TECHNOLOGY &

US
Tales From a Small-town School
By Jessica Courtney
 "KNOWING
WHERE YOU ARE
GOING IS THE ~ Ken Blanchard

FIRST STEP TO
GETTING THERE."
TECHNOLOGY IS
CHANGING EVERY
SECOND OF EVERY DAY.
It is the school’s job to make sure students are ready
for a world that is ever changing and get them ready
for jobs that may not even exist yet.
 WHAT CURRENT According to the
technology leaders in

CAPABILITIES DO
our building, high
school and middle
school all have 1:1

WE HAVE FOR laptops. 6th through 4th

have 1:1 iPad and 3rd
has a small set, but not
STUDENTS AT large enough for the
whole class. The 2nd

OUR SCHOOL?
grade through PK all
share one cart.
HIGHSCHOOL AND
MIDDLE SCHOOL
TECHNOLOGY
High school and middle school are 1:1 laptops.
According to the high school technology
specialist, he feels that the students are
efficient in using this technology. The school
does most of their work online and is for the
most part paperless. He also feels that the
staff is very comfortable with the technology.
The high school and middle school have
combined from 4 different sections from 3
different towns/buildings.
ELEMENTARY
TECHNOLOGY
We have three different buildings for elementary in our school. One
central buildings has two sections of each grade, where the other two
elementary buildings in our district have only 1 section of each grade.
6th-4th have 1:1 iPads in all buildings. They move up the grades
with the students starting at 4th grade, and the 6th graders pass
their iPads on to the incoming 4th graders when they leave the
building for middle school.
3rd has a small set they use within the classroom and borrow from other
grades when needed.
2nd through PK share a set of iPads.
According to teachers and team leaders from all of the different buildings,
although the quantity is the same the quality of the technology is not equal.
STAFF AND STUDENT
CAPABILITIES
Staff: Highschool is very comfortable with technology integration, their
core relies on it. Elementary staff is fairly comfortable, all use laptops and
smart boards. Many teachers are in the 1st part of SAMR, which is
substitution. This means that many teacher use the programs simply as a
substitution for something else they may have previously done on paper.

Students: Highschool students use laptops for everything they do in

class and are very comfortable
Elementary students use technology mostly for surface level
application and skills practice.
 Currently there are no
technology goals for
our district except for
one. The one
mentioned by the
technology expert is
that we will be aiming

TECH GOALS to purchase

Chromebooks as our
next laptops. This
means that high school
and middle school will
receive these and the
older laptops will come
down to the
elementary.
TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS AT OUR SCHOOL

• According to our instructional coach, we use integrate Iowa Core’s 21st

century skills. Teachers are supposed to integrate them into their
instruction. They are:
1. Civic Literacy
2. Employability Skills
3. Financial Literacy
4. Health Literacy
5. Technology Literacy

There is a technology class at our elementary buildings which mainly

focuses on keyboarding skills.
 WHICH TECH MODEL?

• Since we don’t currently utilize one, the one that would be

the most fitting for our school would be SAMR. SAMR has 4
components in order of integration level and complexity.
SAMR stands for substitution, augmentation, modification,
and redefinition. After reviewing the aspects and examples
of the SAMR model, this is a great entry level way to begin
looking at where we are in tech integration and where we
want to be in the future. It allows teachers to build upon
the programs and apps they are already comfortable with.
This is a scaffolding approach to a tricky topic. When
building upon pre-existing knowledge, teachers can more
easily and fluidly move into a deeper integration of
technology and use of programs.
 • In order for us to move forward in technology
goals as a district, we need to gain
technology coaches. My suggestion for this
would be to use the ISTE standards to develop
goals that fit our district. I feel that
Elementary and Highschool can have their
own goals and coaches, because they have
NOW WHAT? such different demands. Teachers could
choose the standards that fit the best for
them and for their students and develop goals
from there. I have included a previously
completed lesson plan, because I feel it is a
realistic approach to completing this goal in a
PD session. I feel that this PD plan helps to
strengthen my stance on this topic.
PD plan for creation of technology goals, By Je
ssica Courtney
 • ISTE stands for the International Society for
Technology in Education. What this group has done is
create a comprehensive set of standards and sub
standards for a wide variety of users including but
not limited to students, teachers, and
technology/instructional coaches. The standards
create a user-friendly set of ideas and goals that
allow teachers to take direction for lesson plans,
WHAT IS explicit instruction, and a way to help their students
achieve the goals for the ISTE student standards in
ISTE? technology. Not only are there conferences that take
place every year to showcase advancements in
educational technology, but there are many
resources and lesson plan ideas that teachers can
use to help students practice these goals in a
classroom setting.
You can learn more about the ISTE standards by clicki
ng this link.

There are many great lesson plan ideas and example

s on Youtube as well. This really helped me to see wh
at it looks like in action.
 WHAT ARE THE ISTE TEACHER
STANDARDS?

4. Collaborator: Teachers
2. Leader: The teacher is
1. Learner: The teacher 3. Citizen: Teachers take opportunities to
always watching for
is always trying to learn encourage participation collaborate with
opportunities to support
and improve practices in and digital use colleagues and students
student learning in
technology. responsibility to improve practice and
technology.
solve problems.

7. Analyst: Teachers
5. Designer: Teachers 6. Facilitator: Teachers
analyze data to make
create rigorous and support students in
decisions that lead to
relevant educational practicing and learning
growth for students in
opportunities using the ISTE student
meeting the ISTE
technology. standards.
standards.
 WHAT ARE THE ISTE STUDENT
STANDARDS?

