School Technology Plan Reflections

EDTC630

Gabby Simala

Reflection of Group Dynamics

My School Technology Plan team consisted of myself, Kandace Branford, Sarah

Donahey, and Patience Roman. We focused on Kandace’s school, Harvey Brown Elementary

School. As a result of this project, I learned that collaborating with others is easy when you are

organized and flexible. My teammates were all extremely supportive and helpful. Each of us

played a vital role and we stepped up to support each other even when it was not our

responsibility so we could create the best version of the project possible. 

To begin our School Technology Plan, my team determined how we would communicate.

We decided to create a shared Google Doc that would be the central location for all of our

School Technology Plan work. In this shared document, we created a table that laid out each role

within the project. We volunteered for the role that we thought best suited our strengths. Initially,

no one signed up for the essential role of “Manager”. I knew that this role was important to make

the project work, so I volunteered to change my role to be the manager. Also, Kandace was so

generous and volunteer to have her school be our focus for the project. It was important that

group members were flexible so that every important project role was filled. 

We created a calendar that described each task, who needed to complete it, and when it

needed to be done. This helped us stay organized and up to date on each portion of the project.

Our group also used the planning Google Doc to create a table in which we each indicated days

and times that we were available. This helped us determine the best days to have our

synchronous virtual meetings. We began with two scheduled meetings, but as we received
feedback we determined it would be best to meet again to make the necessary changes together

during a conference. My team worked so well together because we were generous with our time.

We ended up meeting virtually a total of four times so make edits recommended by our professor

and peers. 

I feel lucky to have worked with Kandace, Sarah, and Patience. They all contributed

useful ideas to the project. I am proud of our final School Technology Plan, especially because of

how much time and effort we put into editing it. We originally planned to use Google

Chromebooks and subscriptions to math websites to have students perform drill practice to

improve their mathematic thinking. Our plan drastically changed after we received feedback. We

included literacy standards, added virtual reality goggles to our budget, and made the use of

technology much more innovative. 

I have no recommendations on how to change this project in the future. I appreciated how

this project included two rounds of feedback from peers and the professor. It was essential that

our team was given time to make edits and another chance to make our School Technology Plan

stronger. I also thought it was beneficial to try out a classroom technology plan first to support

our thinking when we tried a similar plan, but on a bigger scale for an entire school. 
 Peer and Self-Evaluation

 Kandace Branford: 9; Kandace did a great job organizing the school information

 Patience Roman: 9; Patience organized the budget and rational beautifully 

 Sarah Donahey: 10; Sarah reached out to me personally to hold another meeting to make

edits based on feedback. She had great initiative and took the lead on the evaluation of

the STP

 Gabby Simala: 10; As the team manager, I was in constant communication with the

group. Creating Zoom meetings, organizing meeting agendas, and editing specific

portions of the project based on feedback in our shared Google Doc.