This case study describes one professional development approach to support technology integration at all public schools in one large county in central Virginia. Using data obtained from daily time logs, the frequency of Instructional Technology Resource Teacher (ITRT) use by classroom teachers was analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to describe overall percentage of ITRT use, the various types of professional development requested by teachers, the consistency of those activities over time, and if the frequencies of activities varied as a function of school level, Title I status at the elementary level, or subject area taught by teachers at the secondary level. Qualitative data was collected via focus group interviews of the involved ITRTs, and an exploratory attempt to understand the reasons behind their use was made. Data indicated that ITRTs were used 52% of the time offered with 5% variation over 3 years. Across school levels, ITRT time was used more at the secondary level and use varied no more than 9% over time. Google Apps for Education and web-based programs represented 73% of the training requests. Over time, fluctuations in the number of requests for assistance with different applications were explained by contextual factors. Elementary schools classified as Title I accounted for 23% of the total time elementary ITRTs were used. At the secondary level, teachers of science and language arts requested ITRT assistance more often. ITRTs made sense of these results by identifying first order barriers as more influential than second order barriers. Of these, access barriers were the most frequently cited barrier by the ITRTs followed by subject culture, institution, assessment, attitude and beliefs, and knowledge and skills. Elementary ITRTs cited more instances of barriers than secondary. Recommendations for practice and future research were made.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-5677 |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| Creators | Sepelyak, Mary |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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