1. MEDT 8461 Project 1 The Interview
by Alicia Stratton

2. In a face-to-face interview, I spoke with:
Sara Jones, Principal of Jackson Road Elementary School in Griffin, Georgia. She has been there 5 years and has upgraded the school with a great deal of technology during that time, including more computers, ActivBoards, LCD projectors, voting systems, and more.
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The School
Jackson Road is a Title I Distinguished School for the past 6 years
Student population is 70% free and reduced school lunch
450 students
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4. What is your definition of technological literacy?
“In 21st century schools, it means having the hardware and the software accessible at your fingertips for use and having an understanding of its use.”
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When you hear the phrase “technology integration” what does that mean to you?
“It means 24-hour access … Blackberries, smart phones ... it’s 24 hours on. Every media outlet we have – TV, radio, video gaming -- technology integration is there.
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  What principles should guide your approach for integrating technology into instruction?
“Well, I know as an adult I want to have fun in a stimulating environment. Why would we expect things to be any different for little human beings in our building?”
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7. How should technology be used in education?
“Kids are so technology-driven, it should be embedded in everything we do. Students know how to work all the technology. Even playaways hold their attention. We’re going to have to be doing that to keep their attention since they are used to bits of information flying at them all the time. We must shift with the times.”
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8. How is technology affecting the learning process?
“It affords them (students) the opportunity to make connections that are relevant to their lives. If you’re using something archaic to send information to be retained in their brain, it’s not going to work. You’re going to have to do it through a source that sparks their interest.”
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“If we know that real world connections are meaningful to kids, we better be connecting it to their world, not their grandmother’s world.”
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How do you identify the “key players” in the technology integration process and get them all to “buy into” what are you are trying to accomplish?
“Target your technology leaders and plan for the teaching of others in small increments. Create a trusting environment to learn just like we would with kids, but have the expectation that we WILL move forward.”
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11. What level of proficiency do you see at your school?
“We’re not there as an entire staff. We certainly have staff members who are exemplary, but we’re proficient, with pockets of highly proficient teachers.”
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12. What has been teacher response to your plans?
“They are clamoring for more. No one has ever said to me that they don’t want it. They are gracious and appreciative and wanting more all the time.”
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13. What has been student response to technology integration?
“Students appear more excited and engaged about the lessons when there is a technology element in it. They also enjoy it when they seem to know more about how to operate some aspect of technology than the teacher. It shows them that we are all still learning too.”
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What are some obstacles you have encountered when trying to integrate technology?
“The main ones are money, infrastructure issues, and an IT department that is not on the forward-thinking end of anticipating need as things change so frequently. Our IT department is so busy chasing the eight ball, rather than being in front of it.”
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15. Technology Integration Success Story:
“In one of our technology demonstration classes, the teacher has made great use of her Compucart. If we could link her use to test scores, I am sure we could correlate the fact that she had 100% meets/exceeds in math, whereas previous years were nowhere near the same results.
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Is that the only factor in her test results? No, but anytime you walked in there, the kids were engaged beyond belief.”
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What makes the difference between successful technology integration and a failed attempt?
“Followup -- we’re going to have to have built in professional learning.”
“Sharing where success and problems have occurred so no one feels alone.”
“Foster an open environment where we can say what’s not working.” 
“Scrapping what doesn’t work if you can’t find a way to make it work.”
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  What should you do if you are not convinced you can integrate technology successfully into your instruction?
“Find models to go and observe. When you see someone else doing it, you fee more confident about it.”
“Start with small pieces and build from there.”
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Sara Jones has really concentrated on getting more computers in the classrooms. She has purchased ncomputing systems (1 CPU which runs 4 monitors independently). She says, “I want to increase one-to-one correspondence between students and computers. With the ncomputing setup so many more kids can get on computers. They’re all doing unique things, individualized for them. You can’t do that with 2 computers in the classroom.”
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With Sara’s guidance, JRE’s grant-writing team (of which I am a part) wrote and submitted a Title IID technology literacy grant in May. It was announced last week that we received $94,000 to purchase technology for our school. This will include a laptop lab, video and digital cameras and so much more. We are supposed to have this up and running for the first day of school ! It is great to have a supportive principal like Sara Jones.
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