Davis Group interactions took place asynchronously for about one week prior to a synchronous, ninety minute Web Board chat with all six team members present and actively contributing. Kevin Leander also joined our group for the chat, which took place on Tuesday, October 6, 1998.

For the case study assignment for this section, our team has come to the consensus that based on the information from the Wynne County Funding Proposal, the Wildwood Junior High School Web site, and responses to questions that have been answered, our focus for this section will be to continue to develop a relationship and rapport with some of the stakeholders at Wildwood Junior High School. Upon completing the reading assignment for this section, our group also decided that the evaluation questions outlined in Worthen, et al, page 250, figure 14.1, to be outstanding. We all agreed that the general scope of these questions will assist our group in narrowing the focus of our evaluation. In the section 2 case study summary, our group decided to focus our attention on three main aspects of this evaluation:

• technology planning
• training
• inventory and expenditures

To help us facilitate a relationship with the stakeholders, our group has met with Lee Daniels, Wildwood Junior High School principal and Roger Wildabette, technology coordinator at Wildwood for a Web Board chat on Tuesday, October 13, 1998 at 8:30 p.m. We asked the men questions that are specific to the NEF evaluation, yet maintained a focus on the three topics mentioned above. In order to not put Mr. Daniels and Mr. Wildabette on the spot during the Web Board chat, our group sent the two gentlemen copies of the questions that we wanted to focus the discussion on. We realized that their time is valuable and that since there are five other evaluation teams currently involved at Wildwood, preparing them for the forthcoming questions allowed them time to prepare their answers. The responses to the questions asked of Mr. Daniels and Mr. Wildabette will be included in the section four Wildwood evaluation summary.

What is our role in the evaluation of Wildwood Junior High School?

The Davis Team is serving as an ad hoc panel hired by the National Education Foundation (NEF) to perform an early formative summary of progress in achieving the goals and activities set forth in Wildwood Junior High School's, April 1998 "Awards to Facilitate Research and Development of Technology-Based Education" proposal. This is a National Education Foundation funded grant. As an early formative evaluation team, our role expands to include that of short term consultants to assist in planning and troubleshooting, if that appears to be a need of the funded organization.

What is our focus?

In order to be the most useful in the short time of contact, we selected three major areas of potential focus: technology planning, training, and inventory and expenditures, and then narrowed our focus to training, specifically to the training of teachers.

What is our initial impression?

Much of our initial impression of Wildwood Junior High School came from the school's web site, which is haphazard, at best. It is unclear who is responsible for the web site's presentation and the various web pages seem clearly the product of many individuals with varying degrees of experience in web browsing, web design, and familiarity with the use of web pages as tools of communication. There was, however, valuable information in the Wynne County proposal regarding specific goals of the grant and funding allotments. Information dealing with the school is variable in quality. We have a sense of the administrative structure and department structure, though we have access to only a few individual teachers (in most cases, one) from each department. We can only access the teachers who have e-mail addresses. Based on the poor quality of the teachers' pages and the lack of any particularly notable web-based activities, it appears at this point that the staff technology training is either selective or nonexistent. The web site clearly is not of the quality you would expect of a school which is seeking national funding as a potential area technology hub.

Who have we contacted?

We have contacted virtually every teacher who had an e-mail address, as well as Jan Swenson, Superintendent; Lee Daniels, Principal; Dr. Ann Felix, Vice Principal; and Barbara Lockee, PTA President. We plan on contacting Judy Frank, evaluation specialist and Tom Barrett, district technology coordinator. Responses are summarized as follows:

 

• Jay Andrews (Math)- Jay Andrews states that the NEF grant has caused them to examine their goals and methods to see which should be changed and which are useful. He felt that this would continue throughout the grant period.
• Sunny Beach (P.E.)- She says that the grant provided equipment (heart rate monitors and software) but she did not mention if she was trained in using the monitors and software purchased with the grant monies.
• Carmel Vaccare (English)- This teacher reports that the grant gave computer access to all of his students and that he uses the word-processing components the most. He feels that the Internet creates "chaos" with the amount of information available.
• Sally Laughon (Foreign Languages)- She sent a message regarding her misunderstanding of the whole evaluation process. We have no information of tangible value from her.
• Jack Warner (Business and Technology)- Mr. Warner states that he is the primary teacher training contact person. He responded that teacher training at Wildwood was minimal and believes that the NEF grant is used purely for the "upgrading of existing technology to reflect those used in business".
• Ted Korman (Science)- Mr. Korman responded that he didn't understand our questioning.
• W.A. Tonyason (Performing Arts)- This teacher was contacted via e-mail and has never responded.

We cast a broad net in our initial round of contacts with the staff at Wildwood Junior High School because we did not know who would be the best sources of information. Since that time we pursued communication with Roger Wildabette and Lee Daniels via the above mentioned group Web Board chat.

Where are we now in the evaluation process?

At this point, it is clear that we are finding major flaws and holes in the teacher training program at Wildwood Junior High School. Our next step in the evaluation process is to begin a second round of questions with stakeholders. Follow-up questions have been narrowed in their focus, with each of the following stakeholders receiving three general questions, in addition to questions specifically directed toward each of them.

Questions for all stakeholders:

• What kind of formal and/or informal technology training have you received?
• What are your anticipated training needs?
• How do you plan to use the information from the upcoming in-service on web design in your curriculum?

• Question for Jay Andrews:
• What training have you had regarding the new technologies in order to integrate within your curriculum?

  Question for Sunny Beach:

• What technology training have you received at Wildwood?

  Questions for Carmel Vaccare:

• Have you ever received training on narrowing a search on the Internet, such as using search engines?
• Have you received training on the word processing uses with computers?
• Have you received e-mail training?

  Question for Sally Laughon:

• With the new technologies that your department has acquired, what training have you received in how to use them with your students?

  Questions for Jack Warner:

• What kind of teacher training using technology has taken place at Wildwood?

  Question for Ted Korman:

• How is technology used in your curriculum?

  Question for W. A. Tonyason:

• How is technology used in your curriculum?

Submitted October 25, 1998