Ruby Johnson

November 25, 2012

EDTC 6037: Artifact Project

SAFARI Montage Staff Development

Introduction:

Triton High School serves students from the communities of Coats, Dunn, and Erwin in

rural Harnett County. Our rural roots lead the Advanced Ed team, during our reaccreditation

process last spring, to describe the school as having a family type atmosphere. Together, the

administration and staff strive to provide students with a well-rounded education that will help

them meet the challenges of the 21st century work force.

At the recommendation of the Advanced Ed team, Triton has made technology

implementation its top priority in the current school improvement plan. Every classroom has a

computer for instructional purposes and over 85% of the classrooms are equipped with data

projectors and SmartBoards. SmartBoard training is an ongoing process; however, many teachers

prefer to use it as an electronic chalkboard. The school has five computer labs and eight mobile

carts, each containing 30 Dell Netbooks. In addition, teachers have the opportunity to participate,

on a voluntary basis, in at least three technology activities per year.

Before starting this project, a needs assessment survey was conducted. The survey

identified SAFARI Montage to be the area in which the largest percentage of teachers expressed

a need for training. This selection is largely due to Harnett County Schools discontinuing their

subscription to Learn 360 and contracting with SAFARI Montage as the new digital media

management and distribution system in the county. The logistics for the training are as follows:

Objective: Teachers will create a playlist using SAFARI Montage to integrate

technology into the common core and essential standards objectives of their instructional

lessons.

Learners: Participation is voluntary with learners coming from varying disciplines and

computer skills ability levels. Teachers will participate during their planning period;

therefore, there will be four sessions offered each training day.

Location: Computer Lab Room 153

Dates: Thursday 11/1/12, Thursday 11/8/12, Thursday 11/15/12

Times: 8:00-9:00 a.m., 9:30-10:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m.- 12:00p.m., and 1:00-2:00 p.m.

Needs Assessment:

A questionnaire using Survey Monkey was created to assess the technology needs of the

staff. Approximately 57% (27 out of 83) of the teaching staff responded to the survey, which was

open from October 8, 2012 to October 15, 2012. Below is the questionnaire.

Technology Staff Development Needs Assessment

1. According to the HCS Technology Policy, have you earned your 1 CEU for this

certification cycle?

Yes No

2. Have you ever used the “Big Six” model when assigning research?

Yes No

3. How often are you utilizing SAFARI Montage in your instructional plans and lesson

delivery?

Not at all Seldom Occasionally Frequently Daily

4. How proficient are you at creating a playlist in SAFARI Montage?

1 Minimal 2 3 4 5 Maximum

5. How proficient are you at opening and effectively using your Gmail?

1 Minimal 2 3 4 5 Maximum

6. How often are you utilizing collaborative tools such as Google Apps when teaching

students to research and develop projects?

Not at all Seldom Occasionally Frequently Daily

7. How often are you charting and graphing your common assessment data using Excel or a

similar program?

Not at all Seldom Occasionally Frequently Daily

8. How often are you utilizing free educational online programs that can be accessed by

students to create presentation and products following research?

Not at all Seldom Occasionally Frequently Daily

9. How often are you using SmartBoard for instructional purposes other than as an

electronic chalkboard?

Not at all Seldom Occasionally Frequently Daily

10. Please, identify technology staff development needs that you feel are important? Mark all

that apply.

“Big Six” Research Model Research Strategies

Common Assessment Analysis SAFARI Montage

Google Applications SmartBoard Training

Online Product-based Programs

Other (Please specify) _______________________________________________

After collecting the data from survey monkey, the following charts and graphs were

constructed to analyze it. From the staff responses, there appears to be a need for staff

development in several areas. The majority of the staff are unfamiliar with the “Big Six”

approach to research, SAFARI Montage, Google applications, data analysis, and online

presentation tools. Opening and using Gmail, along with the ability to use the Smart technologies

located in the classrooms seem to be divided between proficient and needing help. The final

question on the survey was the deciding factor that determined the course of instruction for this

assignment. Below is the breakdown for each survey question.

