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Running head: INDIVIDUAL TEACHER TECHONOLOGY ASSESSMENT

Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative

Anastasia W. Caphart v1

Kennesaw State University

INDIVIDUAL TEACHER TECHONOLOGY ASSESSMENT

Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative

The subject of this assessment Mrs. Osanu is a seventeen-year veteran and second grade

teacher at Clayton County Schools. Mrs. Osanu has been with the district for ten years. Prior to

meeting with Mrs. Osanu, she submitted to my request to complete two surveys intended to

determine levels to which she implements technology and her willingness to adopt technology.

Currently, there are 26 students in her homeroom and she teaches all subjects. Her room

is equipped with a Promethean Board, six desktop computers, one document camera, 1 DVD

player, VCR, and cassette player. In addition to these, she has access to checkout grade level

laptops and iPod carts (30 per cart) assigned to the primary grade level. Students operate on an

alternate schedule to attend computer and smart table labs twice a week for 40 minutes. There are

50 desktop computers in the computer lab.

Levels of Technology Use and Adoption

Based on Mrs. Osanu’s response to the Level of Technology Implementation survey, she

considers herself proficient. She indicates her proficiency in using laptop, taking attendance

online, lesson planning, uploading and downloading data/documents, Promethean Board,

Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, math manipulatives, email, e-books, and online assessments. In

further interview with Mrs. Osanu regarding her proficiency, she indicated, “First of all, I won’t

be able to survive this system if I were not proficient in using technology. Everything we do is

done online-attendance, lesson plans, communication with administration, require technology.

Every day, I use the whiteboard to project charts that I prepare from PowerPoint or charts, from

e-book and other resources for teaching. I am proficient in what I do” (Osanu, personal

communication, February 2017). At this point, I was convinced that technology plays an integral


role in her duties and responsibilities as a teacher. However, when analyzing her response to the

survey question, she indicated that she “Strongly disagree” that technology plays an essential

part in her daily activities. Meanwhile, when asked whether she uses digital presentation during

instruction, she responded that she uses charts, PowerPoint videos and interactive websites.

Further, in the survey when asked about how often she uses standard-based digital resources, she

responded “never”. Based on these responses, I deduced that they were contradictory and did not

reflect previous responses and activities stated.

When asked about specific technology resources she used across the curriculum to

address students varied needs, Mrs. Osanu mentioned that the system purchased programs such

as Clever Georgia reading program that includes leveled assessment which students can assess on

the laptops, math diagnostic and formative assessments, .IXL reading and math online, My

Own, Edu Track science and math unit test, e-books for math, reading, social studies and Brain

Pop. She further stated that she is grateful to have these resources, as they provide needed data

for planning, redirecting instruction, and differentiated activities that would support students’

varied needs. Data collected also helps her in grouping her students and selecting appropriate

strategies to meet their needs. While, she is grateful for these resources, she is also concerned

that she has not engaged her students in collaborative online projects, which she believes, will be

beneficial for her students in promoting higher-order thinking, problem solving and decision

making skills.

In addressing her, use of productivity and collaborative tools Ms. O stated that she

“dropped the ball”, despite using technology daily with her students. She further revealed that she

used Edmodo last year, but chose to use Class Dojo this year. Although she set up Class Dojo,

but has been unable to implement due to her busy schedule. Furthermore, in the survey, she

provided no response to whether she provides opportunities for students to collaborate using


digital resources; neither did she identify collaborative projects students were engaged in. Her

response indicated limited use of digital resources. Consequently, she seeks to increase her level

of technology implementation.

Mrs. Osanu is proficient in her use of technology. She uses technology quite well in her

day-to-day activities. According to her, the students are independent in their use of technology in

completing daily tasks. Based on the survey and interview, Mrs. Osanu would likely be placed on

LoTi Level 2 (Exploration) which indicates the instructional focus emphasizes content

understanding and supports mastery learning and direct instruction. While, it is evident that

students use technology routinely. Meanwhile, based on Ms. Osanu’s proficiency on the use of

technology, she is classified on LoTi Level 3 (Infusion) which indicates that digital and/or

environmental resources are used by the teacher to execute teacher-directed tasks that emphasize

higher levels of student cognitive processing relating to the content standards.

