Running head: INDIVIDUAL TEACHER TECHNOLOGY USE ASSESSMENT

Individual Teacher Technology Use Assessment

Megan Rucker
Kennesaw State University
March 5, 2017
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Introduction and Background

Over the last several weeks, I have been discussing the possibility of acting as a technology

coach for a teacher in my department. Mrs. Jones is currently an American Literature teacher at

Paulding County High School. She has only been teaching for a year, but her students are

already showing tremendous growth, and her 1st semester students performed above average on

the American Literature EOC. Mrs. Jones is highly analytical, and she is careful to choose tasks

which are engaging and encourage students to think critically. She places a high value on

classroom discussion, and she pushes her students to challenge themselves. She took two surveys

to gauge her current perceptions and beliefs about technology, and she has engaged in a number

of discussions about technology use with students. I initially chose her to work with because, in

the past, Mrs. Jones has expressed that she may need extra training in instructional technology,

and considers herself to be weak in technology skills. While she shows confidence in many areas

of her instruction. Technology is a self-identified weakness.

Paulding County School District is a BYOT district, and currently students bring their own

devices to class. Teachers have a SmartBoard, Smart Response devices, and document cameras

in their classrooms. Each classroom also has one student computer. The WIFI access in certain

areas of the building is unreliable, so most teachers rely on the computer lab for student use of

technology. There are five computer labs of various sizes and there are twelve computers in the

library that are good for stations. One challenge is that the largest labs are in the newest area of

the school, and most of the teachers prefer these labs even if their classes do not need that many

computers. The smallest labs in the oldest sections of the building are often left unused while

teachers with large classes wait on the larger labs to become available. Mrs. Jones has expressed

concern that these obstacles have caused her to forgo some opportunities to use technology.
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Survey and Interview Results

After surveying and interviewing Mrs. Jones there are few trends that seem to arise. She is

not confident in her own technology skills, and her perception of technology as an instructional

tool are approaching negative. On a number of occasions throughout the course of this year,

Mrs. Jones has asked for my help in using tools that we have decided on as a collaborative team.

She has expressed to me a number of times that she has difficulty figuring things out for herself,

and on the LoTI survey, she indicated that she strongly disagreed with the following statements:

I am capable of troubleshooting most problems I have with technology by using the

resources I have

I am aware of all the tools and apps available for immediate use on the school issued

devices.

I am knowledgeable and skilled in the use of technology in daily instruction.

I use digital resources during the school day to reinforce specific content standards and

confirm student learning.

I understand and support the shared vision for our schools use of digital resources.

At the same time Mrs. Jones agrees with the statement: I believe the use of technology

resources in the classroom can positively impact student learning and achievement. The fact

that Mrs. Jones has such a negative perception of her own skills, but a positive concept of the

value of technology makes her an ideal person to coach.

One concern that Mrs. Jones expressed in her interview, which she did not mention in her

survey, is her concern about the time that it takes to set up a new tool. Because she is still a new

teacher there are many aspects of working with students that still surprise her. One aspect of

technology integration that has surprised her is many students lack of basic technology skills.
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She assumed that because the current generation of high school students have had a greater level

of access to technology than she did that they would have more technology skills than she did in

high school. This has not been the case, and because of this, the new tools that she has chosen to

use have carried a greater learning curve than she anticipated. She has set up tasks for students

to complete which needed more technical instruction than she provided. She has also had

difficulties with trouble shooting, and she does not feel prepared to deal with problems that may

arise when integrating new technology with an entire class.

After the interview, Mrs. Jones took the adopter survey. On this survey many of her

responses still reflected the lack of self-confidence she had in the initial survey. This survey did;

however, offer more insight into Mrs. Jones own conception of herself as a teacher and her

positive attitude about trying new things. The survey indicated that she strongly agreed that

As a teacher, I am always trying to gain new knowledge and improve my practice.

I always consider the research behind a new strategy before choosing to implement it.

I value dialogue with colleagues concerning effective technology-integrated teaching

practices.

This enthusiasm to learn new things and work closely with colleagues means Mrs. Jones will not

be hesitant or afraid of trying something new. It also means that she is willing to use ideas that a

colleague has developed. Her negative responses to questions about how prepared she is to

implement new technologies reinforces my understanding of her lack of confidence in her own

abilities at this time.

Current Use of Tools

After reading her survey, I asked Mrs. Jones about the way she currently uses technology.

