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Courtney Taylor

FRIT 7739 Practicum in Instructional Technology

Dr. Elizabeth Downs

Georgia Southern University

Fall 2022
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Part A: Program Evaluation

Executive Summary

This evaluation looks at Dalton Public School’s Technology Integration Center. Dalton

Public Schools has 10 schools within the district- 2 high schools, 1 junior high, 1 middle school,

and 6 elementary schools. These schools consist of nearly 7400 students and over 1,000 staff

members. DPS is a 1:1 district, meaning that every student PK-12 has a device. Each school has

a media specialist and an IT personnel that help ensure the success of technology within the

building. The methods for data collection for this evaluation were primarily through interviews

and observations. The appendices include interview questions, a checklist used for observations,

as well as links to the district website and instructional technology page.

Organizational Chart

Superintendent: Oversees school principals, district support staff, and technology director. They

are all on a committee along with other various personnel at the central office level.
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Principal: Supervises school library media specialist and decisions that are made for the media

center.

Director of School Support: Oversees instructional technology integration and works alongside

the technology director. This person has a team of technology integration specialists.

Technology Director: Supervises school-based IT personnel and makes executive decisions

regarding technology for the district.

Technology Integration Specialist: Manages school library media specialists and supports media

centers and classrooms with instructional technology integration.

Media Specialist: Manages the school library media center and works closely with IT school

support.

IT School Support: Troubleshoots technology issues at the school level, and issues devices to

students and staff.

Methods

Two separate interviews were conducted with members of the Technology Integration

Team to discuss protocols, responsibilities, and plans. Those interview transcripts can be found

in the appendices. Several observations were made during our district conference, district

meetings with media specialists, and throughout visits to the facility.

Center Context and Goals

Dalton Public Schools was founded in 1886. Since 2016, Dalton Public Schools has had a

1:1 initiative, and grades 3-12 were given devices. In 2019, all students PK-12 were able to have

access to a device, closing the gap and making the district a true 1:1 district. Classrooms are

equipped with a range of technology from Smartboards, Screen Beams, Touch Screen Displays,

and more. With a plethora of technology at their disposal, it is pertinent that each school has an
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IT support personnel to help troubleshoot. The IT personnel and the media specialist work

alongside each other to ensure teachers and students know how to use their devices, and that they

are working properly. In 2018, the district released their Technology Plan, which can be found

on the district website. It will be revised this year.

Per the website, “The purpose of Instructional Technology is to provide digital strategies

and technology enhancements to drive engaging learning and opportunistic resources for

students and teachers, while creating innovative learning environments and experience for our

contributing citizens”.

Center Activities

The technology integration team is housed in an office building in the center of town,

conveniently less than ten minutes to any school in the district. While a typical day doesn’t

happen often, it includes a morning meeting to collaborate with each other on upcoming events

and details. At any given time, they might be answering emails and helping troubleshoot issues

that arise in schools. They are the direct point of contact for media specialists when they cannot

tackle an issue at their school.

The technology integration specialists also push into schools frequently for various situations.

Sometimes they are working alongside a classroom teacher on integrating technology into a

lesson. Other times they are hosting professional developments in schools or working with

specific grade levels or teachers on planning and implementing technology lessons. Professional

developments are created by the specialists to host district wide opportunities for learning.

Evaluation

Throughout this evaluation, it is apparent that Dalton Public Schools is well supported with their

instructional technology integration team. Both technology integration specialists mention in the
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interviews that they function to support schools, whether it is teachers or students, to ensure that

they are comfortable using technology in their classrooms, and they have the confidence to

succeed. There has been much effort put in from the district level to establish strong support at

every level for each school.

There is much collaboration between the IT department and the instructional technology and

library media team to make sure that the needs within the schools are met, as well as foster

creativity for new innovative technologies. The specialists did mention that there are areas for

improvement when it comes to budgeting and decision making at the district level, as not every

school media centers have a budget, and more conversations are needed as to what technology is

going into any given classroom.

Over the years, there has been much effort put into developing a technology plan for the district

that helps them stay on track as far as goals and objectives. Being a 1:1 district does not just stop

there. They are constantly looking for ways to be innovative. One of the ways they plan to do

this is by bringing back their DRT (Design Resource Team), which consists of representatives

from all areas of the district- principals, central office, teachers, and other staff members. This

serves as the technology committee for the district, and they work to ensure that goals are being

met at each school. This team also brainstorms creative ways to bring new technology into the

schools.

