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
Reflection:
The Individual Teacher Technology Assessment was created for my ITEC 7460 Professional Learning and Technology Innovation course. For this assignment, I worked with my classmates in the course to create a LoTi-based assessment and an adopter questionnaire. The two surveys were administered to a first-year teacher at my school. I interviewed her using the questions from the surveys and I also made observations in her classroom. I asked her about how she felt using technology in the classroom and what types of technology would she be interested in using in the future. I collected the information from her surveys and notes from her classroom observation to develop the Individual Teacher Technology Assessment. The information from this assessment was used to create a coaching plan for the teacher.
This artifact shows mastery of standard 5.1 because I conducted a needs assessment to determine a faculty member’s strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs. In this artifact I conducted a needs assessment using a Loti and Adopter questionnaire that was created in the course. These two surveys helped me to gather information about the faculty member that I chose to help implement technology in her math classroom. With the information that I gathered I was able to address the faculty member’s strengths and weaknesses. I then used the information to determine that in her math class the best place to start was classroom management. This being one of her weaknesses. I determined how we could use technology-based professional learning programs to help with classroom management. The digital tool that I chose was Classroom Dojo. The results from this Individual Teacher Technology Assessment can be used for other teachers who have classroom management issues. Also this artifact could be completed for any school, faculty, grade-level, and subject area that needs to have a needs assessments on them to determine strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs.
This artifact helped me to understand all that a technology coach needs to do before they implement technology into a teacher’s classroom. Using the questionnaires helped me to see that every teacher’s classroom is not the same and every teacher will not need the same help. Through this artifact, I have learned the value of using assessment results to inform the content and delivery of professional development which then greatly compliments the coaching process. To improve this artifact I would have completed a questionnaire for the students. This questionnaire would see what the student’s believed needed assessing in their math class. This would have given me a different perspective and it might’ve changed to digital tool that I chose. I think that using the teacher’s perspective and the students would have given me a well-rounded picture of what the classroom really needed.
The work that went into creating this artifact will impact faculty development. As more effective needs assessments are done and used to better inform professional development, the content and delivery is more likely to line up with what teachers truly need. The benefit of the professional development to the teachers is therefore greatly enhanced. The impact of this faculty development will be assessed in the increased use of instructional technology school-wide and determined by observation and surveys. Additionally, as faculty development occurs, student performance should increase as measured by various formative and summative assessments.
The Individual Teacher Technology Assessment was created for my ITEC 7460 Professional Learning and Technology Innovation course. For this assignment, I worked with my classmates in the course to create a LoTi-based assessment and an adopter questionnaire. The two surveys were administered to a first-year teacher at my school. I interviewed her using the questions from the surveys and I also made observations in her classroom. I asked her about how she felt using technology in the classroom and what types of technology would she be interested in using in the future. I collected the information from her surveys and notes from her classroom observation to develop the Individual Teacher Technology Assessment. The information from this assessment was used to create a coaching plan for the teacher.
This artifact shows mastery of standard 5.1 because I conducted a needs assessment to determine a faculty member’s strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs. In this artifact I conducted a needs assessment using a Loti and Adopter questionnaire that was created in the course. These two surveys helped me to gather information about the faculty member that I chose to help implement technology in her math classroom. With the information that I gathered I was able to address the faculty member’s strengths and weaknesses. I then used the information to determine that in her math class the best place to start was classroom management. This being one of her weaknesses. I determined how we could use technology-based professional learning programs to help with classroom management. The digital tool that I chose was Classroom Dojo. The results from this Individual Teacher Technology Assessment can be used for other teachers who have classroom management issues. Also this artifact could be completed for any school, faculty, grade-level, and subject area that needs to have a needs assessments on them to determine strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs.
This artifact helped me to understand all that a technology coach needs to do before they implement technology into a teacher’s classroom. Using the questionnaires helped me to see that every teacher’s classroom is not the same and every teacher will not need the same help. Through this artifact, I have learned the value of using assessment results to inform the content and delivery of professional development which then greatly compliments the coaching process. To improve this artifact I would have completed a questionnaire for the students. This questionnaire would see what the student’s believed needed assessing in their math class. This would have given me a different perspective and it might’ve changed to digital tool that I chose. I think that using the teacher’s perspective and the students would have given me a well-rounded picture of what the classroom really needed.
The work that went into creating this artifact will impact faculty development. As more effective needs assessments are done and used to better inform professional development, the content and delivery is more likely to line up with what teachers truly need. The benefit of the professional development to the teachers is therefore greatly enhanced. The impact of this faculty development will be assessed in the increased use of instructional technology school-wide and determined by observation and surveys. Additionally, as faculty development occurs, student performance should increase as measured by various formative and summative assessments.