Standard 3.

6 Selecting and Evaluating Digital Tools and Resources

Candidates collaborate with teachers and administrators to select and evaluate digital tools and
resources for accuracy, suitability, and compatibility with the school technology infrastructure.

The artifact that reflects mastery of standard 3.6 is the ITEC 7445 Evaluating Emerging
Technologies project. In order to assess how new technologies were adopted, I met with the
school administration and the technology committee to ascertain how new programs were
adopted. The results of that meeting portrayed that data was a driving force behind selecting new
technology initiatives. The discussion centered on the paradigm shift the school was
experiencing. The adoption of the Bring Your Own Technology Policy created new issues that
had to be addressed. The adoption of the BYOT policy would reduce the school technology
budget, which would allow new software programs to be purchased for use school wide. The
teachers were involved in supporting the BYOT policy by offering learning paths and activities
directly linked to using technology in the classroom.

Teacher input is encouraged and supported by administration. The use of collaboration and team
leader meetings help facilitates the rollout of new initiatives and programs. Our school has
designed the schedule so that teachers have common planning times. This enables teachers to
discuss teaching strategies, best practices, and time to review data, and new software and
textbooks can be reviewed that are being considered for adoption for upcoming school years.
The school utilizes a leadership team to develop a cooperative environment for sharing
information. We have a new teacher mentoring program to address the needs of new teachers to
familiarize them with curriculum and technologies.

Our school has a newly established Technology Committee which offers several professional
learning opportunities. Every classroom has a promethean board. The technology committee
offered professional development opportunities to all the staff in the building over three learning
sessions. The technology committee recently provided a technology night for all students,
parents, and stakeholders. If teachers wanted to attend, they could do so. The school recently
added a twitter and Facebook page. Professional learning will be offered in this area. The school
is also in the process of offering professional development on how to develop a Wikispaces and
how they are useful in education.

After professional development has been offered, there is an opportunity for reflection. The staff
reports any questions that they may have to their group leader. The staff also has the opportunity
to take a school created survey to ensure that all areas of concern have been addressed. This also
gives them the opportunity to ask any follow up questions that they may have with new
initiatives that have been put in place.

Future implications for our school is the increased communication abilities an instant access to
information through apps like Twitter, and Facebook. Updates and current issues can be
delivered in a blast format that will notify all faculty, staff, and parents of any critical issues
that need instant attention such as inclement weather. The evaluation of digital tools available
helps to create a conversation that leads to school wide development of individual learning paths


to address individual student areas of need. The technology is only as good as the teacher using
it. Having differentiation programs available and not using them is a waste of a valuable
resource. The evaluation on emerging technologies opened a dialogue with administration that
stressed the importance of using the digital tools available to faculty, and the means by which
technology usage and integration can be tracked through these programs on a per usage basis.