Self-Assessment of Past, Present, and Future Leadership
According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, digital learning is, “any instructional practice that is effectively using technology to strengthen the student learning experience.” (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2013) Considering the wide net this definition encompasses, it is no surprise that assessing the technology literacy of educators is not an easy task. How can we know if we are doing enough or if our technology proficiency is lacking? How can we tell if we are turning out graduates who are able to thrive in a workforce where technology fluency is a must? These questions are hard to answer, and to make matters worse, there is no universal standard used to measure educators and the leaders who provide their professional development. Although we are not on the same page globally, there are several organizations out there who are writing surveys and assessments that lend themselves to help shed some light on how we are doing and how far we have to grow. After spending quite some time researching to find an assessment that appeared to be well-written and reliable, I stumbled across one produced by a company named Coralesce (Coralesce Ltd., n.d.), and the areas in the questionnaire were very thorough and logically organized. To ensure that I had indeed found a survey that would produce reliable results, I completed the assessment myself to see where I stood in the grand scheme of things. The feedback I received was surprising, and I found that I have a long way to go to grow into the role of a technology leader. There were six areas measured by the survey: personal use of technology in everyday life, using learning technology to lead teaching and learning, leading the use of learning technology in assessment, leading quality in digital learning, leading the use of learning technologies through continuing personal development, and developing a strategy. The results showed that my strongest areas are personal use of technology in everyday life, leading the use of learning technologies through continuing personal development, and developing a strategy. I appear to be fairly weak in the other three areas. It was not much of a surprise to find the area I scored highest in was personal use of technology in everyday life. The questions in this section of the survey covered topics such as using cloud storage, completing basic office functions, using social media, and creating blog posts. Thinking back, I have been using desktop computers since I was in the 5th grade, so having this contact with computers for most of my life has helped to build the skills I have today. As an adult, I have used computers constantly to complete personal tasks such as paying bills online, ordering things for the house, completing college assignments, and keeping up with friends and family on social media. Additionally, I had a secretarial job before I became a teacher, and this position helped me to become proficient in both using the Microsoft Office Suite and configuring print jobs of different shapes and sizes. So, when it comes to knowing my way around a computer, I feel I have what it takes to guide others and quickly learn most programs that are put in front of me. The next area scored via the self-assessment was using learning technology to lead teaching and learning, and most of the questions in this particular section pertained to supporting and leading staff as they integrate technology in their classrooms. My results in this category mostly fell in the “developing” or “early” range. Since my current position is a regular classroom teacher, I have not been placed in an assignment or given responsibilities that have enabled me to guide other teachers, but I do make suggestions for technology implementation when I am planning with my English 1 & 2 teams. A few of the ideas I have recommended to the teams have been using Kahoot (Kahoot! AS, 2016) for review and formative assessment, having students use QR Codes to gain background information about topics before reading, recording video skits or interviews to demonstrate comprehension, creating presentations using software such as Prezi (Arvai, Halácsy, & Somlai-Fischer, 2009) for demonstrating research, and online collaboration via Google Docs (Page & Brin, 1998) while completing group work. The most successful lesson I planned this past year was the integration of technology in a Socratic Seminar over the novella Of Mice and Men (see photos). My principal observed the lesson and gave me an "exceeds" rating on my PDAS score for the year which made me extremely happy!
As far as my achievement in the category pertaining to leading the use of learning technology in assessment, this area appears to be my biggest opportunity for growth as I scored all “developing” or “early” stages here. Most of the questions in this section related to directing staff to online assessments for reading proficiency diagnostics and facilitating online testing. Currently, I am not aware of any online subscriptions my district has for reading assessment, and if we do have one, we don’t often utilize them at the secondary level. As for online assessments, I have considered creating some using Eduphoria (McDorman & Smith, n.d.) during the upcoming school year to streamline processes like benchmark testing. The implementation of online testing should expand my knowledge of leading the use of technology in assessment and generate personal growth in this tier.
Another area of weakness revealed in my survey was leading quality in digital learning. Most of the proficiencies in this section connected to making sure processes, applications, and instructional implementations were all of a certain caliber. Once again, I am not currently in an administrative position, so checking up on other teachers’ choice of technology use or lack thereof is not part of my weekly routine. Quality control will definitely be on my checklist of future learning necessary to be a competent educational technology leader. After looking at all my weaknesses, I moved into the continuing personal development category and saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Personal development is something I am always striving for whether it is related to my profession or to my home life. I take pride in continually improving. When it comes to my job in education, I spend countless hours online perusing teacher blogs, Pinterest (Pinterest, Inc., 2010), and sites like Teachers Pay Teachers (Edelman, 2006) to help keep my instructional approaches creative and engaging. Many of the ideas I have encountered online have been passed on to my peers, and I have compiled a few of them into a website for my classes. Although I am currently strong in this area, my learning will not stop here; my pursuit of education will be a life-long process. Finally, the end of the survey assessed me as a highflier in the area of developing a strategy. In a way, this group of questions goes hand in hand with personal development. The new ideas generated through online research become strategies for me, and I love to plan. I am the teacher who already has lesson plans ready for the first week of school, and I pride myself in being organized and making sure my students work bell to bell. Over the years, I have realized that over-planning eliminates behavior and discipline issues in my classroom. At times, I am panicked if I feel my activities won’t take up the entire 90-minute period. All in all, this survey gave me some good feedback. I realize that I have achieved some positive and significant growth regarding the use of technology in education, but I need to develop my leadership strategies in order to make an impact on both my campus and District overall. This will be my focus moving forward as another school year commences next month. References Alliance for Excellent Education. (2013). What Do We Mean When We Say, "Digital Learning?" Retrieved from http://new.digitallearningday.org/about-us/digital-learning-definition/ Arvai, P., Halácsy, P., & Somlai-Fischer, A. (2009). Presenting a better way to present. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/ Coralesce Ltd. (n.d.). Digital literacy tool. Retrieved July 14, 2016, from http://www.edtech-assess.com/digital-literacy-tool/ Edelman, P. (2006). Teaching Resources & Lesson Plans | Teachers Pay Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ Kahoot! AS. (2016). Making Learning Awesome! Retrieved from https://getkahoot.com/ McDorman, C., & Smith, T. (n.d.). Eduphoria! Retrieved July 17, 2016, from https://www.schoolobjects.com/eduphoria_webcontrols /Login.aspx? ReturnUrl=%2Feduphoria_webcontrols%2FApplications.aspx Page, L., & Brin, S. (1998). Create documents. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/?showDriveBanner=true# Pinterest, Inc. (2010). Pinterest. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/
