Running head: INDIVIDUAL TEACHER TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT NARRATIVE

Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative

Madison L. McDuffie
PL & Tech Innovation ITEC 7460
Dr. Anissa Vega
Kennesaw State University

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Surveys have been given at my school before to assess professional learning needs, but they were mostly done towards the end
of a faculty meeting. Teachers are encouraged to rate how helpful the session was on their way out. I typically participate and answer
honestly, but I dont usually see the results, and Im not apart of the discussions that come from the needs assessment. With that being
said I was somewhat unsure how the survey would be perceived, so decided to only include one participant. The teacher who
completed the survey also teaches math. Her responses are below.
Loti Survey

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Adopter Level Survey

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Based on the Loti survey results the teacher who participated in the survey is not at all intimidated by technology integration.
She is willing to try new tools/strategies in the classroom and at times can be labeled as an early adopter or as an innovator. Everett
Rogers states that innovators venturesome types that enjoy being on the cutting edge (1995). Her responses show that she often

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plans for and integrates technology into her classroom to differentiate instruction, but has not yet assessed the effectiveness of the
technology integration.

She also understands that technology in the classroom is designed to enhance student understanding by

providing them with authentic and relatable learning experiences that require higher-order thinking. She understands that technology
is needed in the classroom.
The teacher who completed the surveys is a veteran who has taught multiple middle grades levels, and diverse groups of
students. She currently teaches three levels of mathematics: on-level, advanced, and accelerated. The school district is 1:1 so all
students have a personal device at school and at home. The greatest struggle stated in the Loti survey is the technology gaps of the
students, I have a similar struggle and focused mostly on this topic during our interview. While some students are capable of using
any tool introduced in the classroom, there are some who possess limited overall academic skills that translate to technology readiness.
This causes friction in the classroom with implementation, and can sometimes keep her from using the tool with that group of
students, which explains why the frequency of technology integration for solving real-world problems is once per week. There are so
many tools or strategies that get shared throughout the year, so teachers who are willing try them. However, lack of planning time
leads to this teacher being unable to really explore a tech tool or strategy and develop a plan for implementation even with lower
performing students. The major focus then becomes the mathematics content. Mainly, she is willing to introduce new tools/strategies
but is not always sure that all her students would adapt.

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This teacher is ready to adopt different strategies or tools for the math classroom, but would like this to be done specifically for
a math content team. Then she not only wants to learn new things for her classroom, but would like to include any collaborators in the
process. First I would like to meet with the teacher and collaborators again to discuss the main focus of one tool/strategy for use in the
next unit. The needs assessments have shown that she has been mostly in what Jim Knight considers the action phase, and may
need a structured time for the preparation phase, which is described as time to plan what they have to do to implement the change
they are planning to implement (2007). During the preparation phase with the content team, we could discuss the specifics of how
the teacher may use technology tool of choice, and how the students may use the tool. The plan would include specifics of how the
tool will be introduced, and include any support needed for students with limited technological abilities. Additionally, we would
discuss where the tool fits on the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) level. Some questions to
consider would be how can the tool be used for higher-order thinking? How can the tool connect the content to real-world
applications? Will the students be exposed to an authentic learning experience? Then, the plan would include how the effectiveness
of the tool will be measured.
The content team would need to collaboratively decide what the overall goal of the tools use is, and how they will know that
the goal was met. Some suggestions may be a pre and post assessment, or student product to show their understanding on the content.
Given the depth of this plan it may take 2 to 3 planning periods to consider all details. The overall focus would be to provide the
teacher and the collaborators with the time to focus on implementing one strategy, and to provide support and direction in that process.
Lastly, after implementation I would want to meet with the team again to reflect on what went well and what did not. Since others

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tend seek instructional direction from this particular teacher, after this process she would be willing to share the experiences with
others and peek their interest regarding similar issues.

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References

Knight, J. (2007). What is the partnership philosophy? In Instructional coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction.
Thousand Oaks, CA: NSDC.
Rogers, Everett. (1995). Diffusion of innovations. Retrieved March 5, 2016, from
http://www.stanford.edu/class/symbsys205/Diffusion%20of%20Innovations.htm