1. Laurie Roberts
May 29, 2009
ITEC 8530
Article Summaries
Grimes, R., & Smith, S. (2004, January). The Impact of Standards- Based Technology
Professional Development. T.H.E. Journal. Retrieved May 29, 2009, from
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/16588
Research Article
Summary
This article started off by explaining the background of the study that they
completed. They wanted to see how much of an effect on the classroom that technology
standards- based professional development would have. They used Bloomsfield’s four
stages of technology as criteria to go by. They then chose 10 classroom teachers to be
technology coaches. The coaches had some requirements that they had to complete. One
of the requirements was that they had to attend workshops. When this first began, the
teachers were asked to complete a survey. When it was over, they were asked to
complete the survey again. The results were that after implementing technology
professional development, a gain was shown in the usage and implementation of the
NETS by district level teachers.
Critique
I felt like this was a beneficial article. This would help us all come up with ways
that we can learn about technology and then share ideas about implementing it into the
classroom. I feel that any media specialist or technology specialist would benefit from
reading this article because it gives a background of professional development and shows

2. results of the professional development being implemented. I also felt that it was very
interesting and portrayed some important information. I think that this was a useful article
because it set the guidelines for ways to go about providing more technology based
professional development. I think that it was neat to actually see a real school being
used and this study being proven true because it is something that would benefit us all.
However, I did feel that they could have gone into more dept on that different ways that
presented professional development. From a future media specialist’s perspective, this
gave me an idea of how to educate teachers on ways to integrate technology into the
classroom.

3. Anderson, R. E., & Dexter, S. (2005). School Technology Leadership: An Emperical
Investigation of Prevalence and Effect. Educational Adminstration Quarterly, 41,
49-82.
Research Article
Summary
This article was about how important leadership is when referring to educational
technology. It stated that good leadership contributed to the success of the school
technology program. There was a huge emphasis in this article on the importance of the
principal being knowledgeable of technology and being up-to-date on the latest
technology. The article stated how leaders in a school should have a vision of educational
technology. The other thing that was touched on was how the technology leaders should
be working towards creating environments that support collaboration and higher level
thinking. This article did include a model of technology leadership. There was a section
that included the results of the technology leadership survey which included the eight
technology leadership components and characteristics. They reported about how school
demographics may lead to differences in technology leadership. The results were that
smaller schools may not have as much leadership or technology because they are
informal. They also reported about private schools saying that they did not have as much
technology leadership due to the support of the public. Many indicators were included
that they used to determine if the schools contained technology leadership and if not,
why. The ending results were that technology leaders need to be actively involved in
technology.

4. Critique
I was very impressed with this article. I think that this article would be good for
anyone involved in administration at schools or on the leadership team in schools. I think
that this article does a good job of explaining whether or not a school has good
technology leadership and if not, the factors that go into determining it. I also liked that
they mention the fact that demographics play a role in this. This is something that most
people never mention, but in my opinion, matters. I think that if there is no support, then
the technology and funding is not there. I really liked that they mentioned that leaders
needed a vision and that anyone involved in technology needed to work towards creating
environments that involved collaboration and higher- level thinking. The main thing that
I saw wrong with this paper was that it was worded weird. I think that it should have
talked more about how the presence of good technology leadership skills and the lack of
these skills contributed to the success or failure of the programs.

5. Anderson, M. A. (2002, November 1). The Value of Staff Development. School Library
Journal. Retrieved May 29, 2009, from
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=articleprint&articleid=ca2
54380
Professional Practice
Summary
This article was about the importance of staff development. It stated that staff
development was one of the newest responsibilities of technology specialist. It also
stated that if technology specialist present information for staff development, they are
more likely to be viewed as leaders. They also made the point that because this society is
so involved with technology, we really need to grasp these concepts so that we can use
them to catch their attention and learn. It listed 5 reasons why media specialist/
technology specialist should be involved in staff development.
Critique
This was another one of my favorite articles. I liked it because I am a firm
believer that this is the main way to reach teachers and to be viewed as a leader. They
will view you as someone that they can come to and feel comfortable asking for help
when they run into a problem. It listed some very good reasons to become involved in
staff development. One of the reasons was that it is a way to connect technology and
curriculum. The other one was that is has a positive impact of instructional strategies and
students learning. The reason behind this was because teachers will become eager to
learn about technology when they what it does and the impact that it has on student’s

6. learning. I have really learned that this year with the smart boards. I have been amazed
at how much more eager the students are to learn. I enjoyed reading this article and felt
that all of the reasons were fully supported and explained. I did not find any problems
with this paper or the content.

