Personal Goals For Technology -Assessments

Technology can be very friendly, however it can also be very intimidating for someone like me with very little background in technology education. I never learned keyboarding nor did I have the opportunity to take any technology courses in school. In fact I did not use computers at all when I was in school. I learned from my sons how to email, cut, copy, paste, surf the internet and use all the cool software. Through all the professional developments that were provided at school I learned how to make powerpoints and use excel worksheets. Currently I am learning how to use Microsoft Access. I feel my learning has gaps and the young teachers at my school help me to fill in these gaps. Taking The Technology Applications inventory was an eye opener for me, it showed me where these gaps are and now I will try and take lessons to fill in these gaps.To be an effective teacher I know I have to be engaged in learning myself.
I can create documents and multimedia projects easily now.
As far as the foundations are concerned, I cannot delineate between the various file formats like .jpg, .mov, .gif etc. I do not understand and use Internet terminology appropriately such as LANs, WANs, WWW, HTML, and intranet. I am fairly comfortable with information acquisition. Infact I create a lot of presentation for my students. As far as solving problems is concerned, I use interactive virtual environments such as virtual reality or simulations. My weakest area is communication; I do not use telecommunication tools for publishing such as Internet browsers, video conferencing, or distance learning very effectively.
From the SEDTA survey I saw that our district is not using data to assess student achievement outside of the technology classroom, or to compare the various student subpopulations. I found that I am using technology in my classroom for my own use, but not necessarily in what I require the students to do. I could see that the equipment used at the classroom level is outdated, but that most of the software used is almost cutting edge. Our district does provide training opportunities, but our biggest downfall is that we are never given time to explore these new things. As a campus leader, I would like to provide collaboration time between teachers to explore and implement this new technology.
We have to provide meaningful experiences for our students and for that we have to stay in tune and be involved in virtual learning environments. For me, a new era has begun.