Assessing My Strengths and Weaknesses in Technology Leadership

After taking the Technology Applications Inventory and the SETDA Teacher Survey, I was quite relieved to find that I am somewhat proficient in the use of technology in the classroom. I feel that the surveys portray me accurately. I use technology everyday to communicate with parents, students, and faculty. My students are accustomed to working with an Elmo, projector, and a Smartboard nearly every day. I am capable of using technology to input and gather data information regarding my class, our campus and our district.

I often take a leadership role in technology amongst my colleagues. I try to assist others in any way I can and to offer suggestions to about ways technology could be incorporated in their daily lessons. As a leader, I try to make the information I am sharing as clear and concise as possible to avoid intimidating those seeking assistance.

I often have ideas of how to make our learning in the classroom more exciting and relevant, but fall short of actually implementing the lesson because I am unsure how to proceed and I honestly do not have the time to set it up or teach myself how to go forward with the project. I have some experience with Photo Story and PowerPoint, but would like to use them more often.

Ongoing professional development is a must for all faculties, including principals and technology leaders. Technology makes advances each day and one must have training that advances as quickly. Of course, it is not realistic to receive daily training, but scheduled training times as well as specifically allotted time for technology planning could help close the gap while allowing us to become more successful in the classroom.

The above mentioned surveys have shown my areas of weakness to be in the areas of understanding technological vocabulary and its meanings, the ability of determining is online information is accurate, using spreadsheet programs such as Excel, and allowing students to work more independently. I am somewhat intimidated by the Excel program. I have never had training regarding how to use the spreadsheet, its functions or formulas. I think it could be a very valuable tool to have in your toolbox. It is useful when disaggregating data.

As a leader in technology, it is imperative to be able to speak the jargon and understand it. Having confidence in your own ability to access and utilize programs is important when teaching others.