As far as instructional support, the specialists seem to do an excellent job at not only supporting

media specialists, but also teachers. Monthly meetings are held for the media specialists, where

they bring ideas to share and collaborate with one another on instructional technology and library

media. The technology specialists also go into schools themselves and support classroom

teachers with implementing apps, gadgets, and web tools.

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Part B: Monthly Report

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Appendix A
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Interview of Site Supervisor

Janet Hewitt
Instructional Technology Specialist
Dalton Public Schools

Courtney: What is your name and title?

Janet: I am Janet Hewitt. I am an Instructional Technology Specialist.

Courtney: What type of degree is required for your position?

Janet: Really there is, I would think the instructional technology degree is preferred, but
it wasn't required for my position. So, just a teaching certificate is all that is required that
I know of.

Courtney: What are your job responsibilities?

Janet: So, we are required to help teachers in the classroom. We also go from setting
up new technology in the district. We also find technology for the district. We provide
whole school professional development, small group professional development, and
there’s individual professional development.

Courtney: What was your role in remote learning?

Janet: Remote learning was a shock for everybody. So our role was to take the lessons
and get those ready for teachers. We got all of that put on our LMS which is Canvas.
We also supported teachers with troubleshooting who needed help. We didn’t really
support students directly, although occasionally we did have students call us directly.
Really, troubleshooting 24/7.

Courtney: What is a typical day like in your role?

Janet: I don’t think there is a typical day. So, every day is different which is what I really
love about this job. So we go from a typical day would be we come in and have a
morning meeting so we can find out what everyone is doing for the day. We usually
have one or two calls to go help someone individually that needs help. That is a typical
day. We have our office work where we are keeping up with the things we have, the
things we need, answering emails, troubleshooting, and that kind of stuff remotely from
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our office. Now, those are changing because now we go into schools kind of assigned. I
take 3, Rachel takes 3, and then Kellie does the high schools. A typical day there would
be we start at the school and do whatever they need.

Courtney: Do you have a budget that you control? How do you make decisions on
selecting resources for your stakeholders?

Janet: We do not have a budget that we control. We do request things at times. So, we
get money from Stuart, we get money from Nick sometimes. The school budgets if
there is something we want for the district. We try to choose resources that have been
vetted by teachers that they have requested. If a free version has been used a lot and
we can see that the paid version would be a better option for teachers, we try to choose
like that. We also try to choose something that is broad that will go across the district
rather han choosing something for just a few grade levels. We do have to do that
sometimes, but for the most part we try to stay broad so that most people will be
covered under what we have. Occasionally we get the impulse for lack of a better
word, so we find a gadget that we want to try out, like the Orboots and Artie Maxes,
things like that. We try to find something that is engaging to kids, something that is
production rather than sitting on an app.

Courtney: What does the technology committee look like for our district?

Janet: Well, it’s a little invisible to be honest. I’m not sure that we have an actually
technology committee. We had DRT (Design Resource Team) which kind of served that
role, which Nick is trying to put back together hopefully after this semester. We do meet
occasionally with technology so maybe Stuart, and us and maybe one or two of his
guys will meet to talk about the technology plan and that kind of thing. But we really
don’t have a team where we have a representative from the school, and us, admin, and
the tech side, we don’t have one.

Courtney: How are technology decisions made?

Janet: I would say that most technology decisions as far as which device the teachers
are going to have, and what is going into classrooms is made by our technology
director. We have a little bit of input in that, in certain years more than others. I would
like to see us having more input, especially what classrooms have.

Courtney: What is the best part of your job?

Janet: My favorite part is usually getting to work with a teacher in the classroom on
something he or she couldn't do by themselves. So something that they can do but is
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hard. So that is my favorite, so a couple of years ago we did the host classroom of
Elizbeth Smith. That was a regular once a week thing we would do. I miss the
classroom sometimes, and so it was great getting to see the kids regularly. I do have a
second favorite, so it is when I help a teacher and they have truly went over the hump
of “I got it, this is so much easier now”. Making their life a little bit easier.

Courtney: It’s interesting that you say that because I feel like that is what is the most
difficult with my job. I am a list person and I feel like I’m not getting my list done and that
really bugs me. So it’s interesting to look at it from a positive perspective. Because I am
that way too, I want to use my creativity I want to help people, so that is interesting to
put that in a good way.

Courtney: What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?

