Laurie Bennett

FRIT 7739

Technology Program AdministratorPart A: Program Evaluation

Executive Summary

The Media Center at Fannin County Middle School is a more traditional media center, with a few computers for student use, but it does not act as a particular technology center. It is run by one media specialist, Mrs. Laura Evans, and one paraprofessional, Mrs. Betty Jo Corn. It is available to all students, faculty, and administration. The media specialist offers support for students who are visiting the center for recreational reading, school research projects, or bonus time for finishing classwork early. She is also available to help teachers find resources to use in lesson plans, whether it be for technology resources, or just research outside of the classroom textbook, such as video clips or movies. The media center website is maintained by the media specialist and is admittedly a work in progress. Plagiarism, copyright laws, and digital citizenship are presented and enforced on a regular basis with both teachers and students. The media centers stakeholders are serviced by the daily operations of the center. Information was gathered through interviews with the media center staff as well as observations of the daily activities firsthand. A suggestion for improvement is to obtain more computers in the actual media center, as they were often at full capacity with only 6 computers in the actual media center and the rest of the school computers in the carious computer labs throughout the building. A second suggestion is to encourage the students to access more resources via the internet, such as magazines. This way, the students will have more access to them from home computers, rather than just in the media center in print format. Internet resources did not seem to be emphasized for research during my visits.

METHODS While constructing the report, multiple methods of data collection were used. Data was collected from interviews from the media specialist and Media center paraprofessional (Appendix A), observations of the media center (Appendix B), the media center brochure, and from the school website.

CENTER CONTEXT AND GOALS

The media center at FCMS is more of a traditional setup, with a few computers added in. It does not serve as a technology center, as that role is filled more by the 4 computer labs located throughout the building. The media centers role is to promote literacy and a love for reading. It also serves as a resource for research in various formats, but still focuses on hard copies of resources, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias. The media specialist, Mrs. Laura Evans, takes pride in the welcoming atmosphere of her center and the close relationships she has formed with all of her students. She takes student requests and interests in mind when ordering new books, and she also promotes a love of learning by providing books in a variety of subjects. She monitors the Reading Counts program that is a school-wide reading program that involves reading books and taking comprehension tests to collect points in the Language Arts classes of every student.

The stakeholders of the media center are students, staff, parents, and community members. The DESTINY program is an online card catalog that is accessible to anyone in the community with a password. The students or teachers can access the media center collection through DESTINY and place books on hold for when they return to the center to check them out. The students can check out books and magazines and the teacher can check out books, magazines, televisions, DVD players, and movies from the media center. Teachers sometimes check out carts for various uses as well. Mrs. Evans keeps inventory of the working equipment, as well as inventory of items that are being prepared for transfer to storage, such as the outdated overhead projectors.CENTER ACTIVITIES As the media centers main fundraiser book fairs are held 3 times each year. The center also has a game section for students who are finished with classwork early and dont want to read for a short amount of time. The games are still educational, but they help foster the welcoming atmosphere that Mrs. Evans is so proud to have in her center. The students know to put up all the game pieces when they are finished, or they risk losing the right to play the games. It was not unusual to see small groups of students quietly playing chess or Jenga in the games section of the media center.

The media center has close ties with the public library, complementing its collection. The local historical society also brings in collections a few times a year to display to the students as well as the public. There is also a puzzle table that always has a puzzle being put together. Any student can take a seat and put a few pieces in it until it is complete, then a new one will begin. STATISTICS The media center is open Monday-Friday 7:30am-3:30pm, which is a county-wide policy.

Students must present an agenda with a teacher signature to enter during class time. Each student must sign in when they arrive, according to their grade level and what time they entered.

The media center averages 100-150 students each week.

Teachers can sign up a class to visit the media center on a first-come, first-serve basis. If a class is scheduled, then individual students would be asked to leave first if it got too crowded. Most A/V equipment is already located in each room, except movies, which can be checked out by the teachers.

Any student exhibiting disruptive behavior can be asked to leave, but I did not witness this happen at any time I was observing.

There are 6 computers in the media center, with 2 others that are utilized for the catalog program DESTINY. The two extra computers can be used as regular computer I needed for standardized testing purposes.

Students can check out books for a 2-week period, and renew them 1 time. No fines are given for failure to return books, but any lost books must be paid for before report cards will be released.

Mornings are the busiest time of the day, and the beginning of the school year is the busiest time of the year. The most common requests from students are the next book in a fictional series, usually one that has a movie out about it.

The center has several comfy chairs and sofas that have been donated over the years. These are the less formal areas where most of the walk-in students tend to sit and read leisurely or play games.

The center only received 75% of the yearly budget up front, and usually does not end up seeing the other 25% that is held back, which gets used for unforeseen repairs or replacements of more expensive items. This year, Mrs. Evans received her remaining 25% of the budget for the first time in 3 years at this school. The center also receives funds from SPLOST money and from the 3 books fair held each year.

EVALUATION The FCMS is a lively and inviting place for students to visit and work. Mrs. Evans commitment to having a welcoming atmosphere is evident in her warm personality and close relationships with all of the students who visited during my observations. She knows all of the students by name and there is a mutual respect between her and the students. Reading and learning is valued here and the students visit for many other reasons than just coming in during class projects. It is clear that the media center is a place the students enjoy visiting. The technology offered by this media center is outdated. With only 6 computers available, it is not a place for a teacher to bring if an entire class needed to research internet information. In addition, Mrs. Evans admits that she is not highly trained in technology methods for curriculum use. Another area that needs improvement is the state of the building in general. It is a very old building and needs to have updated facilities with more room for technology to grow as it becomes more available. Another area that needs attention is the Reading Counts program. The books often arrive before a test is available, so the media staff is constantly cross-referencing to check for books that have tests available for points. When a book has a test, it receives a green sticker on the spine, but many books without green stickers actually do have tests and the students must look the book up to see if a test is available if it does not have a sticker. A better program or method of matching books and tests needs to be created or implemented to make this program easier to navigate, especially since it is a program that is required of every student in the school each year. APPENDIX AMedia Center Interview Questions:

1. What are the hours of operation?

2. What are the check-in/out procedures?

3. Who staffs the center and what are their responsibilities?

4. What services, activities, and programs are offered by the media center?

5. What services are offered to the local community?

6. How many computers are in the media center?

7. What are the limitations or needs for improvement?

8. What are the future plans for improving the media center?

9. What are the missions/goals of the media center?

10. Who are the stakeholders and how are they invested?

11. How do you promote the goals and activities of the center?

12. How do you work with the teachers in their curriculum plans?

13. What is the busiest time of day/year?

14. What are the typical requests from students and teachers?

15. What is the average number of students who visit each week?

16. How does the center support student success?

17. What centers/stations do you have set up in the center?

18. What is your budget?

19. What outside sources also provide money to the center?

20. What are the centers strengths?