Changing the PLN Assignment

Do you ever take a class or do an assignment and think I could have made that assignment better? I know that in my experience teaching and pastoring, there are many times when afterwards I think of ways I can do things better. Sometimes when I observe others teaching or preaching, I think of things I could have done differently, which is one thing I dislike about myself. In one of my classes we had a PLN assignment that I think could have been done differently. I wanted to make a few suggestions on how to do that differently. 

First, part of the assignment was done in LinkedIn, I’m not opposed to LinkedIn and this part was my least concern, but in certain areas LinkedIn is not that big of an app. I know that in my area it was almost impossible to find the ten friends needed for a part of the assignment. In my school I found one teacher who had an account and she hadn’t used her account since college. Now LinkedIn is not a huge problem in this lesson, but I think another Social Media App could have been more beneficial. 

Second, the actual document given was very confusing. I didn’t know whether the choice board activities should be posted on each week or at the end of the form. This to me was very confusing. The last part of the page given, which is shown below, really threw me off. Actually, I’m not sure now what we were supposed to do. I took it as, in each module, pick another option off of the choice board, but the last of the form (shown below) makes me think I was supposed to pick just one item and interact with it each time. Allson Boye in her article, spoke about making instructions concise and the need to give students clear guidelines for their work. I felt that the guidelines for this assignment were not clear. Now I don’t have a problem with any of the items listed on the choice board. I actually enjoyed this part of the class and it allowed me to explore things I have not used before such as Flipboard. That’s always beneficial when a class gives you something that you didn’t know about.

How would I improve this assignment? I think I would give a choice on how the person was to share what they were doing. I think I would allow the person to post on any social media or their choice or on YouTube, or any other video site of their choice. You could even give someone the option of a blog. Boye also wrote about the need for students to take ownership and have choices in their assignments. Then I would make a central page on Canvas that shares each person's method of sharing (this was an issue that I had in my other class, because it was hard to find each other's blogs even though we were supposed to comment on them). This would allow us to explore not only what we chose but what other people chose as well. I think I would make the instructions much more direct, and the form given much more concise. 

Allison Boye. (n.d.) How Do I Create Meaningful and Effective Assignments? Teaching Resources. https://www.depts.ttu.edu/tlpdc/Resources/Teaching_resources/TLPDC_teaching_resources/CreatingEffectiveAssignments.php

Field Experience Simulation

So how can someone prepare for the conflict that is to come in a future job. After all, reading books and watching lectures can only get you so far. Educational leadership provides many difficult situations and choices that cannot be prepared for through lecture or reading. After all, as one researcher wrote about, the actions of school leaders is a central component of school quality and educational development. However, how does an educational system assure that their leaders are ready to take those actions? Leadership education is all about laws, policies, and decision making, but does it fully prepare you to make those decisions when laws and policies collide? 

Well in class we went through a few simulations geared toward the difficult situations that will probably arise in future positions in the field. These simulations dealt with cyber-bullying, social media concerns, and leadership decisions. I really enjoyed working through these situations. I think that throughout the experiences I was exposed to legal issues and conflicts, that even though I read about in the class reading, I did not understand the widespread impact of such legal issues. I also learned about several issues that aren’t necessarily cut and dry. In leadership, I think that a rule must be followed and a rule breaker must be disciplined, but sometimes privacy laws, freedoms, and other issues make a situation not so cut and dry. These simulations made me think on my toes about the different viewpoints involved in each decision. This is actually something I am pretty good at, because I do it in the classroom so much, but the simulations allowed me to see more of the ethical and legal concerns of situations.

