Running head: PLANNING FOR TECH PD

Planning for Technology Professional Development: Needs Assessment

Focus: Toledo Public School-East Broadway Elementary
EDTL 6320
Beth Corrigan

PLANNING FOR TECH PD

Planning for Technology Professional Development Needs Assessment

Focus: Toledo Public School-East Broadway Elementary
Technology Needs Assessment Background
The Planning for Technology Professional Development Needs Assessment survey was
distributed through e-mail to thirty-six teachers at East Broadway Elementary School which is a K-8
building in Toledo Public Schools. I chose this school because I have researched and analyzed their
strategic plan and have written a technology grant for one of their staff members. Out of the thirty-six
teachers that received the survey, only eight teachers responded to the survey. I believe the low
completion rate was due to some teachers not knowing me personally because I am not employed in this
building and that the survey was sent out during summer vacation. The low participation rate aside, I feel
I have a good representation of the staff because I was able to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses
in a variety areas of technology. The original survey can be viewed through the following link:
http://goo.gl/forms/WNZqP4SzRkMPD0Jn2 . My annotated results, which includes the strengths and
weaknesses of the school as well as total averages, can be viewed through this link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BykINDOzbRewNS1saW5rMkZXR2s .
Teachers were asked a variety of questions from five areas of focusing on technology practices in
schools through the Google Forums survey. The five areas are: Teaching Practices, Supportive
Environment for Technology Use, Professional Development, Teaching and Learning, and Impact of
Teaching. To analyze the results, I averaged the eight scores for each question together. I then took the
average of the five areas to create a more comprehensive picture of the results. To separate areas of high
and low rating, I notated the top five percent averages and bottom five percent averages of all the
questions. By doing this, I saw the specific criteria that East Broadway Elementary was exceling in and
which areas needed the most improvement. The notations of the top and bottom five percent are visible on
the annotated spread sheet.

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Results: High Scores

The East Broadway Elementary teachers rated statements in the areas of Supportive Environment
for Technology Use, Teaching and Learning, and Impact of Technology in the top five percent of all
results. In the Supportive Environment for Technology, high ratings were given to the administration for
their support of changes to the school involving technology and consideration of technology literacy and
leadership when they are evaluating teachers. Other high rating confirmed that teachers felt they had
adequate electronic systems for communicating such as e-mail and network drives as well as accessibility
to enough computers to have at least one device for every two students.
In the area focusing on the Impact of Technology on their students, participants responded
positively to two statements. They felt confident that their teaching practices emphasized the use of
technology to support their instruction and that technology has increased the engagement in the learning
of their students.
In the area of Teaching and Learning, the teachers at East Broadway Elementary felt that they use
technology frequently to communicate and collaborate with other educators across the school. This was
the only question in the top five percent in this section. No scores were in the top five percent for the
areas in Teaching Practices or Professional Development.
Results: Low Scores
The East Broadway Elementary teachers rated statements in the areas of Teaching Practices,
Supportive Environment for Technology Use, Professional Development, and Teaching and Learning in
the bottom five percent of all results. None of the statements in the Impact of Technology were in the
bottom five percent of the results.
In the area of Teaching Practices, the teachers surveyed rated themselves low in their teaching
ability of productivity applications such as word processing and spreadsheet. This was the only
significantly low statement in the Teaching Practices area.
In the area of Supportive Environment for Technology Use, there were five statements that were
marked in the bottom five percent of responses. Those surveyed did not feel that their technology plan

