SLO 4: PROPOSE SOLUTIONS for AN INSTRUCTIONAL NEED
This student learning outcome builds upon the previous SLOs and calls upon the educator to use their knowledge of instructional technology (research and trends) after systematically identifying issues in instruction that would benefit from a technological innovation. The emphasis is on the word "need" -- there should be a solid purpose for introducing the solution beyond "we bought this technology, how can we use it?" Careful pre-planning improves the probability that the solutions will benefit the target population.
Image credit: Google
Artifact 1
MEDT 8462: Leading and Managing Instructional Technology Programs
Mainstay Academy Needs Assessment
This comprehensive needs assessment identified two teacher-specific technology needs and includes the gathered survey and interview data. The two needs were more support and access to using educational websites for student instruction, and how to use the touchscreen TVs for meaningful instruction.
MEDT 8462: Leading and Managing Instructional Technology Programs
Mainstay Academy Needs Assessment
This comprehensive needs assessment identified two teacher-specific technology needs and includes the gathered survey and interview data. The two needs were more support and access to using educational websites for student instruction, and how to use the touchscreen TVs for meaningful instruction.
Artifact 2
MEDT 8461: Diffusion of Innovations
Serious Educational Gaming Analysis
This site details the data gathered from teachers, parents, and administrators about Perception/Attitude, Skills/Knowledge, Concerns, Social/Organizational Factors, Barriers and Enablers of serious educational gaming. Overall, SEGs were determine to be a workable solution for instruction.
MEDT 8461: Diffusion of Innovations
Serious Educational Gaming Analysis
This site details the data gathered from teachers, parents, and administrators about Perception/Attitude, Skills/Knowledge, Concerns, Social/Organizational Factors, Barriers and Enablers of serious educational gaming. Overall, SEGs were determine to be a workable solution for instruction.
Challenges
Similar to the challenges noted for SLO 2, the greatest challenges for these projects was the difficulty in gathering data due to stakeholder availability (whether it be summer or distance learning due to COVID-19). While certainly not intentional, oddly enough, most of my courses that required me to gather data from other teachers happened during summer, and it would have been interesting to see if the project(s) would have had different outcomes if they were completed during the fall or spring when teachers were more available.
Rationale for Artifacts
SLO 4 required that I identify instructional needs and then suggest an intervention to address that need. Both my artifact one and artifact two are comprehensive needs assessments using data from multiple sources, including surveys and interviews, to create workable action plans with technology-based solutions. Both of the solutions involved using more educational websites to assist in instruction.
Reflection
My artfact one needs assessment is related to my overall technology integration plan discussed in other reflections. I did like how creative I was with my data analysis, considering what little I had to work with, but I think that lack made the overall project more realistic. Even in perfect conditions, there will never be a 100% perfect response rate, so you work with what you have and apply any lessons learned to the next project. The serious educational games analysis was also about meeting an instructional need, even if the need hadn’t been as directly indicated as in the Mainstay needs assessment. Even though they were completed in different classes, in different years, and with different stakeholders, both projects recognized the desire of teachers to use more interactive websites/games in the classroom as a way to gain student attention and increase learning and retention of information. Both projects are about meeting the needs of 21st century learners.
