Technology Center Analysis and Evaluation IRC

7/28/2019 Technology Center Analysis and Evaluation IRC

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Myra Lipsey

FRIT 7738: Practicum inInstructional Technology

Technology Center Analysis

and Evaluation

Instructional Resources Center

Georgia Southern University

Spring 2013


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Executive Summary

This technology center analysis and evaluation was conducted at the

Instructional Resources Center which is housed in the College of Education

building at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. The purpose of

the Instructional Resources Center is to provide Georgia Southern students

(mostly whom are education majors) with a place to use computers and to learn

about technology that is appropriate for use in classrooms. It also provides

classrooms with lots of technology for Georgia Southern instructors to use when

teaching which will also allow education majors to understand how and why such

technologies are important in the classroom when they graduate and get teaching

jobs.

Originally, this center was part of the Marvin Pittman School that was

located on the campus of Georgia Southern University. Approximately ten to

twelve years ago, the school closed and the Instructional Resource Centers

purpose changed from being solely focused on student needs (Marvin Pittman

School students) to focusing on the needs of the Georgia Southern faculty, staff,

and college students.

The center presently consists of five computer labs, a small library which

was left over from the Marvin Pittman School, lots of study rooms and spaces,


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Smart Classrooms for faculty to schedule class meetings in, and a work room that

contains Ellison Dye machines and accompanying supplies. The centers

coordinator has refurbished the center through the years taking away

unnecessary space and turning it into space for students to have to study and

work together on group projects. She has done away with the photography dark

room and made it a break room with kitchen supplies for faculty, staff, and

students to enjoy. Georgia Southern students majoring in education utilize the

center more than other populations of students. These students come to the IRC

to work on lesson plans together, practice using Smart Boards and other

technology to help them out in the field while in their Methods I and II classes as

well as in student teaching. Many students also come to use computers for

research and typing. In a survey conducted of some students, most of the

students said they prefer to come to the IRC over the library because when they

get out of classes in the building, it is easier to stay here than walk to the library.

They also stated that sometimes they need to use the equipment that is found

here and sometimes they need a quieter place to work. The center has one

classroom that is known as a Digi-Lab. This is a state-of-the-art lab with twenty-

four chromebooks and a teacher workstation. The lab also contains an Elmo

digital projecting system and whiteboard tables.


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The IRC provides future educators with lots of technology. Students not

only can use these resources to help them with their college coursework, but they

also provide these students with knowledge of new technology that they will be

utilizing in their future classrooms.

This paper will outline the existing organization of the center as well as give

a description of the ways information was collected and used to analyze and

evaluate this site. It will also describe past performance and the future of the

center in terms of providing new technology as it becomes available. The

evaluation comes to the following conclusion: the site is mostly successful in

providing the technology and resources for the faculty, staff, and students in the

College of Education.


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Organizational Chart

Instructional Resources Center

Coordinator

Technology Support

Specialist

Graduate

Assistant

Graduate

Assistant

Graduate

Assistant

Graduate

Assistant

Work Study

Student

Casual Labor

Dean of College of Education

Vice President for Academic Affairs

President of

Georgia Southern University

Information Systems

Coordinator

Director of

Administration

CIO

Casual Labor


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Methods

In the evaluation phase, information about the Instructional Resource Center at

Georgia Southern University was gathered in a combination of ways:

Interviews with the center coordinator, Michelle Rivera Data given access to me by the center coordinator Surveys of students using the center at various times I visited the center Informal observations made while visiting the center Interviews with Georgia Southern Education majors located in my school

setting in the form of PPB students, Methods II students, and student

teachers.

I conducted two interviews with the center coordinator, Michelle Rivera. On the

first interview (See Appendix A for a list of the interview questions) I asked her to

answer some questions to provide me with knowledge of the purpose of the

center, a history of the center, and to give me a tour of the center. On the second

interview, I asked her if there was some data she could share with me to give me

an understanding as to how many people actually use the center and for what

reasons. During this interview, the center coordinator provided a thorough

description of the centers usability. Notes were taken during this visit. I went to

the center on two separate evenings and asked some students who were working


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to complete a survey for me. I have spoken with two PPB students who have

been working in my elementary school, as well as one Methods II student and one

PPB student. I have also spoken to one graduate level student. All of these

students answered the questions I asked on the survey (See Appendix B for the

survey) of the center use. I have also obtained some information from the

Georgia Southern website link to the IRC, and data provided to me from Michelle

Rivera. The data Michelle gave me was for a past year. It was the only data she

could get to at the time of my last visit with her. Upon returning to the center on

two different evenings, an observation checklist was used. The checklist is

included in the appendix section of this report. (See Appendix C)

Center Context and Goals

The Instructional Resource Center is currently housed in the College of

Education building on the campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro,

Georgia. The center, as it is now, had its beginning about ten to twelve years ago

when the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School closed its doors. During the time of

the operation of the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School, a few parts of this center

were located within the school. After the school closed, the remaining books

from the library were moved to the center, and technology needs and

advancements began to be put into place. Miss Ollie Mae Jernigan a former


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educator with the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School left an endowment fund

which is used to help supplement this area of the IRC presently. There are also a

percentage of student technology fees that are awarded to the IRC. Since the

time of the Instructional Resource Centers beginning, it has established five

computer labs, a small library which was a part of the Marvin Pittman Laboratory

School, large and study rooms and area, Smart Classrooms, and several teaching

stations that include DVD/VCR players and Elmos. Most recently, the center

prides itself on the establishment of being totally wireless and housing a Digi-Lab

which contains twenty-four workstations for college students to use. There are

twenty-four chrome book computers that are dedicated to this lab. Chrome

books were described by the center coordinator as being similar to laptops except

they use cloud computing instead of using an operating system. The lab also

contains whiteboard tables.

