Running Head: SWOT ANALYSIS, GOALS, AND PLAN 1

Personal Technology SWOT Analysis, Goals, and Plan

Mallorie E. Hyatt

University of West Georgia

SWOT ANALYSIS, GOALS, AND PLAN 2

Personal Technology SWOT Analysis, Goals, and Plan

The role of technology in my career as a middle grades educator in the metro Atlanta area

is prominent, to say the least. I have been employed with Rockdale County Public Schools for

the past seven years, and last year, our district implemented a 1-to-1 technology initiative entitled

“Learning Reimagined” through which students in grades 3-12 are each issued a district provided

laptop to use both inside and outside of the classroom for educational purposes. While I had been

teaching students who are, according to Bates, digital natives for the entirety of my career, this

kind of technology access absolutely reshaped how my classroom functions on a day-to-day

basis (Bates, 2016, p. 34). I found myself having to reevaluate my approach to teaching and

pedagogy. This kind of technology access completely changed the game as far as instruction,

assessment, strategies, classroom management, etc. A major part of this reevaluation involves

analyzing my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats regarding technology as well as

developing personal technology goals and a personal technology plan for meeting those goals.

Strengths

My strengths in the area of technology as it relates to education and classroom instruction

are honestly evolving and fluid in nature, especially with the technology developments we have

experienced in my own school district in rolling out “Learning Reimagined.” From my own

perspective, my greatest strength is perhaps my willingness and openness towards the changes

that integrating new technology in the classroom brings. In my limited experience of seven years,

it has been my observation that some teachers have a strong tendency to default to strategies and

ways of teaching that have worked in the past while new technology figuratively (or literally)

collects dust in some unused corner of the classroom. This reminds me of a statement made by

Grace Hopper, who worked extensively as a programmer with the Mark I, the first large-scale
SWOT ANALYSIS, GOALS, AND PLAN 3

digital computer (Schieber, 1987). Hopper posited that “humans are allergic to change. They

love to say, 'We've always done it this way.' I try to fight that” (Schieber, 1987). I cite this quote

because I feel that it relates a great deal to my philosophy of teaching, which is to embrace

change and stray often and frequently from comfort zones in teaching, particularly where

technology is concerned. If we as teachers choose to continually default to “tried and true”

methods and strategies, we are choosing to remove ourselves and our students from the potential

of opportunities in teaching and learning that could take us farther and higher than we ever

imagined possible.

Weaknesses

In considering my weaknesses as an educator as well as weaknesses related to

technology, I would have to admit that I sometimes struggle with overcoming confidence issues

and making my voice heard, particularly with colleagues. Sometimes, this may mean that I do

not reach out for help or guidance when I struggle with a new technology, strategy, or resource,

even though doing so could improve outcomes in my lessons, methods, and implementation. I

end up making more exasperating work for myself trying to “fix” it on my own when reaching

out could have saved me hours of frustration.

In other situations, however, these occasional confidence issues mean that sometimes I do

not take a stand when I know that I should. An example that comes to mind occurred at the

beginning of this year in a content-level PLC meeting in which we were developing norms that

involved how we were going approach working collaboratively in an online setting on things

such as lesson plans and common assessment analyses. The teachers in the group decided that

the best course of action was to email our individual “parts” to one teacher, and that teacher

would compile them in order. I immediately realized that using OneDrive or Google Docs would
SWOT ANALYSIS, GOALS, AND PLAN 4

allow us to do this much more efficiently without placing the burden of piecing together our

work on any one teacher. However, I did not make it very far into suggesting this when another,

more seasoned teacher shot down this proposition as “too complicated” and said that we should

collaborate “smarter, not harder.” Instead of asserting myself and defending my (valid) point, I

allowed myself to be shut down and went along with my colleagues even though I knew that

collaborating on a single document as a team would be more effective. A few weeks later, our

Digital Learning Specialist was working with our PLC. When he realized how we were tackling

online collaboration, he immediately suggested to our team that we use OneDrive to collaborate,

and when the idea was again met with resistance, he pushed back and demonstrated how much

more easily and effectively we could collaborate by utilizing this tool. The PLC ultimately

agreed, and we have been collaborating (more effectively and efficiently) this way ever since.

