Burr Mid-Term Presentation

Editor's Notes

1. Welcome to my EDET 650 Mid-Term Presentation!
2. AtLugoff Elementary School, there are many forms of technology available to both students and teachers. Based on the variety of equipment and need for training and instruction on how to use or incorporate these items inside the classroom, I completed a needs-based survey to identify the areas of greatest need. The results rendered the need for hands-on, interactive training and workshops addressing SmartBoard Notebook Software 10. These workshops will meet the needs of both basic and advanced learners.
3. Throughout my internship, I had three main goals that I hoped to meet.First, I planned to create workshops and instructional materials for teachers that address the needs identified in the technology needs survey.
4. Second, my goal is to share instructional materials with the school and district for professional development activities.
5. My final goal was to provide teachers with the understanding and capabilities of SmartBoard Notebook Software 10 that they will be able to incorporate these forms of technology into their daily classroom routines.
6. In order to complete this project, I am following the included plan of attack…-I created a survey for teachers-Then, I analyzed the results and-Identified the specific needs of the target audience.-At this point, I completed a large amount of research on the SmartBoard Notebook Software 10 and interactive technologies. I completed the citations to be placed in my annotated bibliography and have submitted the first eleven of the twenty-one entries. -I am currently working on creating and completing the professional development workshops for teachers.-Finally, I will create the evaluation survey, survey teachers and analyze the results. Then, I will be able to complete my final reflection on the process and project.
7. As I completed my research for the bibliography, workshops and created resources for teachers, my focus was to answer the following question… What is the effect of interactive technologies such as SmartBoards and CPS clickers on elementary students?
8. Technology Tuesdays will be here shortly. I will be hosting the SmartBoard professional development workshops in the coming weeks. The SmartBoard Basics workshop will be on October 20th and the Advanced workshop will be on November 17th. The presentations and resources will be posted online and the links will be made available through my blog and mid-term report wiki page.
9. Throughout the internship process, I have worked extremely hard to complete the array of tasks by the deadlines that both Dr. Smyth and myself set for the completing of each stage of the process. Although I have completed a great amount, there is still much to do. Each of the following tasks still needs to be completed by December 7.My work will begin with completing my annotated bibliography annotations, basic SmartBoard workshop, advanced SmartBoard workshop, hosting the basic SmartBoard workshop on October 20th and completing Blog’s 5 & 6, as well as the timesheet on November 9th.
10. In addition, I will be hosting the advanced workshop for SmartBoard users on November 17th, creating an evaluation survey, analyzing survey results, uploading the workshop presentations and resources and posting the links to all of these documents on the wiki.
11. As you can see, November will be busy with 7th Blog on November 23rd and the final annotated bibliography on November 30th. Finally on December 7th, the reflection paper, final timesheet, and presentation are due to bring closure and provide reflection on the process.
12. In order to evaluate my efforts by the group of individuals who participate in the workshops, I will be creating a survey to send to participants as I did at the beginning of this process. The survey will ask participants to measure the effectiveness, usefulness and attainment of goals through a survey created using survey monkey. After I collect the data, I will use this measure to analyze the results and reflect upon the project. These results will also provide me with the feedback to determine what could be improved in the future or was adequate in the meeting goals identified.
13. I have really enjoyed this process thus far. It has been quite busy and stressful to say the least, but interesting in the same token. I have posted my blog to track my reflection and progress every two weeks since the start of the internship. At times, I have fallen behind with my tasks of research and creation. It is not that I was not working or just pushed it to the side, but as work would build up at USC, Lugoff Elementary and this internship – I had to prioritize my efforts. It became obvious very quickly that the long hours that I was putting in were going to have to be longer. I continued to work and push through and I am getting there. One of my biggest downfalls is the fact that I often try to do too much and it can become overwhelming. Although I do keep myself busy in many aspects of my life, I do not always know when I have to say “no” to other people who ask for help or assistance. It is not my personality to say no and I always want to help, so I often struggle with balancing what I need to do and helping others when they ask for assistance. I believe that my time management skills have become much better in the past year and it will continue to improve, as limited time is often an issue. Another strength that I believe I have is the ability to place myself in someone else’s shoes. It is an essential trait to have when creating professional development workshops and materials for those who may not know or understand the same ideas and principles of technology that you do. I also believe that I am a hard-worker and when it comes down to it, I always get it done. Especially when I am passionate about a subject, I am able to really show my heart and dedication in my work. Although the amount of time will always be limited, I feel that I could improve on choosing one specific subject and focusing on it. I originally planned to create a lot of different resources, but as I considered the teachers, time and goals, I realized that it was more important to focus truly on one topic. This would allow me to go deeper and provide more resources and understanding to teachers.
14. Wow! The journey is definitely far from over, but I have already learned a lot from my research and analysis of information. To begin, I didn’t realize that so many teachers needed SmartBoard instruction at our school. Since we have had SmartBoards for a year, I thought there would be few teachers who still needed instruction for the integration of the SmartBoard Notebook Software. This is a great example of why it is so important to create and complete a needs-based survey at the beginning of any project. As I have researched and read the supporting documents, I have discovered that there is very little research pertaining to the integration and effects of SmartBoard Software or any interactive technologies in elementary classrooms (K-5). I believe that this is an area that could definitely benefit from more research. Since “75 % of classrooms” use interactive whiteboards, it is apparent that we should have a better understanding on the profound effect they have on student achievement. The research that I was able to find and read was very enlightening. In my reading, I discovered that most of the articles related higher student achievement in classrooms who had a technology proficient teacher who integrated interactive whiteboards into their instruction. The interactive learning created a more positive classroom environment and students were more eager to interact, which raised achievement in these classrooms. I believe any type of interactive technology that is content-based and age-appropriate is a positive teaching tool in the classroom, because when a child is intrigued, they are focused and more apt to retain the information being presented.
15. Here you will find the reference list.I pulled images from Google Images.