However, these situations were not just geared toward legal decision-making, but one relied heavily on building and developing teams. This one in particular made me see that sometimes when you make a decision, many of the options are good options, but you have to think through a decision and not just pick the good options, but the best options as well. Simulations allow people to make mistakes without consequences. One article I wrote mentioned the importance of a student making these mistakes (https://newsroom.lmu.edu/campusnews/simulation-technology-helps-aspiring-educational-leaders-prepare-for-challenging-real-life-scenarios/). After all, the bad decisions I made did not harm or affect anyone like they would in the real world. The simulations allowed me to practice without consequences which is not the case once you get a leadership position and have to make these types of decisions daily.

Even though simulations are common in other fields. I knew that pilates use flight simulators, policemen have mock drills, and firemen run simulations as well, I never thought about using simulations in leadership. Even though the simulations are all different they all allow people to make high pressured decisions in places that there are no consequences. This is important because we learn though repetition, and simulations allow us to repeat situations over and over, so that when the real thing happens we are prepare, and we are just going through the motions that we have already taught ourselves through simulations

Brauckmann, S., Pashiardis, P., & Ärlestig, H. (2020). Bringing context and educational leadership together: fostering the professional development of school principals. Professional Development in Education, 49(1), 4–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2020.1747105

Simulation Technology Helps Aspiring Educational Leaders Prepare for Challenging Real-Life Scenarios (2022) Loyola Marymount University. https://newsroom.lmu.edu/campusnews/simulation-technology-helps-aspiring-educational-leaders-prepare-for-challenging-real-life-scenarios/

E-Rate and the Alabama Supercomputer Authority

The Alabama Supercomputer Authority (ASA) provides internet access to over 900 sites across the state including schools and libraries. The ASA covers any remaining funds after E-rate discounts for internet services for the base level bandwidth. In 2023 the base level bandwidth was 1.5 Gbps for a P-12 school, 1Gbps for a high school, and 500 Mbps for Elementary, Middle, and Primary schools.  The ASA also provides the ability for education facilities across the state to use a high performance computer system. The ASA is based in Hunstville, AL. Through their work in Alabama schools, libraries and other government entities are able to access much needed internet capabilities.

A supercomputer uses multiple CPU’s called nodes to handle complex computer operations. Instead of a web server that ryan at 10% of it’s capacity and is useful for small task A Supercomputer can use 100% of it’s resources to perform complex computations. The ASA currently has 7 nodes that are located in 4 locations across the state, to prevent any system-wide failure. The ASA has many different software and hardware elements that must all work together. A Linux based system is used to operate much of these components. dThe ASA also has many different layers of security that work together to fend off daily attempts at unauthorized use.

The ASA has been providing internet access to schools for over 35 years. Nowadays high-speed internet is very common. However, 25 years ago when I was in school most people didn’t even have dial-up. I can remember using the computer at school and only dreaming about being able to stream a video at home. In fact, the area I currently reside which is where I grew up at, has only had reliable high-speed internet in the last 5 years, unless you lived in town, and then it wasn’t near as fast as what is available now. High speed internet access is a very valuable tool in education, in fact many classrooms are sole dependent on internet nowadays. I know that when the internet goes out, everything in my class changes. Which is interesting because I rarely use the internet in many of my classes, but most of the tech I use requires connectivity to the internet. 

The cost to provide that type of connectivity to schools would be astronomical without the federal E-rate program. This is important, because only those schools that had alot of private funding would be able to provide their students with high speed internet, if the funding was left up to the school. This would create many areas where students would be at a disadvantage in today’s society. E-rate levels the playing field in internet access, and in Alabama the ASA provides the ability to connect those schools to the internet.

Alabama Supercomputer Authority. (n.d. ) Managed Internet/ Wan. accessed on 4/1/2025. https://www.asc.edu/service/managed-internet-wan#:~:text=ASA%20offers%20high%20speed%2C%20dedicated,increments%20from%20100Mbps%20to%2010Gbps.

Frazier, M. & Hearrington, D. (2024) The Technology Coordinator’s Handbook (Fourth Edition) Portland, Oregon: Internation Society for Technology in Education.

