Personal Technology SWOT Analysis, Goals, and Plan. Mary Amoson. University of West Georgia

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1 Personal 1 Running head: PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY SWOT ANALYSIS Personal Technology SWOT Analysis, Goals, and Plan Mary Amoson University of West Georgia

2 Personal 2 Personal Technology SWOT Analysis, Goals, and Plan I am currently employed as a kindergarten teacher at Moreland Elementary School in Coweta County. I am one of four kindergarten teachers at my school and have been the grade level chair for three years. My primary job duties are to provide quality, appropriate instruction to guide my students through their year and to properly prepare them for first grade. Additionally, my role outside of the classroom is to guide my team and other teachers in the school into incorporating technology into their teaching practices by providing examples, sharing ideas, and helping other teachers to troubleshoot issues. Strengths My greatest strengths are my age and my exposure to technology. Many other teachers fear technology and have difficulty integrating and experimenting with it, but because I have grown up with technology and seen the wonderful improvements of technology, I am very willing to take on new programs and ideas. I have taught for three full school years, and I am constantly trying new technologies in my classroom. Last year, I built and maintained a classroom webpage. This year, I will be working on using a Smart Board in my daily instruction. Another strength is my educational background. I have both a Bachelor s and Master s degree in early childhood education. Through my course work, I learned how to teach all types of students using Best Practice Principals as well as how to differentiate instruction. I have also worked with great professors and peers who provided me with inspirational ideas. I have clear goals with my curriculum and age-appropriate activities. My additional work in my Specialist

3 Personal 3 program in instructional technology will act as a supplement to my foundation of education. I have learned to use technology to help me teach concepts better and to appeal to more types of learners. I also possess personal traits that help me in the field of technology. I strive for perfection and I do not like to waste time. Many times while using technology, being exact and perfect is what you need for success. I have also found this to be the case with other programs such as Movie Maker. I do not like to waste time- ever. I have found that technology helps me with this by allowing me to save my work from year to year without starting over again. With that time saved, I am then able to improve on lessons and ideas, making an optimal classroom environment for learners and fewer headaches for me. An example would be using my webpage to store information and templates. I can access it from school or home and never have to start over again for the next school year. I can simply make changes. Although the initial step is time-consuming, overall it is a huge time saver. Weaknesses One of my greatest weaknesses is my limited experience with troubleshooting and correcting technology problems. Although I use technology often, I am unable to fix problems which can be more complex. A perfect example is my new laptop that I purchased in April. It works great, except the CD-ROM drive which was not correctly loaded to the computer. I have tried all the troubleshooting forums online and the HP helpdesk without finding a solution. I am looking to get it fixed by a professional as soon as I can spare it for a few days. I feel that a person getting an education in instructional technology should be more knowledgeable and better able to troubleshoot and correct technology problems such as this.

4 Personal 4 Another weakness is my utilization of software in my daily curriculum, especially allowing students to utilize software. I can and do use basic Windows and Microsoft software, but I rarely use other components. The more classes I take in this program, the more options that I discover are out there for my students to be use. Last year, I began using FrontPage to build my classroom website, and I began to allow my kindergarten students to use Inspiration. I am looking to expand on my utilization of software in my daily curriculum as well as prepare lessons that allow my students to use technology. I am hoping with the addition of a Smart Board in my classroom, scheduled to arrive after January, I will be able to use technology daily with my students with ease. Some personal characteristics that I view as weaknesses are time management issues and that always present issue of perfection. I have found that there is never enough time in a workday to do everything that I want to do, especially with technology. Although technology and its use can and will save me time in the long run, I find that I often resort to old fashioned hands-on activities when I feel pressed for time while planning what I will teach. When I work with technology, I strive for perfection. The end results do not always meet my needs. For example, when I load my webpage at school using Internet Explorer my site looks perfect to me, but when I pull it up at home using Internet Explorer or anywhere using Navigator things magically change. This is enough to drive a perfectionist insane. I feel that each person struggles with technology frustrations and lack of patience as we are all human.

5 Personal 5 Opportunities The opportunities to use technology for personal and professional use are and will continue to multiply. I am looking forward to teaching in a classroom with a Smart Board and therefore a computer with a video card that will project an image, something I have never had. I am also looking forward to a time when student computers will be in every classroom, making accessibility easier and faster. I am also looking forward to the opportunity to try new programs that have not been invented yet, but that will change the way I may teach. When I began teaching only four years ago, I was barely given a working computer with Outlook on it. I had a working TV and purchased my own DVD player. I have no access to cable. When my computer finally crashed, I was given a new computer without projection capabilities. My current classroom has no student computers, and our computer lab has only 17 working computers. Because of my interest in technology and motivation to pursue this degree, I have been placed on the list at school to receive a Smart Board and a computer upgrade this school year. I will be the only teacher below third grade with a Smart Board, which is a huge feat. I know the opportunity for student engagement is knocking at my classroom door. I also feel that more teachers, parents, students, and administrators will be demanding the use of technology in daily instruction. I believe teachers will be able to use more technology with ease if given the proper education and follow-through. Parents will be able to use technology such as the Parent Portal in Infinite Campus to have direct access to their children s attendance and grades. Additionally, blogs can and will be used to bridge the communication gap between teachers and parents as a time saving method. Students will need the technology skills as survival in middle and high school. I sense this will cause a demand on elementary

6 Personal 6 schools to better prepare technology savvy students. And let us not leave out the schools administration which will expect to see use of technology on regular classroom visits and for the SACS reviews of schools. I expect to see technology as an element on every school improvement plan. Threats The largest threat to implementing technology in the school is financial. Without the funding for computers and Smart Boards, let alone the basics such as ink and computer parts, having working and usable technology will not exist. Additional funding is needed to provide training to teachers to show them how to use technology and solve technology problems on their own. Money is always tight. Many times teachers, like me, are not even aware of how much money is spent in a school or exactly where it comes from. Experienced administration can help find and use money to support technology if they are on board with the importance and demand for it. Another threat to technology is training. Many times funds are spent on an innovation that the users, such as teachers, have no training or experience in. If proper training is not given and followed through, the innovation could very well be collecting dust in a closet. An example of this is purchasing Apple computers for a school with a teaching staff that has only used PCs. Without training and experience given to the teachers, those Apple computers will not be used or at least used to their fullest potential. The last threat I have found with technology is getting it to work. If teachers cannot rely on that form of technology to work for them regularly, they will cease to plan activities for it and

7 Personal 7 it will fall to the wayside. For example, if a school has a very unreliable internet connection that fails to work more than it does work; teachers will not spend time planning activities that require going online. Having working and reliable technology is vital to motivating everyone to use it and use it to its fullest potential. Goals My personal technology goals are to use more technology in my daily curriculum through the Smart Board and its ability to project images. Additionally, I would like to continue to maintain my classroom webpage and end-of-the-year digital scrapbook. I would like to improve on my knowledge of programs that can help my students to learn more with high interest and to assist me on time management. Finally, I would like to motivate other teachers to use technology in their own classrooms comfortably and with my support. My main plan for achieving these goals is through continuing my classes towards earning my Specialist degree in instructional technology. I am looking forward to taking classes in this program that will assist me with my specific goals, such as Digital Photography, Resources for Children and Young Adults, and Integrating Technology into the Curriculum. I also hope to provide other teachers with my own activities I will develop on the Smart Board. I hope this will motivate and encourage them to use a Smart Board as well. I also plan on working on one unit at a time to integrate technology aspects into the daily instruction in my classroom. Finally, I plan on continuing as a component of my school s leadership team to help set up the yearly school improvement plan which includes a technology plan for the whole school.