Personal Technology 1

Running head: PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY SWOT ANALYSIS

Personal Technology SWOT Analysis, Goals, and Plan

Richard Wilford
University of West Georgia
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Personal Technology SWOT Analysis, Goals, and Plan

I am currently employed by the Cobb County School District as a special education (IRR)

teacher. I am in my fourth year teaching, and I teach 6th grade math and science. I have three

math classes and two science classes. Both of my science classes are co-taught, one of my math

classes is a small group special education class, and my other two math classes are co-taught. I

teach at Durham Middle School in Acworth, GA.

Strengths

One of my biggest strengths is that I am motivated. I am motivated in every field

(personal, educational, and work.) This summer I took three graduate courses, a comprehensive

exam, purchased my house, and graduated with my Master’s degree. I then decided that I wanted

to pursue my specialist degree immediately instead of taking a break. All of that was from the

motivation that I have. When it comes to technology, there are a lot of people who dislike it, and

I think a big part of that is because they are not willing to take the time to learn how to properly

use and incorporate it, and they have no motivation behind wanting to learn how to use it. With

anything you have to be willing to learn, practice, and be persistent. I am not the most tech savvy

individual, but I am determined and motivated to learn as much as I can from technology as I

know that there are a lot of benefits that comes with it.

Another strength of mine is importing and uploading documents to share/collaborate with

others. For example, I collaborate with the other 6th grade math and science teachers at my

school during our PLCs and in general. With me working with other teachers, we plan together

so that we can help meet the needs of our students. I upload a lot of documents to SharePoint,

and we are all able to edit a document at the same time in “real life.” I also collaborate with my
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classmates in my current program of study. While collaborating with my classmates, I will

upload documents to Google Docs and again we are able to work simultaneously on the task at

hand. It really comes in handy and you are able to see the others as they are editing while you

are.

Lastly, I think an important strength of mine is my positivity and patience. When it

comes to technology there can be bumps in the road. Being positive and having a positive

attitude not only helps with technology, but it helps with anything that you are faced with in life.

Being negative and getting frustrated about using technology will not make it any easier for you

to use. I try to always find the positive in any situation even if things are going south. It could

always be worse. I think a big part of the patience that I have gained is from working with the

special education population.

Weaknesses

One of my weaknesses when it comes to technology is Microsoft Excel. I know the

basics of excel, but I believe that I can sharpen up my skills so that I can use it to my advantage.

I feel that there are a lot of good things about excel and it could really make my job easier

(especially the data piece.) I use data a lot (special education data, IEP goals, class data, test data,

etc.) and Microsoft excel can help me to put my data into nice spreadsheets and make nice

charts.

Another weakness of mine is the lack of confidence that I sometimes have when it comes

to technology. Even though I have a basic idea of how to operate and work with technology, I do

not give myself all of the credit that I deserve. Sometimes I will tell myself that I can’t do

something without even trying, or I will get nervous when I am implementing technology.
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Sometimes I catch myself overthinking, and I need to get out of that habit. Once I actually sit

down and try it, I am typically successful. It may take me a little time, but again with anything

you need practice and repetition.

Opportunities

With the way that education is changing, one of the opportunities that I see in technology

in the future is more people buying into it and using it, especially in education. With learner-

centered education, technology plays a bigger role and the teacher is coaching the students. In

order for this to work, a change in paradigm will require change from the classroom, school,

district, and state levels. Learner-centered environments allow students to work on material based

on their own progress which is very beneficial, instead of working on material within a certain

time frame. With that being the case, more technology will have to be implemented.

Another opportunity that I see with technology is more online classes. Back in the 90’s I

don’t recall many people taking classes online. Now, it is becoming more popular for college

students to take classes online, and even complete their entire program online. My master’s

program was 90% completed online, and I had two classes that were face to face. My specialist

program is 100% online. While online classes are becoming more popular, more universities will

have to use more technology for their online students to complete work, and professors will need

to be trained on the software and technology that is being used.

Threats

One of the threats of technology is trying to get teachers on board with it. There are a lot

of great ideas and good programs that can be implemented, but there are also a lot of teachers

who are not comfortable with technology. With teachers not being comfortable with technology,
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they are not necessarily sold on the idea of implementing more of it into their daily teaching.

There are some teachers who look at it as “adding another thing to do” to their already long list

of things to do.

Another threat with technology is funding. The school budgets are tight and some might

not be able to implement new technology to the schools. In my school, we did fundraising to get

more iPads for the students to use. When I first starting working at Durham, we only had one

iPad cart and we now have an iPad cart for each grade level. In addition to funding, the schools

would have to pay for professional development for the teachers to get the proper training on the

technology that is being implemented.

The last threat that I think of with technology is change. I do think that educators are

willing and wanting to incorporate technology as they want to do what is best for the students,

but I also believe that educators are scared of change. I mentioned earlier that education is

changing from a teacher-centered instruction to learner-centered instruction. That right there is

change that is happening. Change can be hard when you have a set routine, but it is something

that is needed, and something that is happening sooner than later. The more technology

advances, the more change it will cause.

Goal

One of my personal technology goals is to become more “tech savvy” not just in the

classroom, but in general. With me being a younger teacher in my building, a lot of the older

teachers assume that I am very good with technology. These teachers will come to me to assist

them with their technology needs. While I am able to assist them with certain aspects of

technology, and while I feel that I have a general grasp and understanding of technology, I do
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believe that there is a lot more that I can learn. I want to learn as much as I can so that I can

really see all of the good that comes from technology. I would like to use technology more to

collaborate (Google Docs, SharePoint, etc) and I would also like to incorporate more technology

into my lessons. While I do currently incorporate technology such as using the document camera,

using the smartboard, allowing the students to use their devices sometimes to play review games,

I want to do more. With the way that education and technology is advancing and changing, I

want to be able to stay on top of the new trends.

Plan

One way that I can help to achieve this goal is by successfully completing my specialist

degree in Instructional Technology, and graduating next December. This degree will give me

that extra boost of confidence within my technology skills to make me more “tech savvy.” I plan

to continue to use my planner to write down my assignment due dates so that I do not miss

deadline, and I plan to attend technology professional developments that are offered in my

county to help me gain knowledge in addition to the knowledge that I will be gaining from my

program.