Individual Technology Assessment

   My personal technology assessment is average. I am fortunate to have seen and experienced many technology changes as my children grew up. I changed with them. The older child had less technology experience while the younger child has had lifetime technology experience, even though they are just six years apart.
   I felt I was a leader of technology at school. I always wanted to be the first at trying new technology things. It started in the mid 90's with a computer incentive program. If you were selected and attended training, you were awarded a computer, TV, VCR, printer, and Aver key setup for your classroom. At that time, you had to setup your system yourself and install the provided programs. But as more computers were added to the district, so were the controls. So setup virtually has become non-existent and installing programs yourself has gone too. I feel that where this was once a strength it has become a weakness for myself and teachers in the district. We have come to rely on a few selected people to solve our everyday problems of technology. It not only applies to computers, but projectors, printers, cameras, and other technology tools.
   Also, I was trained on Smart boards, cameras, individual response clickers, new software, or new programs. The weakness is there is no or limited access to these things or never enough time to learn how to use them effectively in your classroom.
   For the past three years I have followed the district's plan to improve at technology. I feel reaching Level 3 is one of my other strengths. I attended technology workshops after school hours. I  used the school website and posted things on the website. I was asked for advice by other teachers on troubleshooting their computer problems because of this.
    I decided to ask my very technology adult child what he felt was my strengths and weaknesses in technology. He said I was very good at "Print Shop" type things. I laughed because he must have always seen me making certificates for my students. He said my weakness was that I did not google for answers before I asked him. I have to agree with that. He has been my strength to technology and I need to let him go and become more confident in my own ability to solve my own technology problems.
    My best strength that I will use is my willingness and eagerness to learn new technology, and to try new things like Facebook, or blogging or tweeting. I will address my biggest weakness by looking and finding technology solutions on my own first.