Q1. Have you earned the districts required 1.0 CEU

technology credit for this certificate renewal cycle?

yes 26 55.32%

no 20 42.55%

unanswered 1 2.13%

TOTALS 47 100.00%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

yesno

unanswered

26

20

1

Technology CEU's

Q2. Have you ever used to "Big Six" model for assigning research?

yes 5 10.64%

no 41 87.23%

unanswered 1 2.13%

TOTALS 47 100.00%

0

20

40

60

yes no unanswered

5

41

1

Big Six Research Model Usage

Q3. How often are you utilizing SAFARI Montage in your instructional plans?

Not at All 24 53.33%

Seldom 13 28.89%

Occasionally 7 15.56%

Frequently 1 2.22%

Daily 0 0%

Totals 45 100.00%05

10152025

24

137

1 0

Utilization of SAFARI Montage

Q4. Using a rating scale from 1 to 5 where 1 represents minimal proficiency and 5 represents maximum proficiency;

How proficient are you at creating a playlist in SAFARI Montage?

Rating

Minimal 1 35

2 3

3 4

4 3

Maximum 5 1

05

101520253035

35

3 4 3 1

SAFARI Playlist Proficiency

Q5. Using a rating scale from 1 to 5 where 1 represents minimal proficiency and 5 represents maximum proficiency;

how proficient are you at opening and using g-mail?

Rating

Minimal 1 13

2 1

3 7

4 9

Maximum 5 170

5

10

15

20 13

1

79

17

G-mail Proficiency

Q6. How often are you utilizing collaborative tools such as Google Apps?

when teaching students to research and develop projects?

Not at All 20 43.48%

Seldom 13 28.26%

Occasionally 7 15.22%

Frequently 6 13.04%

Daily 0 0

Totals 46 100.00%05

101520

20

13

7 6

0

Utilization of Google Apps

Q7. How often are you charting and graphing your common assessment data

using Excel or a similar program?

Not at All 18 38.30%

Seldom 13 27.66%

Occasionally 8 17.02%

Frequently 8 17.02%

Daily 0 0

Totals 47 100.00%05

101520

1813

8 8

0

Common Assessment Frequency

Q8. How often are you utilizing free educational online programs

that can be accessed by students to create presentations and products following research?

Not at All 18 38.31%

Seldom 11 23.40%

Occasionally 11 23.40%

Frequently 7 14.89%

Daily 0 0

Totals 47 100.00%

05

101520

1811 11

70

Utilization of Online Presentation Tools

Q9. How often are you using your Smart Board for instructional purposes

other than as an electronic chalk board?

Not at All 11 23.91%

Seldom 4 8.70%

Occasionally 12 26.09%

Frequently 11 23.91%

Daily 8 17.39%

Totals 46 100.00%0

5

10

15 11

4

12 118

Smart Board Utilization

Q10. Please identify technology staff development needs that you feel are important. Mark all that apply.

"Big Six" Research Model 18 38.30%

Common Assessmnet Analysis 18 38.30%

Google Applications 24 51.06%

Onine Product-based Programs 17 36.17%

Research Strategies 14 29.79%

SAFARI Montage 33 72.02%

Smart Board Training 21 44.68%

Others 4 8.51%0

0.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.8

38.30% 38.30%51.06%

36.17%29.79%

72.02%

44.68%

8.51%

Technology Needs Assessment

Design and Development of Instruction

The staff development this assignment will address is the use of SAFARI Montage to

integrate technology into the common core and essential standards of classroom lessons by

creating content playlists. SAFARI Montage is a digital media management and distribution

system that allows users to create playlists in their SAFARI account. To do this, SAFARI

provides users access to thousands of media sources, and the capability of uploading outside

sources such as YouTube clips and teacher created presentations and documents. The training

will consist of three, one-hour sessions. Participates will receive 0.3 CEU credits at the

completion of the staff development.

