Tech+Standard+5

Technology Facilitator Standard V: Productivity and Professional Practice



**__Self-Assessment__** Most educators today meet ISTE’s Productivity and Professional Practice standard in various degree. “Many technologies help educators address their professional tasks faster and better.” (Williams & Redish, 2009, p.102) A most common technology tool school districts and campuses use is the email system to communicate. Communicating through emails make communication fast and frequent. Effective communication is a vital need for schools to function productively. I rely on email to get staff bulletin, student bulletin, staff news, and communicate with colleagues such as the special education teacher. It is a technological tool that all members of the staff use daily. Electronic calendar is another technology that we use to increase productivity and efficiency. Through the email system or mobile devices electronic calendars help keep track of meetings and appointments. Our school secretary is able to use the calendar to set appointments with parents. Mobile devices such as Blackberry or iPad could be an essential technology for busy administrators to be flexible and productive. Many schools are adopting to Student Information System (SIS) to manage daily tasks such as taking attendance, inputting grades, and manage student information. Last year my district transitioned to web-based Student Information System (SIS) called Power School by Pearson. Previously we used another SIS that was not web-based. “As the Internet became more pervasive in school districts, the easy accessibility and flexibility of browser based information systems made them the major players in the field. The trend was bolstered by E-Rate, which was created by Congress under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to fund schools’ plans to be wired for Internet connectivity.” (Darby & Hughes, 2005, pp. 1-2) I thought being able to take attendance electronically made my day efficient, but now that we are on web-based SIS it created more flexibility to my day. Prior to Power School I was limited to school site for SIS. Now I am able to access student information from anywhere with internet access and at any time. I often find myself catching up with paper work such as grading at home rather than being stuck at school until late hours. I am able to be more productive with the new technology. Additionally, the information that is inputted into the SIS is immediately available in the system for any members to access. A simple task of taking attendance gets recorded immediately for the records office. The accessibility to student information such as medical or parent contact information could play a critical part in an emergency situation. My district is currently developing accessibility for parents to check on their children’s attendance, grades, and other information. “Schools are fulfilling the NCLB requirement for parent involvement by making it possible for parents to access information on their child, including attendance, grades, test scores, disciplinary action, as well as general information like homework assignments and the school calendar.” (Darby & Hughes, 2005, p.2) **__Learn as a Learner__** My district has been investing tremendous effort and budget into transforming our district to stay current with technology. One of the effort has been hiring SchoolFusion to develop and maintain our website. During the last couple of years the staff has been provided with professional development. During the professional development I learned how to create my web page where I can post announcement, homework, notes, images, presentations, and videos. There is an area where each teacher can create a wiki page as well as a blog page. With the knowledge I gain in this educational technology master’s program I was very familiar with the terms and how they function. As part of my internship experience I developed my page. There incredible benefits to having a teacher web page. One is that students can access class information if they were absent. Students can double check the homework assignments. Students have another opportunity to view videos or presentations. Another aspect of encouraging all the teachers to use the web page is to cut down on paper cost. Worksheets and other learning materials can be uploaded and students can work from electronic form. As I got more comfortable with using the website I was able to help other teachers with their needs. The sophistication of the web page made the system very user-friendly. **__Lifelong Learning Skills__** Technology is becoming more and more intertwined with our daily tasks to make our lives easier and more efficient. With increase in technology we are able to be more productive and raise professional practice. My classroom has been equipped as “Classroom of the Future” for the last four years. The classroom has been installed with presentation tools like projector and laptop, interactive board called SmartBoard, Video/DVD/TV connection with surround speakers, and other tools to make my teaching more effective. I have learned to love this system. It has made my instruction more streamlined and I am able to integrate more and more technology. Using my laptop and the LCD projector I am able to look up information from the internet and my lesson becomes real-time based. I am able to interact with students in solving problems. My teaching and learning have become collaborative with my students. Internet has become valuable resource for my teaching. “Teachers from preschool to high school are expected to know an amazing amount of information or have the skills and knowledge to obtain current information for their children. Although educators try to involve students in real life experiences, sometimes this just isn't possible… One way to show children the world is through the Internet. Children can visit a variety of Internet sites that offer information about, as well as online tours like art museums. Children can experience these places individually, in small groups, or as a whole class.” (Beard, n.d., para. 3)

References ==Beard, M. (n.d.). Internet Offers Benefits to Children and Classroom Teachers. Retrieved from: http://www.wiu.edu/thecenter/articles/benefits.html == Darby, R & Hughes, T. (2005, October 1). The evolution of student information systems. //THE Journal.// Retrieved April 29, 2011 from []. Williamson, J., & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards: What Every K-12 Leaders Should Know and Be Able to Do. Eugene: International Society for Technology in Education.


 * || **Productivity and Professional Practice** ||
 * || Educational technology facilitators apply technology to enhance and improve personal productivity and professional practice. Educational technology facilitators: ||
 * A. || Use technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development and lifelong learning. Candidates: ||
 * || 1. identify resources and participate in professional development activities and professional technology organizations to support ongoing professional growth related to technology. ||
 * || 2. disseminate information on district-wide policies for the professional growth opportunities for staff, faculty, and administrators. ||
 * B. || Continually evaluate and reflect on professional practice to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of student learning. Candidates: ||
 * || 1. continually evaluate and reflect on professional practice to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of student learning. ||
 * C. || Apply technology to increase productivity. Candidates: ||
 * || 1. model advanced features of word processing, desktop publishing, graphics programs, and utilities to develop professional products. ||
 * || 2. assist others in locating, selecting, capturing, and integrating video and digital images in various formats for use in presentations, publications, and/or other products. ||
 * || 3. demonstrate the use of specific-purpose electronic devices (such as graphic calculators, language translators, scientific probeware, or electronic thesaurus) in content areas. ||
 * || 4. use a variety of distance learning systems and use at least one to support personal/professional development. ||
 * || 5. use instructional design principles to develop hypermedia and multimedia products to support personal and professional development. ||
 * || 6. select appropriate tools for communicating concepts, conducting research, and solving problems for an intended audience and purpose. ||
 * || 7. use examples of emerging programming, authoring or problem-solving environments that support personal/professional development. ||
 * || 8. set and manipulate preferences, defaults, and other selectable features of operating systems and productivity tool programs commonly found in PK-12 schools. ||
 * D. || Use technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, parents, and the larger community to nurture student learning. Candidates: ||
 * || 1. model the use of telecommunications tools and resources for information sharing, remote information access, and multimedia/hypermedia publishing in order to nurture student learning. ||
 * || 2. communicate with colleagues and discuss current research to support instruction, using applications including electronic mail, online conferencing, and Web browsers. ||
 * || 3. participate in online collaborative curricular projects and team activities to build bodies of knowledge around specific topics. ||
 * || 4. design, develop, and maintain Web pages and sites that support communication between the school and community. ||