TECHNOLOGY and me

After completing the two assessments, the results confirmed what I already knew...TECHNOLOGY is much bigger than myself. When I started in education, we were still cranking out copies on a mimeograph machine, remember the blue ink? Technology has advanced exponentially in my 25 years of education and I have not kept up with it. You might ask why? Even though I am not a technological illiterate, keeping up with the advances in technology have been the responsibility of my secretaries over the years because I have been in an administrative position for the majority of my career.

Technology Strengths

After completing the assessments, my strengths in technology would be categorized as basics:

E-mail, word processing, excel, fax, and internet navigation.

Technology Weaknesses

The assessments reveal many weaknesses. Multimedia, educational instruction technology, powerpoint, and information acquisition are areas that I have not received training in.

Future Professional Development in Technology

For me, one of the best ways to receive technological professional development is to just get started with the assistance of someone who is well versed in technology. One example is the process that I used to create the blog account as required in this week's assignment. I first contacted a friend who works in the technology department of our school district. This was important due to the fact that I have to do my masters degree work from my school computer and our school district prohibits blog accounts. I received administrative and Technology department approval to proceed. The technician that was assisting me, methodically walked me through the process that has me blogging today. I do feel that I am now able to teach someone else how to create the account and begin blogging.

The assessments also helped me to set some technological goals for myself. Depending on time constraints, I hope to take additional technology professional development classes to close my technology gaps.

SETDA Building Survey

This assessment was very difficult because my current position does not relate closely to any of the three surveys due to the fact that I am not a teacher, principal, or technology director. I chose the building survey because I thought it might be the one that I could best answer the survey questions. I do believe that our high school is using technology to better help our students achieve academic success.