Using a best practice approach, the design of this staff development is to use modeling,

exploration, and product-based instruction as a guide to help participants achieve the workshop

objective: Teachers will create a playlist using SAFARI Montage to integrate common core and

essential standards objectives into their instructional lessons. The following is an outline listing

the components of the instruction.

Preparing for staff development

1. Conduct and analyze needs assessment.

2. Meet with Jennifer Byrd, county level technology coordinator, to discuss SAFARI

Montage’s features.

3. Write Staff Development Proposal.

4. E-mail staff with logistics of the training.

5. Develop workshop playlist in SAFARI Montage.

6. Make copies of handouts.

Day 1:

1. Open session with a YouTube clip uploaded into my SAFARI Montage workshop

playlist.

2. Use Prezi document produced by Jennifer Byrd, to facilitate discussion

concerning the Top 10 reasons why Harnett County chose SAFARI Montage as

the new digital media system.

3. Allow learners to log in to their SAFARI Montage account. Help those who

need assistance.

4. Introduce the various features SAFARI has to offer users.

5. Allow learners time for exploration using SAFARI’s search feature.

Day 2:

1. Begin with review of SAFARI’s features.

2. From the workshop playlist, open the PowerPoint on how to create a playlist and

add content to it. Distribute copies of the lesson to the participants.

3. During the presentation, guided practice will allow learners to create an

instructional unit playlist.

4. Learners will use any remaining time to begin constructing a playlist.

Day 3:

1. Begin session with a quick review of adding content to a playlist.

2. Provide learners with time to complete the creation of their instructional unit

playlist.

3. Provide assistance when needed.

4. Allow time for learners to share their created playlist with others.

5. Ask learners to complete an evaluation sheet for the workshop.

In preparing to facilitate instruction on SAFARI, the first step was to create a workshop

playlist in my SAFARI Montage account. Any good lesson needs a “hook”. To find an

inspirational clip, a search of YouTube produced the “Family Engagement Inspirational”

segment from the Bill Cosby Show (http://youtu.be/SXxlTJcUs6A ). Using the Modules feature

in SAFARI, I uploaded it to the playlist. The next step was to upload a prezi document

(http://prezi.com/pynf1qkxgjsp/top-ten-list-how-will-safari-montage-affect-my-classroom/ ) ,

created by Jennifer Byrd; outlining the top ten reasons Harnett County Schools selected SAFARI

as the current media provider. The creation of a PowerPoint lesson instructing learners how to

create a playlist and add content to it was next in the development of this training. Finally, the

creation of an evaluation form completed this phase of the staff development.

Harnett County Professional Development System

Activity Roster

District Activity: 6-829

Presenter: Ruby Johnson

Title: Using SAFARI Montage to Integrate Common Core Objectives and Essential

Standards into Classroom Lessons

Start/End Date: November 1, 2012/ November 15, 2012

Number of

CEU: .30 Technology

Location/Time: THS Computer Lab 153

11/1, 11/8, 11/15

Block 1 - 8:00-9:00

Block 2 - 9:30-10:30

Block 3 - 11:00-12:00

Block 4 - 1:00-2:00

Proposal Participant School

7204 Barbara Egnor Triton High

7235 Brittany Dupree Triton High

7266 Dena Bradham Triton High

7402 Flonnie Godwin Triton High

7038 Grace Gibbs Triton High

7053 Libby Smith Triton High

7027 Matt Johnson Triton High

7004 Mildred Campbell Triton High

7066 Pamela Callahan Triton High

7402 Regina Jones Triton High

7251 Rhonda Skipper Triton High

7402 Sara Stewart Triton High

7053 Sherry Royal Triton High

7092 T. J. Morrison Triton High

SAFARI Montage Staff Development Evaluation

Place an “X” in the box that indicates your impressions of the items listed below.

