Quickly
and Simply Take The
Pulse of Your Educational Community
http://snapshotsurvey.org
In schools and districts these days,
many decisions revolve around technology. e.g., should the
school purchase computers for a lab or for individual
classrooms, should the district provide Internet filtering
services, should curriculum be purchased that integrates
technology or should it be written in-house, etc. etc.
Gathering input on these issues from local teachers and
administrators would lead to better decisions and more
effective implementations. And, once an implementation is
underway, surveying again to see what changes are taking
place provides invaluable feedback for mid-course
corrections.
Fortunately, the Internet can be
leveraged to quickly and simply tap into the voices of the
districts' educators. In particular, at http://snapshotsurvey.org
schools and districts can develop a short survey that can be
administered online via standard browsers; basic statistical
analyses of the survey data is also provided. As well,
survey takers will receive individualized feedback: each
survey taker will be sent, via email, a URL that contains a
comparison of the survey taker's responses with their
group's responses.
For example, the results from a
February 11-21, 2000 Snapshot Survey of Nebraska educators
are, already, presented at http://snapshotsurvey.org/. Over
3100 teachers and administrators (about 15% of the stateís
educators) went online for 10-15 minutes, and provided
Nebraska decision makers with a clear picture of their
attitudes, beliefs and needs with respect to technology use
in the classroom.
Last but not least: the Snapshot
Survey website is available at no cost for schools and
districts. You create 5-10 questions that are specific to
your school/district; add in the 10-15 questions that we
have used around the country, and the survey is done!
Contact Cathleen Norris, Professor, University of North
Texas, at Cathleen-Norris@umich.edu for further information.