7. Hofer, M., Chamberlin, B., & Scot, T. (2004, October). T.H.E. Journal. Fulfilling The
Need for a Technology Integration Specialist. Retrieved May 29, 2009, from
http://www.thejournal.com/the/printarticle/?id=16981
Professional Practice
Summary
This article began by listing all of the names that a technology specialist goes by.
It then went into the current role of a technology coordinator. It then went into the
reasons that the schools need a technology coordinator. It listed how the usage of
computers for instruction had increased from 1990 to now. It also talked about how their
role had changed since then. It brought up a good point about how we need to make sure
that computers are being used to their full potential. Then the article went into the role of
the technology specialist.
Critique
Overall this was a pretty good article. I think that this would be good for the
teachers, administrators, media specialist, and technology specialist to read. I think that it
gives a good basis of what their job description is and how it is changing. It also listed a
sample of a job description for cities wanting to employ a technology specialist. This
would not only be good for systems to use when hiring a technology specialist, but also
for the schools to use as a reference for the role and responsibility of the school
technology specialist. The main thing that I thought could be improved about this article
was that they could have gone into more dept in the actual article about the current role of
a technology specialist. I also thought that it would have been good if they would have

8. included a section listing reasons and persuading schools to open a position for a school
technology specialist if there was not already one at their school,

9. Lin, F. L., & Chiou, G. F. (2008). Support-Seeking and Support-Giving Relationships of
School Technology Coordinators. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39,
922-927.
Professional Practice
Summary
This article was all about the roles of a technology coordinator. They did a study
about the environment of the workplace and who do people turn to for support. It also
brought up the good point about their relationship with their colleagues would explain a
lot about whether or not people come to them for help and if not, why. The main goal in
this article was to figure out if social networks had played a role in hindering operations.
Critique
I think that this was a very interesting article because in my opinion, it goes along
with collaboration. As everyone knows, before you can successfully collaborate with
someone, a relationship has to be established. Teachers are not going to be open to
collaborating with the media specialist or technology coordinator if they have only
spoken to him/her once. It also stated that the school technology coordinator would go to
someone higher when running into a problem with technology as opposed to asking a
colleague. I thought that this article would have been better if it would have had the
graphs all on one page and would have written all of the information down without
including all of the variables. I think that it made it hard to read. Some of the
information was very spread out. I also think that this would have been a better article
had they included more information about this topic.

10. Anderson, M. A. (2004, December 1). Does Your Tech Program Measure Up? School
Library Journal. Retrieved May 29, 2009, from
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=articleprint&articleid=ca482543
Professional Practice
Summary
This was an article that explained three different tools that could be used to assess
you technology program. The first one that they mentioned was Profilerpro. You can
develop you own questions to create a survey that will meet the needs of your school.
Then it talked about the in’s and out’s of this program. The next one that they mentioned
was Taglit. This includes six surveys that measure technology skills and how people use
them. This will give you a better understanding of the use of technology at your school.
The last one mentioned was the STAR chart. This is a survey that you take that will give
you instant feedback on the readiness of your program. The questions ask for this one
will definitely give you feedback on what areas your school needs to work on.
Critique
I thought that this was a good article because it was very informing on these
surveys. I think that I liked that STAR chart the best. It was neat because you could also
measure how the parents used technology and thought it was used in the classroom. This
would also be a good way of measuring how much the parents/children use technology at
home. I enjoyed reading this article and familiarizing myself with these tools, because in
turn, I used them to see what they were like. At the end of the article, I liked how they
set up the charts so that you could easily see which one would benefit you the most. I
think that media and technology specialist would love getting their hands on these

11. because the surveys are already there. The only thing that I would have changed would
have been that instead of talking so much about each tool, they would have explained a
good and bad technology program so that you could have had something to compare
yours with as opposed to just answering some questions.

