Collaborative+Analysis+Assignment

 When I was in my third year of college my professor first had us write a paper on what our dream classroom would look like. There were many attributes to consider, but the biggest one that stood out to me was technology. Of course the sky was the limit. I had each student having their own personal laptop, students submitting their questions via a type of instant messenger, and I was teaching through a SmartBoard that at my finger tips there was everything to aid in my lessons to my class. After the paper was written, my professor had us share our papers and each fellow student in the group had to ask questions about how we would obtain these dream classroom. Very quickly my dream was disappearing into reality, and my feeling about being this great "I'm going to change the world" teacher was  diminished  . In this paper we will discuss the reality of classroom technology and even though there are road blocks we are getting further and further advanced technology in the classroom. The four districts we are completing for this analysis includes three schools from Michigan and one school from North Carolina. The three schools from Michigan are Kosciuszko Middle School located in Hamtramck, Spiritus Sanctus Academy located in Ann Arbor and Laurus Academy located in Southfield. The one school from North Carolina is Greenwood Middle School, located in Goldsboro. Kosciusko and Greenwood Middle Schools are public schools, while Spiritus Sanctus Academy is a private Catholic School and Laurus Academy is a Charter School.
 * I****NTRODUCTION**

The four school districts within our group have similar forms of hardware. Every teacher is equipped with either a laptop or desktop. Each school either has individual printers or network printers and copiers. Kosciusko Middle School has thirty wireless Netbooks for student use in each classroom. They also have infrared wireless microphone system attached to six ceiling speakers. This system is also connected to the computer sound out and to any other add on devices that need sound projection. Each classroom within the middle school has ceiling mounted projectors and Eno Interactive Whiteboards. Greenwood Middle School has worked hard writing grants and some of the teachers have won mini grants that have enabled them to purchase document cameras or digital cameras for the classroom. Ten out of thirty classrooms are equipped with SmartBoards. The newer SmartBoards are mounted on the walls. Each classroom also has an NCWise computer in their classroom to enter grades. These computers are only to be used by the teacher. The County also uses high speed network switches and DHCP file servers with large capacity, and equipment to give 3each school capability of connecting to Internet resources via wireless networking. Spiritus Sanctus Academy has projectors mounted in every classroom and each classroom either has a SmartBoard or an ELMO (document camera). Each SmartBoard is mounted on a rolling cart for roaming purposes. Spiritus Sanctus Academy also utilizes an Academic Site in which families and teachers have usernames and passwords in order to access vital information. Laurus Academy has an ELMO digital document camera and a projector in every classroom. The projectors are mounted to the ceilings. In additional to this Laurus Academy has recently purchased nine Epson Brightlink projectors. The scool network is configures as a Wide Area Network and a Local Area Network with a TI connections. Students have access only to the Local Area Network.
 * HARDWARE**