The mission of the center is to provide technology and instructional support

to meet the needs of the College of Education students, faculty, and staff at

Georgia Southern University. In the last interview with Mrs. Rivera, she provided

me with a printed copy of the centers mission statement that had been

developed by the university. The statement reads, The Instructional Resources

Center will seek to create a learning environment for the specific use of the


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faculty and students within the College of Education at Georgia Southern

University. The mission of the Instructional Resources Center is to provide

services, instructional materials, and equipment to the faculty and students in the

pursuit of quality education as follows: Instructional Resources Center

orientation, computer lab orientation, instructional materials in the form of

textbooks, video tapes, software, etc, equipment such as TV/VCRs, camcorders,

slide projectors, etc, and production of instructional materials such as overhead

transparencies, etc. The center aims to provide the latest technology for both

Georgia Southern instructors to use in teaching future educators, as well as for

those future educators to use in preparing their coursework for school settings. It

gives these future teachers a chance to use some of the technologies they will

find in classrooms they will one day work in. Other goals of the center are to

provide Georgia Southern faculty with an increased use of the latest technologies

when instructing their students, as well as increase student learning though the

use of technology.

The key stakeholders of the center are Georgia Southern students, faculty,

and staff. The center falls under the direct supervision of the Dean of the College

of Education. The center coordinator handles the day-to-day operations of the

center, such as scheduling the use of classrooms by professors. She also assists


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students in training on smart boards and other equipment as needed. She is

assisted by four graduate assistants, one student worker and two casual labor

employees throughout the week. The centers coordinator also serves as an ad

hoc member of the College of Educations Technology Committee. The center also

houses one technology support specialist who provides technology support for all

of the technology housed in the center. Presently, the center is very active with

undergraduate education students, staff, and faculty from Georgia Southern

University. In a more recent interview, Mrs. Rivera informed me of a new

technology the center has to record how many people visit the center each day.

She said there is only one drawback to this new tracking system. It records a

person each time they enter, so they may leave and go to the restroom or to a

class and return and it counts them each time.

Center Activities

The Instructional Resources Center is a very busy place. All of the times I

visited the center, there were a lot of activities taking place. I did visit recently on

a Saturday and found no one had been in the center all day. I observed several

groups of students Methods II students and others utilizing the computers to

work on lesson plans, practicing using the Smart Board and Elmo, and cutting out

letters on the Ellison Die machine. During the first visit, while on a tour of the


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facility, a Georgia Southern College of Education professor was using one of the

classroom labs for instruction. Professors utilize these labs to allow their students

use of computers and other equipment such as scanners, printers, Elmo, and

smart boards. Instructors and others who wish to use a lab must reserve it with

the centers coordinator ahead of time. There are certain criteria that have to be

followed as to when various instructors are allowed to schedule classes in these

labs. College of Education faculty has priority over other departments in

scheduling classes to use the labs. Instructional Technology faculty also has

priority over other College of Education departments.

All of the classroom labs are Smart classrooms because they have built-in

technology and teaching stations that include DVD/VCR combos as well as an

Elmo visual presenter.

The center is utilized by students as a place to study, a place to work on

lesson plans and other coursework required by classes in education, a place to

check out teaching materials, a place to practice with technology that is located in

most classrooms today, as well as a place to use new kinds of technology.

Students seemed to have learned of the center in their first education coursework

taken. From then on, they continue to find the center very useful for their needs.


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Working on group projects and planning activities makes this a great place for

students to be able to spread out while working.

Evaluation

My evaluation of this center consisted of the following items:

Does this center adequately address the needs of its participants? What are some of the reasons students use this facility instead of others? Is the center being used enough to warrant it being kept open?

The first item was answered for me after conducting interviews of the

center coordinator and surveys of student participants (Appendix B). Also after

several observations, it appeared that the Instructional Resources Center is doing

a good job of meeting the needs of those who use it. One of the goals of the

center is to provide technology and instructional support to meet the needs of

the College of Education students, faculty, and staff at Georgia Southern

University. The center is meeting this goal by providing lots of technology in the

form of computers, printers, scanners, Elmo presenters, Smart Boards, Chrome

Books, and others. Georgia Southern professors teach their students in these labs

in a two-fold manner. Students are not only learning the material their instructor

is presenting, they are also learning how to utilize this equipment by how their


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instructor is using it to present information to them. Faculty and staff are also

able to utilize the center to gain training in various areas of technology.

