Loida Olivera

EDU 214/ fall 2017

Interview 1 O.K. Adcock Elementary School

Mr. Landall is the Assistant-principal at O. K. Adcock Elementary School. Mr. Landall originates

from Buffalo, NY where he attended school at St. Bonaventure University and has been working in his

capacity for 13 years. I was looking forward to my interview even though I was a bit intimidated by the

challenge of speaking with someone that is so experienced in their field.

I started off asking about his background followed by the questions on his schools technology

plan. Mr. Landall confirmed that the both the district and the school have technology plans, he explained

that they are created by a team of administrators and teachers, they have meeting periodically to discuss

needs and expectations. He says that the technology plans schools and districts are closely related, he also

added that technology plans are even included in teachers evaluations and reviews that are created from

the district. He says some of the items are: IPad Cards and Chrome Book cards within each grade level.

I asked about decision making in the purchases of technology. He explained that the SOT team

or School Organizational Team is a committee composed of parents, teachers and administration that

allocates their various budgets and divides amounts for every item on the budget, one of those being

technology. I asked him if he felt that budget was a big or small part of his school budget and Mr. Landall

said that after school salaries, technology is a significant part of the schools budget considering the

amount that is apportioned for it.

All decisions are made through school administration and supplied depending on availability, he

further explained that depending on the technology need they have two budgets to work with, adding that

some software falls under the category of curriculum so they are able to take advantage of that flexibility.
Then I asked Mr. Landall about the process for teacher obtaining specific technology he says that the

process is the same, administration will supply the request upon availability.

I asked the AP about who a teacher could turn to if they had any tech issues and he told me that

they have a site based tech person that assists teachers, via email, radio, or call. The tech support person

usually gets things resolved within the same day, he also mentioned that sometimes there are district tech

issues outside of his control which are usually taken care of at a district level.

At this point I felt more comfortable and extremely grateful for his willingness and all the extra time he

was taking to answer all the questions in detail.

I went on to ask about training and he said that most training is basic and on-site, sometimes

clusters of teachers will participate in off-site training for new software they will be using and other times

it is individual teachers that have the desire to learn something new that they think would add valued to

their classroom. Mr. Landall says that all types of training need special staffing accommodation, and time.

It seemed to me that this is something that he took pride in providing to teachers that wanted to excel and

learn more.

I went on to ask Mr. Landall additional questions, about the technology committee and their role

in school, and he clarified to me that their role in technology is to examine if technology is being used

efficiently and fairly. To make sure that it is also not being over-used, was one of their main challenges in

the past. I went on to ask the AP about the community and school technology engagement he says that

behavior systems, newsletters, and the school website are always up to date and encouraged to be used by

parents and anyone that wants to inform themselves about their school. Mr. Landall says that the best

features in technology are mobile carts, and IPads but only when theyre combined with dedicated

teachers that are tech savvy. I asked him to give me some examples of some innovative things that

teachers are doing and he said they are using: Apple TV, Chromecast and some classrooms are even

connecting with each other and learning simultaneously in real time.

school. Mr. Landall was ecstatic about that, he said yes, of course. Mr. Landall explained that one of the

greatest challenges that they have had in the past is that technology was being over used and this was

reflecting negatively on standardized testing and other assessments because staff became very dependent

on technology, without carefully review if there was any significant progress in each student reminding

me of the importance to keeping close watch on the efficiency of technology.

Mr. Landall closed by saying that there is definitely a digital divide among schools saying that it

was hard to give clear examples but school that are 1-to-1 (meaning, 1 computer for every student),

new schools, and other schools that dont have space for computer labs are proof that there is a gap in

schools. He suggested that continuing to implement technology in every classroom and having an ass to a

computer lab, and in a perfect world having 1 computer for every student would be ideal for students to

have and equal opportunity to learn how to use computers.

At first I will admit that I was intimidated by the task of speaking to the AP and taking up his

time, but I also felt very thankful for the opportunity I had. It was a real eye opener about the challenges I

might soon be facing on the classroom and the limitations that I might have to go through. On a good note

it is awesome to know that there is staff like Mr. Landall and care for his faculty and appreciates

innovation in the classroom. I am excited for the future to see how I can integrate technology and get

creative.

As we concluded the interview, I gave Mr. Landall and thank you note, and some pens as a thank you for

his time. He was very grateful.

1. Where are you from?

Buffalo, NY

2. How long have you been teaching at this school?

13 Years

3. Where did you go to school?

St. Bonaventure University