Collaboratively, all four of our schools use many forms of software. We all use Microsoft Office software in our districts for the following word processing programs: Spreadsheets, Databases, Publisher, and PowerPoint. However, each school uses different software programs. Spiritus Sanctus Academy (SSA) uses Earobics software and Razkids computer assisted instruction to advance the learning experience in the classroom. Earobics is a multisensory reading intervention tool used through technology and multimedia materials. This software delivers differentiated instruction for grades preschool to third and has been proven to be useful in children who need a multisensory approach to teaching critical areas of literacy. This software offers different instruction to support existing literacy program and meets the needs of struggling readers. Razkids is an online library of leveled books. The students work on fluency, reading for practice, recording their reading, and comprehension. Greenwood Middle School ( GMS) uses Plato, Type to Learn, Accelerated Reader, and Accelerated Math. Plato is an internet-based learning service that follows the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Plato is designed to allow students individual practice of classroom lessons. Plato consists of tutorials, applications, and mastery test. Tutorials teach the lessons or in some cases tutorials serve as reviews of lessons the teacher taught. Type to Learn is a software program that increases the ability to touch type, which is a necessity today. A daily progress monitoring software assessment such as Accelerated Reader (AR) is in wide use by primary and secondary schools  for monitoring the practice of reading. It is an assessment that primarily determines whether or not a child has read a book. The software provides additional information to students  regarding reading rates, amount of reading, and other variables related to reading. Progress-monitoring <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">software <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> such as Accelerated Math monitors and manages <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">mathematics <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> skills practice, from preschool math through <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">calculus <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">. It is primarily used by primary and secondary <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">schools <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">. It helps you differentiate math instruction, addressing each student's individual needs. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Laurus Academy (LA) uses iXL math and Study Island. These sites allow students to go through lesson modules and get feedback instantly; they also provide the teachers information like which students have logged in on what day and for how long. It also provides the teachers with what types of problems they have tried, how many they answered correct, and their progress over time. United Streaming and Brain Pop are very helpful with either reinforcing a topic or introducing a new topic. The staff also has access to AtSchool; this program houses the teacher’s grade book and attendance book. With this program on the internet it allows teachers to input grades from home, with this option many teachers are able to provide feedback quicker to students on an assignment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Kosciusko Middle School (KMS) uses Study Island, Explore Leanings Gizmos and various typing websites. Tim incorporated Prezi into his computer classroom instead of PowerPoint. Prezi is a <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">cloud <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">-based <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">presentation software <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> and <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">storytelling <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">tool for exploring and sharing ideas upon a virtual canvas. Study Island is designed to help students practice, review and master skills, complete homework assignments, and master the benchmarks outlined by the state of Michigan in all core subject areas. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Laurus Academy updates programs over the summer. KMS and GMS software updates happen frequently. All of their computers are programmed to look for software updates and to automatically download and install them at certain times of the day. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Software updates are updated automatically upon release. However, some software is updated only when funds become available to SSA. Most of their technology has been purchased in the last year and a half; therefore, most of their technology software is up to date. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The types of statistical programs used by Laurus Academy and KMS are: Excel, Lexia Reading, Failure Free Reading, Smart Notebook, and MISTAR. SSA and GMS do not have a statistical program.
 * SOFTWARE**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">The 4 districts that are being analyzed had a staff ranging from 40 to 17 members. Three of the four district reported 100% of the teachers had some type of computer training, either through inservice or peer to peer training, except for Greenwood Middle School, which reported 0% training. Kosciuszko Middle School and <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Laurus Academy <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> reported having a separate IT Department where problems can be solved. At Spiritus Sanctus Academy, teachers serve as the IT support.The teacher/computer ratio was the same for 3 out of the 4 districts at 1:1. Greenwood Middle School reported that some teachers have more that a 1:1 ratio because some of them have 2 computers assigned to them.
 * TRAINING**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">The student/computer ratio has the most varied numbers. Kosciuszko Middle School reported having the highest student/computer ratio at 1 student for every 1.5 computers. All of the districts reported having computers for use in their classroom except for Spiritus Sanctus Academy which have the computers located in the library for all of the schools teachers to share. The 4 districts reported having 102 teachers. All but one teacher reported having a computer at home. This teacher from Greenwood Middle School is in their last year of teaching and has very minimal computer skills


 * EVALUATION**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Each of four districts is unique in their teaching and levels of technology and their training, and so is their evaluation process that measures students learning achievement. Two of the schools surveyed, Greenwood Middle School and Kosciusko Middle school reported having no evaluation process for their students. Greenwood reported that there is a technology committee that meets once a month to discuss technology issues, discuss hardware and software evaluations, and discuss possible expenditures in the area of technology for the school. At KMS they have no set standard for evaluating and measuring student learning achievement, but they do have a Technology Planning Committee that meets once a year to evaluate technology integration across the curriculum for the district.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Laurus Academy and Spritus Academy both reported that they do have a process to measure student achievement, but each is different and is proven beneficial to the schools. Spritus uses the IOWA Basic Skills Test; this test is used once a year to identify strengths and weakness in their curriculum as well as individual student needs. This test measures growth of students from November to November. Spritus also requires all students to take an entrance exam that measures their grade level expectations according to the Michigan state standards. With these two evaluations teachers and administrators look at past testing and other recommendations to make sure their students consistently score in the 90th percentile.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Laurus Academy uses an online assessment through the Northwest Evaluation Association called the MAP test (Measure of Academic Progress). This test is given to all students in all grades K-8 and measures student’s growth in Math, Language Usage, and Reading. When students are in 4th and 7th grade they are given two more tests that monitor General Science and Science Concepts and Processes. Students are tested in the fall to give teachers a benchmark and measure any summer loss. Students are tested in the winter to monitor growth, and finally tested in the spring for mastery. Teachers are given areas of strengths and weakness’ for all students for each test, and for a class as a whole. By using this online assessment teachers are given performance reports within 24hours of the testing time, which allows teachers to see if they need to adjust their pace or not. Many students by the spring time see 150-200% in growth which equates to 1.5 to 2 years of growth.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">It is apparent that technology plays an important role in every school’s curriculum. The roles of technology include interactive learning, immediate feedback, and incorporation of the Internet into daily lessons. However it is sometimes a struggle to obtain the resources to fund technological advances within the classroom. Regardless of the school, public, private, or charter, everyone is currently experiencing the same difficulties in purchasing up to date equipment, providing adequate amounts of training, and software updates.
 * SUMMARY**