Category Archives: for Staff

What our staff thinks of our district technology services… 2013 edition

Each year we conduct a satisfaction survey with our school district staff.  It’s a relatively short survey, and we’ve used many of the same questions multiple years in a row. Our goal is to track customer services.  For example, we don’t ask questions related to the latest gadget or gizmo… instead, we focus on fundamental customer service points –  as our belief is that quality customer service will always be needed regardless of the device.

View/Download the full staff survey results (pdf file)

Summary of the results…

Satisfied with response time and communications.

“The guys are great. They are helpful and in good spirits when they have to
come into my room. They never make me feel as though my questions are silly,
though they probably are. :)”

“Repairs are handled in a timely manner.”

“I also appreciate the new and innovative ideas presented at
professional development. I have worked in other districts before where the
technology department was somewhat a mystery – I very much appreciate the
transparency of the department in WDM and the efforts to move forward with
technology in a timely manner.”

Desire for more iPads at elementary level..

“Teachers should have more than 3 iPads.”

More training needed…

“We are way behind other districts. We need tech integrationists to help teachers
integrate tech. Jackie does a great job, but 1 person is not enough.”

“More WED collab day trainings. I think we are severely lacking those.”

“I would like to see more time given to the technology department during staff
development to share new ideas.”

NOTE FROM BRIAN:  In regards to Wed collaboration days, most collab. day topics are decided at your building level.  Talk to your building staff that oversee your Wed collab days, as we’d be glad to help you out!

Fair isn’t equal

“Bluntly, I don’t feel like access to technology is allocated in an appropriate
manner. However, I don’t feel like that is the technology dep’t’s fault. I really
think the board and TLS need to examine which schools are in the most need of
district contributed funds to purchase and update technology. We really need to
get out of this mindset that fair is equal.”

Access

“still not enough computers in our building. Much much better since we got a cart
for each team, but still hard to plan lessons if you don’t know if the devices will
be available”

More information about updates…

“Updating technology i.e. IC Revtrack, Paypal it would be nice to know what the updates are before we go in and find that something has changed.”

NOTE FROM BRIAN: We certainly agree that it would be great to have more knowledge of how the updates will impact, unfortunately, this isn’t always possible as we are reliant on what information is given by our vendors.  We also have a significant amount of our own customizations in things like Campus and RevTrak – that makes it hard for vendors to tell how their updates will impact our customizations.

Dedicated staff for K-6 technology integration

“Other surrounding districts have technology teachers for each building and are
implementing classes that teach technology skills to their young people. This
should not fall on the shoulders of regular classroom teachers.”

NOTES FROM BRIAN:  This concern has been raised over the past few years, however, it is significant to note that Waukee this past year moved away from this model and the elementary “tech teacher” is now dedicated towards training staff members how to integrate technology into the grade level classrooms.

How do the results compare to prior years?

1 treat

2communicate

3bigpicture

4timely

5status

6studentfocus

7access

How does the survey work?

All staff receive a short on-line survey. Each question is a positive statement such as, “When members of the district technology departments visit my building, they are courteous and treat the staff and students with respect.”   Users are asked to rate the statement as: Strongly Agree,   Agree,  Disagree,  Strongly Disagree, or  I don’t know.

For the summary charts below,  % Strongly Agree + % Agree =  Approval rating (which is the blue bars below).  In other words, we only count if they positively agree with a statement.  If we scored a 90% approval rating, that means 90% of the responses were Strongly Agree or Agree.
.
For the charts above….
Overall = How we did based on all survey responses
Teachers = How we did based on classroom teacher responses only
Support = How we did based on support staff responses only

To force or not to force. That is the LMS question.

To force or not to force: that is the LMS qeuestion.  Obtained from Stefan via Flickr

To force or not to force: that is the LMS question. Photo from Stefan via Flickr

Should schools mandate the use of one single Learning Management System (LMS)?   This was the question that grabbed our attention during recent visits to area districts implementing 1:1.

Some mandated a district-wide LMS and others did not.  An example of an LMS would be Moodle, Edmodo, Schoology or comparable products.  Basically, an LMS is a online web site that a class uses to post resources, assignments, anything related to the course.

Here are some of the reasons we heard for why a district should or should not mandate the usage of one single learning management system (LMS).

So what do you think?  Use the comment box below to let us know if you think an LMS should be mandated or not.

 To Mandate….

 Do NOT Mandate….

If all teachers were forced to use the same program, it would make training and professional development easier.
………………………………………………..
If all classes were forced to use the same software program, it would be easier for kids to find the resources they need, as they would be in one single location, with only one userid/password needed.

………………………………………………..

If all classes were forced to use the same LMS system, parents would have an easier time finding class resources and assignments. 
Mandating gets everyone on the same page and builds consistency.
……………………………………………….

Mandating is the only way to get everyone on-board.

………………………..……………………..

One single tool provides everyone with one single user name/password – making it easier to remember where to find the resources needed.

Mandating kills innovation.  Let teachers decide what product is best for their students needs. It’s highly unlikely that there is one single program that will meet everyone’s needs. It becomes a scenario where some individuals are forced to use a product that doesn’t meet their needs.
……………………………………………………….
Take a look at all the free available resources such as Edmodo, Schoology, etc.  We can’t stop folks from using them as they are free and openly available to all, so why try to mandate something that can’t be enforced?

………………………………………………………

Don’t mandate an LMS… instead, mandate that all courses have an on-line presence.  The specific tool shouldn’t be required, but the basic information (syllabus, resources, assignments) should be mandated – but just to be online.  For example, many districts mandate that each course have a website presence and the link needs to be on the district staff directory associated with the teacher so there is a common place for all students and parents to find the information.

………………………………………………………..

Mandating can be useful… but only when trying to bring on board the last remaining portion of users.  Mandating up front to everyone with out any buy-in only creates resentment.

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In our own school district, we once used a product that enabled every teacher to make a web page.  We mandated that everyone had to use that one single product – and everyone did, but honestly, the quality wasn’t great.  Wouldn’t it have made more sense to mandate that everyone had a web page – but they could use that product or select another option for themselves?

“Standardization, the great ally of mediocrity, always wins out over imagination.” ~ Sergiovanni