tkt8763-01: Class Notes: 06 Oct 99

[Christopher & Raydene Wolney <wolney@ebicom.net>]

Hi all,

Notes from the class.

1. First of all we were forced into watching several I-MAC commercials. I 
almost could not go on with typing as I had to keep my hands over my mouth 
to keep from vomiting. Sorry about the abrutness, but now you understand my 
(and other PC users) pain with the first part of class. If you are a gluten 
for punishment, I suggest you go to the following link: 
http://www.imac.com/.

Now remembering those two important rules (Give the old goat what he wants 
and remember who has the red pen) I found the information very informative 
and interesting. Recommend you go to the link and see some neat things that 
the IMAC can do and neat things about Firewire. In addition, if you think I 
am a PC person, you are right because that is what most people use. I use 
what most people use for matters of convenience. I do believe Macintosh 
comes up with great ideas and neat things. Additionally, I also believe the 
platform is more stable than Windows. I also believe that my Commodore 
Amiga had more power than most computers today. Its all in the marketing. 
Unfortunately both Macintosh and Amiga lost. Macintosh is trying again and 
all the power to them because quite frankly Windows and PC platforms are 
not the best. Until Macintosh gains more market share, I will stay a PC 
guy.
I believe the IMAC comes in at about $1400. Great price, but at the 
following link, I found a PC for $398.00 ( 
http://wmonline.wal-mart.com/cgi-bin/vstore/wm/wmonline.exe?U+GN+ITEM:66  
044883000+MCAT:0+G:0.0.0.0 ). Granted it did not include a monitor, but a 
15" monitor cost about $148.00 on the bottom of the page. By the way it is 
from Wal-Mart and chances are it is therefore returnable if not completely 
satisfied. Once again, I will wait for market share to equal things out. 
When Wal-Mart sells MACs, I will probably buy a MAC. (Side Note-IMACs come 
with Internet Explorer-interesting).

2. Dr. A. Suppose you are asked to go to a school and help with Technology 
Planning. The school wants an evaluation component to happen. Question: 
Suppose you are serving as an advisor to Clinton School District. In order 
to have a truly authentic objective evaluation, can an entity evaluate 
itself? Some students agreed, some disagreed. What can definitely happen is 
a school executing a self-evaluation can give itself a "Description of the 
school's condition". Dr. A.-Suppose Ladies that your husband buys a boat 
and then knowing very well who wears the pants in the family, you force 
your husband to sell the boat. How would you describe the boat in the paper 
(classified section)? Would your description fit what you told your 
neighbors or what you want to say to sell it?
While self-evaluation can be made objective by using specific quantifiable 
items, these items no matter how objective can be construed or interpreted 
several ways. This is especially true with technology. Many items are 
nebulus (Dr.A's word but trying to increase my vocabulary) in technology. 
They do not have specific quantifiable constructs and therefore, it is 
difficult at best to give an accurate objective evaluation. As an example, 
while temperature is measurable (ie it is 75 degrees F) it is less 
measureable to determine what is hot, warm, or cold. For all the married 
couples, we all understand that temperature while measureable is definitely 
variable depending on the person. Self evaluations are good because they 
will give insight to the status of the implementation of you're school's 
technology plan. An external evaluation is needed to get a completely 
objective evaluation. Needless we need to develop an evaluation scheme (see 
class assignments page- http://www.msstate.edu/dept/teched/sip/assign.html 
for assignment #7).

3. What five questions would you ask who in a school about the status of 
its technology plan.
	The Who-The principal, administrators, teachers, students, parents, 
custodians, school nurse. As many different people as possible. The larger 
the sample, the more accurate the evaluation.
	The What-
	-Do you ask each group the same questions? For example-Do students seem to 
enjoy using the computers in class? This question can be asked to both 
students and teachers.
	-Part of the evaluation is doing a Needs Assessment. For example, you can 
ask a teacher what would make his/her job easier. The teacher may answer 
with something that involves technology or not.
	-What are all the components of evaluation? Has the school been using 
technology for achievement testing?
	-How frequently do you evaluate? Evaluation should be continuous. Informal 
assessment are definitely continuous; however, evaluations are not 
continuous. The difference being assessment is putting a thermometer in 
your mouth and getting your temperature. Evaluation is actually comparing 
the temperature to some standard (ie below or above 98.6). However, 
frequent evaluations allow for easy course corrections in the technology 
plan. Less frequent evaluations may result in large, often difficult, and 
potentially impossible course corrections. Interestingly, this is somewhat 
contradictary to page 11 of the Guidebook for Developing an Effective 
Instructional Technology Plan Version 2.0

4. Main things to evaluate in a School District:
	a. The Planning Process-Was there participation by a wide variety of 
stakeholders.
	b. The Product (the noun version of the plan). Is it organized, is it easy 
to find stuff. Does it seem to make sense (to the stakeholders). How well 
can people who are supposed to implement the plan, find items in the actual 
plan. Are new teachers introduced and schooled on the technology plan. Does 
the new teacher think as she/he is reading the plan that he/she can find 
places they can plug themselves into the plan, then chances are the plan is 
well organized and will be used. If you can pick up a document and find an 
equipment list, it is almost overwhelming that the plan is doomed to fail. 
If the budget is up front it is also doomed to fail. Both of these should 
be in an appendix. A good plan has the mission and vision statement up 
front. People can then look at the plan and are immediately in tune to the 
sense of the plan.

5. What is the digital divide? See 
http://www.benton.org/DigitalBeat/db080699.html#def . Dr A. handed out a 
couple of handouts. They can be found at 
http://www.benton.org/Library/Native/ and 
http://www.benton.org/Library/Low-Income/ . He also highly recommended that 
we read the following:

http://www.benton.org/DigitalBeat/db093099.html Technology Professional 
Development for Teachers (Comp Question hidden in there)
http://www.benton.org/DigitalBeat/db070899.html The Digital Divide
http://www.benton.org/DigitalBeat/db080699.html The Digital Divide and the 
US Hispanic Population
Falling Through the Net by Department of Commerce is a Must Read! 
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/digitaldivide/
Look at site: http://www.ctcnet.org The Community Technology Centers' 
Network
And site: http://www.pluggedin.org  Plugged In
And site: http://www.ntia.doc.gov National Telecommunications and 
Information Administration
And site: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/tiiap/ The Telecommunications 
and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program

Chris Wolney

Shoot, Move, and Communicate
Armor, The Combat Arm of Decision!

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