation process should include a review of the hardware to see if it is durable enough to withstand any upgrades or additional applications. Trying to determine if current hardware will be sufficient enough or if you need to upgrade to a newer system can be very complicated. Picciano shares seven factors that need to be considered as we evaluate computer hardware:

• Performance
• Compatibility
• Modularity/expendability
• Ergonomics
• Software availability
• Vendor
• Cost

As we evaluate for computer hardware to support our learning system, we need to also plan to visit other institutions who are using similar programs or applications. This would be beneficial to those persons who may not have a background in IT, software applications or knowledge of computer hardware. 

The Community College Research Center produced an article titled "Evaluating Your College's Readiness for Technology Adoption" that provides information on assessing your institution to see if they are ready to invest in new technologies. The article states "understanding the likelihood of successful adoption before embarking on a reform can help your college invest wisely in new technologies" (Fletcher & Karp, 2014). Fletcher and Karp produced a "Ready for Technology Adoption Framework which can be used to assess if an institution is ready to "adopt" new technology rather than "implement. 

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/evaluating-your-colleges-readiness-for-technology-adoption.pdf

This article can be used as a great resource to determine if we are indeed ready to take on the huge task of implementing a learning management system. However, planning this endeavor will be the most important and beneficial step we can make in order to begin this process.

Karp, M. M., & Fletcher, J. (2014). Evaluating your college’s readiness for technology adoption. New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College, Community College Research Center.

Picciano, A. (2011). Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Sticky Presentations

This semester is my first time teaching a business course and the curriculum was already developed. The students enrolled in this course are responsible for an end of semester paper and presentation on any topic within the textbook. Most of my students are sophomores and juniors and have done a number of presentations for many subjects. The assignment states students have to decide on a topic and begin their research and develop a 7-10 page paper along with 5-7 slides in a PowerPoint presentation . I decided to do something different and be more creative with their presentations. I want my students to, according to Hicks, "craft effective digital writing in the form of presentations" (Hicks, p.61).

In our classroom discussion we talked about the different ways to deliver a presentation and the types of presentations that are available. I explained that when they begin to think about what they are presenting, they need to make clear that the information is remembered and it tells a story. From the text of Crafting Digital Writing textbook, I shared with them the six principles from Chip and Dan Heath's book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (2007), (Hicks, p. 62):

• Keep It Simple
• Introduce the unexpected
• Make it concrete
• See that it's credible
• Appeal to the emotions
• Tell a story

Since the chosen topics would come from the textbook, I talked to them about the types of digital writing genres and explained that their presentations would fall under informational writing. Informational writing presentations are mostly presentations used to present details about a chosen topic and with this type, they can be a bit more creative using various digital presentations. All of the students were familiar with the Prezi presentation tool so I decided to create a small slide show to provide them with basic idea and details about presentations. In addition to the slideshow, the last slide has a tutorial video to get students started in creating their presentations.




Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArGh6FurR0Q

The Big Picture

As you are walking across campus to prepare for the registration process at the beginning of the semester, you take a deep breath and walk into a familiar scene of excited, confused, anxious and nervous kids. They are all trying to understand the process, where to go, who to see, locate housing, all while at the same time asking: how do I get to that building? At the end of all of the chaos, those newcomers attend a welcome to college type ceremony and start anew as an official 'college freshman'.

The 'newbies' come to a college classroom for the very first time and hear instructors give classroom expectations, preview the syllabus (maybe), go over some policies and procedures, then they begin to teach. In the college environment, we often expect our students to 'get it' or already possess many classroom strategies in test taking, note taking or have good study habits.  As some institutions are going into their second month of the semester, instructors begin to measure student progress and notice that there are a few students who are 'at risk' or 'not attending' class for a number of reasons. As teachers try to analyze and determine intervention or remedial actions to assist students in getting on track, many discover areas of weakness in their first time students. These areas of weakness seem to stem from the lack of note taking, test taking and studying habits. So how do we as instructors assist our students in being successful in these areas to ultimately get them to making good grades, earning high GPA, and to graduating with a degree?

See the Big Picture: assisting our students with the resources they need to be successful to matriculate through college and completing graduation. How do we accomplish this task? By improving teaching and learning to address the needs of students and conducting needs assessments or surveys to assess students prior to beginning class instruction. Picciano states "The improvement of teaching and learning will succeed (or not) depending on what goes on in the classroom" (Picciano, p. 78). Using  data collected at the beginning of a semester on the new incoming students, will help instructors to develop the right strategies and curriculum to help them become successful.

As instructors we have to change the way we see our students and understand that they are operating in a way that mimics their familiar high school routines. Helping them to understand that they do have to work hard in order to earn good grades. Now, understandably, their are some students who just get it and catch on and are very successful, but there is a large percentage of students who are challenged with adapting to this different environment. Showing them the big picture - getting them to visualize graduation day in full regalia - and then building useful strategies and techniques in the beginning that they will use over time and become second nature thereby creating successful students.

What does collecting data on new incoming students have to do with the Big Picture you may ask? Well, instructors would want to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses of their students to assess how to proceed with class instruction. Using data from assessments gives them opportunities to minimize students becoming at risk or failing completely by developing strategies to improve teaching and learning.  Also,"by identifying the gaps between entering students’ expectations and their level of engagement in the first year of college", instructors can target their efforts to create educationally effective programs for their new students (Miller et al. 2005; Upcraft et al. 2004). 