This situation left me feeling a sense of frustration, not because I had been shot down

weeks prior when suggesting the same thing, but at myself for not asserting myself when I knew

that the solution I was defending was more beneficial to our process.

Opportunities

Opportunities abound as time marches on in education and technologies continue to

advance exponentially. With the game-changing introduction of 1-to-1 technology and the

ensuing plethora of digital resources (and challenges!), the learning environment I lead today

differs distinctly from the one I lead seven years ago in my first year of teaching.

When I started teaching in 2011, my classroom was equipped was a projector, a

DVD/VCR combo (that at its best, worked intermittently, and at its worst, annihilated one of my

personal VHS tapes in a hail of grinding squeals and pops that left me with the lingering aroma

of acrid burnt plastic) and one computer lab for the entire 7th grade wing (that I had to schedule
SWOT ANALYSIS, GOALS, AND PLAN 5

weeks in advance, and still wasn’t guaranteed use of.) Considering how much has changed in

less than a decade, one of the greatest opportunities I felt unquestionably necessary is extensive

professional development by advancing my education with a Specialist Degree in Media. This

degree is the pathway to meeting the demands and challenges of the ever-evolving 21st century

classrooms and the future learning environments that I will be entrusted to lead over the course

of my career.

Threats

Working in a school system that places devices in the hands of each student has certainly

created unique challenges. As the technology access increases, so have the threats to effective

use and implementation. Where the devices are concerned, appropriate student use and handling

are critical. Physical threats include destruction of devices due to student carelessness or outright

recklessness threatens future viability and sustainability of 1-to-1 due to the rising costs of

repairing and replacing devices.

Another threat concerns the inappropriate use of the devices for gaming and/or illegal

downloads of software to bypass the district’s internet safety filter. Unfortunately, some students

often attempt to use their devices in ways other than educational purposes that were intended—

they are gaming in class on hidden desktops, deftly switching the screen with a couple of

keystrokes to avoid detection even under the most watchful eye. Not only are these students

frequently missing instruction, but some are walking a fine line between net-based distractions

and full-on gaming addiction.

Finally, a threat may lie in quantity versus quality where online resources are concerned.

In the two years of Learning Reimagined, teachers and students have been overwhelmed by an

abundance of programs for use with these devices. Oversaturation is a concern in that there may
SWOT ANALYSIS, GOALS, AND PLAN 6

be too many programs that teachers are being pressured by different entities from the district to

use to do so effectively. The choice between using many programs because we have them rather

than utilizing the few that are best suited well seems simple, but the outside pressure from the

county to “get our money’s worth” complicates and hinders effective instruction.

Personal Technology Goals and Plan

My personal technology goals include seeking out more professional development

opportunities both inside and outside of the district, implementing more computer- and web-

based project-based learning opportunities, and becoming more of a technological leader in my

school. An all-encompassing goal I have is to eventually become an Instructional Technology

Specialist/Digital Learning Specialist.

My plan to achieve these goals starts with my enrollment in the Ed. S. program in Media-

Instructional Technology that I started in January of this year. In addition to this, I plan to take

every professional development opportunity I am offered through my district, particularly

opportunities pertaining to technology centered project-based learning. The second component of

this aspect of my technology plan is to then implement what I learn in my own classroom with

integrity and fidelity. I also plan to locate and actively participate in online Professional Learning

Communities focused on technology so that I may collaborate with other teachers outside of my

school and district so that my perspective on technology is multifaceted and well-rounded. An

integral part of this plan will involve becoming more of a leader in technology in my school in a

way that allows me to not only continue to grow my own skills in teaching and technology, but

to be a benefit to other teachers as we all strive together to provide the highest quality of

education possible to the students we are entrusted to educate—both today and tomorrow.
SWOT ANALYSIS, GOALS, AND PLAN 7

References

Bates, T. (2016). Teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning.

British Columbia: SFU Document Solutions.

Schieber, P. (1987, March/April). The wit and wisdom of Grace Hopper. OCLC Newsletter, 167.

Retrieved from http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-wit.html