Strongly

Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

1 The purpose of the staff development

was clearly stated

2 The content was well organized and easy

to follow

3 The delivery of the presentation was

appropriate to the target audience

4 AV materials used were appropriate and

helpful

5 The pace of the presentation was

appropriate

6 The presenter was knowledgeable and

enthusiastic

7 Class participation and interaction was

encouraged

8 Adequate time was provided for

questions and discussion

9 The training met my expectations

10 I will be able to apply the knowledge

gained by participating in this activity

11. What did you find most useful about this staff development activity?

12. What skills did you learn that might help prepare you for technology integration in your

classroom?

13. What aspects of this activity might be improved?

14. Please place additional comments here.

Implementation:

Instruction for creating instructional playlists using SAFARI Montage began on

November 1, 2012. Fourteen teachers took part in the training. Three participated during the first

block session, four during the second block session, four during the third block session, and three

during the fourth block session. The departments represented in the training were English,

History, Science, Family Consumer Science, Foreign Language, and Exceptional Children. I

served as the only workshop instructor. The training took place in one of our five computer labs,

which is equipped with a data projector but no SmartBoard; however, teachers did have access to

Smart technology software.

Overall, the workshop was a success, with each teacher building at least one instructional

unit playlist. The playlists created include video clips, word documents, Power Points, interactive

technologies, and quizzes. During the exploration of the search feature, our career teachers

discovered there were very few resources available in SAFARI’s libraries. Uploading media

clips from the Internet allow these teachers to add video materials to their playlist. Discussions

were engaging and participation was enthusiastic. Besides the limited resources available to the

career teachers, the other issue encountered was with SAFARI itself. The SAFARI server is

located at the county office so buffering was no longer to be an issue. However, buffering is

occurring and the central office technology personnel were made aware of this problem.

Evaluation

All fourteen of the learners were able to create an instructional unit playlist in their

content area using SAFARI Montage. Although the workshop was mostly successful in meeting

the workshop objectives, the following are recommendations for improving the instructional

component.

1. Encourage more teachers to become involved in SAFARI Montage training. Of

the 47 teachers who completed the needs assessment survey, only fourteen

participated. SAFARI Montage is the newest multimedia resources available to

classroom teachers. Administrators at the county level have stressed the importance

of utilizing this resource in preparing our 21st century learners by making instruction

relevant.

2. Explore SAFARI’s libraries for information pertaining to the various subject

area taught at Triton. The core subject classes have an abundance of information

available to them. Learning that SAFARI had very limited resources available for the

Family Consumer Science teachers was surprising. The technology staff at the central

office is currently addressing this discovery.

3. Since most classrooms have SmartBoards, SAFARI instruction should have

taken place in a computer lab that has one. SAFARI has the capability of playing

interactive media. By not demonstrating this feature, some teachers will forget it is

there or feel uncomfortable utilizing it. In addition, it would be helpful to the

classroom teachers to have access to a SmartBoard as they created their playlist. This

would allow them to experiment with the interactive feature before using it in the

classroom.

4. Encourage teachers to insert the Common Core and Essential Standard

objectives to the items they add to their playlist. One of the features of SAFARI is

the ability to insert the North Carolina course objectives with the description of

multimedia resources. By adding the lesson’s objectives with the item to the playlist,

teachers have immediate access to this pertinent information. The information is then

assessable to administrators demonstrating the teacher is teaching the curriculum.

5. Refer to the District and School Calendar of Events before scheduling Staff

Development. Since this is my first experience with instructing technology staff

development, I set the dates that were convenient to my schedule. During this same

time, several other training activities were in progress. Conflicts in scheduling

prevented some teachers from participating. Several teachers have expressed an

interest in offering another SAFARI Montage training session in the spring.

Since the workshop’s completion, the participants are using their training with SAFARI Montage

more frequently; however, there still seems to be some concerns with buffering of items from

SAFARI’s libraries. Administrators at the central office are contacting the company so they can

address the problem. For any teacher who was unable to attend the workshop this fall, they can

sign up for the spring session. With this session of SAFARI Montage training complete, it is time

to start planning for staff development on Google applications.