CBAM ProjectPart 1“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”--George Bernard ShawIntroduction: At the time of adoption, it was primarily chosen by the principal as a tool to provide a communication link between school and home. It was also hoped that teachers could work from home and not have to travel to school or meet with parents as often. The featured elements of FastDirect to meet that goal were email, online access to grade book, and posted planner announcements from individual classrooms. At implementation/adoption, teachers were asked by the principal to use the email module for parent correspondence, to post weekly on the planner using the same information they sent home on newsletters, and to keep the gradebook assignments posted at least a week in advance so that parents could see upcoming tests and assignments before they were given. As those assignments were graded and recorded, the parents could view their child’s progress. There were two in-service sessions with the innovation resource at implementation. There was one for the principal and me, and then one with the faculty. The principal and I acted as facilitators at the faculty session. For this assignment, I created a checklist and asked the principal to examine it. He is the innovator that researched the program and he asked my opinion of it three years ago when he was considering adoption. FastDirect Component Outline (1st draft)
He suggested breaking down the Communication components into separate categories because each one fulfills a purpose that the others cannot, and he suggested making the Planner part of the Communication component.
After presenting the principal with this, a second and more structured IC Checklist, he suggested I add “hardware” to the accessibility component. The only Accessibility component change between the second and final draft is the addition of hardware to the Accessibility component. Also, I decided to add a Usage component because he had expressed exasperation at having to help a particular teacher use some features that she could easily resolve herself. I struggled for the best way to state Unacceptable in the Usage Issues, finally deciding that after having an hour-long in-service session and a Help function available on the program, teachers should be able to resolve issues without requiring further demonstration. The principal agreed with this final checklist:
Final IC Checklist:
Part 2: Data Collection by Observation and Google Docs Survey I asked for permission to login and view the online Planner and Gradebook, and it was granted. I was able to observe the Planner postings and Grade Book postings (only of assignments, not actual grades) of everyone. Then I sent out a survey via email of selection and open-ended questions to teachers of grades 1-8. My data came from a personal interview with the principal, who is also the 8th grade algebra teacher, and survey responses from grades 3 and 6, as well as all the observations I was able to make on FastDirect. They are all home room teachers and meet with parents on a regular basis. Principal’s Observed Use (as the 7th & 8th grade homeroom teacher): 1st Grade Teacher’s Observed Use 2nd Grade Teacher’s Observed Use 3rd Grade Teacher’s Observed Use 4th Grade Teacher’s Observed Use 5th Grade Teacher’s Observed Use 6th Grade Teacher’s Observed Use
Survey Draft of Survey Questions:
The live survey link: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHpCclRYOGk2YTM4NHhWcURYek1EQUE6MA Data Collection 3rd Grade Teacher 6th Grade Teacher
Report of Data Collection While I was able to observe data, it is important to note that not having assignments posted on the Planner does not indicate that there are no assignments listed in the Gradebook. Only the teacher and parents can actually view the complete Gradebook, and I was not able to observe it. Teachers were asked to check the “include assignments on the Planner” checkbox, and it is possible that some teachers fail to check this. However, this does mean that they are not using that available feature after they were requested to, and that in itself indicates a less-than-optimal use of the FastDirect program. Only the principal consistently uses the Communication: Gradebook feature for advance assignments. The 6th grade teacher has her current assignments listed on the Planner in writing. The 3rd grade teacher is not using two major Communication components. She thinks the program is terrific for our parent communication, yet she is not using it as such. Her survey comments are especially supportive of the features of the Gradebook and how helpful they are to her as a teacher. I was surprised to see that the principal had not listed any classroom activities in the Planner for the month of December, especially since he knew I was observing. One of the reasons for this may be because he teaches the middle school age students, and they do not have as many classroom parties or assignments that require parental involvement. The areas he must deal with parents the most often involve grades, and he is optimally using those features for communication. The Communication: Email feature was optimal for all surveyed users in the group. This is certainly a helpful fact that can be reported back to the principal. Altogether, it’s my opinion that while the program could certainly be improved upon for communication, it is used acceptably.
Part 3: Stages of Concern The 6th grade teacher’s stages became apparent to me during a conversation, post survey, in the hallway. She is a young mother with children in the school who is very conscientious of the benefits of using the program, but struggles keeping her required communication for parents up to date, which is an SoC3, Management Concern. Time management is a weekly task that she must attack because she also feels the consequences of the impact on her student and parent relationships, which is an SoC4, Consequence Concern. On her survey, she also wrote “I like that it (FastDirect) gives the parents a tool to keep connected to their children’s progress. As an educator, you have to keep current or you’re accountable for it.” I think it’s quite possible that many of the teachers have SoC4 anxiety from offhand comments I have heard. The principal indicated by email exchange that he has SoC5, Collaboration Concerns. Since he is the innovator, he feels the financial responsibility for the program being implemented soundly, and he must run interference with parents that are unhappy with teacher’s use of the program. He stated in his survey that “It is a positive recruitment tool when talking with prospective families,” which supports my questions to him about all the teachers using the program effectively throughout the school year. He realizes that having the program and all users not adopting fully is a general reflection on his abilities as a manager of the faculty and also as the innovator, which in turn can inhibit recruitment and desired student enrollment at a parochial school.
Part 4: Levels of Use Having been on Ground Zero with the group innovator, the principal, I chose to track his levels of use of the innovation. He first initiated conversation about adopting FastDirect almost three years ago after reading about it. He asked me my opinion of the innovation and made the decision to implement it only in the upper grades. This was Decision Point A for him, and he and I both worked through all the Decision Levels together: the Orientation (contact with the Resource System, at which point he decided to implement it school wide, based on its relative expense), Preparation through in-service, and Mechanical Use of actual implementation and demonstration as facilitator. At this point it appears he has reached Decision Point E, Level V Integration, based on his requesting me to insert additional questions in the online survey. He does receive feedback, but mainly from parents. It is more difficult for him to obtain much more than casual feedback from teachers because he was the innovator and he is in an authoritative position, which makes them more reluctant to be freely expressive. When I return to school, I would like to persuade him to move towards Decision Point F, a Renewal of how the program is implemented. I think it would be beneficial to attend in-services more often so that the innovation’s various features can be explored deeply. We could discuss and demonstrate faster ways to adopt it. For one, I think showing the teachers how to write up all their newsletters on a word processor every week and then copying and pasting their text to FastDirect would speed up the innovation’s use dramatically. Many of our teachers are doing twice what they could do in one action. We must continue ways to further enhance the use of technology within all levels of our school building, no matter how handicapped some teachers may feel. We must enable them to use the program effectively. Close this page to return to Reflection |
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