Date of Award

6-2010

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Educational Leadership, Research and Technology

First Advisor

Dr. Richard Zinzer

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Campus Only

Abstract

An integral part of a school system is its instructional technology system and these systems are essential to student success. A school's instructional technology system consists of components needing to be updated and maintained to be relevant. Without relevant technology, schools will revert to older methods and not meet the needs of 21st century learning. The purpose of this study is to create a benchmark assessment rating of a school's instructional technology system that will measure school proficiency levels against other schools. This benchmark assessment rating will analyze the following: Infrastructure, Hardware/Software, Budget/Funding/Grants, District Technology Policy, Professional Development, and Technology Integration. These benchmark rating are core structures of school instructional technology systems and must work together to provide relevance. A Instructional technology systems Assessment was created to gather this information from West Michigan schools. This assessment used best practices and current technology standards. Guttman Scale and opened-ended questions were used and the data was analyzed and averaged to find an overall technology rating for each school. These schools appear to have appropriate technology already in place, they just need to have more effective professional development opportunities and training on how to integrate computer and communication technology into their classroom.

Off-campus Download

Share

COinS