Running head: TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR

Technology Program Administrator

William Foster
FRIT 7739
Georgia Southern University
Part A: Program Evaluation

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Executive Summary
The Banks County High School Media Center is located in Homer Ga inside
the campus of Banks County High School. This media center serves the entire
population of the high school which is approximately 944 students. The media
center serves two functions. It houses books and other paper-based research
materials. Students can check out books and other materials through the main desk
in the media center. The media center also serves the technology needs of the
teachers and students of the high school. The media center inventories and houses
all technological resources available for students and teachers to check out. This
includes but is not limited to calculators, computer mice, document viewers, simple
graphics tablets, Mimeo equipment, movies, laptops, projectors, mobile television
carts, teacher iPads, and student-use Nooks. The media center also handles all
reservations of computer labs and iPad carts. All of the items listed above are
available for check out in the media center. While there are a lot of technological
resources available, the media center lacks the tools and the staff to appropriately
and effectively train staff and students to use these technologies to their potential.
The media center is funded through the state and the budget is supplemented
through proceeds made during the book fairs that are held twice a year. The media
specialist is tasked with both managing all of the resources of the media center with
minimal help as well as serving the school as the first line of help when there are
technology problems. She also leads professional development sessions on
technology resources acquired by the school for teachers use. While she is effective
in this position, the media center would benefit from a broader staff more able to

handle the diverse job description that exists for a media specialist in a small rural
high school.
Methods
For this evaluation, multiple sources were used in order to gather the appropriate
data. Interviews of the media specialist were conducted. Observations of the media
center and the daily tasks of the media
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center were used. Information was gathered from the media center website. Visits
to the various labs that are run by the media center were conducted.
Center Context and Goals
The media center was built along with the school in 1985. In the beginning the
center served primarily as a traditional library. It was not until recently that the
center changed its focus to the technological needs of the school. When the current
media specialist moved into the position the focus of the media center began to
change. She brought in more technology experience and thus more tasks involving
technology were put on her and the media center. The mission of the media center
is to develop lifelong readers and effective users of information. The goals of the
media center are numerous but in the short the media center seeks to provide
intellectual and physical access to information. The center wants to work
cooperatively with students and teachers to use the resources of the center for
learning purposes. The center also wants to work to provide experiences which
encourage lifelong learning. Lastly, the media center seeks to provide freedom of

information to students because that is a key to responsible citizenship. The

stakeholders in this center are the teachers and administrators who use the media
center and its resources to further the learning experiences of their students. The
stakeholders are also the students and their parents who benefit from the resources
and access to information the media center provides. There are two staff members
in the media center. Their positions and responsibilities are listed below:
-

Media Specialist- The Media Specialist is a full time staff position. She is in
charge of managing the media center and all the equipment and activities it
is involved in. She makes purchasing decisions for the media center and the
technology department as it relates to the high school. She answers help
desk tickets and manages the media center web site. She oversees the

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reservations of technology resources. She also works with teachers to
conduct lessons on research and Google Apps . She also works in conjunction
with teachers and administrators to develop and lead professional
-

development opportunities for teachers in the high school.

Media Center Paraprofessional- This is a full time position. The Media Center
Paraprofessional is mainly responsible for managing the media center desk
and the activities that occur there. She helps people check out books. She
also assists teachers in checking out technology resources needed for their
classrooms. Once a year she is responsible for running inventory of all the
technological resources in the high school building.

The current status of the media center itself is that it houses around 7500 books.
It also contains 17 computers for student use and 2 computers for media center

staff use. It contains one copier/scanner as well as one printer for student use and 1
printer for staff use. The media center manages and at times houses 9 iPads carts.
Each card holds between 30 and 40 iPad tablets. The media center maintains and
manages 9 computer labs throughout the school. The computer labs each hold 40
Lenovo desktop computers for students use. The media center also manages one
desktop computer in each classroom for student use. Among the computer labs, 6
are open for reservation and 3 are business class labs. The Lenovo desktops in 3 of
the labs and 1 of the business classrooms are 3 years old. The rest of the desktop
computers in the school are 8 years old. The media center inventories all teacher
laptops as well. The laptops are Lenovo ThinkPads and they are all 8 years old.
There are approximately 60 of these laptops managed by the media center.
Center Activities
The media center has numerous activities that are managed by the media center
and most inside of the media center. They are listed below.
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-

Google Apps- The school uses Google Apps for most teacher and student
related tasks. The media center manages and holds multiple professional
development sessions on different Google Apps. The center also sends out
tech tips approximately twice of month informing teachers of new and useful
Google tools, add-ons, and extensions. The media center also teaches lessons
to certain classes on how to use Google Apps to complete projects and work
collaboratively.

