School Evaluation Summary Georgieva Lydia EDTECH 501 For this assignment I chose to evaluate the level of technology

maturity of the organization I work for: Alternative School. Alternative school is a different type of school providing online courses for other schools in relation to an international curriculum. Alternative School fills in a niche in the market for international education by allowing schools following the specific international curriculum to expand their subject offers and meet the needs of their international students. Alternative school has a total of 1072 students enrolled for various online courses and more than 50 teachers involved in teaching different subject courses. Technology has been at the core of the organization from the very beginning, thus the level of technology maturity is naturally high. Alternative school has students from 37 countries around the world.

ADMINISTRATIVE

The Administrative filter is at the Intelligent stage of the Maturity Model as appropriate planning of technology, as well as appropriate budgeting made it possible to offer this innovative model of teaching and learning. Policy Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent The organization depends entirely on technology for the provision of online courses, so technology use is embraced at all levels of the organization. Technology use is at the core of the organizations existence and the delivery of the online courses has been approved by the governing body. Planning Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Comprehensive technology planning has been done at the very start of the founding of the organization and at this moment any technology plans/changes are formally evaluated and connected to other plans in the school Budget Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent As far as my knowledge goes, technology budget has probably been in the center of the budgeting process at the start of the organization as there is a heavy on technology for its existence. My observations are that technology and related expenses are considered first before any other additional budgets.

Administrative Information Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Paper systems are totally replaced and my experience is that only contracts come on printed paper and has to be returned as a hard copy. All other administrative information and procedures utilize technology all across the school.

CURRICULAR The Curricular filter is at the Intelligent stage of the Maturity Model as the main role of Alternative School is to allow expansion of subject offers to other schools following the international curriculum. Thus Alternative School fulfills its mission to provide further educational opportunities to international students all over the world. Electronic Information

Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Students and staff will not be able to do their work without usage of technology as courses are delivered entirely in an online environment. The courses are pre-built on the VLE and students and staff have regular access to all resources needed on a daily basis.

Assessment Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Assessment design uses technology to a varying extent in the different subject courses as some subjects allow fuller integration of technology assessment tools (Maths) than others(Social Sciences such as Economics). But assessment in social sciences is delivered in the form of test papers that can be downloaded and completed and then submitted to a designated folder. Formative assessment is based on various activities that require students to interact with each others via discussions, social bookmarking and blogging through the use of technology due to the geographical dispersion of the students. Reporting to students, schools and parents is done entirely via online reporting system integration.

Curriculum Integration Behavioral: Integrated Resource/infrastructure: Integrated Not all subject areas of a normal school curriculum exist in the organization due to the complementary role that the organization plays in the curriculum delivery of other schools. The courses offered integrate technology to a great extent in delivering the course curriculum.

Teacher Use Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Good skills in technology use are a prerequisite for employment of teachers as teachers work will not be possible without technology. Teachers themselves need to have the required technology as the organization does not take responsibility for provision with technology.

Student Use Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Appropriate technology is a prerequisite for enrollment in the courses, also school support in providing appropriate technology is considered essential for enrolling students from a particular school in an online course.

SUPPORT The Support Filter of the Alternative school is in the Integrated Stage of the Maturity Model as the very essence of the teaching and learning environment requires administrative and technical support and extensive training opportunities for staff and students. Stakeholder Involvement Behavioral: Integrated Resource/infrastructure: Integrated Teachers, administrative and development team are the main stakeholders involved in the planning and implementation of technology. Engagement of teachers is mainly in the implementation stage of technology. The planning process is mainly done by administration and development team. Administrative Support Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent The technology planning process is done mainly administratively and there is good supportive system in place by Faculty and Curriculum advisors and development team in the implementation stage. Training Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Each new staff member undergoes comprehensive training prior to the start of the courses and such is also provided for students and school coordinators. Faculty advisors are available for support and also provide various training opportunities related to technology applications during various times of the school year. Individual support in technology implementation is also provided by Heads of departments when requested by teachers in the department. Technical/Infrastructure Support Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Formal and informal support is available. Formal technical support is provided by the development team, informal technical support is provided by the Faculty advisors and the Head of department. There is full-time personnel to provide technical support.

CONNECTIVITY

The Connectivity Filter is in the Intelligent Stage of the Maturity Model as this is the natural stage determined by the specific nature of Alternative School and its model of teaching and learning. Local Area Networking (LAN): n/a District Area Networking (WAN): n/a Teachers working for the organization are located all over the world and not in one specifically designated building, thus those subsections are not applicable. Internet Access Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent All staff and students need to have Internet access as a prerequisite for employment and enrollment in the courses. Internet access is extensively used for audio and video conferencing, for overview of weekly content, for some subjects such as languages. Internet access is also extensively used by students for access to data needed for the inquiry-based assignments integrated in the courses.

Communication Systems Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Communication systems include internal email, pager, specially designed discussion forum and formal emails through the integrated administrative system.

INNOVATION The Innovation filter seems to be between Integrated and Intelligent stages of the Maturity Model Benchmarks, mainly due to the not so fast integration of new technologies, which is understandable as Alternative School is ahead of many traditional schools in terms of technology integration. New Technologies Behavioral: Integrated Resource/infrastructure: Integrated New technologies are readily accepted by most staff, e.g. lately I used Google hangout for a department meeting online and some teachers also use it for synchronous sessions with students. The organization is looking at integrating Adobe Connect to the course environment. Staff suggests new applications all the time but those are so many that implementation of all is impossible but some are moderately implemented.

Comprehensive Technologies Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Technology is quite comprehensive and readily available. Video, audio, email, pager are used on a regular basis by staff and students. Regular use of synchronous video conferencing, asynchronous video presentations, or incorporating video in news is a normal practice in the courses. Conclusion: The organization I work for can easily be placed in the Intelligent Stage of the Technology Maturity Model. The very essence of the organization is based on technology as it provides specialized online courses related to a specific international curriculum. Virtual learning environment with pre-built course content, allowing for minor additions and adjustments from teachers to personalize their course replaces the traditional classroom environment. Prerequisites for employment and student enrollment are reasonable Internet access and basic technology knowledge. Comprehensive training is provided to teachers and students and also to school-based coordinators which ensures appropriate use of technology in the teaching and learning process. Various technology tools are integrated to provide for a comprehensive learning environment, such as Elluminate for live lesson delivery and synchronous meetings with students. Assessment and reporting are also heavily reliant on technology usage and there is a full-time support for everybody involved.