Access EDUC639

Access Intro

Hello everyone

The word that I chose is Access.  While not everyone has the same device or Internet access, we are growing faster and moving toward providing access for everyone especially here in the U.S.

I'm LeRhonda Greats and I teach middle school computer classes and provide tech support for faculty at a private boarding school in Princeton New Jersey. I have 2 children, a son who is a Liberty University student and lives there in Lynchburg working on his undergraduate degree in Pastoral Leadership and a daughter who will start her senior year in the fall!  I have been living on campus with my daughter since 2007 when my son first ventured off to college at Tuskegee University. I have taught at my school since 1998.

I look forward to working with you all
LeRhonda

Week 6 blog EDUC 638 June 23 Distance Learning

In 2013, the technology within educational institutions has become almost mandatory.  Schools are grappling with the different ways that they growing technical needs are and different ways to both use the technology and how it can be paid for.  The ultimate goal is to be sure that students have access to education.

In chapter 9, Picciano writes about distance learning and defines it as an educational process in which the teacher and students are physically separated (Picciano, 2011).  The challenge of connecting the student and teacher is a big problem in cases where the student doesn't have the financial ability to access the Internet or the equipment to connect to their teacher.  There are various ways that the lessons can be disseminated include broadcast television, two-way videoconferencing and asynchronous learning networks.

While many higher education institutions have embraced distance learning the k-12 schools are facing a more difficult task of integrating technology and also determining how distance education can be used with the younger students. (www.k12.com) There are some schools that have developed distance learning programs and students who may be interested in an accelerated learning experience also enjoy learning at home. There are students who have been bullied as well who find that they need to take time away from school or students who have trouble in other social ways interacting with students or teachers who can benefit from online education.

Distance learning can allow students to have access to teachers and experiences that they would not be able to see from their schools.  Schools who decide to enter into the realm of providing distance education to students should be sure to plan for the different hardware and software needs.

References

Picciano, A. (2011). Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

http://www.k12.com/schools-programs/online-public-schools#.UcfDCz5gbFw

EDUC 638 June 8, 2013 Week 4 Interview with School Technology Leader

This week's assignment was exciting to work on. Since I work in the technology field at my school and I work very closely with our Director of Technology having the opportunity to reflect on the work that we do together was very helpful.  Especially as we close out another school year.

When I was developing my questions for our school's Director of Technology I was thinking about the various changes that we have gone through over the past 2 years.  While I have been at our school for the past 15 years working in the computer science area, teaching classes and offering tech support for faculty and staff our Director of Technology was hired 2 years ago.

Jim H. came to our school from another independent school in Pennsylvania where he had worked as the Assistant Director of Technology.  When he was hired he quickly realized that there were many areas that needed his immediate attention in order to resolve many of the 'customer' complaints. The students complained about the slow wifi connection and since our school is a boarding school and many of our boarders come from outside of the US having a solid Internet connection is very important. With the advance of technology and more and more users becoming involved in purchasing their own devices to allow them Internet access, Jim knew that this was a problem that needed to be resolved very quickly.

Our technology team was somewhat disjointed and not meeting the support needs of our school either, we were spread very thin and had too many complaints for our small staff to handle so Jim quickly put a plan in motion to change our computer platform from PC to Mac.  We switched our email from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail and when our division heads wanted to move our students to iPads Jim made the decision to have the students purchase them and have the parents be responsible for their repairs.  His other important improvement was to hire a consultant to evaluate our wifi network and move quickly to add additional access points throughout campus. During this time we also introduced Schoology, a learning management system, to improve communication between students, teachers and parents. This is an online system that works and looks similar to Facebook.

These changes improved our service on campus tremendously because now email worked, wifi is now stable and our computers don't have virus problems as they had in the past.  Jim is a manager who understands the challenges of working with technology in an educational environment and what good technical support looks like.

