Teacher Technology Assessment and Plan

ITEC 7460 Ms. Jessica Tamburro

Kennesaw State University

Introduction
At the Newton County Theme School, there is one team of 6th, 7th and 8th grade which is
unlike regular public schools. Most have at least three teams for each grade. While the
elementary school is just like an ordinary elementary school with multiple teachers for each
grade level, the school feeds into the middle school which is much smaller to accommodate.
With this said, there are less colleagues to turn to in content areas. While that is true for each
subject in middle school, technology is universal. The teachers being assessed and coached in
Mrs. Kena Hudgins a sixth grade math teacher. This is Mrs. Hudgins second year teaching sixth
grade. Mrs. Hudgins agreed to participate in this study because she is very intrigued by
technology and wants to always enhance her teaching with it.
Assessment
On the LoTi Questionnaire, Mrs. Hudgins indicated that she has been teaching for 11-15
years. She currently teachers math and says she incorporates technology into her personal life at
least once a day. She explained that this was mainly through the use of her cell phone and
sometimes her iPad. Mrs. Hudgins won a grant from ReImagine Newton and purchased 12 iPads
for her classroom with the money. So, she is already expressing the importance of technology
with having taken the time to write a grant. In the questionnaire she says she also uses
technology in her classroom instruction at least once a day. While she does not use the iPads
every day, she does however use the ActiveBoard for her classroom instruction. She stated that
this was usually used by her and not the students, which she felt was not very interactive. She
explained that students usually only use engaging technology for themselves at least once a
month. Mrs. Hudgins feels that this is not a proactive way of using the grant money and the

iPads she has won for her class. She knows that there needs to be an increase in using the iPads
in many different ways to create a more engaging environment for her classroom. With that said,
she does know that she has found some really amazing technology resources on the iPads that are
very unique to sixth grade math which has built her confidence. Another part of the
questionnaire that sparked interest with her is the fact that she doesnt use the iPads for group
activity. She states that she only uses technology some of the time for group work. The Newton
County Theme Schools mission is to create a collaborative environment, so coaching Mrs.
Hudgins on how to use her technology resources for groups is a goal to achieve. She also states
that she does not allow technology use to collaborate with anyone outside of school. For
example, to increase authenticity of assignments, it is always important to have students
collaborate with professionals in the community. Depending on the assignment, allowing
students to Skype, email or blog with professionals will enhance their learning experience.
However, when Mrs. Hudgins rated the use of technology as important from 1-5, 5 being the
highest, she said that technology is a 5, most important. Although she may not incorporate her
technology as she would hope to, she also said that she is most willing in participating in
professional learning which focuses on technology integration.
Through the adopter survey, it seems that Mrs. Hudgins is very much willing and shows
signs of being an early adopter. While she has completed many grants and hopes to infuse
technology as much as she can, she has not. She doesnt feel comfortable teaching others about
technology but would rather be taught. However, given the chance and proper teaching she
would love to help other teachers once she feels comfortable. Although she is a veteran teacher
and did not grow up around technology, she is very much in proposal of integrating technology
as much as possible. Mrs. Hudgins does own a smart phone and her own personal iPad at home

in which she uses regularly. Mrs. Hudgins explained that she usually texts, emails or makes
phone calls but does not Skype but would love to know how. Skyping could be a beneficial part
of class when doing an assignment that could incorporate professionals outside of school. She
says she would use technology more if she knew how. She is not opposed to using technology or
learning about new technologies. She states that she uses at least 2 types of technology outside
of school which is the smart phone and iPad. However, she does not regularly learn about new
programs in her personal life unless the truly interest her. She says she couldnt show people
how to use some of the Microsoft programs and how to use them. She also says that she would
love to know how to use all of the technology resources offered to her at work, but that there
isnt enough time to learn all of it. She also says that she knows only about the most popular
apps and tools that her students also know, but that some of the more popular types of apps like
specific social media she does not know about. However, most of these types of apps cannot be
accessed at school anyways and may not be beneficial to learning. Most of the tools she does
know about.
The Plan
After reviewing her surveys, an interview proceeded about what types of goals should be
put in place for Mrs. Hudgins. To make this more personable and collaborative, the interaction
between interviewer and interviewee was on an even playing field; making sure the candidate
felt that her concerns were important and were going to be met in the best way possible. Within
the interview, Mrs. Hudgins stated that the importance of technology is very important to her but
she feels she has not been properly taught or even made aware of the different types of
technologies out there, especially on the iPad. The school does not offer any technology
professional development and so it is hard to fit in time to just explore the options. Even when

options are found, being able to determine which apps are engaging and worth downloading and
understanding is a daunting task. Mrs. Hudgins states, I have won a grant that allowed me to
purchase my own iPads and I feel that I am not taking advantage of this amazing opportunity for
my students. I need help and I am very willing to listen and be taught so that I may fully
enhance my classroom for the benefit of the schools mission.
After talking extensively about what she would like to see within her classroom, a plan
was made with two goals in mind. First, Mrs. Hudgins wanted to be able to have someone show
her different tools and apps for the iPad. Second, she wants to be able to use the technology
more often in her classroom. Obviously the first must be done before she can accomplish using
the technology more. Mrs. Hudgins will be coached for about the course of one month. Each
week, she will be shown a new technology tool that she must use at least two times a week. Mrs.
Hudgins is also allowed to use any other apps that she already knows how to use on the days she
is not using the new featured app to continue to increase technology use. Some of the apps that
she will be learning about are Popplet, Class Kick, Venn Diagram and NearPod. While these are
not specifically tailored to math class, they can enhance any content area and can be used in a
variety of ways. Mrs. Hudgins will reflect each day she uses the new technology app in how it
worked for her gifted, average and low students. She will also use these featured apps many
ways through groups mostly. Overall, Mrs. Hudgins will learn how to use at least 3-4 new
technology apps offered on the iPad and increase her technology from once a week to at least 3
times a week.

LoTi Survey

Adopter Survey