EEND 681 Artifact #1 Instructional Technology Plan

Artifact #1:

Hello Class,

For my first artifact, I decided to review my experience with the Instructional Technology Plan that we worked on for the majority of the semester.  Since this assignment encompassed the majority of our work from the class, as well as the assignment I learned the most from, I decided it was the best to review.

As I mentioned in my video review of my plan, it was really powerful to look at technology from an IT perspective or from an administrators point of view.  As a teacher, I feel that I have only focused on the use in the classroom, but there is a lot more that goes into obtaining, maintaining, and properly using technology in a school setting. 

I learned a lot about how to obtain new technology, important protocols for maintaining building technology and also the disposal of damaged or out of date technology.  But, the most applicable learning that took place was learning that when making technology decisions for the classroom, ESL, IDEA, FERPA, CIPA, the Digital Divide, Skills Gap, and Fair Use criteria must be kept in mind.  Some of these guidelines I follow without even thinking about it, but others I was unaware of or didn't put a high priority on in the past. 

The criteria I feel I learned the most about was the Digital divide and skills gap that exists in our world.  We always say that our students are so savvy with technology, but do they have the correct tech skills to prepare them for the business world.  Well, evidently they don't according to many businesses and organizations that say there is a real divide between the skills graduates have and what their company needs.  We as educators need to recognize this divide, and do what we can to bridge this deficit so that we prepare students for their future careers. 

I will admit that at the beginning of this project I really did not think I was going to enjoy it at all.  I have no interest in administration and will never work in an IT setting.  But, I really learned a lot about what goes on to make sure we have the technology we need in the classroom for our instruction.

If you would like to see a more thorough review of my Instructional Technology Plan, please see my blog post below:

https://jimusftech.blogspot.com/2018/04/681-fun-with-science-high-school.html

https://jimusftech.blogspot.com/2018/04/681-fun-with-science-high-school.html

Thank you,

Jim Nielsen

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