What I did not accomplish

3. I did not learn as much about the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology as I wish that I could have. I feel that this is going to be very important for schools in the future. While wealthy schools may already have much of the technology needed to meet the criteria for the plan, schools with less money are going to find it hard to purchase new technology. I worry about the poor schools because I feel that as a new principal this is where I will most likely end up. I didn’t learn as much as I would have wanted because the class had to move on. The class did everything it was supposed to do.

Using Blogs to Communicate with the Community

8. School administrators need to start taking advantage of blogs. Blogs are inexpensive, easy to use, and can get information out quickly. These are all things that schools are looking for. School administrators can use blogs to interact with their communities without ever leaving their offices. Blogs could allow school administrators to inform the community of upcoming events or give details of events that had already occurred at the school. Blogs would be great for a school trying to do things like pass a bond. It would allow the school to get feedback from the public while getting the information out.

Concerns about Blogs

7. Blogs create two major problems for schools. The first is that blog sites are blocked by school internet filters. Unblocking blog sites would open up millions of blogs for students to read. Many of which might contain things that are not acceptable for students to see. The second problem is that everything a student post to a blog is out there for the world to see. This would open students up to online predators. It would be a major disaster if an online predator met a student through a school blog. Also if the blogs were not monitored tightly, the blogs could turn into a sort of MySpace for students.

Educational Value of Blogs

6. Blogs are going to be an important part of the future of education. Blogs are one way that will allow learning to become a twenty-four hour a day process. A teacher can start a blog about a topic and let the students take over. It would be like having a classroom discussion that never stopped. Students could comment a home or in class. Also students could create their own blogs about a subject. Schools could team up with schools across the globe. This would allow students in different countries to comment on other student’s blogs. Using blogs would allow teachers to create a global atmosphere without ever leaving their classroom.

What I Learned

5. The first thing I learned from this course is that I work for a great school district. After viewing our campus STaR Chart I was very impressed. I now know that not everyone gets to work at a campus that provides each student with a laptop and every classroom with a Smart Board. By being provided all of this technology I have learned to do a lot of things using technology. I am above most teachers in the things I can do using a computer. I also realized that to be a good principal I am going to have to continue to learn about technology and that being good with technology is going to be a major asset to me.

Assignments

4. I believe that I was successful in my assignments; however my academic coach might beg to differ. I turned in all of my assignments on time and usually had them done a day or two in advance. I would just hang on to them until the last day just in case a great idea popped into my head. The only problem that I had with some of the assignments was that the assignments were so open. In all of my past classes I had been given step by step instructions on how to complete the assignments. In this class it almost seemed that I was given free range on some assignments. The problem with that is that the entire time I was working I was afraid that I was on the totally wrong track. This could also be a good thing because it forced me to contemplate several different options.

Was the class relevant to my job?

2. The things that I learned in this class are relevant to my everyday job in some ways. As a technology director my main responsibility is the constant upkeep of all school technology. This includes everything from computers to the school’s internet server. I probably only spend ten percent of my time doing things that deal with the STaR Chart, Long-Range Technology Plan, or professional development. While those things are the base for everything that I do, I spend most of my time on upkeep. I use all of the things that I learned in this class, but sadly it always seems that other things are more important to the people around me.