5.1 Needs Assessment
Candidates conduct needs assessments to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs.
Artifact: Technology Survey
Reflection:
This artifact is a Technology Survey that I collaboratively created with the technology team at my school. It focuses on equipment we have in place, current technology integration, and needs assessment for future professional learning.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to conduct a needs assessment to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses. The survey is anonymous but includes a question of which department the responder is in so that we could identify subject area strengths and weaknesses. The survey also includes questions to determine what type of training teachers would be open to and what their current level of technology use is.
The results of this survey were used to determine that teachers were most open to short trainings presented at faculty meetings and we have implemented those throughout the year. We have focuses on easy technologies to make the teachers more comfortable with technology while showing them the benefits of using technology in their classroom. These short presentations have been well received and we plan to continue them in the future. The results of the survey also showed that teachers wanted more training on their Smart Boards, so the technology team organized an in house professional learning on Smart Board use.
This artifact taught me that developing a quality survey to determine the needs of a school is very difficult. If it is too long teachers will not complete it, if it is too short, the information needed might not be gathered. Also, wording and answer choices are very important. As a technology team, we developed this survey and the team was often divided on what questions to include or how to word particular questions. This taught me the valuable skills of collaborating with others on a needs assessment. To improve this artifact, I would incorporate more questions aimed at current Levels of Technology Integration. These questions focus too much on is technology being used and not how is it being used, but compromises had to be made to fit the feelings of the technology team as a whole.
This artifact is a Technology Survey that I collaboratively created with the technology team at my school. It focuses on equipment we have in place, current technology integration, and needs assessment for future professional learning.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to conduct a needs assessment to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses. The survey is anonymous but includes a question of which department the responder is in so that we could identify subject area strengths and weaknesses. The survey also includes questions to determine what type of training teachers would be open to and what their current level of technology use is.
The results of this survey were used to determine that teachers were most open to short trainings presented at faculty meetings and we have implemented those throughout the year. We have focuses on easy technologies to make the teachers more comfortable with technology while showing them the benefits of using technology in their classroom. These short presentations have been well received and we plan to continue them in the future. The results of the survey also showed that teachers wanted more training on their Smart Boards, so the technology team organized an in house professional learning on Smart Board use.
This artifact taught me that developing a quality survey to determine the needs of a school is very difficult. If it is too long teachers will not complete it, if it is too short, the information needed might not be gathered. Also, wording and answer choices are very important. As a technology team, we developed this survey and the team was often divided on what questions to include or how to word particular questions. This taught me the valuable skills of collaborating with others on a needs assessment. To improve this artifact, I would incorporate more questions aimed at current Levels of Technology Integration. These questions focus too much on is technology being used and not how is it being used, but compromises had to be made to fit the feelings of the technology team as a whole.