Standards 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. (PSC 5.1/ISTE 4a)
Artifacts: Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative
Reflections:
The artifact I have chosen that best demonstrates mastery of needs assessment is the Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative, I wrote in ITEC 7460. This narrative demonstrates my ability to conduct an individual needs assessment to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an individual teacher’s use of technology for instruction. It also reflects my ability to use this assessment to inform the content and delivery of a technology based professional development instruction.
In completing the technology assessment, I administered two surveys to assess the teacher’s use and enthusiasm for technology in her classroom. The LOTI assessment and the adoption level surveys were completed by the peer teacher and we meet numerous times to discuss her current technology professional needs. From these surveys and interviews I was able to organize and plan collaborative meetings in which professional development was delivered on new technologies that would help meet the goals we had set together in our meetings. We meet four times and we used a learning activity check list to keep our meetings on task and moving towards creating new learning for the teacher and subsequently for her students.
The assessments and the interviews indicated that this teacher was comfortable with technology use in her instruction and that she was looking for new technologies that would allow her students to work collaboratively in groups independent of her standing at the front of the class lecturing. She wanted the lesson to be student centered with facilitation from her when needed. I researched several technologies and methods used in other classrooms to deliver this type of lesson and we created a screen capturing tutorial that explained the tasks and supplied a list of possible online tools that could be used to complete the lesson. My research was completed online and consisted of looking at instructional technology blogs that I subscribe to in my Feedly. These blogs are created by teachers that use technology in their classroom and share their results online.
In completing this artifact I learned that working with technology assessments and interviews driving the professional development gave me and the teacher a solid base to begin with and I was able to make suggestions that did not exceed the level of proficiency the teacher possessed. I also learned that while surveys are helpful, sometimes giving a teacher one more thing to do can backfire. Teachers are so busy and when I handed the survey to the teacher I expected she would return it by the end of the day, but I ended up waiting a week. I learned my lesson and instead of handing the survey over, I just asked the questions myself when we meet informally.
The work that went into creating this artifact impacted faculty development and was measured by the completion of the activity created. It also impacted student learning, which was measured with the rubric used to grade the end project.
The artifact I have chosen that best demonstrates mastery of needs assessment is the Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative, I wrote in ITEC 7460. This narrative demonstrates my ability to conduct an individual needs assessment to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an individual teacher’s use of technology for instruction. It also reflects my ability to use this assessment to inform the content and delivery of a technology based professional development instruction.
In completing the technology assessment, I administered two surveys to assess the teacher’s use and enthusiasm for technology in her classroom. The LOTI assessment and the adoption level surveys were completed by the peer teacher and we meet numerous times to discuss her current technology professional needs. From these surveys and interviews I was able to organize and plan collaborative meetings in which professional development was delivered on new technologies that would help meet the goals we had set together in our meetings. We meet four times and we used a learning activity check list to keep our meetings on task and moving towards creating new learning for the teacher and subsequently for her students.
The assessments and the interviews indicated that this teacher was comfortable with technology use in her instruction and that she was looking for new technologies that would allow her students to work collaboratively in groups independent of her standing at the front of the class lecturing. She wanted the lesson to be student centered with facilitation from her when needed. I researched several technologies and methods used in other classrooms to deliver this type of lesson and we created a screen capturing tutorial that explained the tasks and supplied a list of possible online tools that could be used to complete the lesson. My research was completed online and consisted of looking at instructional technology blogs that I subscribe to in my Feedly. These blogs are created by teachers that use technology in their classroom and share their results online.
In completing this artifact I learned that working with technology assessments and interviews driving the professional development gave me and the teacher a solid base to begin with and I was able to make suggestions that did not exceed the level of proficiency the teacher possessed. I also learned that while surveys are helpful, sometimes giving a teacher one more thing to do can backfire. Teachers are so busy and when I handed the survey to the teacher I expected she would return it by the end of the day, but I ended up waiting a week. I learned my lesson and instead of handing the survey over, I just asked the questions myself when we meet informally.
The work that went into creating this artifact impacted faculty development and was measured by the completion of the activity created. It also impacted student learning, which was measured with the rubric used to grade the end project.