12. Staples, A., & Pugach, M. C. (2005). Rethinking the Technology Integration Challenge:
Cases from Three Urban Elementary Schools. Journal of Research Technology in
Education, 37, 285-311.
Research Article
Summary
This article was a study that was done using elementary schools and how much
they integrated technology. They also did a study on how serious that they principal and
teachers were about technology. The article began by telling how the use and amount of
computers in the classroom has increased since 1990’s. They also gave me reasons why
technology could or was not incorporated such as, time for professional development and
lack of planning. The suggestions that were offered to fix this was by providing more
staff development and ways to use technology that aligned with the curriculum. They
also took into the account and mentioned funding. Isn’t money always a problem? As a
way to ensure that technology would be integrated into the curriculum, each school
created technology goals that they could work towards to ensure that they had a vision.
The teachers felt that the best way to learn to use technology was to provide technology
professional development. The study found that at first, the computers and technology
was used as a way to reward students and keep them busy. After the professional
development, the teachers began to use technology as whole group instruction and
integrate it into the curriculum.
Critique
I really enjoyed reading this article. I think that the entire staff at a school would
benefit from reading this because it shows how real schools learned to integrate

13. technology into the curriculum after attending staff development that offered ideas. I
think that it was neat to see how some teachers used technology then, and how teachers
use it now. I also liked how they developed goals and took one step at a time to work on
integrating it. I also like that they brought up the point about time, because that and
money are always everyone’s problem. I think that with the installation of smart boards
in our classroom this year, many of the teachers have found ways to use it that are aligned
with the GPS Standards, which are important. I have really seen how excited that the
teachers are at creating flip charts and really trying to come up with ways for technology
to be used in each lesson, each day.

14. King, K. P. (2005). Educational Technology Professional Development as
Transformative Learning Opportunities. Computers and Education, 41, 49-82.
Research Article
Summary
This article started off by discussing the attributes of a technology leader that
makes a technology program successful. I think that this is the main drive behind a
successful program. For this study, they used the NETS standards to assess the schools.
They did state that the principal should know how to operate all technology. I think this
is important so that when someone has a question or concern, he/she will be able to relate
to it. They also stated that time was needed to discuss ways in which we use technology.
This will help with us finding new ways to integrate it into the curriculum. It mentioned
the many things that we should consider all of the risk when managing technology. It
was stated that over the years the requirements for the use technology has become more
specific. This article also reviewed other literature and reported that they did not focus a
lot on leadership being the backbone of a successful technology program. In an effort to
assess schools, they came up with indicators that they used. This mainly included
whether or not they used technology in the ways listed. They then reported on the
policies that we found in the United States schools. They did a study to figure out if
technology leadership was different in from school to school. In order to determine this,
they used four indicators. They looked at the level, schools SES, and whether the school
was public/ private school. In my opinion, all of this matters. The main finding of this
research was that we need to improve our technology leadership. The other thing that was

15. determined is that everyone in the school needs to become involved in technology
leadership.
Critique
I thought that overall this article did a good job at presenting the information. I
liked how it explained it all. I think that this was a very good study because many times,
we have stated that the media and technology program is only as good as the person
managing it. This is true for anything that has to do with education. I also liked how
they used indicators and fully described them, so that even someone who did not
understand technology could understand this article. Again, I think that this would be a
article that anyone at schools should read because it was a study about technology and
technology leadership. I definitely agreed with them that we need to make sure that we
possess the leadership skills necessary to run these programs. I also thought that they
made a good point about the principals and how important it is for them to be involved in
technology. A principal’s job is getting more advanced each year, and in order to run a
good school, I feel that they need to be involved in all aspects and areas of that school.