5.1 Needs Assessment
Candidates conduct needs assessments to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs. (PSC 5.1/ISTE 4a)
Artifact: Needs Assessment/Individual Teacher Technology Assessment
Standard 5.1
The Needs Assessment/Individual Teacher Technology Assessment was created for the Professional Learning and Technology Innovations course. Information collected from the surveys was used to articulate the participant’s perspective of technology in the classroom and identify a planned coaching approach towards technology-training and coaching sessions. The purpose of the assignment was to assess a colleague’s level of technology use. Two survey instruments were delivered to the participant with one focusing specifically on the Levels of Teaching Innovation Framework, or LoTi. The other survey instrument, based on adopter categories as described in Everett Rogers’ continuum of Diffusion of Innovations, focused on assessing the participants’ willingness to adopt new technologies and to evaluate their attitudes toward change.
The artifact demonstrates my ability to conduct a needs assessment to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses. By adhering to a LoTi based questionnaire and also an adopter level questionnaire format, I was able to pinpoint specific information that I needed to articulate and rationalize a course of action for the teacher. For these reasons, I feel the artifact demonstrates my ability to use the needs assessment to inform the content and delivery of the technology-based professional learning program. This learning experience taught me a great deal about how to properly conduct a needs assessment. The insight gained from this experience directly influenced how I approached future survey considerations. The learning from this experience increased my understandings of how to create surveys capable of pinpointing very specific information.
When creating the LoTi based questionnaire, I asked the following question: What sort of new technology or Web 2.0 skills would you like to acquire to improve instruction in your classroom? List any programs, hardware, social media tools, or Web 2.0 sites you would like to know better. In retrospect, I feel that an open-ended survey was not the most effective way to survey. I would’ve listed specifically different learning topics and allowed for multiple selections with the radial buttons in the survey. By not listing specific topics and resources, I put that work on the participant. This, I feel, was unfair and might’ve left the participant grasping for something to learn about. She indicated PowerPoint as a weak area. Had I not left it open-ended, she wouldn’t have been able to make the selection of PowerPoint which I feel wasn’t a priority for her to learn.
Overall, I feel that creating the Needs Assessment/Individual Teacher Technology Assessment was a great learning experience and expanded my knowledge, skills, and dispositions as it pertains to the Needs Assessment Standard. The impact of this experience positively benefited learning outcomes. Through coaching the partnering teacher, she was later able to leverage her PowerPoint skills to create a test prep Nearpod presentation for her students which ultimately resulted in improved benchmark scores.
The Needs Assessment/Individual Teacher Technology Assessment was created for the Professional Learning and Technology Innovations course. Information collected from the surveys was used to articulate the participant’s perspective of technology in the classroom and identify a planned coaching approach towards technology-training and coaching sessions. The purpose of the assignment was to assess a colleague’s level of technology use. Two survey instruments were delivered to the participant with one focusing specifically on the Levels of Teaching Innovation Framework, or LoTi. The other survey instrument, based on adopter categories as described in Everett Rogers’ continuum of Diffusion of Innovations, focused on assessing the participants’ willingness to adopt new technologies and to evaluate their attitudes toward change.
The artifact demonstrates my ability to conduct a needs assessment to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses. By adhering to a LoTi based questionnaire and also an adopter level questionnaire format, I was able to pinpoint specific information that I needed to articulate and rationalize a course of action for the teacher. For these reasons, I feel the artifact demonstrates my ability to use the needs assessment to inform the content and delivery of the technology-based professional learning program. This learning experience taught me a great deal about how to properly conduct a needs assessment. The insight gained from this experience directly influenced how I approached future survey considerations. The learning from this experience increased my understandings of how to create surveys capable of pinpointing very specific information.
When creating the LoTi based questionnaire, I asked the following question: What sort of new technology or Web 2.0 skills would you like to acquire to improve instruction in your classroom? List any programs, hardware, social media tools, or Web 2.0 sites you would like to know better. In retrospect, I feel that an open-ended survey was not the most effective way to survey. I would’ve listed specifically different learning topics and allowed for multiple selections with the radial buttons in the survey. By not listing specific topics and resources, I put that work on the participant. This, I feel, was unfair and might’ve left the participant grasping for something to learn about. She indicated PowerPoint as a weak area. Had I not left it open-ended, she wouldn’t have been able to make the selection of PowerPoint which I feel wasn’t a priority for her to learn.
Overall, I feel that creating the Needs Assessment/Individual Teacher Technology Assessment was a great learning experience and expanded my knowledge, skills, and dispositions as it pertains to the Needs Assessment Standard. The impact of this experience positively benefited learning outcomes. Through coaching the partnering teacher, she was later able to leverage her PowerPoint skills to create a test prep Nearpod presentation for her students which ultimately resulted in improved benchmark scores.