The second item became evident from the completed surveys given to

some of the students both in the center and those who are in various roles at my

school. Also, after informally observing in the center for several afternoons, it

became evident that students majoring in education prefer this center over

others mainly due to convenience and because of the smallness of the center.

Student comments were that it was just easier to come to this center when they

got out of class because the center was in the same building as their classes.

Others said they like the feel of the center because it is small and provides them

with a sense of being able to work in a quieter environment than some of the

other places on campus.

The third item was determined by data given to me by the center

coordinator. Also, the link to the Instructional Resources Center from the Georgia

Southern website shows a good picture of how much the center is used.

In conclusion, the following points can be made:

The center is definitely being used to a very large extent.


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The center is used for lots of different purposes, but primarily bystudents who find the location prime for them and because of the

equipment available to them.

The center does a good job of addressing the needs of itsparticipants.

Recommendations

There is really not a whole lot to suggest in the way of improvement, but a

couple of recommendations for improvement that could be made are:

1) Send emails to graduate students to inform them of the InstructionalResource Center and what it offers them. Some graduate students may not

know about it if they did not complete there undergraduate coursework

there, and as a student who graduated many years ago, I had no idea that

this center existed until I started working on my Masters a couple of years

ago. Emails would be a good way to get the word out about the center to

make sure all Georgia Southern students are aware of the center and what

it has to offer those students who are working on degrees in the area of

education and instructional technology.


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2) A list of materials and resources available in the center would be somethingvaluable to include on the website for the center. (There is a list now, but it

is vague.)

3) Classes need to be implemented to make faculty, staff and students moreaware of new Web 2.0 tools that are available for them to use.

4) The blog page of the center needs to be updated and made more visually-appealing.

Monthly Report/Brags

The partial month of February that data was provided for me, showed that

February was a busy month for the Instructional Resources Center. Data for the

month of February shows the following number of people used the center: (some

of the data sheets were missing from the center notebook)

February 4 394 visitors




February 13 1,330 visitors



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The data in this chart shows that the center is used frequently on a daily

basis. The numbers fluctuate based on whether students are coming to the

center on their own, or as part of a class. The time of the semester would also

cause a difference in numbers from one time of the month to the other.

Students were involved in the following various activities during observations:

Lesson planning Research on computers Studying for tests both individual and small groups Practicing using Elmo and Smart Board Finding resources for teaching

Suggestions to showcase the IRC:

An electronic monthly newsletter showing how many visitors came to thecenter the previous month

Updated website link showing videos of students working in the center andprofessors teaching classes

Monthly class offerings to faculty, staff and students on a different Web 2.0tool each month

Cleaning and straightening up the rooms


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Appendix A

Interview Questions used with the center coordinator:

1) What is your position at this location?2) What technology and resources are available at the center?3) What are your job duties and responsibilities?4) What other employees work with you and what do they do?5) What can you tell me about the history of this center?6) What are the goals of the center? The mission? The vision?7) Who are the stakeholders?8) Where can one find out more information about the center?


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Appendix B - Student SurveyGSU -Instructional Resource Center

I am a graduate student at GSU working towards my Master in Instructional

Technology. I am presently working on a project that requires me to analyze the

effectiveness of a technology center. I chose the IRC (Instructional ResourcesCenter). If you have time, would you please answer the following questions. I will

be in the center and you can turn your completed survey upside down on the

round table at the door and I will collect them on my way out. Thank you very

much for your help.

Myra Lipsey

__________________________________________________________________

Please put a check mark beside as many answers as you need to in order to

answer the questions.

1. How did you learn about the IRC?____from an instructor

____from the GSU website

____from another student or friend

____other ___________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

2. How many times do you say you have visited the IRC during last semester?____1 5 times____5 10 times

____10 20 times

____more than 20 times

3. What are some of your reasons for visiting the IRC? (What things do youcome here for?) Please write in a response.

4. Do you find the IRC beneficial in meeting your needs?____yes____no (Explain)

5. Is there any service not presently provided by the IRC that you wish wereoffered? (If yes, please tell what services or other things that you wish

were offered.)


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Appendix C

Checklist for Observations

1) What kinds of things are being done at this location?2) Is technology the major focus for the participants here?3) Do the participants seem pleased with the resources available to them?4) Is there any evidence of future educators practicing how to use various

technology available in the center?


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Appendix D

Interview Questions asked of Student Teachers, PPB Students, and Methods

Students at my school and some that have graduated recently

1) Have you used the IRC?2) What kinds of things have you done at the IRC?3) Do you think the IRC provides you with modern technology?4) What is the one most important thing that you have used the IRC for?5) Does the IRC meet your technology needs? How?


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References

Adkins, E. (February/March 2013). PPB Student, Personal Communication.

Johnson, J. (March/April 2013). PPB Student, Personal Communication.

Mikell, B. (February/March/April 2013). Student Teacher, Personal Communication.

Rivera, M. (February, March, April 2013). Coordinator of IRC, Personal Communication.

Sinclair, B. (February, March, April 2013). Graduate Student, Personal Communication.

Other:

Anonymous Surveys of Students from IRC

www.georgiasouthern.edu
http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/

Technology Center Analysis and Evaluation IRC

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