HPC System Design. (n.d.) Alabama Supercomputer Authority. Accessed on 3/31/2025. https://www.asc.edu/sites/default/files/2023-07/HPC_system_design_1_compressed.pdf

Leading Education in Financial Management

    

    According to an article written by Trisha Powell Cain, Alabama k-12 schools receive just over twelve thousands dollars per student in 2022-2023 school year. This amount was just barely enough to keep up with inflation. That seems like a lot of money coming into schools, until you account for the amount of money that is spent by schools. Everything from school supplies, teacher salaries, utilities, technology, and administrative cost. That millions of dollars for even the smallest of schools. All that money passing through school means that it is imperative that school administrators be capable of financial management. However, studies have shown, “school heads lack sufficient skills of managing school financial resources to enhance the quality provision of education. (Ephrahem, 2021)” There are a lot of important aspects of financial management that leaders in education need to consider. It is important to make every dollar matter as much as possible to allow the school to function at its most efficient. 

First, with an abundance of money coming in and going out of school districts, for many different purposes, It is important that leaders know how to collaborate and delegate responsibilities. The financial decisions in the school should not be left up to just one leader, but school officials should seek the input of staff, parents, and stakeholders to make sure that all needs are being met. Leaders should be getting people involved in the decision making progress at each level. After all, one leader cannot possibly know the needs of the entire school. Our school has a budget committee that makes budget recommendations every year to how curtain funds are going to be spent. This committee consists of administrators, teachers and staff. People rotate on and off of it every year. This morning we had a meeting to amend the recommendations of the budget committee because of some unforeseen reasoning. 

Leaders also need to understand the legal aspect of school finances and the ramifications of not meeting legal responsibilities. One example that was mentioned in this unit was the legal requirements to go through the bid process if the expenditure was going to meet the required threshold. I am not familiar with the bid process but as a teacher it seems confusing and at times unfair. After all, the point is that schools can get the best “bang for their buck”. However, many times the winners of the bids seem to provide a less than ideal product or service. Regardless of one's feelings about the bid process it is still the law, and needs to be followed. 

Leaders need to know how to keep careful track of the funds that come in and out of the school. Most school districts hire some expertise in this department, but it is still beneficial for leaders to have a little knowledge in record keeping, and technology that is used to keep up with the financial records. In fact, record keeping is one of the biggest areas that leaders are not trained appropriately for. At the end of the day, every decision made in a local school falls on the administrator. It is important that leaders know exactly what is going on.

School leaders need to work on collaboration, record keeping, and the legality of financial management. Every dollar that a school can save is a dollar that can be spent toward the important expenditures in the school setting. After all, we live in a world where so many times teachers have to use their own money to purchase materials for the classroom and have to send a long school supply list hom, hoping that some parent will buy a little extra. 

Ephrahem, G., & Bhoke-Africanus, A. (2021). Effectiveness of school heads’ financial management skills in provision of quality education in secondary school. International Journal of Education and Research, 9(3), 20-28.

Crain, T. (2024) Alabama K-12 spending barely keeping pace with inflation. Alabama Daily News. https://aldailynews.com/alabama-k-12-spending-barely-keeping-pace-with-inflation/

The Downside of Technology

There’s a lot of talk about how to infuse technology into the classroom. Teachers are constantly looking at new ways to incorporate technology in their daily classroom framework. I know that technology has definitely influenced the way I teach. Technology makes my job easier. My lesson plans are simpler, and I have to worry about less materials in the classroom because every student has a device. However, is this influence of technology as good as it seems? Are we allowing our students to participate in something that is destructive to not only them but society as a whole? One of the major questions we should ask is are our students or even ourselves given an opportunity to reach our full potential, or are we destined to whatever an algorithm chooses for us?