The Hall textbook speaks to a Technology Directors measurements of success and how using technology can improve teaching and learning.  Teachers and students need to have technology that works first then they have to learn to use it properly.  Under the guidance of our Director of Technology, our school is certainly on the right track.

References

Hall, D. (2008). The Technology Director’s Guide to Leadership . Eugene: ISTE.

Picciano, A. (2011). Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

Week 2 EDUC 638

As I read the text I thought about the early days of my job at the private boarding school where I work.  When I was hired we were using MacIntosh G3 desktop computers in the computer labs and our library had PC machines.  Over the course of about 3 years there was a push from both our IT department who wanted to streamline things a bit more and the parents of our students who often wondered why we were still using MAC computers when their office used PC.  So we made the decision to switch and become an all PC school.  Around this same time the expectations that teachers would integrate technology into their courses posed a problem for our teachers because they did not all have technology.  The school needed a plan that would work to help solve both challenges.  What we decided to do with the technology dollars that were available was to lease our computers for 3 years, because we would not own them outright we also had enough money in our budget to also lease a laptop for each full-time teacher.

In our text it speaks about comprehensive planning and how schools need to be sure that before they make such a large financial commitment that they take many different factors into account.  I am reminded of the multiple meetings that I attended that involved the IT Director, Chief Financial Officer, Division heads and myself, as the school's Computer Department Chair.  We each brought our own concerns to the table as it related to the switch in technology and the distribution of laptops to the faculty. Questions like was there enough electricity in the buildings to handle more technology, there had been many power surges at the school due to our window air conditioners so we knew that power was in short supply.  We were also in the process of doing some major building and renovations to our school it was decided that additional electricity capacity must be priority.  This demonstrates the level of collaboration that was necessary and we even added our facilities director once the power question was added.

The chapter spoke about a commitment that was necessary to ensure a plan's success.  Our administration had to make the commitment to provide technology support for the computers as well as training for the teachers.  This commitment came in the form of lunchtime learning workshops that the teachers could attend to learn about their machines.  We increased the size of our IT department to a number that allows us to better handle the increased support demands.  One of the IT members was responsible mainly for the network then another was responsible for hardware support problems and printers while my job was to help with technology integration.

The last piece is continuity, our plan began back in 1998 and has grown and gotten better each year and today we are still supporting technology within the classroom and offering technology support for our teachers and staff. We are now fully wireless and over the past couple of months I have had to set up log in passwords for members of our dining hall and support staff so that they can access our on campus communications which are filtered through Gmail.  In order to use the fastest wifi connection they have to have a system log in and password.  It is great that our staff now is involved in technology but it adds another layer of support and assistance necessary to keep our technology and our community up to date with the ever changing world.

References

Picciano, A. G. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology. Prentice Hall.

Week 8 blog-Latest Tech Trends

Pick any latest tech trend (ebooks, augmented reality, cloud computing, social networking) and discuss how you feel about it in personal societal use/ educational use as a teacher.  This is your feeling about it.  DOn't go all research on this. :)

Cloud based computing is my favorite.  I am very active with equity and inclusion in my job and life and I find that cloud based computing really is one of those things that helps to level some of the playing field when it comes to technology access.  With Google Apps and Open Office available for free now all a user has to do is gain access to a computer and they are then able to use word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.  This is great because in the past it was virtually impossible because the software could sometimes be as expensive as a low end computer.

I also love that now we have many options that allow us to save our work to the cloud.  While as a teacher I am working very hard to help my students understand that this should be their first choice for saving, even over the USB drive because when you log in to the cloud and place your data there you are less likely to have the 'cloud' fail to work for you.  In the days when we used floppy disks, they would have formatting problems quite often and then USB drives tended to also get lost or simply left behind somewhere. With the cloud storage such as Dropbox.com or Google Drive you now really have no real excuse for not having your work if you saved it.

eBooks are still not my favorite but I keep trying to stay current with what is happening with them and watching the reactions of the students who are using them to see if they prefer them.  I have heard from both high school students and adults that they prefer the actual physical books where as I think the lower cost of having eBooks certainly makes it an option worth considering.

