School Technology
Inventory
PIN-HSUAN SUNG
TED 682 ASSIGNMENT #2
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
JUNE 13, 2015
1
School Background
 I work full time at La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego,
CA.
 I currently teach upper school and middle school Chinese
classes. Although I teach across divisions, my main focus is in
middle school. Hence, my inventory is based on middle
school classrooms.
 We have around 500 students in middle school.
2
Classroom Inventory
 In middle school, we share 152 computers, 20 are iPads and 132 are MacBook Air
laptops from 2012. They are color coded for teachers to reserve on daily basis.
 Each classroom is equipped with a document reader, DVD player and McTivia, a
software that allows teachers to project their computers to the board using
projectors.
 Moving on to next year, we will use OnCampus LMS to post grades, homework
and communicate with parents. Students as well as parents can see their grades
instantly when they are updated.
 Each teacher has a choice of a PC or a MacBook and every computer comes
with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and software upon request. The wireless
internet speed is fast and stable on campus.
 Although a lot of sites are blocked through the network, teachers can request
certain sites to be unblocked for academic purposes.
3
Student/School Inventory
 Middle school students have a technology class in grades 5 and 6 that is
mandatory. They take the class twice per week for two full years. In grades
7 and 8, it becomes an elective class and is offered 4 days per week with
one period being an extended block period.
 Middle school students learn applications that are fundamental for
successful use of computers as tools for academic success, such as typing,
word processing/desktop publishing, spreadsheets and graphing,
presentation software, research tools, website design. They also learn to
use Adobe Photoshop, video editing, some music composition and even
basic computer programming.
4
District Policies & Procedures
(Private schools don’t belong to any school districts)
 We have a technology department, where we report our technical issues.
We can also call them if we encounter problems in class. They normally
come help within 5 minutes.
 Social networking tools are not available through the school network.
 Middle school students are prohibited to use cellphones during school
hours. They can store their cellphones in their lockers and may not take
them out without permissions.
 I have seen some changes in technology within middle school. Our new
director has advocated educational technology. We have had some
workshops related to technology, such as implementing clickers in
classrooms, educational apps, and OnCampus/Blackboard trainings.
5
Action Plan:
Five ways to use the resources in my classroom instruction
1. Students will need to be familiar with our new platform, OnCampus LMS to check their homework and
grades regularly. They will hopefully learn to hold themselves accountable by seeing the progress they
make.
2. I am hoping to create some online quizzes for students to take at home. It is very difficult to do so in a
foreign language class because they can easily look up the answers through google translation. Hence,
I might need to make it more like a diagnostic quiz rather than a formative one.
3. In the past, I have taught my students Chinese typing on a computer. They also enjoyed typing more
than handwriting Chinese characters. However, handwriting Chinese characters is an important step to
memorize the characters. In order to make the handwriting fun, I would have the class practice writing
on their iPads with the handwriting function. The function is great because if the student does not write
a character correctly, it won’t recognize it to provide the correct character for students to choose.
4. I will continue to use the document reader, which has been an easy and convenient tool for me to
show answers or show examples of work. Since I do not have my own classroom, I go to 4 different
classrooms for 4 classes.
5. I have asked students to present their projects on PowerPoint or on Keynote Presentation in upper
school. Given the trend of school changes, I think I will start to require it in my middle school classes.
6
Conclusion
 Challenges: The main technical challenge we have had is internet stability due to high
usage. When a large group of students uses the internet at the same time in a certain
location, the connection slows down and becomes unstable. Occasionally, the students
cannot finish their work in time or start to chat with each other while waiting for their
browsers to load. Also, when teachers explore a new app and would like to install it on the
iPads, we cannot do so ourselves. The technicians have the passcodes and will need to
install them for us and it usually takes them a week maximum to do so for all the iPads.
 Goals: I would like to explore more apps/ interactive games for my Chinese classes. Right
now, a lot of apps are designated for Latin-script languages, not for Chinese characters.
Hence, joining a Chinese teacher conference or Chinese teachers forum would be helpful
to discover more.