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was monitored or updated at least once a year and that the teachers and other staff members did not
support the technology plan that had been implemented. They also felt that the amount of money
budgeted for technology resources and for continuous updating and replacement of technology systems
was not sufficient. Finally, the participants did not agree with the statement that computer labs can be
flexibly scheduled for equitable access to resources and instruction.
In the area of Professional Development, two statements were rated in the bottom five percent of
results. The teacher participants do not feel that there is an identification, location, and evaluation of
technology resources like websites that they can use with their students. They also believe that the impact
of technology professional development is not tracked using data on classroom practice.
In the area of Teaching and Learning, two independent statements were rated low. The
participants did not fully agree with the statement that their individual lesson plans referred to both
content standards and student technology standards. They also did not overall agree that they consult
publications, online journals, and other resources to identify research-based practices in the area of
technology.
Conclusion and Recommendations
According to ISTE, or International Society for Technology in Education (2016), there are
fourteen critical elements necessary to effectively leverage technology for learning in schools. These
critical elements offer educators and school leaders a researched backed framework to guide
implementation of the ISTE Standards, tech planning, and system wide change (ISTE, 2016, par.1).
Collectively, East Broadway Elementary has positive aspects of their technology integration meeting parts
of the fourteen critical elements, but there is definitely room for improvement. Out of the fourteen critical
elements outlined by ISTE, I choose one element that I believe East Broadway is close to fulfilling and
two elements that need their immediate attention.
In the ISTE critical element of Student-Centered Learning where planning, teaching, and
assessment all center on the needs and abilities of the student (ISTE, 2016) is a strong area at East
Broadway Elementary. I concluded this because the Impact of Technology section of the survey focuses

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on student learning and the average rating was a four from the participants. This section was the highest
among all areas of the survey. My recommendation to raise the impact of technology on student success
would be integration more opportunities for the students to explore and utilize productivity applications
like Word and Excel. This additional time would increase their skills with these applications, but also help
them to be independent learners with technology. This task can be completed by allowing students to type
papers and projects on the Chrome book computers that have these applications.
One of the criteria of the ISTE critical elements that East Broadway Elementary I feel needs to
immediate attention based on the survey result is technology funding. Twice in the survey, the participants
stated that the amount of money budgeted to technology and technology repairs was not sufficient. New
innovative technology must be purchased yearly to help meet student learning goals, but the current
technology must also be maintained. I would highly recommend that technology funds are allocated each
year to the purchase new technology as well as an equal amount of funds allocated to repairs and
maintenance of the current technology within the building.
The other criteria of the ISTE critical elements I feel that East Broadway Elementary needs to
address immediately is the lack of a Shared Vision within technology. Examining the survey results, I can
see that there is a moderate disconnect between the technology vision of the district and this individual
school. The teachers feel that the Toledo Public Schools Board of Education decides what technology the
schools will be using during a given school year and they are left out of the discussion. This separation
between the two entities is troubling because without a shared vision, it is harder for a district to see
academic results and propel the district further. My recommendation to improve relations between the
board of education and the Toledo Public Schools would be to place one representative from each school
on a central committee to make suggestions to the board of education concerning technology integration
and technology products. By doing so, each building would feel represented in the decisions that were
made and may be more willing to learn and implement the new technology vision from the board of
education.

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Staff development
The lowest section of the survey was Professional Development with an average of a 3.4 in
agreement with the statements. One of the fourteen essential conditions for leveraging technology is
Ongoing Professional Learning. ISTE (2016) emphasizes that educators need to have ongoing access
to technology-related professional learning plans and opportunities as well as dedicated time to practice
and share ideas (par.10). I firmly believe that for any amount of successful technology integration to
happen, professional development in technology must happen for the staff. This can be in the form of
professional development speakers brought in, or an increase of access to technology publications or
online journals where teachers can improve their technology development independently.
To achieve top professional learning, I would suggest that East Broadway provide more
opportunities and training for their staff to explore the new technologies that are being implemented into
their building. Through this opportunity the staff would be more willing to support the schools
technology plan, which was rated low on the survey, and build their confidence of implementing
technology in the classroom. Additionally, because the staff at East Broadway Elementary rated
themselves high on using technology to communicate and collaborate with others, they should develop an
incentive structure for integration of new technology to encourage participation. This extra step could be a
bonding experience between the staff as well as a support system for future technology integration.

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7
References

(2016). Essential conditions. International Society of Technology Education. Retrieved from

http://www.iste.org/standards/tools-resources/essential-conditions