Technology has many benefits, but its over consumption can be detrimental to our health. Studies have shown that blue light keeps the body from releasing melatonin. This gives rise to sleeplessness in students. In a study done at Harvard University, it was observed that exposure to blue light suppresses melatonin twice as much as the same length of exposure to green light (Storm, 2021). The lack of sleep in a students life, has a negative impact on their physical well being. Sleepiness is just one issue to a student's health. As students spend more of their time in the digital world, their physical social interactions go down. A lack of sleeplessness, lack of social interaction, and other factors contribute significantly to a decline in students' mental health.  The switch to digital learning proved to bring a rise in temper tantrums and poor emotional regulation in the life of Elementary students.(Nichols, 2024) This is not even considering the effect of negative online interactions such as cyberbullying. 

Then another issue isn’t just a child’s mental health but what a child is becoming under the influence of technology. Technology is designed to be hyper addictive and quick rewarding. This lowers the ability of our students to pay attention in class. This also prevents them from being able to pay attention as they get older. I remember when I was in the children and youth ministry, I would have to rotate the lesson every 5 minutes when teaching children but not when teaching youth. Now as a teacher I noticed that even 12 th graders have the attention span of 1st graders 20 years ago. Technology has also taught our students that to interact in the civil world they have to sacrifice their privacy. They have become used to all their data being collected and stored. They have to log in and be monitored increasingly as technology becomes more prevalent. This constant monitoring creates a world where students do not understand the concept of what's private. Also digital environments tend to narrow a students exposure down to only what is being recommended to them by algorithms. Think of the implication there, no longer will our students reach their full potential but now they are at the mercy of an algorithm.  In these algorithms our students are told what to think and how to think. 

If our students are increasingly using technology in their everyday lives, what does that mean for society? One doesn’t have to think too hard to realize the negative implications that the previously mentioned dangers could have on society, but what about other societal harms. The use of algorithms in technology increasingly isolates us from differing views and ideas. As businesses and organizations buy the attention of users to promote their products and beliefs. When we think about the infusion of technology in a classroom we don’t consider this as a part of it. However, promoting technology is in fact promoting the ideas that come with the infusion of technology into society. In essence we are influencing our students to be a part of this type of society.  

It sounds all doom and gloom quite honestly. I am not trying to promote a classroom without technology. In fact, I don’t think that world is a possibility anymore, it would be nearly impossible to go back to a world that was not influenced by technology. If given the option I would not want to return that world either. After all there are so many positives that technology brings to the classroom and to society. However, the negatives are there, and it should have each one of us questioning how we use technology, and how we educate our students about technology. Technology is used best when it’s used as a tool to improve the lives of those using it. As a teacher, I need to really think about when and where I am going to use technology, and not just use technology because it’s the easiest or the coolest thing to do. Just as I go through my curriculum constantly deciding what is useful for my class and what isn’t, I need to pay close attention to what technology is beneficial and what isn’t. I think it would also be beneficial to promote physical social interactions in the classroom to counteract the absence of them in my student’s lives. Scott Widman makes a good point in the video above. We can prevent our students from using technology, so as teachers we have to teach and guide them in best practices when dealing with technology. Regardless of our feeling about technology it's not going away, and our students are already consumed with it.

Antero, G (April 2023) Technology might be making education worse. Stanford Report. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2023/04/technology-might-be-making-education-worse

Frazier, M. & Hearrington, D. (2024) The Technology Coordinator’s Handbook (Fourth Edition) Portland, Oregon: Internation Society for Technology in Education.

Nichol, M. (January 2024) Is Technology Ruining Schools? The Impact of Technology in Elementary School Classrooms. Arthur. https://www.trentarthur.ca/news/is-technology-ruining-schools

Strom, A. (2021). The Negative Effects of Technology for Students and Technology for Students and Educators. NW Commons: Masters’ Thesis and Capstone Projects. Northwestern College, IA. https://nwcommons.nwciowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1322&context=education_masters

UKEssays. (September 2021). Discussing the Negative Effects of Technology on Society. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/technology/negative-effects-of-technology-on-society.php?vref=1