Week 3 Action Planning Template

Action Planning Template
Goal: Will implementing a central call center improve productivity and effectiveness of the department and create better customer satisfaction for teachers and other district personnel?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Discuss Action Research topic with site Supervisor	Researcher and Site Supervisor	10/2012	Intern Plan	Formulated topic/question
2. Gather and document current helpdesk workflow	Researcher and Helpdesk Coordinator	10/2012	Access to helpdesk reports, Meeting time, MS Office	Review workflow from notes and existing configuration
3. Review and document current system’s success and failures	Researcher, Helpdesk Coordinator, CTS Supervisor,  and Director of Technology	10/2012	MS Office, Meeting time, survey monkey	Review documentation, have Director review
4. Research existing closure metrics from current system and sample test group CLTs	Researcher	11/2012	Access to helpdesk reports, survey monkey	Summarize findings
5. Identify and document areas of accountability and productivity	Researcher	11/2012	Internet, Helpdesk system, Access to Supervisors and Directors	Summarize findings from existing configuration
6. Survey CLT’s for Customer Satisfaction on current helpdesk system	Researcher	11/2012	Survey monkey	Review and summarize findings
7. Implement new Call Center configuration	Researcher, CTS Supervisor, Director of Technology, Phone Specialist	10/2012-/11/2012	Euphoria, Accent, MS Office
8. Re-Survey CLT’s for Customer Satisfaction on new helpdesk system	Researcher	2/2013	Survey monkey	Review and summarize findings. Compare to first survey
9. Reports on closure metrics	Researcher	2/2013	Helpdesk Software	Summarize findings with charts and graphs
10. Write report	Researcher	6/2013	MS Office	Breathe

 

Week 2 Reflection

Reflecting on this week’s assignment has reminded me that what I do for my district is for student achievement. Since I’m not in the classroom directly impacting students, I’m still impacting students when the server is down and it takes me several hours to resolve the server problem. Or when a teacher’s computer or laptop has a problem and it takes more than a few minutes to resolve, or even several days for a technician to be onsite to resolve the problem.  It also gave me a better understanding of what action research is and how it can be used and applied in my own environment. The videos made me wonder if the interviewees were from elite high scoring campuses because I started to wonder if all districts share the same data mining ideas that were mentioned in all three videos. I really liked the idea of not implementing a program or software application unless the data showed a need for it. It made me realize that data should drive the decision in developing the success in student achievement. Since I’m in the trenches and outside the classroom, for the most part, I’m not seeing that happening from my perspective.  Overall, I found this week to be very interesting after the pressure to decide on a question for my action research project was released.

Identify at least three topics, get feedback from your site mentor regarding the topics, and decide which direction to take.

I seem to be struggling identifying three topics. This might be because I am not in the classroom or located at a campus where options for problems might be resolved through action research. One topic maybe the same one I used for my discussion question last week. How technology, specifically software applications are improving or not improving the students ability to learn, raise scores, and create a positive return on technology investment. This is more curiosity, but I’m looking for something that falls in the line of thinking like a Directors of Technology. Second topic might research the benefit of having a call center. Our department wants to change how work orders are handled. There has been some resistance from key staff members, basically the ones who would be assigned to the call center. So the action research question is how does a ‘call center’ increase productivity and will customers benefit from the organizational change that would occur from implementing new model. And the third topic comes from this week’s chapter readings Passion #6 Leadership. What do I learn from comparing and contrasting my own perceptions, my department’s perceptions, my Director’s perceptions, and my leadership team’s perceptions about my own educational technology leadership as a future Director. When I first read this I was excited and thought I had my action research question. As I blog this, I am leaning towards number 3, but I still want to get a Director’s perspective on other possible topics.

Write a description of what you have learned about action research and how you might be able to use it.

What I have learned is that action research can be a powerful tool for administrators, department heads, and teachers within the educational system. Basically anyone in a leadership role can use action research to gain deeper insights to specific issues or concerns and use those results to improve the situation or their own practice. Action research is defined as a process of engaging in systematic intentional study of their own administrative practice and taking action for changes based on what they learn as a result of the inquiry.  When use correctly it can create an avenue for collaboration and bridge any gaps between staff members and administrators.  It can also remove feelings of isolation between them. I have also learned that there has been two dominate paradigms in educational research. The first being a process-product research and secondly an educational research which has drawn from qualitative or interpretative studies. Both engage resources outside the school and their researchers are somewhat removed from the environment they are studying. Educational action research attempts to study real school situations with a viewpoint on improving the quality of actions and results by improving and developing the professional disposition of administrators and teachers within the teaching profession.