She expressed to me in the interview and also reflected in her survey that she is currently using
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technology as a tool for remediation of basic skills. She is using digital tools like NoFear

Shakespeare, USA Test Prep, and text to speech tools to help her students who struggle. While

she did not mention it, I can infer from our discussions that she does not currently view

technology as a means of challenging her students, and does not currently use technology as a

tool for higher order thinking. Because she is such a strong believer in critical thinking and

encourages her class to challenge themselves, I believe that she will be eager to use some of the

tools I will introduce her to.

When prompted with the idea that technology could offer opportunities for critical thinking

that were impossible in the classroom, Mrs. Jones acknowledged that she was curious about

digital discussions, but she was unsure of how to set them up. She is concerned that it is not

worth the time it takes to set them up, and she is concerned that students will not understand how

to use the tools.

Approach to Coaching

In part because she is still a new teacher, Mrs. Jones is very enthusiastic about the

coaching process. She looks forward to learning new skills and she wants to address areas of her

instruction that she sees as weaknesses. Mrs. Jones already has a collaborative style of teaching,

so coaching fits well with her current perspective of instruction. Additionally, she has a number

of ideas about increasing rigor that she is enthusiastic about incorporating in upcoming digital

discussions that we can both use. Mrs. Jones is eager to contribute to our team and her ideas

about higher order thinking complement our goals for technology implementation.

After looking at the survey results and talking with Mrs. Jones I have determined two

priorities that address her concerns. My first priority is to introduce her to some tools that

already fit with her style of instruction. She already uses Schoology as her mandatory class
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website, so I will introduce her to the discussion forum that is already offered through Schoology

and show her how to use the rubric tool to display expectations and evaluate discussions. I will

also show her tools like Todays Meet and Padlet which offer backchannel/ brainstorming

opportunities for students. All of these tools fit with Mrs. Joness skill set and style of teaching.

They also help address the current instructional needs of her students.

My second priority will be modeling and helping to develop a process of technology

integration with her students. Because she has had bad experiences with introducing new tools

and is surprised about students lack of technology skills, I will help her plan out her

implementation of a new tool. I will suggest that her first use with this new tool be in the context

of group work so that there are fewer possible needs to troubleshoot, and students can act as

helpers. This is meant to encourage her self confidence in regards to troubleshooting. I will then

help her create a method of implementation that anticipates possible concerns that students will

have and steps they need to take to implement these tools. I will also provide her materials such

as a video about Netiquette that will help set up students expectations rather assuming students

already know how to behave in a digital discussion.

Each of these priorities will be addressed with discussion, co-planning, modeling,

observation, and reflection. We will begin by more thoroughly discussing the concerns that Mrs.

Jones has about the tools and implementation. I will discuss what has worked for me in the past

and what benefits I have seen from using these strategies. We will then co-plan a lesson using

one of the discussion tools that both of us will use in our discussion about The Great Gatsby.

Co-planning often helps teachers buy in to a new tool because they helped define how it would

be used. Next I will model the use of the strategy in my class during Mrs. Joness planning

period so that she feels more comfortable with the possible need for troubleshooting that may
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arise during the digital discussion. After modeling, Mrs. Jones will use the same lesson that we

co-planned with her class, and I will help facilitate. Afterwards we will both reflect on how the

lesson went and discuss what we might do differently in the future.

Each of these steps reflect the 5-step process outlined by Rogers. The discussion and co-

planning will begin the knowledge and persuasion steps that Rogers outlined. In these steps we

will address perceptions, possible obstacles, and benefits of technology use. Co-planning and

modeling will lead to the decision stage. Finally, the implementation and confirmation stages

will be precipitated by observation and reflection. This should be an effective strategy based on

Mrs. Joness answers on the adopter survey. She indicated that she enjoys learning new

strategies and she values dialogue with colleagues.

After discussing the coaching process we have decided to meet once a week after our normal

collaboration time. We will begin by planning a small implementation with an upcoming

discussion, and we will move to a larger implementation with a cross-class wiki collaboration

later in the semester. We will share planning responsibilities and facilitate implementation in

each others rooms. This collaborative form of coaching should be the best strategy based on

Mrs. Jones preferences and personality.

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Resources

Orr, G. (2003). Diffusion of innovations, by Everett Rogers (1995). Retrieved from

http://web.iaincirebon.ac.id/ebook/indrya/bandura/inovasi/Diffusion%20of%20Innovatio

ns,%20by%20Everett%20Rogers%20(1995).pdf