​​​​John Blick​

Project Description:

For my internship I worked with the Director of Technology for the Northampton Area School District, Kurt Paccio. Earlier in the semester I met with Kurt to discuss what my internship would consist of, and we decided on four projects that would give me experience and benefit the school district. The plan was for me to work with the technology department on migrating the district's website, to work with the Athletic Department on creating some presentations for the digital signage in the school, work on my own to create a series of guides for some of the advanced features of the Schoology LMS, and work on my own to write a grant proposal. 

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Demonstrates Mastery:

My internship demonstrates mastery in this outcome through the careful preparation and execution of these projects. For the advanced Schoology guides I went through all of the professional development that teachers had participated in to try and pinpoint the place where the training had ended, and determine the next step for the majority of teachers. I spent time working with the Schoology help center to determine where my guides could fit in while still being relevant, and found how difficult it was to locate information in the help center. I also relied on my own experiences in helping other members of my department with the questions they had on Schoology. When I ran my two professional development sessions, I worked through individual concerns and questions, and then allowed that to guide me in making further resources. While working with the web site templates I was continually aware of how each element would be seen by the public, and how functional they would find the site. It was important to deliver a complete package that represented the school district, but was also functional and easy to navigate. My years of experience as a teacher at Northampton, and my connection to the community informed all of my decisions and the work I produced during my internship. I firmly believe that what I accomplished has made an impact, and will be ultimately beneficial.

 

Reflection:

The projects I completed in the internship required me to draw upon a variety of skills from my course work. Working with the web site challenged me in designing a functional and attractive interface that would represent the district. The advanced Schoology guides relied on me being able to design a coherent narrative with carefully planned step-by-step instruction. The digital signage presentations for the Athletic Department required skills in Photoshop to create the title slide, and an understanding of how to communicate information effectively through a visual medium. My coursework prepared me well for these experiences. Of the three projects, the web site is probably the one that will stay with me the longest. I spent slightly more time, 49.5 hours, on the Schoollogy guides than on the web site, 44 hours, but it still was the most memorable experience for me. I think the scale of what I was working on; something that the entire Northampton community will use and judge the district on, added a sense of gravity to what I was doing. Every decision had to be carefully weighed because it is the digital face of the district, and I wanted to make sure we looked good.