Reflections+on+Technology+Facilitator+Standard+VII

The context of standard VII is how to provide access to technology.All the activities I designed for my experiences were planned upon the certainty of the deployment of technology my Special Education classroom was able to procure from the beginning of the school year. Through careful monitoring of hardware that other classrooms did not want, I was able to obtain a scanner, a printer and two more computers for my room. The scanner, in addition to a digital camcorder and open source applications like Audacity gave me full capacities to develop multimedia products. The multiplication with manipulatives videos I created during this school year were made using all the resources deployed to my classroom. Our district does not allow us to add hardware or software to the existing resources. However, we do have access to a shared disk called the “H” drive to upload up to 1 GB of personal information per teacher.It is through this disk that I selectively access my files. My professional duties, however, include proper administration of productivity software such as the Microsoft Office suite, responsible usage of our e-mail application, our audio and video open source programs, effective utilization of online databases like Curriculum Management System, E-Sped and Gradebook and online instruction. As an addition to my responsibilities, I have developed walkthroughs for substitute teachers to enable them to use my materials whenever I am absent. Although I am not in any way involved with the purchasing of technology, I did follow all district guidelines for having installed new reading software in my computer. I consulted with both our Campus Instructional Technologist and the Technology Services department on how to install approved software that came with the Leveled Literacy Intervention program.I learned that, in addition to serial numbers of each installing disk and accompanying software, the purchase order for the software had to be procured from the Special Education department. The guidelines are very clear and are meant to discourage installation of potentially damaging or unregistered programs. In the future, I would like to become more acquainted with preventive maintenance of resources, as well as responsibilities involving supervision of hardware use and deployment. One issue that puzzles me is the area of authorship and ownership of distance education opportunities such as Schoology and the level to which online courses can be considered my property and not the district’s. Overall, I can legitimately say that my students have been more exposed to technology applications than our average students. I have taken advantage of the multiple professional development opportunities in the district to improve my teaching. Unfortunately, I have learned that I will lose most of the computers originally deployed to my room due to the district not offering support for older models and our campus’ decision to have no immediate plans to receive newer models in order to replace the hardware. I would certainly, however, like administration to become more proactive in asking the district to address our deficits in our economically disadvantaged community.