School Environment Evaluation Summary Ed U

School Demographics: Ed U is a small university in the heart of a city of 2.5 million in the southeast corner of South Korea. There are currently 3711 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs. 99% of the students are native Koreans with 1% studying from abroad. This is an education university focussing on preparing students to become elementary school teachers throughout Korea. The school uses a primarily objectivist learning method. There are a number of computer labs, wifi throughout campus and computers in every room including projectors or large screen TVs, sound systems and digital OHPs. Maturity Model Benchmarks: 1. Administrative a. Policy i. Behavioral: Island. Technology is seen as a necessary element in the classroom, but its use is not directly suggested. There is no support for how to use the technology, but it is assumed it is being used. ii. Resources/Infrastructure: Integrated. There is clearly a policy. However, as this is a government school, all policies come down the pipeline with little input from the school. b. Planning i. Behavioral: Island. New technologies are purchased but seem mostly to use budgetary excess. Teacher and administrator application and planning seem somewhat disconnected. ii. Resources/Infrastructure: Island. A plan exists, but seems to focus on buying technology and not on training staff. c. Budget i. Behavioral: Integrated. There is obviously a good sized budget for technology. This budget must be used each year or the government will withdraw the funds from the budget. Many items are bought simply to keep the funds in the budget. ii. Resources/Infrastructure: Integrated. Recently, a Mac lab was installed, as well as installing wifi throughout the campus. In the past, fully equipped multimedia rooms were installed with IWB, projectors, remote controlled cameras for

recording and broadcasting lectures, sound systems and projectors. Every room on campus has a computer with Internet access and every office is similarly equipped. d. Administrative Information i. Behavioral: Intelligent. The school makes every effort to reduce the amount of paper it uses. Therefore, nearly all correspondence, grading, attendance, scheduling, and announcements are done electronically. ii. Resources/Infrastructure: Intelligent. The entire school is wired including all offices, rooms and labs. Staff are required to make use of these resources. 2. Curricular a. Electronic Information i. Behavioral: Island. Even within my department, there are only a few of us that regularly use technology to provide information to our students. Though most use email for communication, keeping students up to date, providing syllabi or giving the students a forum to discuss class and ask questions is only offered by a select few. ii. Resources/Infrastructure: Integrated. The possibility exists for everyone to incorporate electronic information into their curriculum. However, there is no requirement and many teachers elect to keep with what they know. b. Assessment i. Behavioral: Island. Some teachers like to give assessments through technological means. However, this is teacher preference and is by no means required or practiced by many. ii. Resources/Infrastructure: Island. Most teachers elect to provide traditional feedback. c. Curricular Integration i. Behavioral: Emergent. Most of the curriculum being taught not reliant on technology. Very few teachers use technology as an enhancement to their instruction. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent. All teachers have access to technology in their classrooms, but few know what resources will help them. d. Teacher Use i. Behavioral: Emergent. Occasional use by teachers for curriculum enrichment and material generation.

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Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated. Most teachers have access to the resources they need. Only a few actually use them.

e. Student Use i. Behavioral: Island. Students primarily use technology as a research tool and for giving powerpoint presentations. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: integrated. Most student can access the technology they need around the clock. Nearly every student at Ed U has a computer in their homes or dorm rooms. If they do not, they can access at any of the numerous computer labs on campus as well as using wireless devices throughout campus. 3. Supprt a. Stakeholder Involvement i. Behavioral: Island. As this is a government run school, the Ministry of Education sets policies that are implemented at the school level. Professors can make proposals which must be approved by the ministry. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Island. Many of the groups are represented. However, I dont know to what extent each plays in planning. b. Administrative Support i. Behavioral: Emergent. There is no support from admin. Tearchers are left to decide how much or how little they will use technology. If a teacher needs help with something, they will need to find solutions alone or by asking other teachers. There is one IT employee who maintains the health of the LAN and that computers function. His answer to any dysfunctional computer is to reload windows. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent. There is no formal support offered for planning or implementing new technology. c. Training i. Behavioral: Emergent. If training were offered, I think staff would jump at the chance. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent. There is no training offered with regards to technology. d. Technical and Infrastructure Support i. Behavioral: Emergent. No one uses formal or informal assistance.

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Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent. No formal or informal assistance exists. If you have a problem, you not only need to be able to solve it alone, and in my case, you must be able to navigate in Korean as the school does not provide computers with English operating systems.

4. Connectivity a. xLocal Area Networking i. Behavioral: Integrated. All staff members have access to and use the LAN. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated. High speed access in every room on campus with multiple computer labs. There is also wifi throughout campus. b. District Area Networking i. Behavioral: Integrated. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated. Ed U is connected to the ministry of education. However, I do not know to what extent data services are provided c. Internet Access i. Behavioral: Island. From what I can tell, internet access is not utilized extensively by professors. Traditional teaching methods are mostly used for instruction, so students receive their information directly from the professor. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent. All students have multiple points of Internet access. All computers on campus have access and with ubiquitous wifi, and that 99% of students have smartphones, access is ever present. d. Communication Systems i. Behavioral: Integrated. Email is used fairly extensively especially for administrative correspondence. Students all have access to email and often communicate with instructors this way. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated. Email accounts are available to all teachers. Im not sure students are given Ed U email accounts. Ive never seen one so I doubt it. 5. Innovation a. New Technologies i. Behavioral: Island. On the whole, staff members welcome new technology. However, most do not attempt to adapt them into their teaching. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Island. Because of the time consuming nature of adapting and the lack of support, most new technology is much underused.

b. Comprehensive Technologies i. Behavioral: Integrated. Technology is used by most everyone. However, there is far more advanced uses of the powerful tools available that are not being tried. ii. Resource/Infrastructure: Island. With the current teaching practices in place, there is little chance instruction or demonstrated learning will move beyond powerpoint and mic. Final Summary: This assignment presented quite a challenge to me as I am but a small fish in a large pond. Most of the responses above are based on my slice of the education pie at my school. The responses above reflect the environment in the English department almost entirely. Art, science, math, physics etc. may show different results on this survey. However, I tend to think my assessment would hold nearly true to these departments as well. My school ranks: Island/Integrated The overall rating for my school falls between island and integrated. For behavior, it scored 8/19 Island and 6/19 Integrated. That means that 14/19 were Island or Integrated. For resource/infrastructure, it scored 6/19 Island and 7/19 Integrated. So that is 13/19 Island or Integrated. Emergent scores came from Curricular Integration and 3 our of 4 categories in Support. Internet access and administrative use both score Intelligent. I feel my school could be doing so much more with its amazing assortment of technology tools. I feel our students are being woefully underserved in the objectivist classroom environment and would greatly benefit from technology supported, task based learning or project based learning. Of course, making this transition is years in the future as this shift would entail moving beyond much of the cultural constraints imposed on education.