technology center analysis and evaluation irc
TRANSCRIPT
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Myra Lipsey
FRIT 7738: Practicum inInstructional Technology
Technology Center Analysis
and Evaluation
Instructional Resources Center
Georgia Southern University
Spring 2013
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Executive Summary
This technology center analysis and evaluation was conducted at the
Instructional Resources Center which is housed in the College of Education
building at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. The purpose of
the Instructional Resources Center is to provide Georgia Southern students
(mostly whom are education majors) with a place to use computers and to learn
about technology that is appropriate for use in classrooms. It also provides
classrooms with lots of technology for Georgia Southern instructors to use when
teaching which will also allow education majors to understand how and why such
technologies are important in the classroom when they graduate and get teaching
jobs.
Originally, this center was part of the Marvin Pittman School that was
located on the campus of Georgia Southern University. Approximately ten to
twelve years ago, the school closed and the Instructional Resource Centers
purpose changed from being solely focused on student needs (Marvin Pittman
School students) to focusing on the needs of the Georgia Southern faculty, staff,
and college students.
The center presently consists of five computer labs, a small library which
was left over from the Marvin Pittman School, lots of study rooms and spaces,
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Smart Classrooms for faculty to schedule class meetings in, and a work room that
contains Ellison Dye machines and accompanying supplies. The centers
coordinator has refurbished the center through the years taking away
unnecessary space and turning it into space for students to have to study and
work together on group projects. She has done away with the photography dark
room and made it a break room with kitchen supplies for faculty, staff, and
students to enjoy. Georgia Southern students majoring in education utilize the
center more than other populations of students. These students come to the IRC
to work on lesson plans together, practice using Smart Boards and other
technology to help them out in the field while in their Methods I and II classes as
well as in student teaching. Many students also come to use computers for
research and typing. In a survey conducted of some students, most of the
students said they prefer to come to the IRC over the library because when they
get out of classes in the building, it is easier to stay here than walk to the library.
They also stated that sometimes they need to use the equipment that is found
here and sometimes they need a quieter place to work. The center has one
classroom that is known as a Digi-Lab. This is a state-of-the-art lab with twenty-
four chromebooks and a teacher workstation. The lab also contains an Elmo
digital projecting system and whiteboard tables.
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The IRC provides future educators with lots of technology. Students not
only can use these resources to help them with their college coursework, but they
also provide these students with knowledge of new technology that they will be
utilizing in their future classrooms.
This paper will outline the existing organization of the center as well as give
a description of the ways information was collected and used to analyze and
evaluate this site. It will also describe past performance and the future of the
center in terms of providing new technology as it becomes available. The
evaluation comes to the following conclusion: the site is mostly successful in
providing the technology and resources for the faculty, staff, and students in the
College of Education.
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Organizational Chart
Instructional Resources Center
Coordinator
Technology Support
Specialist
Graduate
Assistant
Graduate
Assistant
Graduate
Assistant
Graduate
Assistant
Work Study
Student
Casual Labor
Dean of College of Education
Vice President for Academic Affairs
President of
Georgia Southern University
Information Systems
Coordinator
Director of
Administration
CIO
Casual Labor
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Methods
In the evaluation phase, information about the Instructional Resource Center at
Georgia Southern University was gathered in a combination of ways:
Interviews with the center coordinator, Michelle Rivera Data given access to me by the center coordinator Surveys of students using the center at various times I visited the center Informal observations made while visiting the center Interviews with Georgia Southern Education majors located in my school
setting in the form of PPB students, Methods II students, and student
teachers.
I conducted two interviews with the center coordinator, Michelle Rivera. On the
first interview (See Appendix A for a list of the interview questions) I asked her to
answer some questions to provide me with knowledge of the purpose of the
center, a history of the center, and to give me a tour of the center. On the second
interview, I asked her if there was some data she could share with me to give me
an understanding as to how many people actually use the center and for what
reasons. During this interview, the center coordinator provided a thorough
description of the centers usability. Notes were taken during this visit. I went to
the center on two separate evenings and asked some students who were working
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to complete a survey for me. I have spoken with two PPB students who have
been working in my elementary school, as well as one Methods II student and one
PPB student. I have also spoken to one graduate level student. All of these
students answered the questions I asked on the survey (See Appendix B for the
survey) of the center use. I have also obtained some information from the
Georgia Southern website link to the IRC, and data provided to me from Michelle
Rivera. The data Michelle gave me was for a past year. It was the only data she
could get to at the time of my last visit with her. Upon returning to the center on
two different evenings, an observation checklist was used. The checklist is
included in the appendix section of this report. (See Appendix C)
Center Context and Goals
The Instructional Resource Center is currently housed in the College of
Education building on the campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro,
Georgia. The center, as it is now, had its beginning about ten to twelve years ago
when the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School closed its doors. During the time of
the operation of the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School, a few parts of this center
were located within the school. After the school closed, the remaining books
from the library were moved to the center, and technology needs and
advancements began to be put into place. Miss Ollie Mae Jernigan a former
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educator with the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School left an endowment fund
which is used to help supplement this area of the IRC presently. There are also a
percentage of student technology fees that are awarded to the IRC. Since the
time of the Instructional Resource Centers beginning, it has established five
computer labs, a small library which was a part of the Marvin Pittman Laboratory
School, large and study rooms and area, Smart Classrooms, and several teaching
stations that include DVD/VCR players and Elmos. Most recently, the center
prides itself on the establishment of being totally wireless and housing a Digi-Lab
which contains twenty-four workstations for college students to use. There are
twenty-four chrome book computers that are dedicated to this lab. Chrome
books were described by the center coordinator as being similar to laptops except
they use cloud computing instead of using an operating system. The lab also
contains whiteboard tables.
