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=This Wiki is currently being used by AB and BB for Drexel chatter.=

This is my beginning reply. I have a funny email situation from where I am. When I get to my boys' house, I can send this via email.

Dear Amy,

I fell asleep at 9PM (EST) and woke up at 3A (EST). Below are some thoughts. I'm not done thinking, though. We have a busy weekend, don't we!

B

For this week's Discussion Board: This week you are downloading the STaR chart and working through the online questionnaire to profile your school.

Share with the class what this kind of multi-level information gathering does for your sense of what is actually happening in your school.

For me, to simply have gone through the process of thinking before answering the questions was beneficial. From that initial run through, I could note where improvements need to be made, where we are working well, and what we need to strive for. By the way, in today's Google Alerts (see below), there was an article about Lebanon losing foreign investment due to the slow Internet speed. No matter how much we as a school pay for our bandwidth, we can't compete with schools in other countries; Lebanon is limiting us, too.
 * How is this related to building capacity or sustainability?**

[|Slow internet driving foreign companies away from Lebanon] Daily Star - Lebanon - Beirut,Lebanon By Dana Halawi BEIRUT: Many foreign investors are reluctant to establish businesses in Lebanon due to low speed of broadband connectivity which affects ...

I guess my comments from above actually belong here. One of our weakest areas is the reality of the country's slow Internet speed -- video projects, collaborative voice projects, anything requiring Internet connections are definitely limited due to our bandwidth. When I see what other schools can and do do, I get depress and am sorry; our bandwidth doesn't support a lot of what others do. When Web 2.0 tools first became available, I was most excited. I joined services like VoiceThread, SchoolTube, TeacherTube, and projects like Voices of the World. In each case, our activity was hindered by the limited bandwidth. I was actually told by MJ that I shouldn't be using VoiceThread because it uses too much bandwidth; that puts us at a real disadvantage -- you should see what other schools are producing.
 * Where are your school's strong and weak areas?**

I think that many of our teachers have a problem moving from the 20th to the 21st century, but with time, I have seen improvements. Our dealing with three languages and several different programs (ASL vs regular Arabic at the ES level; IB, Lebanese Bacc, American HS at the upper level) seems to allow some things to fall through the cracks. Our Arabic program is changing, but for the most part the regular Arabic teachers aren't; this is a real weakness, I think. I can't blame only the Arabic teachers; there are many homeroom teachers that lag behind, but in each grade level, I see at least one teacher that excels in technology integration issues -- they are helping the others move forward, if for no other reason than competitiveness.

I consider one of our strengths to be our use of the hardware provided. In the ES, each teacher has at least two connected computers in their homeroom, the LCD projection capability, digital camera use, and next year all classes will have document cameras. Most teachers use the hardware provided. Another strength is our desire to improve ourselves; the requirement of tech goals is one example of that.

The school acceptance of the need for online services for parents, students, teachers, and administrators is a positive; we are constantly trying to improve. The move to Outlook Web Access was made to enable better email connection. The move to Skyward was made to facilitate student information services. We do try. We get frustrated and angry, but at least we are not held back by unwilling an unwilling leadership team. We can improve the actual use, but at least the programs are there for us to use.

Our IT department could be considered a strength. Sometimes I think of them as foes, but when I hear tales from others, I think we're pretty okay with our system of IT tickets, etc. Certainly there have to be priorities established; I don't think teachers are given the higher priority at times, and that's frustrating, but overall I do think we can consider IT support a strength.

I think I might suggest extracting some of the questions that pertain to teachers and see how well they assess themselves. I think we must be aware of our limitations and weaknesses before we can hope to improve. So, I would give all teachers a few questions and begin by sharing a compilation of that information.
 * How would you use this information to engage your teachers and staff?**

I would also share products from other schools that are doing wonderful things. I have online teacher friends that amaze me; I'd love for our teachers to see what they might want to strive for.

I know that my Wednesday Tech Tips were a helpful venue for many, but perhaps using the forum of the faculty meeting would get the information out to more. We need to have all teachers aware of ACS strengths and weaknesses -- especially since one way to improve those weaknesses is to get teachers actively on board. I know teachers are busy and overwhelmed with work. But, .....

The assignment for week four is to begin to use data from your completed STaR Chart and create a SWOT analysis for your school based on the outline in Creighton on page 31 and using the matrix on page 32 (formatting table is on page 103) to guide your presentation. Once you have codified your data please write a narrative summary of the analysis elaborating on your findings. I have placed in the Unit Two Folder two previous students' SWOT Analysis to serve as a guide. These students' analysis included responses to Creighton's three framework questions for technolgy planning: Where are we headed? Why do we want to go there? How will we know once we are there?
 * For next week's assignment:**


 * I assume the attachments that you have listed (below) are things that appear on page 31 and 32?**

Sample STar Chart and SWOT Analysis.docx StaR Chart and Analysis Example.docx ceo-forum-star-chart.pdf

It's 4:33 AM (EST). I'm going to try to go back to bed for awhile. I'll be thinking, but would like to hear some of your thoughts, too.