Janet: I’m going to think on this one. I’m going to be politically correct here, but it is the
truth, the most challenging part is finding time to be in the schools with teachers. We
seem to be last on the list with professional development. Literacy gets chunk, math
gets a chunk, social studies and science are way down the list, but then there is us. We
are treated like icing on the cake, but not good icing. And not that it is fundamental,
which it should be. It’s the building block. If you understand the technology, and the
things available to you, you can know how to effectively do your lessons.

Courtney: Yeah, I think that’s relevant from the top down too. When you think about
what we (media specialists) are trying to do with our teachers. Their PLC time is
crammed with literacy and math and data. When do they have time to come and learn a
new tool with me, or bring their kids to the library? It’s just not a prioriity. That’s what I
struggle with, its like, how do I advocate that this is priority?

Janet: This year we have had a little more voice. They gave us an hour a month for
induction. So that is a baby step, but it’s a step I will take.

Courtney: What advice would you give to a new instructional technology teacher?

Janet: I do, I would. And in a role like yours. It would be to go in with an attitude of I
don’t know everything, but I will learn it. I will figure out whatever comes my way. And to
have a giving nature. So not worrying about if this is about me. To be a media specialist
or in my role, you have to have the attitude of its not what I want, but about what you
need, and how can I help you?
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Appendix B

Interview of Site Supervisor

Rachel Bray
Technology Integration Specialist
Dalton Public Schools
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Courtney: What is your name and title?

Rachel: My name is Rachel Bray. My actual title is Technology Integration Specialist.

Courtney: What type of degree is required for your position?

Rachel: I do hold the degree. The only one actually required after your teaching
certificate is an Instructional Technology degree. So, I have that and Media which
helped. My degree is from Georgia Southern.

Courtney: What are your job responsibilities?

Rachel: It changes all the time. When I first started in this position, it was pretty much
teacher professional development and the team was very new. I was number two, Kelly
was the only one for me and she was trying to serve the whole district except the district
didn’t do a really didn’t do a very good job of explaining to us that we could all use her.
So, for a long time like nobody even realize that she was there and can help, so our job
was filled by visiting schools a day at a time and we would just go in and contact them
whoever needed what and then the next year we were able to add one more and that’s
how we stole Janet from Blue Ridge. Once we added the third person, Kelly kind of
stayed at the office and handled some of the back end stuff while Janet and I could get
out and about and so we did the same thing Kelly and I did. We try to spend like at a
whole day at each school. The pandemic kind of killed all of the momentum that we
were building in our group and so we’re just now starting to kind of regroup and get that
back. Kellie is more secondary minded she came from there, and where Janet and I
came from elementary, we have been able to add another halftime position and so now
our responsibilities are still PD, but we’ve also been asked to oversee some of the
individual subscriptions that have been purchased throughout the district and be
completely familiar with those so we can answer questions when those come in, or to
go into the school and doing stuff for that month month out of things. Janet was helping
with Edgenuity for a while. Kelly’s the behind-the-scenes guru of pretty much all of it. I
have also been put in as the media specialist liaison between for CO, and tech, and
media specialists and all the things and try to offer y’all as many things as I can whether
it’s tech resources or tech tools or just whatever so that’s been fun. Still where like my
heart and soul is working with elementary school. Our goal is to be in there twice a
month, ideally, I guess it was every other week but twice a month spending a whole day
which probably still isn’t enough, but at least it’s a start. In our middle school, we started
this year, we’re getting to teach robotics with them every Wednesday all day long.
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Courtney: How are you meeting the needs of faculty and staff during the transition to
remote learning this semester?

Rachel: Well so we did play a part in that. We had our district uses Canvas and when
the pandemic hit it had probably been around and available for at least seven years, if
not more. It had been adopted more thoroughly with our secondary schools than our
elementary schools, not for a lack of trying. And so that was a big part for us was trying
to get handouts and videos and just different tutorials to people because that was such
a shock. We kind of knew it was coming we just didn’t know to what extent and so
probably the two weeks leading up to everything just completely shutting down it was
already on our radar and we were having our meeting with other central office staff and
other teams getting training on canvas how everything needed to work and how it
worked because a lot of people did not have to know all the ins and outs of it. Then we
had to work very closely with them because we were the ones that were building the
contents out onto the platform. So they would send us the info and then we were in
charge of getting that to everyone else. Since then, we have been making ourselves
readily available to whoever for whatever. Whether it’s basics of Canvas, or I’ve been
using it and want to do this with it. We have been working with our new teachers and
getting them read. We saw how it was when we weren’t ready, and the stress of it, so
we are trying to keep everyone informed on how to use it. I think that’s why we keep the
DLDs (Digital Learning Days) too, it helps the kids stay fresh with everything and gives
us a chance to meet with teachers. We also have induction days with new teachers
after school once a month this year.