Picciano, A. (2011). Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Miller, T., B. Bender, J. H. Schuh, and Associates. 2005.Promoting reasonable expectations: Aligning student and institutional thinking about the college experience. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

Upcraft, L. M., J. N. Gardner, and B. O. Barefoot, eds. 2005.Challenging and supporting the first-year student: A handbook for improving the first year of college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Planning for technology

In the world of ever increasing advancements in technology, many would believe that all educational institutions are keeping up with the movement. However, some may find it shocking to know there are some institutions that may not have caught onto the wave. Then there are some who may have joined in the movement but may not have planned for any updates, upgrades or changes. There are a number of things to consider when determining technology needs for any organization or educational institution, and planning would be the initial step.

In the higher ed, there are a number of institutions that have embraced technology and have a variety of uses of technology throughout their campuses. From the admissions, registration and financial add process to attending class and completing coursework online, the college experience is now more technologically advanced. So what does an institution whose technology that does not expand into the learning environment implement an online program? There are software applications that professors use to instruct within their individual classrooms but the technology is not there for overall online learning. This is where the initial step of planning for technology comes into play.

Currently, my institution does not have an online learning environment. Many of our students have often asked do we offer an online courses, or can they complete their coursework or testing online. Our response is usually, "I'm sorry, but at this time we do not offer online courses". So how does an institution began to plan for instructional technology? How do we go about creating a technology plan? What type of technology do we use? Where do we start?

Picciano (2011), says "numerous books, articles and guides have been written on how to plan" for technology (p.15), and these resources can be used as a tool to assist our institution in starting a technology plan. On our campus there are many experts of different backgrounds that have conducted a 'meeting of the minds' so to speak, to decide how to move forward and develop a plan to implement an online program. Although I am not apart of the committee, I am very interested in being apart of the process and begin to create, develop and implement an online learning program.

According the the National Center for Technology Planning, Mississippi State University, a technology planning committee must be established first. "This committee must represent every aspect of the school community--teachers, administrators, staff, business leaders, civic leaders, homemakers, and, yes, students" (Anderson & Perry, Jr., 1994) As we begin our quest into the development of an online program, we must ensure that we communicate the goals of the committee and the members are able to collaborate and develop an effective technology plan based on assessments of the educational needs of students and how the institution can address those needs while at the same time providing robust and advanced technology.

Some additional resources to review as the first stage of development begins:
http://cei.umn.edu/support-services/online-learning/developing-online-programs
http://www.cincinnatistate.edu/online/faculty-resources/Tips%20for%20developing%20a%20distance%20learning%20program.pdf


Anderson, L. S., & Perry, Jr., J. F. (1994, March). Technology Planning: Recipe for Success. , (), . Retrieved from http://www.nctp.com/tp.recipe.html
Picciano, A. (2011). Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Strategies +

You have a classroom full of college students eager to start anew and acclimate themselves into the college environment. Many of them are high achieving students on academic scholarships or high scorers on the ACT/SAT tests. Others are students who may fall on the scale of mediocrity or maybe even less than stellar performance on college entrance exams, however, they have been accepted and are official college students and sitting in your classroom. Whatever type of students that may have come, many of them are not college ready and/or do not come equipped with strategies on how to succeed academically.

T. Hicks, writer of Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media Genres, highlights a project by the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the National Writing Project (NWP), summarized 8 attributes that a student can have to be college and career ready (T. Hicks, p. 26):

• Curiosity
• Openness
• Engagement
• Creativity 
• Persistence
• Responsibility
• Flexibility
• Metacognition 

Of these 8 attributes, I am most interested in metacognition. Think about your thinking, the learning strategy that causes students to question how their learning. A strategy that many educators are adopting within their classrooms. On our campus, we are using the metacognitive strategy to engage our students in the learning process. We are wanting to develop them into critical thinkers and be able to provide solutions within our society. According to McGuire (2015), getting students to understand this strategy  develops them into thinking of themselves as problem solvers (McGuire, p. 16).

So how does an educator teach students to use metacognition as a strategy? Dr. Sandra McGuire tells us that "introducing Bloom's Taxonomy is an extremely efficient and effective way to help students take metacognitive control of their own learning" (McGuire, p.28).

(Two versions of Bloom;s Taxonomy: Original and Revised) 

Why Bloom's Taxonomy one may ask? Well, if we instruct students on understanding the difference on how they learned in high school and how they can be college ready or prepare to succeed academically, will open their eyes to seeing where to begin to 'think about their thinking'. I often begin my classes with students in understanding the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy first. I ask them to tell me what their routine was in high school and then to tell me what are they doing different now that they are in college or if their routine is the same. Most of them reply that it is different than high school and they actually haven't determined what actions they needed to take to do well in college. I provide them a brief example of how high school was same hours, same classes and same times Monday-Friday, whereas in college there's a little flexibility where classes may or may not be back to back and not meet everyday of the week. I then ask questions on how did they study in high school versus studying habits now in college. This whole process I do to make them begin the 'thinking about your thinking process' and I break down the levels of Bloom's to help them make a connection. 

As the semester runs, each week is a challenge to see how creative we can become in teaching our students how to learn. Many professors/instructors may feel that students should come to college with these skills/strategies already, however, as educators we have realized that many have not been taught how to learn. Using a metacognitive strategy and incorporating into our courses will prompt students to think about their thinking and improve their learning experience.

Blooms Taxonomy, by R. Overbaugh and L. Schultz, n.d., and retrieved from http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/images/1/1e/Bloom_1.jpg

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

McGuire, S. Y. (2015). Teach Students How To Learn. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.