Lauren HyersFRIT 7739Technology Program Administrator

Part A: Program Evaluation

Executive Summary

Pierce County Middle School is a school well on its way to making every classroom a 21st Century classroom thanks to all the support shown from the county. The Media Center at Pierce County Middle School is both a literary and technology resource center. The Media Center provides services to all students, faculty, staff, and administration. The center is located at the front of the building. It is the first room visitors see when leaving the front foyer. The center is home for the instructional lead teacher, technology specialist, a media assistant, and the media specialist who acts as the technology coordinator in the building. This is a limited staff, but they work hard to ensure every teacher and student has endless resources at their fingertips. The media specialist offers informational tutorials on all technology being implemented into the system for teachers and students. While keeping up to date with the ever changing world of technology, the media specialist also makes sure digital citizenship is being enforced throughout the school. Students and teachers have been taught how to practice good digital citizenship. Posters are placed around the building and on the school website referring to plagiarism and copyright laws. An interview and several observations prove the media center does support its mission and goals including both literary and technology services and materials for all persons in the school. As with all things, there is room for improvement. Increasing memory space on the laptops, providing more staff developments for teachers in need, and increasing the inventory.

Organizational Chart

Methods

This evaluation report was constructed using a variety of methods. The data was obtained through interview questions and answers from the media specialist (Appendix A), checklist observations of the media center (Appendix B), and the schools website (Appendix C).

Center Context and Goals

The Pierce County Middle School Media Center is transitioning to a 21st century technology center. For the last twenty years, as long as the school has existed, the media center has served as a resource center for books. Within the last five years, the center has begun to evolve into a technology center. Books are still available to be checked out by students and teachers, but technology has become the main focus of the center. Mrs. Murray, the media specialist, accepted the position during the time of transitioning. She believes technology is now the way to better prepare students for the future. Although she is an advocate of the 21st century learning, she does think students should have the opportunity to read books. When Mrs. Murray took over the media center, in 2010, there were no laptop carts, IPads, Chromebook, promethean boards, or computer labs other than the media center. Today, Pierce County Middle School has four IPad carts, three laptop carts, and several sets of Chromebooks. Every teacher in the building now has a Promethean Board in their classroom along with an IPad. Mrs. Murray has helped technology grow at PCMS in the last five years. In order to keep the center running as smoothly as possible she has to keep up with her day to day duties of promoting literacy and technology, along with digital citizenship and copyright laws by maintaining the school webpage, researching and learning how to use new software, co-teaching, volume purchasing, and buying apps at the teachers request. The media center houses thirty computers. This lab can be reserved for teachers to bring in classes for educational uses. Along with the media center lab, we have two computer labs. Each lab has twenty-eight computers. The labs are located at the back of the school building, but Mrs. Murray is responsible for making sure the labs are up and running.

Other important personnel in the media center include the media assistant, Mrs. Spell, the technology specialist, Mr. Clark, and an Instructional Lead Teacher, Mrs. Turner. Mrs. Spell is the face all students see when entering the center. She is responsible for checking in and out books, scheduling/reserving IPad carts, laptop carts, and computer labs for teachers, checking out videos, and maintaining the copiers. Mr. Clark is the technician for any technical difficulty teachers, students, or the administration may have. Mr. Clark is part time at PCMS, so Mrs. Murray has learned how to manage half the week without him. The Instructional Coach, Mrs. Turner, is not the technology person per say, but she is very helpful for find new online activities to use in class. The media centers objective is to provide service for all persons in the school with updated technical support. Updated technical support provides students and teachers with a digital learning environment the increases literacy skills while promoting technology and increasing student engagement. The goals for the media center include: Promote literacy and technology. Providing staff developments that meet the needs of our school. Promote digital citizenship. Provide current and relevant information for all stakeholders.

Center Activities

The Media Center offers several services and activities for teachers and students. All activities are located in the media center or a computer lab. SRI Testing for all students in the building. SRI testing is done several times throughout the school year. This provides teachers with data on each student. Google Classroom trainings for students and teachers. Book fairs for students and teachers. Co-teaching groups of student how to research information, reference material, and how to avoid plagiarizing. Teaching students how to use GALILEO. Providing staff developments for teachers to learn to use new software and equipment.

Evaluation

After reviewing the data Ive collected, it is apparent the Media Center can successfully be called a technology center. All staff housed in the media center uphold the mission and goals of the media center. Through observations it is evident the media specialist, Mrs. Murray, is the leader of the technology world at Pierce County Middle School. The activities and services provided by the media specialist and all associated staff support literacy and technology for all persons in the building. The media specialist is great at keeping technology and equipment up to date. Although the center does a wonderful job, I think there is room for improvement. Mrs. Murray, nor her supporting staff, does not have a specific job title of Instructional Technology Coach (ITC). I, along with many others in the school, feel the center needs a full time ITC. Mrs. Murray and her staff have enough duties. She has stated many times the need for an ITC. Today, Mrs. Murray serves as the ITC along with being the media specialist and technology coordinator for the school. Having an ITC would allow Mrs. Murray to focus more on the center. I observed Mrs. Murray being asked to find content specific websites for teachers to use. She was unable to conduct the search at that moment and told the teacher she would get back to her. The same teacher approached Mrs. Murray a few weeks later about the same thing. Mrs. Murray was so busy keeping up with other things going on she did not have time to research any websites. The teachers would benefit from have an ITC because they would then have someone to research, explore, and decide with Web tools would work best for them. Along with adding an ITC to the staff, it is suggested to increase the memory space on the laptops. This will allow students to work faster and more on the computers. Again, the center is an exceptional center given they resources they have available.

Appendices

Appendix A: Interview Questions and Answers

Interview Questions for the Media Specialist/Technology Coordinator

1.What is the history of the media center at Pierce County Middle School?

2.What are the daily responsibilities of the center?

3.What is the goals and mission of the center?

4.What is your budget?

5.What equipment does the center have and use?

6.What activities or programs does the center oversee?

7.What other positions or stakeholders are invested in the center?

8.What does the center do well?

9.What could the center use to enhance the success of the school?

10.What digital rules and procedures do you promote?

11.In your opinion, does the media center effectively serve as the technology center?

Appendix B: Observation Checklist

Media Center Checklist

Technology Resources

Items to be Observed

1.Evidence of Literacy and Technology Promotion

2.Evidence of Digital Citizenship and Copy Right Laws Promotion

3.Evidence of Students Using Technology

4.Evidence of Monitoring the School Website

5.Evidence of Equipment Monitoring and Usage

6.Evidence of Updating and Repairing Technology

7.Evidence of Staff Developments for Teachers

Appendix C: Website