Sun Associates News -- June, 2000


Sun Associates News

Welcome to the first issue of Sun Associates News, a monthly newsletter of ideas and tips on making the most of your school district's educational technology resources.

Each month we will focus on a different aspect of educational technology and its impact on teaching and learning. We invite you to contact us with any comments, ideas, or questions about educational technology that you'd like us to share with other educators through this newsletter. Send your correspondence to http://www.sun-associates.com/contact.html

One of our areas of expertise at Sun Associates is evaluating technology's impact on education. We work with school districts across the country -- from Massachusetts to Kentucky to the U.S. Virgin Islands -- to collect the data that's needed to inform decisions about technology and staff development planning.

About this Issue -- Surveys

In this introductory issue of Sun Associates News, our focus is on technology evaluation, and in particular SURVEYS. Data collection is a key part of an evaluation project. The idea is to turn the stories teachers tell about technology into information that can be used for technology and staff development planning. How do you get the information you need? In addition to interviews and classroom observations, surveys can be an effective tool for information gathering.

We've worked with several school districts to implement surveys as part of an evaluation project. Over the course of these projects, we've found that there are a few helpful hints about surveys that make sense for any school district, regardless of its size or location.  Check out our Tips for Survey Success at http://www.sun-associates.com/news/surveytips
 

Considering an online teacher survey? Online surveys can be an efficient way of collecting data from a large number of teachers...particularly if your district has a well-developed network which offers all teachers WWW connectivity. Here's an example (http://www.sun-associates.com/eval/samples/samplesurv.html) of an online survey developed for one of our evaluation clients.

For more information about surveys to school stakeholders, visit the following resources:

An Educator's Guide to Evaluating the Use of Technology in Schools and Classrooms

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdTechGuide/

Produced by the U.S. Department of Education originally to help schools evaluate the impact of their Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF) projects, this guide offers a common sense approach to measuring your progress towards meeting the goals and objectives of your technology program.

Learning Technologies Teacher Survey

http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/pd/tchcap/ltts.htm

Developed by the Department of Education in the state of Victoria, Australia, this survey provides a format that schools can adapt to local circumstances in order to develop information about:
From Now On

http://www.fno.org/

Jamie MacKenzie's web site offers insightful articles related to the "big picture" of technology integration, a number of articles on instructional technology assessment.

Survey of Technology Profiling Tools

http://www.seirtec.org/publications/profile.html

Produced by the Southeast and Islands RTC, this is a handy matrix of technology profiling tools useful at the school and district level. While we always caution educators to develop their OWN, unique, evaluations, there is value in taking a look at what state and national organizations feel is important in terms of indicators and benchmarks for technology use.


Got a question about surveys or the technology evaluation process in general? Email us at http://www.sun-associates.com/contact.html.

We hope you found this issue of Sun Associates News useful.  If for any reason you would rather not receive future issues of Sun Associates News, please send email to http://www.sun-associates.com/contact.html.