The mission of the center is to provide technology and instructional support
to meet the needs of the College of Education students, faculty, and staff at
Georgia Southern University. In the last interview with Mrs. Rivera, she provided
me with a printed copy of the centers mission statement that had been
developed by the university. The statement reads, The Instructional Resources
Center will seek to create a learning environment for the specific use of the
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faculty and students within the College of Education at Georgia Southern
University. The mission of the Instructional Resources Center is to provide
services, instructional materials, and equipment to the faculty and students in the
pursuit of quality education as follows: Instructional Resources Center
orientation, computer lab orientation, instructional materials in the form of
textbooks, video tapes, software, etc, equipment such as TV/VCRs, camcorders,
slide projectors, etc, and production of instructional materials such as overhead
transparencies, etc. The center aims to provide the latest technology for both
Georgia Southern instructors to use in teaching future educators, as well as for
those future educators to use in preparing their coursework for school settings. It
gives these future teachers a chance to use some of the technologies they will
find in classrooms they will one day work in. Other goals of the center are to
provide Georgia Southern faculty with an increased use of the latest technologies
when instructing their students, as well as increase student learning though the
use of technology.
The key stakeholders of the center are Georgia Southern students, faculty,
and staff. The center falls under the direct supervision of the Dean of the College
of Education. The center coordinator handles the day-to-day operations of the
center, such as scheduling the use of classrooms by professors. She also assists
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students in training on smart boards and other equipment as needed. She is
assisted by four graduate assistants, one student worker and two casual labor
employees throughout the week. The centers coordinator also serves as an ad
hoc member of the College of Educations Technology Committee. The center also
houses one technology support specialist who provides technology support for all
of the technology housed in the center. Presently, the center is very active with
undergraduate education students, staff, and faculty from Georgia Southern
University. In a more recent interview, Mrs. Rivera informed me of a new
technology the center has to record how many people visit the center each day.
She said there is only one drawback to this new tracking system. It records a
person each time they enter, so they may leave and go to the restroom or to a
class and return and it counts them each time.
Center Activities
The Instructional Resources Center is a very busy place. All of the times I
visited the center, there were a lot of activities taking place. I did visit recently on
a Saturday and found no one had been in the center all day. I observed several
groups of students Methods II students and others utilizing the computers to
work on lesson plans, practicing using the Smart Board and Elmo, and cutting out
letters on the Ellison Die machine. During the first visit, while on a tour of the
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facility, a Georgia Southern College of Education professor was using one of the
classroom labs for instruction. Professors utilize these labs to allow their students
use of computers and other equipment such as scanners, printers, Elmo, and
smart boards. Instructors and others who wish to use a lab must reserve it with
the centers coordinator ahead of time. There are certain criteria that have to be
followed as to when various instructors are allowed to schedule classes in these
labs. College of Education faculty has priority over other departments in
scheduling classes to use the labs. Instructional Technology faculty also has
priority over other College of Education departments.
All of the classroom labs are Smart classrooms because they have built-in
technology and teaching stations that include DVD/VCR combos as well as an
Elmo visual presenter.
The center is utilized by students as a place to study, a place to work on
lesson plans and other coursework required by classes in education, a place to
check out teaching materials, a place to practice with technology that is located in
most classrooms today, as well as a place to use new kinds of technology.
Students seemed to have learned of the center in their first education coursework
taken. From then on, they continue to find the center very useful for their needs.
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Working on group projects and planning activities makes this a great place for
students to be able to spread out while working.
Evaluation
My evaluation of this center consisted of the following items:
Does this center adequately address the needs of its participants? What are some of the reasons students use this facility instead of others? Is the center being used enough to warrant it being kept open?
The first item was answered for me after conducting interviews of the
center coordinator and surveys of student participants (Appendix B). Also after
several observations, it appeared that the Instructional Resources Center is doing
a good job of meeting the needs of those who use it. One of the goals of the
center is to provide technology and instructional support to meet the needs of
the College of Education students, faculty, and staff at Georgia Southern
University. The center is meeting this goal by providing lots of technology in the
form of computers, printers, scanners, Elmo presenters, Smart Boards, Chrome
Books, and others. Georgia Southern professors teach their students in these labs
in a two-fold manner. Students are not only learning the material their instructor
is presenting, they are also learning how to utilize this equipment by how their
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instructor is using it to present information to them. Faculty and staff are also
able to utilize the center to gain training in various areas of technology.
