EDLD+5362+Assignments


 * Teacher Interview**

The Internet: With and Without The internet, a wondrous and marvel of the 20th Century. An object that cannot be physically seen but helps change the lives of billions of people everyday across the globe. In our school’s, the internet is also a tool, a tool for helping students learn, communicate, and achieve their goals. This however has not always been the case, the internet has not always been a beaker of enlightenment, since not all schools and school systems were so eager to embrace and introduce it to their students. In this paper, I will be discussing my interview with a 30 plus teaching veteran who was around when there was no internet and how the impact of it not only help shape her career as a teacher but her role as an educator. Before I begin, let me first give you a brief background on my subject Ms. McKenzie, a retired elementary computer lab teacher. She states that the internet was the reason behind her getting her current position. Before the internet she was a typing teacher and after the introduction of the internet, she was transformed into a computer teacher and a life long learner of technology to help advance not only herself but also help the advancement of her students. As with most things great in our lives, we can never imagine life without it, however, as told by Ms. McKenzie, there was life pre-internet. She explains that before the use of the internet, especially in her classroom room, there were often a lack of good teaching strategies and knowledge base for teachers. She explains if you did not attend a conference in which someone was speaking on the newest teaching strategies and terminology, you were stuck with the same old drill and kill. Now with the introduction of the internet, and most importantly, the integration of the school’s with the internet came a steady stream of ideas that eventually turn into a flood. She goes on to state the at first, the information was very slow, teachers still had the old concepts and teaching ideas; but as the information super highway began to grow, the rapid increase of information followed. Now for the first time teachers were given the tools, strategies, and techniques to fully serve their students in a capacity that would help them succeed academically as well in over all life. Initially these tools came in the form of articles, such as position papers, that later morphed into dedicated education related websites, blogs for educators, wikis, and then whole forums where educators could openly discuss teaching strategies with one another in real time from across the globe. The use of the internet in our classrooms cannot be over rated. I feel that the internet is one of the biggest teaching tools we have in our arsenal and we as teachers have every right, no obligation to use it with our students. The endless wealth of information that we can use with our students, for our students, and by our students are just a literally just a few clicks away and we as educators have an obligation to use it daily in our classrooms.

**Student Information System**

** Student Information System Evaluation Chart ** ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * ** Areas To Address ** || ** Your Findings and Evaluation ** ||
 * Total Cost of Software Ownership (including reoccurring and ongoing costs) ||  Our school district piloted a new program called Chancery System. The program has started in the upper grades first, middle and high schools, and is not going into the elementary schools. The school district personnel in charge of the program did not want to release the costs incorporated with the program.  ||
 * Software Features Set ||  The software for the most part allows teachers from all schools around the district to take attendance from the classroom directly. This is integrated into the Stusys system elimating the need to send the class roll to the office for processing. This allows for up-to-date data and real time reporting.
 * Texas-specific Functionality ||  The software allows for the reporting of attendance related items, it does not however report the submission of test score to the district. That function is handled by another program the district utilizes.
 * Ease of Use and Reporting ||  Since this is a new program being introduced to the district, there has been a lot of professional development; however this has not reached the elementary schools since we are not scheduled to use the program until next school year at the latest. From what I understand from fellow co-workers however the program has lost of bugs that should have been worked out before the official roll out to any school in the district.
 * Customer Support and Experience of the Support Staff ||  All of our school’s contact of customer service and support goes through the TAC (technical assistance center). The schools are not allowed to contact the company’s directly in order to help streamline and document the issues with the program. The contact person for the software stated their experience with the company has always been pleasant and they have always been willing to help and fix and issues. This being said, I’m assuming the district is paying a lot of money for the program and the companies they deal with have no choice to be friendly and pleasant.
 * Thorough User Training in the Software System ||  Having not gone through the training I find it very hard to answer this question. I have spoken to many other teachers in schools that have the program and they have stated that they can always use more training on the program but I have always find the best way to learn something is just to be hands on and play with it.