Blog Assignment 4

Since I'm not currently teaching I'll answer the questions based on my previous experience in Saudi Arabia. Tow years ago, I had tow computer labs all of which had around 15-20 laptop computers. Every student  had her own laptop and students were given a folder to save their work on these devices. However, since they were not allowed to take the laptops with them home they used to save their work on an external drive to  take their work with them. 

As for faculty, beside my personal laptop the district gave me my work- laptop which I can take home with me but I did not since I work on my laptop so i mostly kept it in my office. I think it's beneficial to have a storage area on the network however, it might cause some issues if the students or faculty were not careful they might bring all sorts of viruses and bugs to the network by saving email attachments and such.

As for the email system until I resigned from my position me and my students used our personnel emails- web-based (Yahoo- Hot mail). On the other hand,  my colleagues informed me that the district have set up an Outlook email system and set up an account for every student and faculty member which made their lives so much easier. They can access it from home or the district itself like Wilkes email accounts. All the assignments are now distributed/ gathered via the network, no more excuses like " my printer did not work!" and the accessing from both places made it so much easier since students and faculties do not have to carry flash drives all the time they can simply email themselves whatever they need to work on in their homes.

Overall, from this chapter, the most important thing that I learned is how it is fundamental for a technology leader to teach all the users of the email system how to use their emails properly, where/ how they can get the assistant needed, how to create accounts and manage them efficiently, etc. I think it is important to learn all the responsibilities a tech coordinator have to do to be a successful one in the future. 

The Second Chapter discussion response "Software Selection"

             Since I'm not currently teaching, I will answer the question based on my previous experience as a programming teacher. Unfortunately, the answer would be no ! The school district I worked for did not have a software selection form but I had to file a report every time I needed one. They actually used to buy the (Microsoft Office Software) before hand and later I'll have to follow a report and order the rest of the software like Visual Basic, Java, .. etc. To be clear, I taught the curriculum for the very first time that year; it was the first time for the district to try a programing course so there was some adding and removing lessons till the end of the first two-three weeks of the school year. 
            

             Interestingly, after reading the chapter and seeing the sample of the selection form, I remembered the down side of the report thing. It took a long time, since I had to follow a separate report for every software I needed. As a result, I did start my lessons sometimes without the required software. In my opinion, the (Software Selection Form) saves a lot of time and effort for teachers, administrators, and technology coordinators. The committee idea is a great one as well, since two heads are better than one. The form gives specific information about the desired software; as a result, the budget decisions would include the new software cost and limit the waste of resources.

           The most benefit I can think of would be, the more time teachers need to find\ list specific needs, technology standards, benefits, usage, goals, ..etc of a software, the less money lost the district would face. As a lot of you know, districts sometimes fail to determine what they need precisely and often fall for a lot of unnecessary purchases.     



   

The First Chapter discussion response "Technology Coordinator"

        To be honest, the whole "Technology Coordinator" idea is somewhat new to me. I mean we did have people who preformed tasks similar to what the book presented but not as much responsibilities and requirements as the technology coordinator job's description. For example, my school district used to have me , as a computer since teacher, preform simple troubleshooting and repairs on the school network and some teachers with other tech support tasks. So basically, a group of teachers preformed the technology coordinator's job.

        However, if I'd be a technology leader, which I'm really considering now, I think , according to what I've read, a person should be up to date with the recent technology developments, communication skills are highly required along with a good understanding of the school's needs in the technological field and the limitations of the school's budget. So that, he\she could help the school satisfy it's needs in a reasonable time frame. Also, the technological background is very important, so whoever decide to be a technology leader, if not a CS major, should consider some training in the field to get a better perspective of the technology usage and requirements in the school environment. 

        Moreover, a technology coordinator, as an important factor of integrating technology in the classroom, could face some obstacles such as teachers who maybe apposed to the idea and more strict to the " old lecture approach". In my opinion, a technology leader could arrange some meetings with the teachers to present the great deal of improvement, fun, and experience students could get from modern technology; as well as helping the teachers in which having difficulties with the technology until they feel comfortable using it. In addition, parents could be very disapproving of their children's exposure to the Internet. So the coordinator could arrange some free work shops for them demonstrating the need of the technology in their children's educational improvement. As well as using his\her communication skills to build a trust bridge with the parents and the whole community, so that they would support him\ her with the development plans to enhance the school's status.              

My first face to face class in Fall2010

Hey everyone,
This class Ed 589 is my very first class this semester and I'm kinda scared but excited to get started. The language is a bet challenging but I think I can do it , well I know I'll do so.

Regards,

Maram