Gia Shafer

EDU 120 Midterm Part 2-B

Kimberly Bishop is the ECS at Silverado High School, they have a technology plan that

the ECS’s use to create but now the Site Based Technology Team creates the technology plan

that is on the website for each school and they are shortened and integrated into the school plan.

The tech team meets and presents which technologies should be purchased and where it should

be placed to the principal. Most items teachers want are school wide, such as laptops, smart

board, etc. and for individual classroom use the requests items needed from the ECS. Other items

that someone would want individually are purchased using the school budget.

If there is a technology problem that arises in the classroom teachers turn to the ECS or

tech team for support and the turnaround time depends on the school, ECS, and type of problem.

It is generally resolved quickly. They fill out a request online and within that day, the ECS

comes and takes a look. Ms. Bishop feels that teacher technology training is one area where the

district is not lacking in, they offer several trainings, especially if it is something that is

mandatory for them to use There are classes on your basic programs such as Word, Excel,

PowerPoint, etc. that are offered after school for $10 (most of them) and the credits can be used

for salary advancement. More complex programs that are required, training is mandatory and

given to teachers during staff development days. Some of these programs also offer training

sessions afterschool for further training.

When ECSs were reduced, schools came up with a tech team. For the speech department,

the tech committee plays a huge role in technology decision making. They basically come
up with the ideas and present them to the director of the speech department. Ms. Bishop

assumes the same would be the true in the school. Some schools offer classes to the parents on

how to use technology, but it is very basic and it is based on the school. The best feature related

to technology for the school is that the students love technology and it provides them a different

approach to teaching. The biggest challenge is access to it in the homes and across school

settings. Ms. Bishop does not feel there is a divide among the school district even though each

school is treated as an individual but she still feels the main challenge is how to make sure

students and parents are able to participate and understand how to access technology information

from home.

After interviewing Ms. Bishop I completely agree with the system in which they use is

individual in each school, as each school understands their parent involvement and dynamics but

still the main issue seems to be is how to incorporate it at home. To get a better understanding I

asked her if she feels that some of the older seasoned teachers dislike learning to use technology

as that could present another issue but Ms. Bishop feels that all teachers embrace the new

technology. I also asked if she feels teachers could still teach at the same level without

technology and she said no. For my final question I asked if she had any suggestions on how to

improve the school/home technology issue and she said its extremely difficult to address as each

family dynamic is different but they are trying their best to come up with many possibilities to

offer their families.