Plan Technology Professional Growth
Instructions
Goal Setting Focus Areas – Your first steps in creating this plan will be guided by Goal-Setting Focus Areas, provided below.
Focus Area 1: Technology Operations and Concepts
Throughout this program, you have developed your technical skills by using various tools, applications, hardware, and software such as the Internet, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You have also used a Web editor along with other web-based applications. Reflect on how you have improved in these skills since beginning this degree program. Use the technology self-assessment located in the Books and Resources for this Week to help you determine areas or skills to improve on:
Then, consider how your own personal development of these skills has influenced student learning. Reflect on how your approach to teaching and learning has been enhanced by your increased understanding of technology operations and concepts.
Focus Area 2: Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences
You have come to realize the importance of planning as it relates to technology integration. Think about the planning process you employ to infuse technology into the curriculum, including how you target content and technology standards while striving to meet all learners’ needs . By now you have collected and used many different technology resources. Consider these resources (hardware, software, curriculum, personnel) and the ways you select the most appropriate resource for a given learning situation.
Focus Area 3: Productivity and Professional Development
Technology has profoundly changed teachers’ opportunities for professional development. Today, personal contact with both colleagues and experts is as close as one’s computer, and professional collaboration has been affected in ways never before possible. Access to professional journals and current research is likewise just a click away. As you know, even higher education is available online. Technology has also been enhanced productivity. Whether you use it to maintain quick and easy contact with students and parents, or to help design scoring guides and rubrics, technology can be both a time saver and valuable resource in your practice.
Focus Area 4: Leadership
You have examined the importance of teachers’ roles as leaders and looked at how technology can widen your spheres of influence. All teachers are leaders, but teachers may approach leadership in many ways, from a classroom perspective to school to district or beyond.
Goal-Setting Tips: Review these goal-setting tips provided below for setting appropriate goals. You might also want to conduct a web-search for other goal-setting suggestions.
Will accomplishing this goal influence student achievement (if in education) or the goals of the company (if in business)? For example, a goal to obtain state-of-the-art video equipment is great—if you have a plan for using it to benefit learning. Likewise, a goal to develop your own technical skills should be made with consideration of its value to students.
Am I passionate about this goal? Certainly some goals are more exciting than others, but working at something you really care about is far more motivating than reluctantly pursuing something just because you think you should. You only have so much time to spend, so make it count for you as well as your students.
Is achieving this goal reasonably within my control? You may want to supply every student or colleague with a PDA, but unless you have a practical expectation about how to achieve this (such as a grant idea), don’t set yourself up for disappointment or misused time. This is not to imply that you should avoid tough goals. Just remember that the more control you have over the process, the more influence you will have over its ultimate success.
Are my goals specific and measurable? Vaguely stated goals with no clear outcomes are hard to assess in terms of achievement. You will want to know when you have accomplished your goal. Make sure you build in a way to do this.
Are my goals realistic? Can you reasonably expect to get the information and resources you will need to achieve this goal within a timeframe that makes sense for you?
Are my goals set too low? Stretching and growing means challenging yourself. A goal that is set too low is just a task.
Have I written my goal in positive terms? Stating a goal as a negative isn’t motivating, and it doesn’t do much to direct your efforts. For example, “Learn to use and successfully implement an electronic grading program” sounds a lot more purposeful than “Stop keeping grades in a paper-based grading book.”
Setting Goals ( This is the Assignment)
For this task, look closely at the four focus areas, reflect on what you have accomplished, and set goals for what you would like to achieve. Then, develop a plan that will be guided by the above focus areas. Be sure to include the following in your plan:
List one goal for each focus area. Then, offer your rationale for selecting that goal; be sure to include specific reference information that helped direct your choice.
Describe any valuable resources you identified in helping you achieve this goal. For each, explain how this resource could be applied and why it would be useful.
Include additional information about some roadblocks that you might have to navigate to achieve this goal.
NO COVER PAGE!!!
Length: 5 pages
References: Minimum of three scholarly resources
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