Cart and Lab Reservations- The media center managing all reservations of
iPad carts and computer labs. They can be reserved through the media center

website or in person inside the center.

Help Desk- The media center handles help desk tickets. The media specialist
is the Tier 1 of help desk tickets. She can be contacted and will submit the
ticket herself when she addresses the problem. Depending on the situation
the technology is either brought to the center or the media specialist will go

to the technology.
Galileo- The media center handles all training on Galileo. The media center
also teaches students how to use the site. The media center is in charge of

managing the distributing the password.

Inventory- The media center handles all inventory for the school. They
inventory every technological device once a year and house what they need
to in the media center over the summer break. The center also inventories
and manages any new resource brought into the school.

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-

Mastery Connect and Study Island- The media center handles all training on
Mastery Connect and Study Island for teachers and students. The media
specialist is the administrator over this software and contacts the software

company if problems arise.

Media Check-Out- The center handles all check out procedures for teachers
and students when they need to check out resources from the center itself.
Evaluation

I think the media center runs as smoothly as it can with the small staff it has.
The media center is the only resource for technology problems and advice in the
school. The media center also manages the majority of the professional
development sessions in the school whether they are directly related to the center
or not. The media center is doing a great job of encouraging technological use and
training as best it can the teachers and students who are using the technology. The
center holds book fairs in order to raise money for the center and purchase more
technological resources. Since the change in the focus the center has begun to
prepare students and teachers for a future where technological fluency will be vital
for success in the workplace. It is becoming more of a necessity for teachers
because of the increased role technology is playing in classrooms. This is in part
because the center is informing teachers of new ways to both manage their
classrooms and form their lessons that use technology in innovative and creative
ways.
The technology center is working as efficiently as possible, but it is limited by
both by funding and human resources. With only two staff members it is difficult for
the center to effectively meet all the demands of the school. Often times help desk
tickets stay open for extended periods of time because the funding is not there to
fix the issue or additional human support is needed. The center

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bears the burden of being responsible for hardware and software technological
issues, which it is often not prepared to solve. Given these challenges I think the
center operates as effectively as it can.
Recommendations
I believe the center could benefit greatly from the addition of another staff
member. This staff member should be focused on addressing the instructional
technology aspects of the center. The staff member would focus on working with
teachers and students to create more effective learning experiences using
technology. While they would answer some helpdesk tickets, they would focus
mainly on the instructional side of technology implementation and not as much on
the hardware side. This would free up the existing staff to manage the resources of
the center and solve helpdesks tickets when they come open. It would also allow
the media specialist to focus more on acquiring new technologies with the existing
funds to further expand the resources the center can provide its stakeholders.
I also think the center must focus on working more with the community to
access more resources and funds for the school. I think there should be an
increased focus on grant writing as a way to gain more technology resources
dedicated to improving learning experiences. I also think involving the community in
the activities of the center would promote technology use in the county and
hopefully lead more individuals and businesses to support the center financially.
This would look like fundraisers that focus on getting attention to the technological
work done by students at the school through media based competitions and shows
where the public is invited to attend. I think this would do a lot to increase funding
as well as support for the center and the work it does in the school.

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Appendix A
Center Observation
Date: 10/11/16
Lesson: Brit Lit: Lesson on Google Apps

During this observation a class of 12th grade students entered to media

center. They took a seat and all got an iPad from the cart in the media center. The
media specialist connected her computer to the projector and began to walk the
students through how to create a Google Doc and share that Google Doc with other
students. She had to begin with showing them how to log in with their school ID and
lunch code. She explained that the program was similar to Microsoft Word and
would allow groups to work on the same document at the same time. Once she
finished her lesson on Google Docs she explained that the students could save any
information they find on their Google Drive and it would not matter if they got on a
different computer the next time they entered the center because their information
would be on their Drive. Students originally had trouble accessing the apps, but
once they were logged on the students navigated the app with relative ease. The
teacher and the media specialist moved around the center giving advice and
answering questions about the use of Google Drive on the project the students were
working on.

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Appendix B
Faculty Interview
Date: 11/8/16
Interviewee: Vicki Martin (Media Specialist)
Questions:
1. What are the daily activities of the media center?
2. What tasks other than the ones I have observed do you have?
3. If you could have designed the center differently, what would you change?
4. What about the current tech-request system do you find good/bad? Why?
5. How has the job description changed since you became media specialist?
6. What changes would you like to made the operations of the media center?
7. What type of training that you conduct do you think positively affect the
teachers the most?
8. What does the chain of command look like for you?
9. How do you balance technology department tasks with tasks placed on you
by the school/administration?