Nadia Williams

ITEC 7500: Capstone & Portfolio

Fall 2015
Standard 3.6
Standard 3.6: Selecting ad Evaluating Digital Tools and Resources
Candidates collaborate with teachers and administrators to select and evaluate digital
tools and resources for accuracy, suitability, and compatibility with the school technology
infrastructure. (PSC 3.6/ISTE 3f)

Reflection:
The artifact presented in alignment with Standard 3.6 is a Prezi I made for a series of
professional learning sessions I facilitated. I created this over the summer of 2014 in
order to support me in presenting on behalf of the Georgia Department of Education
which was holding several English Language Arts Summer Academies across the
state. I researched, structured, and created this Prezi on my own and also presented it
on my own.
This artifact takes the session participant through an exploration of over ten digital tools
that can be used to support educators in their day-to-day work. More importantly, since
the session and artifact are named Work Smarter, Not Harder... all of the tools
presented were time-saving tools. In order to select the best digital tools and
resources that were also compatible with the school technology infrastructure I
had to collaborate with teachers to see what they were already using. I then took the
time to evaluate the suggested tools and select others that would support teachers I
their day-to-day work. These tools included Dial My Calls, an app and website that
create automated phone calls on your behalf and offer detailed data on each number so
the user can see which numbers answered, which declined, which were busy, and
which went to voicemail. Furthermore, I had to collaborate with administrators to
ascertain in what areas they saw their teachers needed help addressing. All of the
items I presented offered the participants, all of whom were educators, with the
opportunity to use them in conjunction with their school networks. None of them were
items that required any network or technical assistance in order to be used, and thus
were items that proved to be the most accurate, suitable, and compatible with the
school technology infrastructure.
As a result of this Prezi and the presentation for which I used it, I learned how to
construct and facilitate a presentation to support my fellow teachers outside of my own
school building. It was really quite illuminating to be in a room with such a diverse array
of educators with varied experiences in life and in their teaching practice. Their
questions and comments made me a better presenter by challenging me to think
outside of my experiences as a teacher in Metro Atlanta, Georgia. Should I offer this

presentation again, I would certainly make it more of a learn and play session where
the participants would have the opportunity to learn and then play around with or work
with the presented tools. This way, each participant would have a more authentic
relationship with the tools presented and would be more likely to put them to use.
The work that went into creating this artifact provided me with a wealth of information
that I was able to share with my colleagues at my then-new school. The tools with
which I had become familiar put me in a position to be a positive impact upon my
school. Once one of the Academic Coaches from my school became aware of this
session, she invited me to present it at an in-house professional development session.
The impact from that was able to be assessed in the increase in teachers within my
grade level, eighth grade, who were using the digital tools I identified to Work Smarter,
Not Harder. That said, at the actual sessions I presented with the Summer Academies,
the feedback I received was quite favorable and indicated that the majority of
participants were excited to use the tools I had presented in their schools.