Evaluation_HungerfordA

7/31/2019 Evaluation_HungerfordA

1/4

Ashley HungerfordThe Cool School

School Demographics by race

Caucasian 95%

Hispanic 3%

African American 1%

Asian 1%

Demographics of the Cool School do not include much variety. Students are 95% Caucasian,98% affluent, and 98% protestant. The teachers are 98% Caucasian, 80% Protestant, and 50%hold graduate degrees or higher. Students must pass an entrance exam so the majority of thestudents work at an advanced level and the honor code provides assurance that behavioralissues are rare. Students are required to own a computer and check the edline website daily.

Parents are required to submit email addresses and mobile telephone numbers with textingcapabilities.

AdministrativeBehavioral Resources/infrastructure

Policy island integrated

Planning island island

Budget integrated integrated

Administrative Information island intelligent

Overall the administrative functions of the Cool School seem to be moving from the island stageto the integrated stage. The usage policies are formal and in place, and while many teachers donot currently uphold those policies teacher training is in place and teachers are being educatedon the importance of technology policies. The planning is taking place, but not enough of theinvolved parties are taking part and it is not being connected to the school mission and vision.The budget does account for technology expenses and gives them a priority, but not on a longterm basis. The school only plans one year at a time for technology budgeting based on studentenrollment. Admin Plus is the administrative program that the Cool School has purchased for all

administrators; however, only a select few use any of the functions. Administrators expressedthe need to be trained on the software.

CurricularBehavioral Resources/infrastructure


2/4

Electronic information integrated integrated

Assessment island integrated

Curricular Integration integrated intelligent

Teacher Use integrated integrated

Student Use intelligent intelligent

The curricular section of the maturity benchmark is mostly integrated moving towards intelligent.The electronic information aspect of the curricular section was determined to be integratedbecause students are required to use an electronic resource for every written project, mostbooks are ebooks, and many teachers require students to complete activities and homeworkonline. Teachers are required to post homework online daily, create backup activities onquiaweb.com in case of school cancellation, and all grades and attendance records arecompleted online. Assessment received the lowest scores because even when teachers providetechnology related projects they do not often use them to assess student progress beyond acompletion grade. The school does have several self assessing programs includingkeyboarding, math, and reading programs, but they are primarily used in the lower grades only.Curricular integration was very strong because the school administrators require teachers tointegrate technology into every subject area at least once a week. All teachers are required towork with the integrated technologist, media specialist, and computer teacher to create atechnology project that incorporates differentiated and cross curricular aspects. Teacher usewas a difficult area to rate, but I chose to rank it as integrated not intelligent because I feel asthough without the integrated technologist, media specialist and computer teacher the regularclassroom teachers would not and could not use the technology daily. The other reason for theranking is that some teachers are not meeting administrator expectations, and often the qualityof their personal equipment makes it difficult. Teachers have computers and SMART boards,but the internet service is slow, and teacher student program compatibilty is problematicbecause teachers use PCs and students use MACs. Student use is intelligent because they arerequired to use it daily in almost every class. They would not be able to complete work, oraccess their books without computers. Students are allowed to bring their own MAC computer ifthey have one, if not every classroom has 3-6 laptops, there are two permanent labs, and oneportable lab.

SupportBehavioral Resources/infrastructure

Stakeholder Involvement emergent emergent

Administrative Support integrated integrated

Training integrated island


3/4

Technical/InfrastructureSupport

integrated integrated

The area of support seems to be one of the more random areas in ranking, ranging fromemergent to integrated. Stakeholder involvement was ranked emergent because only a select

few people are involved in technology planning and implementation, and communicationamongst the faculty and staff is poor. When asked about the technology plan and vision for theschool not one teacher even knew if there was a technology plan. Administrative support wasrated as integrated because they are involved with every meeting to determine the financialcapability and the time and places where the technology will be implemented. The reason theydid not receive intelligent ratings is because they had little knowledge of the technology beingdiscussed outside of cost. They showed little interest in finding out about what the teachersneeded or what the technology specialists recommended. Training is required for all staff, butmost administrators do not attend so they were rated integrated. Technology training takesplace throughout the year, but all training is done by the two technology people on campus.Most teachers know who to contact when they are in need of technical support. The schoolprovides an integrated technology specialist for software and classroom integration needs, a

part time IT for technical and infrastructure support. The reason the school was rankedintegrated instead of intelligent is because the IT specialist is part time and the integratedtechnology specialist also has a full teaching schedule making it difficult for teachers to findassistance.

ConnectivityBehavioral Resources/infrastructure

LAN island island

WAN emergent emergent

Internet Access integrated integrated

Communication Systems island integrated

Connectivity is an issue at the Cool School. The building is old and the physical infrastructurewas not set up properly initially. The LAN is slow and the wireless system frequently goes downon one side of campus. Teachers attempt to use various area of the network but with theservers going down fairly regularly most teachers use the internet for basic needs. There is noreal WAN system to speak of. The school runs on a few servers, only two of which teachershave access to. Internet access in general is good on one campus, bad on the other. There is

ongoing work on the infrastructure and additional wireless devices are being put into place.Currently internet access can be slow, and a bit unpredictable, but it is available everywhereand to everyone. Communications systems are in place but are not being utilized by all facultymembers. It was made clear that several teachers check their emails but do not prefer email asa form of communication with classes, parents, or other staff.


4/4

InnovationBehavioral Resources/infrastructure

New Technologies island integrated

Comprehensive Technologies integrated island

Innovation is an area where the Cool School is making strides to improve. The school haspurchased some of the most up-to-date technology, but the implementation time, training, andallowance for experimentation have not yet occurred. The technology the school has purchasedat this time is relatively comprehensive, but it does lack some more advanced features likevideo conferencing and voice recognition. The most advanced technology is only utilized by aselect few faculty members. Classroom teachers utilize one or two technologies on a regularbasis.

Overall, I would say that the Cool School is moving from an island approach to an integratedapproach.My recommendations for the technology planning committee would be as follows:1. Become a more inclusive committee (include teachers, administrators, parents, tech people,and ask for student input).2. Provide support to all community members via training, budgeting, and technical support.3. Set up a physical infrastructure to support the new technologies.4. Get administrators on board with technology training and appropriate use.5. Work through this process as a team to produce a plan that meets your mission statementand supports your vision for the schools technology implementation.

Intelligent-4Integrated-20Island-11Emergent-4

As you can see by the above tallies the Cool School is mostly integrated, but we are justrecently moving into an integrated rating from the island benchmark. In summary, the schoolhas purchased and made accessible to students and teachers an abundance of equipment.Theschool made an error in implementation and training, and are now trying to fill in the gaps. Theteachers feel inadequate about their abilities to use the equipment, and the administrators areunable to assist because they also feel insecure about their abilities. The school atmosphere isone of high expectations with regards to technology usage, but without an appropriate supportsystem. The technology department is scrambling to catch up to the purchases made withoutconsulting them. The infrastructure was not in place to carry out the roll out of the newequipment, but strides have been made in the past year. The new requirements for technologyintegration in each classroom to be supported by a team of teachers seems to have helpedpush the school and the teachers into the next level. I believe that by encouraging teamworkand providing training throughout the year, the teachers are beginning to feel more comfortable.I believe that in time and by following the above recommendations the Cool School can and willreach the intelligent level.

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Evaluation_HungerfordA