May, 1993

From Now On
The Educational Technology Journal

Vol 3 . . . No 9 . . . May, 1993

1. Monthly Comments
2. Assessing Staff Technology Competence

----- Monthly Comments ----

In December of 1991 I left the superintendency of a district in Pennsylvania to write and consult full time. With three books emerging this year, I have decided to return to school district work as the Director of Instructional Technology and Media Services in Bellingham, Washington, a K-12 system with over 10,000 students and a very exciting technology plan. I am eager to join with teachers and others in the development of real-time programs, but I will also maintain an active role as a speaker and writer on technology-related issues. From Now On, which has been in existence for three school years, will continue into the 1993-94 school year.

Those who were awaiting this month's focus upon successful integration of technology programs may be disappointed that I have delayed that topic until next year, at which time I will have had more time to collect success stories. This month's focus is upon assessment of staff technology competency and attitudes as a basis for planning and grant-writing.

Assessing Staff Technology Competence

Introduction

For students to emerge from school ready for the next century, competent and caring, they will require an education in the thoughtful use of new technologies. This education will take them beyond skill to understanding and judgment. For us to achieve this goal, we must support staff in making the journey to technology competence, information literacy and routine, comfortable use of new technologies. This article offers several tools to assist district technology planners in developing the human resource development piece which has been missing from all too many district technology plans. These same tools may also help support district grant-writing efforts by providing an assessment tool to define the adult learning needs of staff members in ways that will document a need for staff development programs.

Now that we have spent more than a decade flirting with new technologies, there is some evidence that we have failed to integrate the use of technologies by all teachers throughout the regular classroom curriculum in ways that are meaningful, natural and powerful. The most impressive efforts in this regard have been contributed by a group of teachers we might call "pioneers," people who have welcomed new technologies and often devoted many weekend hours to the mastery of new programs and software. In some districts this group may be as large as 25 or 40 per cent of the total, but in most districts there is also a very large group of people who have acted as if technologies were just another form of bandwagon. Many of these people, who we might call "reluctants" or "sages," have spent most of this decade on the sidelines, half hoping that the new technologies would suffer the same fate as instructional TV.

Stages of Mastery of Technology*

Mandinach (1992), building upon the ACOT work of Sandholtz, Ringstaff and Dwyer (1990), outlines 4 stages through which teachers might pass in learning and applying new technologies to their classrooms. What percentage of the teachers in your school district are presently in each of the stages outlined below?

Survival Stage

Struggle against technology

Assailed by problems

Status quo in classroom

Cannot anticipate problem

Teacher-directed

Unrealistic expectations

Management problems

Chaos

Mastery Stage

Developing coping strategies

Increased tolerance

New forms of interactions

Increased technical competence

Increased experience and confidence with new classroom structure

More engagement

Impact Stage

New working relationships and structure

Learner-centered

Teachers as facilitators of learning

Less threatened by technology

Technology enhanced curriculum coverage

Innovation Stage

Restructuring of curriculum and learning activities

*Mandinach, E. and Cline, H. (1992). The impact of technological curriculum innovation on teaching and learning activities." Paper presented at AERA.

*Sandholtz, J., Ringstaff, C. & Dwyer, D.C. (1990). Classroom management: Teaching in high tech environments: Classroom management revisited first-fourth year findings (ACOT Report #10). Cupertino, CA: Apple Computer, Inc., Advanced Technology Group, Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow.

Assessment to Guide Planning

If a district can develop a portrait of its professional staff's relationship with technology, that portrait can provide the basis for planning staff development. The most effective staff development programs offer a variety of opportunities to match the learning styles, preferences and developmental levels of staff members. A teacher in the survival stage will usually require a different approach than one at the impact stage, for example. Some teachers will prefer to learn in small groups or by themselves. Others prefer formal, structured classes. Unfortunately, most districts offer a very limited menu with few options or different approaches.

Assessment to Guide Grant-Writing

One of the biggest weaknesses in grant proposals submitted by school districts is vagueness and a lack of data to describe and define the problem being addressed by the proposal. An effective grant proposal will make use of data in the section on the need being addressed as well as in the sections on objectives and evaluation. The donor will want to see evidence that the problem is well defined and the outcomes can be well measured. The survey in the next section was designed to support a district in gathering just such data to help plan a five year technology staff development effort. It is still in the development stage.

The Technology in My Life Survey

In order to plan technology learning experiences for the teachers of this school district during the next five years, we need to know how many people need which kinds of experiences to help them feel comfortable and proficient. Your anonymous responses to the following items will help guide us in that planning effort.

Section A

Because technology is shifting the nature of our workplace and society, many people argue that teachers will need to acquire what is called technological literacy and competency. Please mark each competency listed below to indicate how far you have progressed in meeting the competency. Then rate each competency for its importance (in your opinion) for teachers of this decade.

Degree of Proficiency Ratings

H=High

M=Medium

L=Low

Degree of Importance Ratings

H=High

M=Medium

L=Low

Proficiency Importance

1. _____ _____ * operate a computer system in order to use software successfully

2. _____ _____ * evaluate and use computers and other related technologies to support the instructional process

3. _____ _____ * apply current instructional principles, research and appropriate assessment practices to the use of computers and related technologies

4. _____ _____ * explore, evaluate, and use computer technology-based materials

5. _____ _____ * demonstrate knowledge of uses of computers for problem-solving, data collection, information management, communications, presentations, and decision-making

6. _____ _____ * design and develop student learning activities

that integrate computing and technology for a

variety of student grouping strategies and for diverse student populations

7. _____ _____ * evaluate, select and integrate computer technology-based instruction in the curriculum of one's subject area(s) and/or grade level(s)

Proficiency Importance

8. _____ _____ * demonstrate knowledge of multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications activities to support instruction

9. _____ _____ * demonstrate skill in using productivity tools for professional and personal use, including word processing, database, spreadsheet and print-graphic utilities

10. _____ _____ * demonstrate knowledge of equity, ethical, legal and human issues of computing and technology

11. _____ _____ * identify resources for staying current in applications of computing and related technologies in education

12. _____ _____ * use computer-based technologies to access information to enhance personal and professional productivity

13. _____ _____ * apply computers and related technologies to facilitate emerging roles of the learner and the educator

Note: The list is drawn from work done on technology competencies by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education ( NCATE) and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (ECIT) (Hanclosky and Earle, 1992).

Section B

We are interested in knowing how you feel about learning new technologies and programs. Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.

1. Most of the new technologies which have become available to me have been easy to learn with relatively little outside support and I am eager to get my hands on more equipment so I can teach myself more.