The second item became evident from the completed surveys given to
some of the students both in the center and those who are in various roles at my
school. Also, after informally observing in the center for several afternoons, it
became evident that students majoring in education prefer this center over
others mainly due to convenience and because of the smallness of the center.
Student comments were that it was just easier to come to this center when they
got out of class because the center was in the same building as their classes.
Others said they like the feel of the center because it is small and provides them
with a sense of being able to work in a quieter environment than some of the
other places on campus.
The third item was determined by data given to me by the center
coordinator. Also, the link to the Instructional Resources Center from the Georgia
Southern website shows a good picture of how much the center is used.
In conclusion, the following points can be made:
The center is definitely being used to a very large extent.
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The center is used for lots of different purposes, but primarily bystudents who find the location prime for them and because of the
equipment available to them.
The center does a good job of addressing the needs of itsparticipants.
Recommendations
There is really not a whole lot to suggest in the way of improvement, but a
couple of recommendations for improvement that could be made are:
1) Send emails to graduate students to inform them of the InstructionalResource Center and what it offers them. Some graduate students may not
know about it if they did not complete there undergraduate coursework
there, and as a student who graduated many years ago, I had no idea that
this center existed until I started working on my Masters a couple of years
ago. Emails would be a good way to get the word out about the center to
make sure all Georgia Southern students are aware of the center and what
it has to offer those students who are working on degrees in the area of
education and instructional technology.
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2) A list of materials and resources available in the center would be somethingvaluable to include on the website for the center. (There is a list now, but it
is vague.)
3) Classes need to be implemented to make faculty, staff and students moreaware of new Web 2.0 tools that are available for them to use.
4) The blog page of the center needs to be updated and made more visually-appealing.
Monthly Report/Brags
The partial month of February that data was provided for me, showed that
February was a busy month for the Instructional Resources Center. Data for the
month of February shows the following number of people used the center: (some
of the data sheets were missing from the center notebook)
February 4 394 visitors
February 5 696 visitors
February 11 488 visitors
February 12 865 visitors
February 13 1,330 visitors
February 18 621 visitors
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The data in this chart shows that the center is used frequently on a daily
basis. The numbers fluctuate based on whether students are coming to the
center on their own, or as part of a class. The time of the semester would also
cause a difference in numbers from one time of the month to the other.
Students were involved in the following various activities during observations:
Lesson planning Research on computers Studying for tests both individual and small groups Practicing using Elmo and Smart Board Finding resources for teaching
Suggestions to showcase the IRC:
An electronic monthly newsletter showing how many visitors came to thecenter the previous month
Updated website link showing videos of students working in the center andprofessors teaching classes
Monthly class offerings to faculty, staff and students on a different Web 2.0tool each month
Cleaning and straightening up the rooms
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Appendix A
Interview Questions used with the center coordinator:
1) What is your position at this location?2) What technology and resources are available at the center?3) What are your job duties and responsibilities?4) What other employees work with you and what do they do?5) What can you tell me about the history of this center?6) What are the goals of the center? The mission? The vision?7) Who are the stakeholders?8) Where can one find out more information about the center?
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Appendix B - Student SurveyGSU -Instructional Resource Center
I am a graduate student at GSU working towards my Master in Instructional
Technology. I am presently working on a project that requires me to analyze the
effectiveness of a technology center. I chose the IRC (Instructional ResourcesCenter). If you have time, would you please answer the following questions. I will
be in the center and you can turn your completed survey upside down on the
round table at the door and I will collect them on my way out. Thank you very
much for your help.
Myra Lipsey
__________________________________________________________________
Please put a check mark beside as many answers as you need to in order to
answer the questions.
1. How did you learn about the IRC?____from an instructor
____from the GSU website
____from another student or friend
____other ___________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. How many times do you say you have visited the IRC during last semester?____1 5 times____5 10 times
____10 20 times
____more than 20 times
3. What are some of your reasons for visiting the IRC? (What things do youcome here for?) Please write in a response.
4. Do you find the IRC beneficial in meeting your needs?____yes____no (Explain)
5. Is there any service not presently provided by the IRC that you wish wereoffered? (If yes, please tell what services or other things that you wish
were offered.)
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Appendix C
Checklist for Observations
1) What kinds of things are being done at this location?2) Is technology the major focus for the participants here?3) Do the participants seem pleased with the resources available to them?4) Is there any evidence of future educators practicing how to use various
technology available in the center?
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Appendix D
Interview Questions asked of Student Teachers, PPB Students, and Methods
Students at my school and some that have graduated recently
1) Have you used the IRC?2) What kinds of things have you done at the IRC?3) Do you think the IRC provides you with modern technology?4) What is the one most important thing that you have used the IRC for?5) Does the IRC meet your technology needs? How?
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References
Adkins, E. (February/March 2013). PPB Student, Personal Communication.
Johnson, J. (March/April 2013). PPB Student, Personal Communication.
Mikell, B. (February/March/April 2013). Student Teacher, Personal Communication.
Rivera, M. (February, March, April 2013). Coordinator of IRC, Personal Communication.
Sinclair, B. (February, March, April 2013). Graduate Student, Personal Communication.
Other:
Anonymous Surveys of Students from IRC
www.georgiasouthern.edu
http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/