2. Digital
Citizen: 3. Knowledge
1. Students Constructor: 7. Global
Empowered understand Students use 5. 6. Creative Collaborator:
4. Innovative
Learner: their role in technology to Computational Communicator: Students use
Designer:
Students the digital produce Thinker: Students technology to
Students use
have a role in world and authentic Students use communicate communicate
technology to
making learn how to work that technology to ideas by using and
solve
choices for make safe contributes solve issues and communication collaborate
problems in a
their learning and the test their platforms in with others
creative way.
by using responsible knowledge of solutions. technology. and share
technology. choices while self and knowledge.
using others.
technology.
 HOW WOULD A TEACHER BE ABLE
TO USE THESE IN THE
CLASSROOM?
• At our school, we do not currently have a technology program. A
technology program would be the most fitting for instruction on
these standards. In our school, we are required to teach them in a
cross-curricular fashion. To really “teach” these standards, we would
need to do it explicitly.
• As a future technology coach, some of the resources we would need
in order to eliminate some of the barriers would be time and
technology. Before teaching lessons that help students practice the
skills, the standards and what they mean would need to be taught
explicitly. Students need to be taught why these standards are
important. This creates an anchor for the practice of these skills. By
using a scaffolding approach to these standards, they will be able to
more effectively use these in a cross curricular fashion in later
lessons. This will create more practice for them to use these
standards in real world application.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE DIGITAL
AGE
1. Creativity and Innovation: Teachers can implement this into their classroom by enabling
them to find creative solutions to problems in the classroom. Because time is so limited in the
traditional classroom setting, this can be done in a cross curricular fashion.
2. Communication and Collaboration: Teachers can provide opportunities to share work and ideas
on communication platforms. One example for doing this would be using Edmodo.
3. Research and Information Fluency: Students should be provided the opportunities to use
various technological tools to gather and synthesize information. This could be something as simple
as gathering research for an assigned topic.
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students should have the opportunities
to make decisions about how to solve specific problems using technology. This could include
finding tools online to support learning of a specific topic.
5. Digital Citizenship: Students practice using technology in a safe and responsible way.
one learning opportunity for this skill could include practice saying positive things about
others’ contributions on a communication platform.
6. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students are able to effectively choose technology to
support learning and complete tasks. They must also be able to use the tool efficiently.
This could be practiced by assigning different topics that include opportunities to practice using different tools.

Source: Naturalizing Digital Immigrants by Kate Alaniz and Dawin Wilson

 THE ROLE OF A
TECHNOLOGY COACH AND THE 5 PHASES

• A technology coach’s cycle consists of 5 phases.

• Phase 1 is to establish the need to purpose the coaching cycle. This means that a
coach and a teacher would come up with the purpose of the cycle. Why are we
doing this?
• Phase 2 is to create partnerships. This will include at least the coach and the
coached. This partnership may also include others that could help with needed
resources including but not limited to certain technology or applications.
• Phase 3 is target differentiated technology projects. This means that the
partnership will begin to set goals and learning targets of the project. This will
often include the information from Phase 1 and always be in line with what the
teacher is wanting. This should align with the standards required by the district.
 5 PHASES CONTINUED
• Phase 4 is assess the progress. This is when the coach and the coached check to see if the
established learning path is working. Are the students learning? Are they on their way to mastering
the overall outcome and learning targets? Is the technology working? It is important in this phase
to realize that you may need to make changes. Sometimes you many have to change the
technology or the programs you are using. You may even have to change the way you are
collecting data on the learning targets. It is always acceptable to go back and make changes as
needed.
• Phase 5 is reflect on the integration. This is the phase where we look at the overall outcome to see
if it worked. This could mean comparing previous year’s mastery data on the same skill. You could
compare it to district tests, or even data from the same skill lesson that was tried before, which
may have been the driving force for the whole coaching process to begin. Teachers should assess
whether the overall percentage of students who mastered the skill meets their own expectations.
The most important question at the end of this cycle would be “Would you teach this lesson again?
Why or why not?” This would be a great way to have the teacher reflect on the lesson as well.

The most important thing to remember is to always keep in mine what the teacher wants.
 A TECHNOLOGY COACH IN OUR
DISTRICT

• We do not currently have a tech coach in our district, but I could see it fitting into our system. I
think this person should have this title alone. It may be hard for classroom teachers to fill this
position and be able to fully focus on the district goals and technology integration. In order to
fully embrace a coaching cycle, the coach would need to be able to focus on technology
coaching alone. This could be a position that is similar to an instructional coach or a TAG
teacher. It would be best to hire from within. Technology and the effective use of it is still
emerging in our school. In order for the coached to be comfortable with challenges in
technology, a coach would need to be someone they have great rapport with. As a coach it is
important to be able to know the people you are working with because it plays a huge part in
how to approach the coaching cycle. We know that we may not always have that opportunity,
so with that being said it would be important for a coach who is hired outside of the district to
begin curating those precious professional relationships with colleagues as soon as possible.
 IN CONCLUSION
• The development of technology goals and coaches will need to be done
soon. Due to the COVID19 crisis, there have been some huge technology
capability gaps unearthed in the United States. There were some schools
that were ready, and some schools that were not. Although our school is
doing everything it can for its students, there is a huge difference in
distance learning and traditional classroom learning. There are many
students who simply do not attend sessions and are not getting the
lessons we need them to get. This class and this situation have taught me
a lot about the need for technology integration. It is our job to get them
ready for the future. With that being said, technology integration in the
classroom is definitely in my future.
 REFERENCE PAGE
• Alaniz, K., & Wilson, D. K. (2015). Naturalizing digital immigrants: the
power of collegial coaching for technology integration. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield.

• ISTE (2020). International Society of Technology in Education [Website].

Retrieved on May 4, 2020 from [Link]

• Mesjms (2019, Jan. 13). Did You Know 2019 [Video file]. Retrieved from
[Link]