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Administrator Interview: Keisha Crosby

I sent out an e-mail to an administrator at a Boulder City elementary school, and did not

get a response, I am assuming due to their busy schedule. I was sitting at a friends house, telling

her of the trouble I was having, because I hadnt heard back from the administrator I originally

contacted. She informed me that she was an administrator at a private school in Henderson, for a

year, 2012 2013. She agreed to an interview. Here is how that went:

AH: What was your position, and at what school?

KC: Green Valley Christian School, Assistant Principle

AH: Did your school have a technology plan?

KC: We did have a technology plan, it was limited because the students were very young,

we did incorporate iPads and tablets, as well as computer time.

AH: Who created the plan and how were they related to each other?

KC: We had someone from the primary school create the program, he was kind of an IT/

Technology Assistant Director for the whole program. He worked closely with myself and one of

the teachers to format how we had each age range interacting with the technology.

AH: What are some of the items included in the technology plan?

KC: We had iPads. We also had them learning to type on older computers so that the keys

were more prominent and easy for their small fingers to navigate.

AH: How were the decisions made as to what technology should be purchased and where

they should be placed in the school?


KC: After having small control groups with each age range, we talked with the Technologies

Assistant Director about how each age range interacted with each piece of technology. For [the

older kids] it worked better to use a traditional computer to understand how to use a computer

and to grasp typing [skills], whereas [the younger kids] were just learning how to write, the

traditional computer was more difficult for them to get used to.

She also talked about how their school worked directly with Apple to make large

purchases, and how the company helped them find apps which helped the students learn but to

remain independent from the technology and can retain the information, rather than relying on

the tablet to do all the work.

AH: If a teacher wanted a technology for their classroom, what is the process they had to

go through?

KC: Any purchasing for any new materials they wanted to try, be it a program, app or

different technology, they had to submit a plan of action and how they were going to use it in the

class, as well as a form, which were submitted to me, and then I submitted them to our

Technology Assistant, and finally it went through our principal.

AH: If a problem arises with a technology in the classroom, who does the teacher turn to

for support? How long would the issues take to be resolved?

KC: A teacher could email or call myself, or the principal, we would then contact IT. I let

them know what the issue was and it could generally be resolved within that day, the next at the

latest. As a smaller school, we were fortunate because our issues could be resolved within the

day.
AH: What kind of professional development courses or workshops are available for

teachers to learn how to use hardware and software? How often are they offered to

teachers?

KC: We had teacher work days once every semester where we would introduce anything

new, and introduce the teachers to the technologies, as well as how we expected it to be used,

and give them the tools to apply it best to each student because not every child responds the

same way to each technology. We also had refresher courses available once every quarter, where

IT would show the teachers how to handle the new updates, and any software they were unsure

of.

AH: Is there a technology committee active in the school? How much input do they have

on decision making?

KC: We did not have a technology committee per se, but we did have a board of directors

that we answered to and generally anything we were planning to do, whether technology or

otherwise, did have to be approved, prior to implementation.

AH: Are there any events or activities that involve the community with the schools

technology?

KC: We did have parent teacher nights where we would select children who best interacted

with the technology to demonstrate to all the parents what they were learning. We also had

Family Fridays once a month, kind of like a Dads and Donuts, where we had breakfast, and it

was another occasion for the kids to showcase, or for the parents to give us any ideas through a

30min Q&A in their childs classroom, to get the parent feedback.

AH: What are the schools best features related to technology in learning?
KC: Our best featurewas definitely the software that we were able to use and the stations

and structure that was given to our students. Each section of technology learning was well

ordered, well maintained, and well instructed to each child on [the technologys] use. Each

classroom had a maximum of ten [iPads, per 25 students] so it was a work station, as opposed to

a play station, because of the limited number of tablets per class.

AH: What is the schools greatest problem or challenge?

KC: Probably the most lacking was the hardware for the older children. It was a bit more

difficult to get the board to approve a lot of hardware, as far as computer towers and keyboards

and things of that nature, just because even in an educational environment kids can be mildly

destructive, to which we both chuckled, We only had 5 computers to share amongst the whole

kindergarten program.

AH: How many kids was that?

KC: We had six teachers and 25 28 children per teacher. Just in case you were

wondering, thats five computers for up to 168 students. So, our [kindergarteners] did not get

to practice typing every week, it was generally on a bi-monthly basis, even then it was limited.

Each kid got maybe 20- 30 mins, not including their iPad usage, this is only per traditional

computer use, As everything is moving toward more computer based [programming], I felt that

it was more important that they learn how to type.

AH: Do you feel that a digital divide exists among schools in the school district?

KC: Our technology department allowed us to interact more with other schools, we were

fortunate enough to go another school and see how they implemented their technology program
with their younger students, and learn from their best practices and their mistakes. As a smaller

school, we had more of a bridge than a divide with other schools.

AH: How can the schools and teachers ensure that all students have an equal opportunity

to learn how to use computers while enrolled in school?

KC: I think it comes down to teachers speaking up when they require something. That is not

always going to be granted. The funding is not always there. However, as a teacher, you have the

power to impart on your administrators on how extremely important it is for a child to have the

basic necessities, such as a computer, to learn to type, communicate, and what is safe. Especially

since we were teaching them at an early age, there were a lot of safe guards on our technology.

Also, its important for those teachers, and parents, to say where they feel that a child is lacking.

You can teach a child through failure, that just because they failed once doesnt mean theyre

going to fail again.

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