Standard 5.1 Needs Assessment
Candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support diverse student needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase global awareness. (PSC 4.3/ISTE 5c)
Artifact: ITEC 7460 Individual Teacher Technology Assessment
Reflection:
In ITEC 7460, I worked with my peers to conduct a needs assessment for our different schools. The results from these assessments created the Individual Teacher Technology Assessment. For this assessment, two surveys were created and conducted. One survey was based on the Adopter categories as describe by Rogers Change Theory; the other was based on the LoTi Framework for Technology Implementation. The purpose of these surveys is to identify areas of need and areas of improvement amongst teachers regarding technology, then to use these results to create a professional development plan.
After collaborating with my group via GoogleDocs and emails, we each decided questions that should go in the survey. I then obtained permission to send the survey via email to our faculty. The surveys’ responses provided feedback that I reported to administration to provide feedback and to determine teachers’ technology use, areas of strength and areas of weakness. I was able to use the needs assessment to inform administration of the needed content and delivery method of an appropriate technology-based professional learning program.
Through this process, I was able to learn about technology use at my school. I learned that most teachers are trying to use technology in their classrooms; they just do not always know how to make the technology use meaningful and effective. I also learned how to create survey questions that provide useful feedback. The peer collaboration process allowed our group to really delve into the precise wording of of the questions in the survey and allowed for more useful responses.
After conducting the needs assessment, I would change the website that we created the survey in. GoogleSurveys is a wonderful tool, but other survey sites like Survey Monkey offer better survey formats and easier to decipher results. Some of the open-ended responses were difficult to assess in a timely manner because of the way they were grouped and manipulated by Google.
These two simple surveys greatly impacted professional development at DCHS. We continue to conduct Wednesday Workshops to facilitate teachers’ technologies needs and areas that need improvement. The impact of these surveys can be assessed by a comparison of the original survey results to now in relation to teacher technology use in the classroom.
In ITEC 7460, I worked with my peers to conduct a needs assessment for our different schools. The results from these assessments created the Individual Teacher Technology Assessment. For this assessment, two surveys were created and conducted. One survey was based on the Adopter categories as describe by Rogers Change Theory; the other was based on the LoTi Framework for Technology Implementation. The purpose of these surveys is to identify areas of need and areas of improvement amongst teachers regarding technology, then to use these results to create a professional development plan.
After collaborating with my group via GoogleDocs and emails, we each decided questions that should go in the survey. I then obtained permission to send the survey via email to our faculty. The surveys’ responses provided feedback that I reported to administration to provide feedback and to determine teachers’ technology use, areas of strength and areas of weakness. I was able to use the needs assessment to inform administration of the needed content and delivery method of an appropriate technology-based professional learning program.
Through this process, I was able to learn about technology use at my school. I learned that most teachers are trying to use technology in their classrooms; they just do not always know how to make the technology use meaningful and effective. I also learned how to create survey questions that provide useful feedback. The peer collaboration process allowed our group to really delve into the precise wording of of the questions in the survey and allowed for more useful responses.
After conducting the needs assessment, I would change the website that we created the survey in. GoogleSurveys is a wonderful tool, but other survey sites like Survey Monkey offer better survey formats and easier to decipher results. Some of the open-ended responses were difficult to assess in a timely manner because of the way they were grouped and manipulated by Google.
These two simple surveys greatly impacted professional development at DCHS. We continue to conduct Wednesday Workshops to facilitate teachers’ technologies needs and areas that need improvement. The impact of these surveys can be assessed by a comparison of the original survey results to now in relation to teacher technology use in the classroom.