7

Technology inventory

  • 1.
    School Technology Inventory PIN-HSUAN SUNG TED682 ASSIGNMENT #2 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY JUNE 13, 2015 1
  • 2.
    School Background  Iwork full time at La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, CA.  I currently teach upper school and middle school Chinese classes. Although I teach across divisions, my main focus is in middle school. Hence, my inventory is based on middle school classrooms.  We have around 500 students in middle school. 2
  • 3.
    Classroom Inventory  Inmiddle school, we share 152 computers, 20 are iPads and 132 are MacBook Air laptops from 2012. They are color coded for teachers to reserve on daily basis.  Each classroom is equipped with a document reader, DVD player and McTivia, a software that allows teachers to project their computers to the board using projectors.  Moving on to next year, we will use OnCampus LMS to post grades, homework and communicate with parents. Students as well as parents can see their grades instantly when they are updated.  Each teacher has a choice of a PC or a MacBook and every computer comes with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and software upon request. The wireless internet speed is fast and stable on campus.  Although a lot of sites are blocked through the network, teachers can request certain sites to be unblocked for academic purposes. 3
  • 4.
    Student/School Inventory  Middleschool students have a technology class in grades 5 and 6 that is mandatory. They take the class twice per week for two full years. In grades 7 and 8, it becomes an elective class and is offered 4 days per week with one period being an extended block period.  Middle school students learn applications that are fundamental for successful use of computers as tools for academic success, such as typing, word processing/desktop publishing, spreadsheets and graphing, presentation software, research tools, website design. They also learn to use Adobe Photoshop, video editing, some music composition and even basic computer programming. 4
  • 5.
    District Policies &Procedures (Private schools don’t belong to any school districts)  We have a technology department, where we report our technical issues. We can also call them if we encounter problems in class. They normally come help within 5 minutes.  Social networking tools are not available through the school network.  Middle school students are prohibited to use cellphones during school hours. They can store their cellphones in their lockers and may not take them out without permissions.  I have seen some changes in technology within middle school. Our new director has advocated educational technology. We have had some workshops related to technology, such as implementing clickers in classrooms, educational apps, and OnCampus/Blackboard trainings. 5
  • 6.
    Action Plan: Five waysto use the resources in my classroom instruction 1. Students will need to be familiar with our new platform, OnCampus LMS to check their homework and grades regularly. They will hopefully learn to hold themselves accountable by seeing the progress they make. 2. I am hoping to create some online quizzes for students to take at home. It is very difficult to do so in a foreign language class because they can easily look up the answers through google translation. Hence, I might need to make it more like a diagnostic quiz rather than a formative one. 3. In the past, I have taught my students Chinese typing on a computer. They also enjoyed typing more than handwriting Chinese characters. However, handwriting Chinese characters is an important step to memorize the characters. In order to make the handwriting fun, I would have the class practice writing on their iPads with the handwriting function. The function is great because if the student does not write a character correctly, it won’t recognize it to provide the correct character for students to choose. 4. I will continue to use the document reader, which has been an easy and convenient tool for me to show answers or show examples of work. Since I do not have my own classroom, I go to 4 different classrooms for 4 classes. 5. I have asked students to present their projects on PowerPoint or on Keynote Presentation in upper school. Given the trend of school changes, I think I will start to require it in my middle school classes. 6
  • 7.
    Conclusion  Challenges: Themain technical challenge we have had is internet stability due to high usage. When a large group of students uses the internet at the same time in a certain location, the connection slows down and becomes unstable. Occasionally, the students cannot finish their work in time or start to chat with each other while waiting for their browsers to load. Also, when teachers explore a new app and would like to install it on the iPads, we cannot do so ourselves. The technicians have the passcodes and will need to install them for us and it usually takes them a week maximum to do so for all the iPads.  Goals: I would like to explore more apps/ interactive games for my Chinese classes. Right now, a lot of apps are designated for Latin-script languages, not for Chinese characters. Hence, joining a Chinese teacher conference or Chinese teachers forum would be helpful to discover more. 7