Continuing on with the project, Sandy and I focused on establishing who our target audience is, what are the developmental characteristics and needs of our audience, and ways we can foster connectivity. Our topic is intended to be a resource for teachers-on-call (TOCs). Other users may be able to benefit from it or contribute, but our goal is to create something that can be used by teachers that are constantly on the go from one classroom to the next. The database of ICT infrastructure in schools does not have much use for a classroom teacher.

Most new teachers entering the TOC position have at least some basic computer literacy skills, such as how to use a computer, projector, or perhaps even Smartphones or tablets. More advanced ICT users may have experience with Smartboards, and have knowledge around the inquiry model and how to use technology to enhance their ideas. There’s also a community of retired teachers that are entering the TOC field again after years of teaching experience. I would argue that those teachers have a plethora of knowledge and would also have basic ICT skills. Some may be experts with technology, whereas others may have shied away from it before retiring. It is our intent with this website to enable those willing and wanting to use technology to enhance their lessons in the event that the regular classroom teacher did not leave anything, or is open to new ideas.

Beyond the database of what technology is available in classrooms, we’d like to create a page of suggested ideas for subs. It is our hope that our contributions will just be a starting point for others to contribute to. We’ve thought about sending out a blurb to our respective TOC representatives in try to get the word out and reach out to the sub community. Also, talking about it in staffrooms or sharing the ideas with administrators might help spread the idea. In regards to community, we initially thought of creating a blog, but we realized that since we do not want to be the sole moderators of the site, we decided a forum might be a better medium for people to communicate. While the survey and database portion will be username and password free, I feel it’s important for people to have an identity when communicating ideas.

I’ve been able to embed our survey on our Weebly site, and have created a brief write up for our goals. Our current challenge is figuring out the best way to organize the survey information. We have discovered it is possible to filter the surveys by alphabetical order of the schools, but we’d like to find a way to organize it further. We are investigating if it is possible to have a tab function that will allow users to differentiate from elementary, middle, and high school. The problem is we are not quite sure if google docs will distinguish that information or if more advanced scripting is needed.

Slowly, our idea is taking shape. I see potential in what we are creating, but it will certainly take a lot of refinement and numerous versions before we have something that we can work with. Perhaps this is the start of a collaborative resource concept that would be unofficially be supported by districts.