the technology when it malfunctions? Who can consult with teachers about curricular uses of
technology? Who can monitor the labs when teachers are not present?

Additional Resources
These are the assets available to your technology program. They include technology budget
lines, available rooms, district staff development and school improvement funds and any other
resources that can help your technology program.

Staffs' Knowledgebase
Designing a Technology Staff Development Plan also requires an understanding of what your
staff members know about using technology. Figure 3 shows a questionnaire that you can
distribute to your staff and faculty to identify development strengths and needs. It begins with
an assessment of your staff's present level of technology competence and later assesses their
areas of interest. You will notice the initial assessment tool asks for their level of competence
at three levels: No Experience, Some Experience, and Comfortable. These three levels have
been identified to provide more meaning to the rating than a start 1 - 10 range. The results of
this needs assessment should be entered into a spreadsheet to allow you to identify areas of
need. Calculating overall averages for the competencies will identify areas where you could
provide general workshops. Calculating averages by schools/departments/grade levels will
provide information for strengths and weaknesses of specific groups of people and will enable
you to better target your plan.

The other side of identifying what your staff needs to know is identifying what they want to
know and how they want to learn it. The second part of this questionnaire provides a list of
suggested topics and assesses their level of interest in learning about these areas of technology.
This part of the needs assessment also asks about HOW your staff would like to learn about
technology. It's disappointing when coordinators arrange workshops and nobody comes.
Identify when your staff is most likely to attend workshops. Investigate a variety of workshop
formats to address different situations. Identify independent instruction techniques that can
address individuals' learning styles and busy schedules.

Students' needs
Now that you know about your staff's needs, what about the students? Remember that this
whole "education thing" is about students? Now it's time to look at your curriculum to see
where technology can fit into existing curriculum or provide opportunities that can enhance the
curriculum. Decisions about where resources should be expended to enhance your staff's
knowledgebase MUST be based upon where it will do the most good for students.

Identifying these curricular areas is no small task and should ultimately be a part of the plan
for restructuring education through technology. Some forms of integration will be easier than
others. If your teachers are already using process writing to teach writing, introducing word
processing to enhance the revision process is a natural. Using a camcorder to capture students'
projects and create a video portfolio that follows students through their educational experience
just takes a little planning and lots of video cassettes. Using distance education to change the
instructional venue or creating cross-curricular thematic experiences involving technology
require changes in philosophy and structure that cannot be effected by a single teacher or, in
some cases, a single school.

Orienting yourself to the knowledge terrain of your staff is the first step in creating the future.
Next month, I will discuss how you can take this information and begin building your
Technology Staff Development Program. Contact me at Zeitz@uni.edu.

Dr. Leigh E. Zeitz is the Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Malcolm Price
Laboratory School and Assistant Professor for the University of Northern Iowa.

Resources:

Bailey, Gerald D. & Lumley, Dan (1994). Technology Staff Development Programs: A
Leadership Sourcebook for School Administrators. New York :Scholastic, Inc.