1.4 Diffusion of Innovations & Change
Candidates research, recommend, and implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and for managing the change process in schools. (PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d)
Artifact: IT Grant Proposal
Reflection
The grant proposal artifact is an example of research and recommending technology innovations. This was an assignment I needed to prepare for the leadership class. My contribution was to research technological programs that would work best at the school and to create a grant proposal showing the justification for the purchase and implementation of this product. The grant proposal I did was for adding tutorial programs on the computer to increase reading fluency for the students. This was based on the data from the school that showed in every grade level there was a large number of students not reading at their respective grade level. Some were even two grade levels behind.
This artifact shows that I can use strategies outside of district funding to acquire new technology for the school that will help to improve school improvement. This project required that I do research on my own based on the information gathered from my school to determine where the greatest need was; in this case it was the reading program. The students are behind in their reading goals and need a variety of programs to help them increase their reading skills. I also showed mastery in recommending a great reading program to help students with their reading skills. This assignment required researching various technologies and deciding which one would fit the school demographic and be beneficial to the student population. The strategies implemented was to initiate new reading programs that could be used throughout the entire school for increasing reading fluency and helping to bring students closer to their grade level. The program is a great program because it would individualize the learning for each student and reach them at their level of reading and provide many opportunities for growth.
Through effective research, you find the technologies that will be the most beneficial to your school. Sometimes you find out that your school cannot cover the costs so this is why you go through the grant process. You so strongly believe that this project is needed in your school that you use these grant proposals to help use the money to fund projects like these in your school. I think this shows mastery in this standard because after research and finding appropriate technologies, I used resources such as a grant to help to fund and implement the technology that I believe will be beneficial to the school. This shows that by creating this grant project that the coach is taking on the responsibility of maintaining this program and helping the school in this change by adding this program to its curriculum for student growth and achievement.
One of the first things that I learned was how to be an effective researcher. I learned the importance of gathering the data on your school’s demographic because I could have easily provided a grant proposal for something that only a few of the students would benefit from. If I could change anything, I would have liked to speak with people in the school who have been awarded grants for the school so I could have given them an opportunity to look at the product to see if this was a good grant proposal for the school. I would have also probably looked into trying to submit a grant similar to the assignment to see if it would have been accepted. Unfortunately since this was done with a summer course, I did not have a chance to work on completing one. I now have the tools and the confidence to create grants. This was a wonderful assignment to work with determining how to research and acquire technology outside of funding from the school district.
The best ways to see if the technology was a positive impact is to study student growth over time with the technology. Student data is very important to see if the technology is working and helping students. It also can be assessed with surveys from teachers to see if they can see a difference in how the students are learning with the addition of the technology. This will determine if the program has sustainability. There will be no reason to keep the program if the students are not gaining anything from it. The technology is supposed to help change the process for the school in a positive way. It is why it is important to research the data from the school to guide the research for technology. It is why it is necessary to monitor the data throughout the school year with the technology implemented.
The grant proposal artifact is an example of research and recommending technology innovations. This was an assignment I needed to prepare for the leadership class. My contribution was to research technological programs that would work best at the school and to create a grant proposal showing the justification for the purchase and implementation of this product. The grant proposal I did was for adding tutorial programs on the computer to increase reading fluency for the students. This was based on the data from the school that showed in every grade level there was a large number of students not reading at their respective grade level. Some were even two grade levels behind.
This artifact shows that I can use strategies outside of district funding to acquire new technology for the school that will help to improve school improvement. This project required that I do research on my own based on the information gathered from my school to determine where the greatest need was; in this case it was the reading program. The students are behind in their reading goals and need a variety of programs to help them increase their reading skills. I also showed mastery in recommending a great reading program to help students with their reading skills. This assignment required researching various technologies and deciding which one would fit the school demographic and be beneficial to the student population. The strategies implemented was to initiate new reading programs that could be used throughout the entire school for increasing reading fluency and helping to bring students closer to their grade level. The program is a great program because it would individualize the learning for each student and reach them at their level of reading and provide many opportunities for growth.
Through effective research, you find the technologies that will be the most beneficial to your school. Sometimes you find out that your school cannot cover the costs so this is why you go through the grant process. You so strongly believe that this project is needed in your school that you use these grant proposals to help use the money to fund projects like these in your school. I think this shows mastery in this standard because after research and finding appropriate technologies, I used resources such as a grant to help to fund and implement the technology that I believe will be beneficial to the school. This shows that by creating this grant project that the coach is taking on the responsibility of maintaining this program and helping the school in this change by adding this program to its curriculum for student growth and achievement.
One of the first things that I learned was how to be an effective researcher. I learned the importance of gathering the data on your school’s demographic because I could have easily provided a grant proposal for something that only a few of the students would benefit from. If I could change anything, I would have liked to speak with people in the school who have been awarded grants for the school so I could have given them an opportunity to look at the product to see if this was a good grant proposal for the school. I would have also probably looked into trying to submit a grant similar to the assignment to see if it would have been accepted. Unfortunately since this was done with a summer course, I did not have a chance to work on completing one. I now have the tools and the confidence to create grants. This was a wonderful assignment to work with determining how to research and acquire technology outside of funding from the school district.
The best ways to see if the technology was a positive impact is to study student growth over time with the technology. Student data is very important to see if the technology is working and helping students. It also can be assessed with surveys from teachers to see if they can see a difference in how the students are learning with the addition of the technology. This will determine if the program has sustainability. There will be no reason to keep the program if the students are not gaining anything from it. The technology is supposed to help change the process for the school in a positive way. It is why it is important to research the data from the school to guide the research for technology. It is why it is necessary to monitor the data throughout the school year with the technology implemented.