In addressing questions about embracing new technology, Mrs. Osanu specified

that she embraces new innovations and is willing to integrate into her lessons. She further

indicated willingness to try new apps that would meet the needs of her students. Mrs. Osanu is

aware of her shortcomings which she attributes to her workload and other school related

activities which sometimes do not allow her to do as much as she would like to. However, she is

excited about trying new innovations. Based on the survey, Ms. Osanu is receptive toward

technology and will improve on goals to use apps in class and to engage students in collaborative

projects.

Mrs. Osanu is an active participant at professional development, which she attends

once a month covering topics that include technology integration, Edmodo, software, etc. She

also participants in grade level meetings and shares new technologies with her team. Ms.

Osanu’s willingness to embrace technology without persuasion clearly indicates that she is an


early adopter. “Early adopters use the data provided by the innovators’ implementation and

confirmation of the innovation to make their own adoption decisions” (Orr, 2003). She

recognizes the benefits of the innovation and the impact it will have on her students. Hence,

she made the decision to engage in the coaching exercise that will allow her to embrace the

innovation. Already, Ms. Osanu has undergone three of five steps in the Mechanism of

Diffusion (Orr, 2003).

Technology Perspective

During my interview with Mrs. Osanu, I learned that she fully understands and is

committed to providing opportunities for her students to engage in collaborative projects

while utilizing digital resources. She is also aware that her students need to collaborate online

with audiences outside the classroom. She wants to use apps in her classroom to meet the

varied needs of her students. She is convinced that although proficient in other areas of

technology, it is important that she focus on professional development that would train her in

using collaboration tools.

Besides training, time management is also a concern of hers. She needs to manage her

time well so that she will be able to plan and implement the activities. She acknowledges that

she has to make time in order for technology to work. Then when asked if she still believes

that technology does not play an integral role in her duties and responsibilities as a teacher,

she affirmed that technology is very important. She said it must have been an oversight, as she

would not downplay the importance of technology especially in the 21st century classroom.


Technology Training Needs and Coaching

Mrs. Osanu communicated that her most pressing need for coaching is to learn more

about doing a collaborative online project with class. Hearing her need, I was to prompted to ask

her to explain what she envisions a collaborative project to be. She explained that she wants her

students to engage in online projects like some of the ones in the wikis I shared. We discussed

and shared ideas about the topic. Regarding her preference for coaching, she expressed

preference for one-to-one coaching that would take place after school. Because she is a visual

learner, she prefers pictorial representation and modeling that will help her in “enduring

understanding”. Clearly, Ms. Osanu would benefit from coaching that is collaborative and offers

one-on-one coaching, while utilizing advance and post organizers, modeling, high- level

questioning, and quality assignment (Knight, 2007). The plan would then be to work with Ms.

Osanu in using the advanced organizer to map out targets, digital tools and activities for the wiki.

I will model expected skills for her to emulate, and practice, while engaging her in high-level

questioning. Opportunities for independent practice will be provided to establish understanding,

while quality assignment will be used to “to enhance impact of instruction”. The finished

product- wiki will represent post organizer and reflection piece. Mrs. Osanu and I will reflect on

the process of creating a wiki, lessons learned and way forward. She will be encouraged to

outline plan for working with team members in creating class wikis for collaboration. Lastly, Ms.

Osanu will share the wiki with her class and they will work together to create pages for the wikis

collaborate on grade level project.


References

Knight, J. (2007). Focusing on the big four. In Instructional coaching: a partnership approach to

improving instruction (p. 162). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Orr, G. (2003). Diffusion of innovations, by everett rogers (1995). Retrieved from

https://teamlead.dukenus.edu.sg/vapfiles_ocs/2011/edu/Diffusion_of_Innovations_by_Ev

erett_Rogers_1995.p

df C. Osanu, personal interview, February 2017

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