Virginia\u27s Instructional Technology Resource Teacher Program: Ten Years Later, What We Know, -Where Do We Need to Go?

VIRGINIA’S INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE TEACHER PROGRAM: TEN YEARS LATER, WHAT WE KNOW, WHERE DO WE NEED TO GO? By Cherise Ann Hodge, PhD A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2017 Director: Dr. Whitney Newcomb, Professor, Educational Leadership In 2004, Virginia’s Department of Education (VDOE) identified the need for technology integration in instruction to meet the needs of the 21st century student. For this to happen effectively, Virginia legislators authorized and funded an instructional position, the Instructional Technology Resource Teacher (ITRT), for each 1000 students in Virginia’s 132 school divisions (Virginia Standards of Quality [SOQ], 2004). The VDOE established guidelines for this position to direct school division implementation. Primary responsibilities for the position involve activities relating to teacher professional development. Virginia divisions chose varying models for deploying the ITRT to meet this requirement. In 2012, the legislature edited the directive for the position to give localities the option to use the position as an ITRT, as a data coordinator, or as both positions (Virginia Standards of Quality, 2012). This study uses survey data to determine how ITRTs are spending their time, ten years after the implementation of the program. Survey data was compared to data collected by Hooker (2006) and the guidelines for the position as published by the Virginia Department of Education (Virginia Department of Education [VDOE], 2008). Major findings indicate that ITRTs are still spending time on tasks that are not specified in the published guidelines. This study’s data correlate with the data gathered by Hooker (2006) following the first year of the implementation of the SOQ

Assessing technology literacy: The Case for an authentic, project-based learning approach

This whitepaper takes a comprehensive look at the research, policies, and practices of technology literacy in K-12 settings in the United States. It builds a research-based case for the central importance of doing as part of technology literacy, meaning more than just being able to answer canned questions on a test. It also explores the current approaches to develop meaningful assessment of student technology literacy at a national, state, and local level, including TechYES