Technology Assessment Surveys

After completing the Technology Application Inventory I find that I am unfamilar with much of the terminology used in technology. I have always looked at myself as a pretty tech. savy person who can navigate through many technical applications educators need to master to incorporate technology in the classroom. I still feel that I have adequate skills to be an educational leader in todays technological movement. I find that with the proper training with programs and equipment I am able to utilize those programs and equipment appropriately as a user. Using the 1st survey I found that my personal ablities allowed me to answer yes more than no in the areas of foundation, information acquisition, and problem solving. The one area that I had an equal amount of no's and yes's was communication. I felt that I was weak in areas such as databases, speadsheets, interdiciplinary multimedia presentations, tracking trends, setting timelines, and the uses of an electronic evaluation tools. Many of the applications I have used and have a basic knowledge of. It has been a long time since I have developed a database and I use spreadsheets everyday, but struggle with formulas and how to assign them to different cells.
The second assessment using the SETDA Building survey recorded data that pertains to our schools use of technology in and out of the school setting. I do believe that our school has made great strides toward improving technology at our school. We have purchased a mobile lab computer cart and equiped it with laptops for teachers to check out and students to use. I have witnessed many classes utilizing the mobile lab and students using and giving presentations using the laptops. This year our district created a distant learning lab that has over 40 computers stations with half of the stations utilizing laptops. We are now able to use the lab for distant learning with a camera and overhead projector to allow interaction between the long-distance instructor and our lab. Our goal this year is to make sure that all teachers have a document camera in their room and receive training on how to use the camera in the classroom. Our campus has requested more smartboards to begin equiping classroom as our budget allows.
Where I think that our school shows a weakness is in the area of student use of technology. We have done a pretty goood job of making it to where teachers can use technology, but our students use needs to improve.