I have not gotten to the point that I like reading on my iPad vs. a regular book but maybe one day.  As I say, the jury is still out on that one. Another point that I agree with as it related to the eBooks is that it lightens the backpacks and if the books stay so much cheaper, I think as teachers we have to get over our discomfort and promote the new technology to our students who seem to at least not be repulsed by the idea of using eBooks.

Week 7 Blog EDUC 630

Reflect on your own personal use of technology in day to day living . .not education necessarily.  How do you balance the natural demands technology place upon you and your family and the supposed (and realized) benefits they potentially provide?

Oh boy, when I think about my personal use of technology in my day to day living, I tend to be somewhat embarrassed at the number of hours that I actually spend online.  Between school and work and my overall curiosity about what is going on in the world, I am online all the time.  The balance of natural demands of technology and my family is interesting as well.  My son is 23 and lives in Lynchburg, attending Liberty.  He and I almost always only communicate via text and email.  I am not sure where our relationship would be if we did not have technology. I am sure that we would not write to each other…well I guess I actually would have to because that would be the only way for me to get him money, here and there.

My daughter and I text each other quite a bit too even though we live together.  Our schedules are so busy that we don't often have time to keep up with each other so when I need her to know something I will normally send her a text if she is not with me.

I am on Facebook keeping up with friends and the latest information at least 4-5 times a day.  I think most of this is because I have always been a loner and found ways to occupy my time.  This would include writing and reading by myself, with the advancements of technology and having the Internet at my fingertips all the time, I tend to just be online to research various topics all the time.

This is why the online school works for me so well, it allows me to work at my own pace and in my own space.  I am able to log in and get my assignments completed on a pretty consistent basis.  I have to balance my time to make sure that I am working on actual work for class or work rather than being caught up with things that are just interesting to me.  I love to keep up with news and world events and one article leads to another, it's pretty interesting and I am very happy to be involved with technology at a time where the advances are happening so rapidly.

Week 6 Social Networking

Reflect on current social networking technologies and how they might be used for educational purposes.  You can also outline some concerns you have with these technologies.

When I think about the different social networking technologies and how they are being used for educational purposes, I think about our learning management system (LMS) that we use at our school, titled Schoology.  We decided as a school last year that it was time to invest in a program that would allow our entire community to keep up with communication.  Schoology was chosen because it resembles Facebook and as a school we decided that the similarity would ensure that the students would use the program and it has worked. 

Another way that we ensured that students would use Schoology was that the teachers are required to post their daily homework on Schoology.  This means that students who are absent or not paying much attention in class can still have a place that they can access their assignments.  Course syllabii are listed and classroom attendance is kept on Schoology.  Teachers also post the student's grades there.  Each parent is given their own Schoology account that allows them to also have some access to their students progress and assignments.  There are different groups that can be made for communication purposes so if a student is involved in a club and the school newspaper then if they log in to their Schoology account they have one place that all of the information that they need that relates to school is posted right there for them.  Homeroom teachers create groups to keep in touch with students the athletic coaches also form groups in Schoology to remind students of practices and other important events.

The school calendar is posted on Schoology and helps keep our school community in line.  We still have a school website that gives the outside world a look at who we are as a school community but for our internal communications we rely on Schoology.

Once of the drawbacks to Schoology and that we have worked around is that the outside world can not contact our students through this program because it is closed to our school community.  This means that if a college is attempting to contact students that they need a separate email address and there are times that the school would need to communicate with students or faculty and Schoology may not be running so email is the next best thing.  We use Gmail and make sure that each student and faculty member has their own gmail.com account for these purposes when outsiders need to contact us about school business.  The combination of Schoology and Gmail has really worked well and while the students don't all use or check their school email account they do all check in on Schoology.