Digital Learning Environment Inventory

Digital learning is more important and common than its ever been around the world. We should all make sure that we our schools and classrooms are not left in the past. Use the questions below to assess your own schools and classrooms:

1. What tools, software, operating systems, and equipment are available in your school and classroom? (including but not limited to: videoconferencing, streaming, photos sharing sites, video sharing sites, document sharing sites, podcasts, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, etc.)
2. How does your school make use of school and/or teacher websites?
3. How are you currently utilizing technology for learning?
4. Which websites are blocked by your school's firewall?
5. What websites and tools are colleagues in your building using?
6. Is there a system for evaluating student technology literacy in your school? If so, how effective or helpful have you found the assessment?
7. Gather suggestions from students on their ideas for integrating technology into their learning.
8. What tools that are not presently available would help to achieve district objectives?

Here are my results:
1. We have three computer labs that any class can reserve. We also have a few class set laptop carts that can be reserved on a limited basis. The teachers with online or technology education based courses often offer their labs to help meet the needs of our large student population. We use Power School for attendance and grading. Our desktops for teacher and students are equipped with the Microsoft Office suite and Outlook. 
2. Our Media specialists keeps the school website updated with events, announcements, and other useful info for parents and students. The website has a teacher page link for each of us, but I am not aware of any of my colleagues actually using this beyond our basic contact information. 
3. I use my interactive projector daily for multi-media instruction. Students use Chromebooks occasionally to complete and upload assignments. My IB students use an online platform to track due dates and submit assignments. Phone apps are used for quick research and interactive games like Kahoot. 
4. Social Media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all blocked. Media streaming sites like Hulu and Netflix are blocked as well. Only teachers can access YouTube. Gaming sites are mostly blocked unless they have educational value. 
5. Many of my colleagues use Kahoot for review games and resources like News ELA for supplemental readings. Some use Quick Key for easy grading. Since teachers can access YouTube, we find plenty of instructional videos to use for our classes. 
6. If there is a system for evaluating student technology literacy at my school, I am not aware of it. This may be a task that is left up to the CTE teachers that have technology literacy as a part of their course curriculum. 
7. Student suggestions for technology infused learning: Using videos of teachers explaining concepts to assist students when teachers are absent, Taking assessments online, and Playing games to review for tests. My students also believe that they should all be offered laptops to help with school.
8. I too feel that we should be a 1-to-1 school with laptops for everyone. Our school should at least have enough computers for everyone in the school even if they are not able to take them home. Nevertheless, I know that this is an expensive venture. If we were able to provide technology for each student, I feel that we could cut costs  on textbooks and novels by using electronic copies that can't be consumed. 
A potential solution is that we seek partnership with community organizations and/or technology retail companies to help us attain the resources we need to make technology available to all our students all the time. It's not for me to get my grant and proposal writing game together!

What problems do you face as you attempt to incorporate technology in your classroom? Any solution ideas for potential problems? Please share!
Using your Digital Learning Environment Inventory, develop a solution or suggest an improvement customized to your school/classroom circumstances.