Running head: TECHNOLOGY PLAN 1

Instructional Technology Plan: Google Classroom and Prodigy

EDUCA245

Ryan Moulday

December 2nd 2019

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Introduction/Mission Statement

There is a strong need for differentiation in the classroom today. Unfortunately true

differentiation can be extremely difficult for a teacher to carry out. The mission statement behind

technological integration for my classroom is to ensure differentiated learning and the effective

distribution of necessary learning resources to each student who is in need. Two pieces of software

will be integrated to satisfy this mission statement; Prodigy and Google Classroom. It is my hope

that with the integration of these pieces of software into the classroom will come the tools

necessary for me as a teacher to provide extensive differentiation with reasonable ease to the

classroom. With this differentiation will come improved educational outcomes for all students, not

only those on track to meet grade level standards at the start of the year. These tools are intended

to be implemented at a middle-school level, as Prodigy is supported to the 8th grade level. However,

integration of Google Classroom can be successful at any education level.

Goals and Objectives

The goal of Google Classroom is to quickly and effectively distribute a variety of

learning resources to the students who may be in need of them. With the use of pre-assessments

distributed several times throughout a unit, students will be placed into determined brackets.

Each bracket will have different resources designed to help advance their understanding of the

material from their level and provide a suitable level of challenge. Brackets will be organized in

a hierarchal nature; as students complete their bracket they will be able to move to the bracket

above them immediately to continue their challenge. I feel as if this approach will suffice better

than to throw the same information to everyone in the class and hope that they all understand at

the same level. While a standard unit will be taught to all students (i.e all students will learn
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fraction multiplication), each bracket will deal with the concept in various levels of depth and

with varying amounts of aid depending on student learning level.

The goal of Prodigy is to develop and strengthen learned mathematical concepts through

practice. Prodigy takes the form of a video game which is appealing to many youth and thus

students are motivated into practicing mathematics in their free time as a recreational activity.

Unlike many math “games” which are either not engaging for students or do not actually have

much to do with math, Prodigy is very engaging and math centered. Prodigy will be provided as

a reward tool for students in class. When the class has made an accomplishment or has free time,

Prodigy will be played. The goal behind this is to not only provide positive reinforcement to

desired behaviors but to build mathematical skills in students at the same time! Between Prodigy

and Google Classroom the desired academic progress will be improved engagement reflected

through higher test performance with a focus on low and high level learners.

Existing Resources

Thankfully our school has a bounty of technical resources which are often neglected in

the class. While we possess a computer lab and several desktops in each classroom the level of

demand for computer usage for my implementation strategy makes these utilities insufficient.

Since students may be using Google Classroom or Prodigy on a daily basis I hope to take

advantage of many of the school Chromebooks which can be booked from the library. Due to the

fairly consistent nature of usage for the aforementioned software, I would need access to a

class’s worth of Chromebooks on a permanent basis. We should have enough Chromebooks to

facilitate this request with extra to spare for other classes. The wireless network and

infrastructure present at the school should be more than sufficient to handle the needs of the

technology. Since both Classroom and Prodigy work as a completely online solution, no hard
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disk space will be required. The only data requires to be housed on a hard disk would potentially

be Prodigy’s teacher reports which note student progress. This is well within the capabilities of

my personal classroom computer or my own home laptop.

New Resources

As mentioned above, most required resources are already in the possession of the school.

If the permanent usage of the 30 or so Chromebooks requested will deplete the supply to an

unacceptable level, it may be necessary to purchase additional Chromebooks. This of course

would be an unintended and potentially rather large expense of the integration but would permit

more classes to also integrate technology further into their classroom. Homework may be

assigned through Google Classroom as part of the differentiated learning initiative. If this occurs,

it is possible that a student in the classroom may lack a personal computer for home use. If this is

the case it may be necessary for the school to provide this student with a personal laptop or

Chromebook which they can take home for use. Students who lack internet at their homes will

have to use public services like the public or school library to access the internet. In the off

chance that both options are non-viable then an alternative method of homework completion and

assignment can be worked out with such a student.

Training

Google maintains a large database of guides and user feedback for their Classroom

service. Classroom also provides several online training courses and optionally in person

services of which some are free and some are not. The complexity of the Classroom service

however is not incredibly difficult to grasp and with the online setup guides it is sufficiently easy

to get the service up and running. Training for students will be ideally provided by myself over
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the first couple of days of implementation and any time a question arises. Students who need

assistance outside of the classroom can also consult documentation provided by Google. For

Prodigy, the student end is very intuitive and the game will provide a tutorial demonstrating the

necessary steps needed to play the game. For account creation, the process will be guided by

myself to ensure everyone has what they need setup. For the teacher feedback and analytics

portion of Prodigy, the game offers free staff training to demonstrate how to operate such

features.

Maintenance

Neither Prodigy nor Google Classroom themselves require our maintenance as they are

online services operated by third party entities who can perform their own maintenance as

required. On the hardware side however, it is of course necessary to ensure the Chromebooks are

operating properly and have the necessary updates and security features needed to protect them.

Thankfully Chromebooks do most of the work for us, as they lack downloadable programs and

as such are much less vulnerable to viruses or malware. Care will need to be taken to ensure

students do not access websites they are not supposed to. This is already enforced through the

school’s IT department and the blocking of certain websites and search terms. Thus the

implementation of this plan will not require additional maintenance resources outside of the IT

department which already exists. No new staff will need to be hired as the additional load on

maintenance from this implementation will be minimal. There are no ongoing fees for either

service and no warranties or insurance will be necessary. In order to activate Classroom

however, it will be necessary for the school to claim a G Suite if we have not done so already,

though this is a free and fast process with optional administrative training if necessary.
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Costs and Funding

Both Prodigy and Classroom will be completely free for all students to use. Prodigy has

an optional membership fee which can be paid for at student discretion to unlock more game

content and increase rewards. The impact on the educational outcome of the game should not be

affected by the difference in content between the free and membership versions. I believe

students should be free to purchase membership on their own accord. If however the school

believes that it would be unfair for certain students to be able to purchase membership while

others cannot, then premium memberships can be purchased at $60 per student per year or $45

per student per year at a discounted rate if more than one membership is acquired at a time. For a

class of 30 students this would equate to $1350 a year, so again I believe membership should be

purchased at the discretion of parents. As for the potential cost of additional Chromebooks, they

can generally be found for $100 apiece. Given that we already possess sufficient Chromebooks,

we hopefully will not need to buy 30 more, but if so the cost would be $3000, though this would

be a one-time purchase. For potential Prodigy expenses, parents are likely going to be the source

of funding entirely for their own students. For Chromebooks, we may have to take the money out

of our IT budget.

Assessment

Assessment of the effectiveness of this technology integration plan will occur through

test scores. In the classroom, tests will be distributed either through Google Classroom or the

traditional paper format with the goal being a marked increase in test performances throughout

the year. Hopefully these improvements will be reflected on relevant state testing to confirm the

utility of this technology. Prodigy and Classroom both also include internal analytics which can

demonstrate the ability of students to complete their content and at what level they are doing so.
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References

Google. (n.d.). Classroom: manage teaching and learning | Google for Education. Retrieved from

https://edu.google.com/products/classroom/?modal_active=none.

Prodigy. (n.d.). Math Learning Platform. Retrieved from https://www.prodigygame.com/.