1. Shawn Telford’s Personal Technology Plan
Vision
My vision for technology in education begins with
knowledgeable, trained teachers. Teachers need
to feel competent about using technology
themselves before they will truly integrate it into
their everyday teaching. While teacher training is
one of seven action steps in the National
Education Technology Plan, I think it is the most
important. Without teacher training and buy-in,
new technology initiatives have little chance of success. A combination of pre-service
training for new teachers and in-service training for current teachers is the place to start.
Unfortunately, high-stakes testing has pushed technology to the back burner in many
districts. What is being overlooked is that technology can be an effective tool for getting
students more interesting in content and curriculum. Today’s students are growing up
in a digital world and often find school to be disconnected from the rest of their lives.
Also, with the right technological applications scores might actually increase. In my
most recent Tech and Learning magazine (February 2010), there was an article about
1:1 computing where student writing scores showed dramatic increases in one
semester after students began using netbooks.
Before beginning my classes for the Technology Certificate at Michigan State
University, I considered myself to be technologically savvy. My classes have been a
huge eye-opener to the things that are available to teachers that I had no idea even
existed. Teachers in my building (and I’m sure in schools everywhere) have no idea
what they are missing regarding technology in the classroom. My eyes were opened to
using wikis, blogs, RSS aggregators, creating free surveys, and a ton of other things.
Now I feel the need to share my knowledge with my staff to bring them along into the
21st century classroom.
The most important and often challenging part of getting teachers to use technology is
getting them to use it in meaningful ways. Technology needs to be more than an “Oh,
wow!” moment for teachers and students. It needs to be connected to the curriculum.
Teachers do not have time to add one more thing to their day, unless it helps them
make something easier or faster or gets better results than something they are already
using. I would like to get other teachers as excited as I am about the possibilities for
adding technology into the classroom.
Getting teachers excited about using technology would involve high quality, continuous
training about technology integration in the classroom. It would be focused on the
shawntelford@yahoo.com
Page 1

2. needs of different grade levels – early elementary, upper elementary, middle school,
and high school. Teachers would then be asked to participate in the decision making
regarding future technology purchases and training. This would allow for the money to
be spent on the technology that best meets the needs of educators, thus increasing the
chances it would be used to its fullest potential.
Of course, pitfalls exist with most new initiatives. Cost and time are the two biggest
challenges to technology integration and improvement. Adding technology hardware
and software is expensive and new things are coming out all of the time. My district
cannot keep up with having computers in the lab that are
powerful enough to take advantage of many of the web-
based applications that currently exist. It can be hard to
justify making purchases that may be obsolete in a couple of
years. It also costs money for the staff to maintain new
equipment purchases. Then there is the issue of time.
There is never enough of that either. Using teacher training
time for technology can be a hard sell when test scores drive
everything. The precious time available for professional development is limited, but if
we are to reach our students and prepare them for jobs of the future, training devoted to
technology is imperative.
I hope to use what I am learning to get other educators as excited as I am about
integrating technology into their everyday teaching life and provide the best education
possible for the students of today and tomorrow.
Current Use of Educational Technology
In my classroom I am trying to incorporate more technology as time, resources, and
curriculum allow. This year my district made a huge technological leap by installing
Interactive Whiteboards and document cameras in our classrooms. Prior to that, the
only technology in my room was one computer, an overhead projector, and a television
with VCR. Of course, there is a computer lab down the hall, but that doesn’t allow for
true integration of technology into the daily curriculum. The only thing missing with our
new technology was adequate and timely training on how to truly get the most out of the
new equipment.
In my elementary building we are doing a professional development program on writing.
During staff meetings and other professional development days we watch videos and
discuss readings that we have done prior to the P.D. meetings. In an attempt to create
more opportunities for discussion, I set up a blog for the staff to use to chat about the
readings in between meetings. This way we can share our thoughts and ideas when it
shawntelford@yahoo.com
Page 2

3. is convenient and we also have a record of this “conversation” to refer back to at a later
date.
In my classroom this year I have taken advantage of a great free website called
Spellingcity.com. With this site I am able to add our weekly spelling lists and have them
saved on the site for students to access. Students are able to get on the site from
home, provided they have a computer with Internet
access, to practice their spelling words. The students
can play a variety of games using the words they need
to know in my classroom. I showed them how to use
the site in class using the IWB and then they had a
chance to use the site during one of our computer lab
times.
The WebQuest that I created for CEP811 was
designed for use in my second grade classroom during our science unit on water. I
would like to have them try the WebQuest in March to see how the students respond
and if it is an efficient method of content delivery for young students.
As I continue to learn about educational technology, I continue to implement and
experiment with using my new knowledge in the classroom. I hope to use what I know
to work smarter, not harder while still delivering high quality curriculum to students.
Hardware and devices used regularly:
Cell phone
Copiers
Desktop computer at work and home
Digital camera
Document camera
eInstruction Students Response System (aka, clickers)
Flash drives
iPod
Laptop computer at home and for travel
Polyvision Walk-and-Talk Interactive Whiteboard
Printers
Scanner
Technology /Software Applications used regularly:
Blogging – Edublogs, Blogger
Collaboration – Wikispaces, Zoho, Google Docs
Database, analysis – Excel
Photos – Photoshop Elements,
Planning /Brainstorming– bubble.us
shawntelford@yahoo.com
Page 3

4. Podcasting – Audacity
Presentation – PowerPoint, Publisher
RSS feeds – Netvibes
Student records – Pinnacle
Surveys – SurveyMonkey
Web browsing – Internet Explorer, Firefox
Web design – Dreamweaver
Word processing – Word, Google Docs, Zoho Writer
Personal Plan to Increase Technology Knowledge
Earn Master’s in Educational Technology – I am continuing my classes through
Michigan State and hope to be finished with my program in the summer of 2011.
Dreamweaver class – In an effort to be more knowledgeable and less frustrated using
Dreamweaver, I am taking an Adult Education class through Kendall College. It is a ten
week class beginning March 6, 2010.
Staff Inservicing – One way to become more familiar and comfortable with using
technology is to teach others how to use it. I have become a crusader for increasing
technology use in my elementary building. There is a definite divide between digital
natives and digital immigrants (Prensky, 2001) in my building. I have already created a
Professional Development blog and taught staff how to use it, presented to staff on
Netvibes, and will be co-presenting about Wikispaces. I hope to continue to train staff
as time allows.
Personal Professional Development – Using my RSS aggregator, I plan to keep up
with the latest information regarding educational technology. I am also a member of
MACUL and ISTE. I read relevant magazines – Tech and Learning, THE Journal, and
other professional books and literature on educational technology. I am a firm believer
in being a lifelong learner.
Conferences – I will be attending MACUL 2010 for two days in March. I hope to
continue to attend relevant conferences and workshops in the area of educational
technology.
Photos courtesy of Dreamstime.com
shawntelford@yahoo.com
Page 4