RUNNING HEAD: Needs assessment

Individual Teacher Needs Assessment Narrative

Dan Davis, Columbia Middle School
Kennesaw State University
October 2016

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Introduction and Background

A technology needs assessment (AACC, 2009) was conducted on the faculty of
Columbia Middle (CMS) to determine the strengths and weaknesses of technology integration at
the school. The schools mission is to create students who meet the needs of 21 st century
learners and compete in society. Technology plays an important role in the mission of CMS. A
variety of technology is present throughout the school:

Activboards and projectors in every classroom

Desktop computer labs serving all three grade levels and media center

Mobile laptop computer lab with printer

Class set of Apple iPads

Small assortment of Apple iPods

3D printers in tech lab and media center

Teacher-dedicated computers in each classroom

Wi-Fi accessible by faculty and students

Microsoft Office 365 accessible by faculty and students

A review of the survey use shows that there are certain teachers who are willing to express their
own opinions about selected technology use in their classroom and in relation to the school.
Teachers noted that the rate and type of technology adoption varies widely among grade level
and content areas. Also, the variety of technology skills among students and teachers varies
widely, as does the type of LoTi implementation in the school as a whole (LoTi, 2016).
Furthermore, some teachers noted that the technology available to them is actually unavailable
due to school policies and procedures. Based on the results of the survey and an interview with a

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selected faculty member, this needs assessment seeks to identify any professional learning that
should take place within the school, either whole group, small group, or individually.
Methods
Data Collection
The needs assessment survey (Figure 1) was created online in Google Forms. Once it
was proofread and approved by school administration, the form was sent out via email to the
entire faculty at CMS (n=64). After about a week, the survey was closed and the responses
(n=25) were tabulated on a spreadsheet.
Following the end of the survey, I was able to interview a long-time faculty member who
was more than willing to share her insights into the needs of the faculty in regards to technology,
technology training, and technology implementation. Through this interview, I was able to learn
more about the ins and outs of the social structure of the school, who is a more conscientious
adopter of new technology, and which teachers may oppose the introduction of new technology
into their own classroom. The interview was a vital way to understand the viewpoints of the
faculty members who did not participate in the survey (n=39).
Strengths and Limitations
Some noted strengths of the needs assessment survey were the non-required participation
in the survey. Faculty members were rewarded with a small, school-based token for
participating in the survey sample before the end of the survey period. Through a revision
process, the questions were made to be non-judgmental and non-threatening. The faculty was
aware that the survey results would be kept confidential. A commonly-heard problem with the
technology at CMS is connectivity, so I included a question about Wi-Fi connections to possibly

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identify if the needs assessment answers were based on perception of technology itself, or an
infrastructure problem that relies on county maintenance and the IT department.
Finally, there were two major limitations with the survey. First, the low participation rate
of only 39% makes the data apply to only a small population of teachers, mainly those who
would be more likely to participate in professional learning at a higher rate. Second, another
major limitation of the survey is the perceived view of me as a newcomer to the school, a faculty
member who is an early-adopter himself (Rogers, 1995), and has come in and pushed the
envelope of technology integration. This may have turned off some long-time CMS teachers
who could feel that they dont need to help a new faculty member.
Key Findings
The key findings of the survey point to a poorly-trained but somewhat receptive faculty
in terms of technology integration at Columbia Middle School.
The most common response about the use of technology in the classroom (Figure 4) is
that both the teacher and the students use technology proficiently in the classroom (n=10). Three
teachers (12%) responded that the students were better with technology than the teacher, and
another 12% responded that they, the teacher, is more tech savvy than the students, which ranks
low on the LoTi scale. Out of the selected respondents, only one person identified herself as
technology impaired and needing a substantial amount of help integrating technology into her
math classroom.
Several teachers (n=7) were on board with technology integration and wanted more
information on how cloud computing and storage could be used to facilitate more
communication inside their classroom and asynchronously amongst students outside of school.