Courtney: What are typical daily activities for your job?

Rachel: All right, a lot of time it is checking email. You know all the time you just never
know when things are gonna come in. We have a district subscription to Clever and a
lot of our work has been making sure that all the subscriptions that you know if the
district or individual schools have purchased that can integrate or do integrate with
Clever has been pushed out. So we’ve been looking at over and over and over again to
make sure that we really covered all the things. We are also working right now on site
today we have our district conference coming up so our whole day was blocked off to
make sure that we had enough time to check the things off of our list that have to be
checked off like right now. So besides that, a typical day in the school like that’s where I
was for most of this week. I was in school Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this
week. It’s just whatever is asked of me when I’m in that building and sometimes the
principal has reached out and said can you meet with this grade level one and do this or
sometimes the coaches will reach out and say I noticed something in my meeting with.
Or sometimes individual teachers reach out because they’ll know like OK if you’re
gonna be here right so that that always looks different. Sometimes I get to work with the
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technology site tech at schools and just you know help answer a student help desk
especially if they just notice something and want to show us or if we’ve heard of
something and need to tell them. Emails a lot, yeah and then sometimes that the
answers aren’t best shared via another email and so we will jump in the car and we can
pretty much from our office get to any school within 5 to 10 minutes.

Courtney: Do you have a budget that you control? How do you make decisions on
selecting resources for your stakeholders?

Rachel: I’m not gonna say that that we have a budget. We work closely with technology
and technology usually budgets a little bit of stuff for “innovation”. And then content and
engagement section of central office also usually budgets a little bit for innovation and
so a lot of a lot of what we spend iswe get an idea like this whole thing that we’re doing
at the middle school so we were asked to come in in and do an extension rotation. So
we have 4, 75 minute blocks every Wednesday. We wante to know how can we get
kids excited about technology without necessarily having them on a computer for 75
minutes every Wednesday. We were like we like robots we know that kids usually like
robots and so we did a little bit of research we found a robot we don’t have that wasn’t
very expensive. So we were able to use some of that innovation budget to either get
stuff from conferences we have been to, or I’m not gonna lie sometimes it’s Instagram
and TikTok and yeah it’s helped quite a bit just looking at other school districts or even
purchases from companies we have bought from before.

Courtney: What is the best part of your job?

Rachel: Ah man, when I get asked to co teach! I love getting back in there and getting
to work with the kids. And just taking a little bit of the stress and anxiety off the teacher
for a minute. I love it that they want to try something new but if they’re not comfortable
with driving the lessons, I don’t mind, but anytime people reach out and like I’ve been
thinking about this.. Yeah, that is my absolute favorite. Like I’ve never taught middle
school before and they they are a different breed and those days have been so much
fun for me to listen and watch how their brains work and just all the time I love getting
back in there.

Courtney: What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?

Rachel: Working with teachers. I love them, but the media center working in their for 8
years definitely prepared me for it. Because you just see a different side of people, and
not bad or good or any of those things. You just see the difference. Or that there is one.
Yeah adults are hard.
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Courtney: What advice would you give to a new instructional technology teacher?

Rachel: Keep an open mind and always take the time to keep learning new things.
Because that’s one thing I’ve learned, like Canvas for example, as soon as i feel
comfortable and like all right I’ve caught up on all the things Canvas, I learn something
else. And then I have to remember not everyone else knows this and I don’t share it out
immediately because not everyone is ready for that. So it’s almost like you’re keeping
this checklist in your head and who actually needs it. So much of all of this is point of
need. And just be flexible and don’t take things personally.

Appendix C

Dalton Public Schools

Instructional Technology Page

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Appendix D

Observation Checklist

Activity: Guiding Questions:

Professional Development a. Was a needs assessment taken? How did

specialists know that support was needed?
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b. Is it a district wide, school wide, or grade level

PD?
c. How did they ensure that teachers learned and
implemented the goals of the professional
learning?
d. Was it mandated or requested?

Classroom Push-In a. Who initiated the collaboration?

b. Was there a meeting prior to the lesson
between teacher and specialist?
c. What type of technology was used?
d. Was the lesson successful? Were students and
the teacher successful at utilizing the
technology?

Troubleshooting a. How do people reach out if they need help?

b. Is there a more efficient way to help
troubleshoot at the district level?
c. Did staff utilize the help desk system?

One-on-One Support a. Who initiates the one on one support? Admin?

Teacher? Specialist?