Running Header: SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis
Alessandra A. McKenna
Holy Names University

SWOT Analysis
Overall my ability to use technology in the classroom reflects a student that has a
wealth of knowledge at her fingertips yet needs help and time when learning how to
successfully implement the information while in the classroom. No amount of knowledge
on technology can be beneficial to the students if ideas are not communication well and
tied to standards of learning.
Strengths
As a TA in the classroom I help the teacher implement certain technologies in the
classroom that help students to increase opportunities to practice skills they are learning,
teacher visibility, and tools to overcome learning differences. In all classrooms teacher
use Google Drive and Classroom, students can easily reference and turn in homework
and teachers can give feedback to students and see the work as it progresses even before
it is turned in. All things Google have helped to enhance the classroom experience,
communication has become more constant, information more readily available, and a
students ability to demonstrate his or her learning more varied.
Google tends to be the most relied upon technological tool for myself in the
classroom, however I utilize a myriad of technologies throughout my day that could be
utilized in the classroom. For example, I daily will do the following check my facebook,
take a picture with my camera or smartphone, make a pin on pinterest, listen to a podcast,
text, call people, skype, read a book on kindle, instagram, tagul, read a map, etc. The
following could be used as technological opportunities for students to be able to show
their work, I just have not taken the time to think about how to implement them into daily
lesson plans. In Factors affecting teachers use of information and communications
technology: a review of the literature, Mumtaz writes that one of the top things that

SWOT Analysis
prevent teachers from implementing technology in the classroom in lack of timeto
successfully integrate technology into the curriculum and lack of teaching experience
with ICT. (p. 320, 2006) So while I may know and understand many different
technologies, its another thing to know how to implement the different technologies into
a lesson.
Weaknesses
My weaknesses lie in understanding the design processes that go into building
technological tools (such as coding languages like Python), video games, trouble
shooting when a computer may be experiencing technological difficulties (I often resort
to rebooting the computer), and successfully implementing the technology within an
appropriate educational framework. While I might have a great understanding of the front
house of the computer, I know very little about the workings of the back of the house.
This weakness may prove to be an issue if I decide to pursue a career in computers or
teaching a class to students in computer science, however for my purposes there remains
a small likelihood of this being an issue in the classroom.
However, it may prove to be a problem if I do not know how to successfully
implementing technology within an appropriate educational framework. I may be able to
expose students to an interesting concept or technological tool, but if I frequently am
unable to connect it to an educational standard I will not be utilizing my time wisely and
missing out on prime teaching moments. As Rob Thatcher states in Game Creation and
Differentiated Learning Include a skill or knowledge centered element.it is crucial to
tie the subject and game play to the content area or skill set(s) that you wish students to
master. (2015) He goes on to state that games allow for students to become more highly

SWOT Analysis
engaged and in turn be able to display their learning through other means, such as
through the arts, acting, and poetry. This in turn leads to higher levels of Blooms
Taxonomy, in turn making it so that students develop a deeper understanding of the
material and can produce the knowledge with a different framework.
Opportunities
Opportunities open to me truly exist everywhere in the teaching community as
long as I am willing to take the stance of a learner and open myself up for feedback from
those that possess more knowledge than me in these areas. For example, I find that my
fellow teachers in other classrooms utilize different technology than I might in the
classroom. In fact, today I sat in on a Writing class and found that the teacher was using a
myriad of different technology cites to help her students present their
Alphabiographies. The kids used pixton to create cartoons, tagul to make word clouds,
and thinglink. The kids were highly engaged, sharing their projects with one another, and
really excited to show me what they had been working on. Immediately I pinned the
following things on pinterest so that I would be able to remember these tools and use
them later in different projects. I TA for the middle school science classroom and I could
see my students creating a thinklink to help them study for a test for just to show their
learning with a scientific concept. If I could go back to the science unit we just taught on
rocks, I would have liked to have the students create a thinklink while identifying and
describing a certain type of rock. Other teachers at my school utilize youtube, kindles,
and Kahn Academy, this list is by no means exhaustive, but gives a brief overview of the
technology the students use on a daily basis. Other opportunities that can be taken

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advantage of are seminars, Pinterest, Edutopia, and the Google search engine. This list is
by no means exhaustive, but has provided a good foundation and resources thus far.
Threats
Threats that may influence a successful implementation of technology often come
from outside sources such as administration, a students at home access to technology,
and parents. Currently my school is highly supportive of technology in the classroom as
long as it is related to education, however we cannot use things that kids are already
using technologically. For example, we cannot use many of the popular social media sites
that the students use, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. At our school some parents
dont allow their students to use these sites and our administration does not want to
overstep the rules that parents have set for their students. The teachers navigate the rule
by using the social medias same ideas in their lesson planning. As an informal
assessment, teachers will sometimes ask students to create a hashtag before they can
leave the classroom or caption a photo like they might on Instagram. Overall our school
is highly supportive and wants to stay on the cutting edge of technological advances in
education and most roadblocks, such as the one described above can be navigated with
some creative thinking.
Conclusion
After reflecting on my own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats it
appears that I have a great deal of knowledge going into the classroom and my greatest
block to not implementing it in the classroom would be myself. If I want to become
successful at implementing education technological tools in the classroom I need to take
the time to become trained and ask others for help. The roadblocks that come my way,

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while legitimate, just take some creative thinking to move around them, and overall
contribute to higher engage in the classroom.
References:
Mumtaz, S. (2000). Factors affecting teachers' use of information and communications
technology: a review of the literature. Journal of information technology for
teacher education, 9(3), 319-342.
Thacher, R. (2015). GAME CREATION & DIFFERENTIATED
LEARNING. Independent School, 74(2), 92-96.