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Five teachers thought that proper training could increase the types and amount of technology
used in the classroom. Still more teachers (n=7) felt that they needed assistance with ways to get
his or her students online and productive in class. The teachers who selected this survey
question come from all grade levels and content areas, even the general music/band teacher.
This shows promise in meeting the schools mission and to simultaneously moving the students
up the LoTi framework of digital age learning with targeted professional development.
Infrastructure was also assessed since the use of technology in the 21 st century sense
requires a highly-connected population of faculty and students. Of the 22 respondents to this
survey item, the results were fairly evenly distributed amongst having connection issues (n=6),
having connection issues sometimes (n=8), and having no issues at all (n=8). This is an area that
needs to be addressed and the perceptions of connectivity problems mitigated before professional
learning can commence effectively.
Interview Results
Sitting down with the media specialist allowed an interesting discovery session during
my interview with her. In her role, she is in charge of the checkout process for the schools
technology, and oversees signup for the computer labs. She works in tandem with the schools
site-based IT specialist, and does manage the reports for technology service and issues. She is
also in contact with all teachers in each grade level on a weekly basis in the media center, giving
her uncanny access to the technology usage and word on the streets so to speak. This insight
allowed us to discuss the adoption levels of the faculty, which ranged from only a small few
early-adopters to mostly late majority and laggards (Rogers, 1995). This helped us narrow our
conversation to a focused sort of outcomes.

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The first and foremost revelation with regards to technology at CMS that she shared was
how the computer labs are being used. Students are using the computer labs primarily for the
online assessment and learning management system in math class. Math teachers are expected to
sign up for one day per week, which fills all of Rogers adoption levels. Some math teachers
who were brought up in the interview report that they could use classroom time and more
applicable technology to enhance math instruction more effectively than the computer labs.
Unfortunately, with three to four math teachers per grade level, there is little access to the
computer labs for any other teacher or any other type of activity.
The laptop computer mobile lab has been a welcome addition, as they allow the students
to complete a variety of assignments, use many tools, and experience tablet and laptop
functionality. However, only a few early-adopters use the laptop cart based on her discussion.
This could possibly be a good area to start with professional development around using
technology in the classes at CMS and incorporating Microsoft Office 365 into higher LoTi
levels.
In my conversation with her, it became clear that teachers need more support in
implementing strategies in their own classroom to use the large variety of technology that the
school owns and maintains. She is open and willing to work with any teacher, coach, or teacherleader to affect change in regards to technology, and is more than accommodating when asked if
she would be able to support teachers in the school. She noted that if I needed any help with
tactics or skills in order to redeliver professional development to the faculty she could plant the
seeds of learning with the less receptive faculty members in order to help me get the school to
increase technology integration and move up the LoTi framework and fully meet our mission
statement.

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Recommendations and Technology Needs

Infrastructure Needs
The needs assessment and interview identified that the infrastructure of the school and
county, namely the Wi-Fi access points and county servers, need to be updated and maintained in
order to allow the technology available at CMS to be fully utilized. Without basic connectivity,
teachers will feel that any professional development is wasted time because they cannot access
the tools presented due to lack of internet access.
Training Needs
The top priority of professional development should be using coaching sessions
integrating the variety of technologies that the school manages and all teachers have access to.
Both the media specialist and I figured that the lower rates of technology integration stem from a
lack of education of the available resources. So, by offering workshops to introduce the
technology then incorporating coaching in small group and individual settings can increase the
adoption rates. This can be done at weekly team or content area meetings, or at monthly grade
level meetings. Since all these meetings are held during the school day, a coaching method
would work to get the technology integrated immediately. This introduction professional
development is set to take about three to four weeks.
Once teachers are familiar with the technology we have available at CMS, professional
development coaching sessions will begin to meet the 21st century standards from the mission
statement and from the LoTi frameworks. Teachers can work in content areas across the grade
levels and teams to incorporate skills and activities that move students towards being selfdirected and highly productive citizens in a global world. This sharing, modeling, coaching, and

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feedback loop between similar content area teachers, the instructional coach and media
specialist, and myself, will be an ongoing and rich process through the school year. The
interview created an agreed upon topic would be first to incorporate Microsoft Office 365
components for creating, sharing, and publishing student work, then moving on to more globalbased activities.
Appendices
Figure 1: CMS Tech Survey Form

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Figure 2: Teacher use of selected technology in the classroom

How often do you use Microsoft Office

365?

Frequency

Less than once per week

I have not used MS Office 365 yet

20

1-2 times per week

2
0

10

15

20

25

Number of Responses

Figure 3: Teacher-perception of technology use by students

Number of Responses

Do your students use Microsoft Office

365?
10

7
5

0
Never

Rarely

Sometimes

Unsure

Yes, often

Frequency

Figure 4: Teacher perception of technology preparedness

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10

References
American Association of Community Colleges. 2009. Sample needs assessment report outline.
Retrieved from https://goo.gl/0egvn1.
LoTi Connection. (2016). LoTi digital age survey. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/xwiXsw.
Rogers, E. (1995). Diffusion of innovations. Reviewed by Greg Orr, March 18, 2003. Retrieved
from https://goo.gl/xVZZxX.