1.4 DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS AND CHANGE
Candidates research, recommend, and implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and for managing the change process in schools.
The Technology Evaluation Paper and Software Evaluation Form artifacts were created by me while I was working on my Master's Degree. The evaluation form is a form I completed to evaluate the Accelerated Reader Program to make a determination about whether it would be a good fit for my school. The paper lays out my findings in depth, makes a final recommendation to administrators, and discusses the roll out of the program, and how to best handle that.
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These artifacts demonstrate mastery of standard 1.4: candidates research, recommend, and implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and for managing the change process in schools. The evaluation form clearly demonstrates that I thoroughly researched the technology software in question. The paper demonstrates that I made a recommendation on the software based on my research and evaluation, and that I discussed ways to manage the change process when the program rolls out to the entire school. This software was purchased by the school, and I helped in making sure that the teachers had what they needed to ensure they would use the program. I sat in on a conference call with my principal and a support person at Renaissance Learning, the publisher of the software. The support person answered our questions and walked us through the basics of how to get the teachers started. We went over these things with the staff at a faculty meeting, and then began using the program.
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Through completing these artifacts I learned that thorough research is very important when rolling out new technology or technology based software. Many different factors need to be considered when deciding which software will be purchased. By going through this process I gained valuable knowledge on how to thoroughly evaluate technology to determine if it meets my needs or the needs of my school. One thing I would do differently if I completed this artifact today is that I would include a step by step plan regarding how to roll out the program to the entire school. I included a summary of how to do that, but not a step by step plan. Looking at it now, a step by step plan would be more thorough.
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These artifacts impacted school improvement and student learning. The program that I evaluated, and was purchased by the school was a school wide program, and worked to improve the reading levels of every student in the school. This impacts the overall improvement of the entire school, and each individual students' learning. This impact can be measured by looking at the students' reading levels before the use of the program, and the gains made in those reading levels after the use of the program.