Project Proposal 3

Name: Angela Benedict

Project Title: Barriers to Technology Survey
Project Focus: Focus 3 ~ Supporting Technology Use


Project Description:
In preparation for WASC review at my site I have been working closely with the technology department at my site to create a survey regarding teacher’s beliefs on the barriers to (effective) technology use at our site. It is important to me not only because I want to see our school get the accreditation for WASC but also because I believe the lack of appropriate use of technology at our site is negatively impacting the success of our students and their achievement on state, district, and classroom assessments. It also negatively impacts them when they leave our school and become submersed in a more technologically advanced society than many of them are equipped to survive in.
I hope to learn from this survey what is preventing teachers from using the available technology at our site and why they feel they are unable to use it on a daily or even semi-regular basis. Being that technology is the future (whether we are ready for it or not) I strongly feel that we as teachers need to be doing everything we can to support and prepare our students for that. This survey will help me to figure out what can be done at our level to make this happen. I plan on sharing this information at our Instructional Council meetings and hope to open up discussion on this topic with the staff as a whole to further the eventual implementation of technology across the board in all classrooms at our site.

Project Artifacts:
The final survey will be posted to my blog as well as the results of the survey by those who participated.
I will summarize the findings of my survey on my blog and list potential steps we as a site can take to further the use of technology by all staff members.
This survey and dissemination of information gained from it represents the work my colleagues and I have put forth in preparation for WASC over the past two years. I have worked closely with others involved to ensure that our students are getting everything they need (and more) in terms of exposure to technology that will most closely resemble what they may see once they leave us. This survey will demonstrate how far we have come in the past five years (since I first came to this site) and will indicate the amount of work that still needs to be done.

Project Timeline:
1/2 Survey sent to WASC coordinator on site for approval for distribution after being reviewed by the core departments in department meetings. (This was done prior to
class as a requirement for WASC)
1/9 Survey returned to me/ minor grammatical changes were made/ addition of four survey questions / Discussed with WASC coordinator on site how information will be tallied and shared with staff
1/19 All surveys submitted/Scoring and analysis begins
1/26 Participated in round table discussion with colleagues to review results and make suggestions on where we can go in the future in terms of technology integration
2/9 Post survey to blog / Create chart to display results of survey for eventual posting to blog
2/16 Post results and summary to blog
2/23 Post potential future steps we as a staff still need to work on to increase technology integration into all classrooms
3/8 My final deadline (if for any reason I am unable to complete project by my original deadline)