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.