Technology+Summary

Technology Survey Summaries Typically this technology survey is completed by teachers to take a survey of classroom technology, however, our group is not made of teachers but office professionals. This summary will cover hardware, software, training and evaluations in regards to office technology. At the bottom of this summary you will find our comparison spreadsheet which we used to compare our offices and technology.

1a-1f: Office Hardware (Alexa Tyler)
We found that the most updated versions of Windows was used in all three offices, with Shelly's office using the oldest version, Windows 7. The reason that Shelly's office is using a slightly older version is due to the fact that her company is owned by a very large insurance company who intentionally waits to ensure the bugs are worked out before upgrading. In addition, the integrations between legacy systems makes upgrading slightly challenging. Alexa and Shelly's office are fairly basic in that the only additional hardware that is used is a printer or scanner - fairly common in the office environment. However, in addition to printers and scanners, Shelly's office uses recording devices for various areas within her company (i.e. legal, marketing, trainers). This also explains why Shelly's office utilizes more than just laptops and desktops, she uses touch-screen computers, smart phones, and tablets. When looking at the hardware that Alexa and Asma use in their typical offices, their computers use the same amount of RAM 8GB which is fairly standard, while Shelly, needing more of a work horse of a computer for her job, uses 16GB of RAM. The one thing that all of their computers have in common is that they at least have 250GB of storage which seems to be the average for an office professional, regardless if they work in the IT department. While internet speeds are important to all office professionals, Alexa and Asma's offices only need to be connected using DSL while Shelly, needing a faster connection to handle a bigger technological workload, uses T1. After completing the hardware check our group moved on to the software check.

2a-2f: Office Software (Shelly Riess)
While comparing our group's office software, it is quite evident that Shelly's employer utilizes a wide range and variety of software. Several authoring tools noted include Camtasia, SnagIt, WebEx, Photoshop, Prezi, PowToons, and Captivate. While Alexa and Asma's offices are smaller, they do not use authoring tools or internet-based applications, they do both take advantage of the power offered in Office 365. While Shelly's company is moving toward Office 365 and currently uses numerous internet-based applications in various areas of the company. No one in the group currently uses computer assisted instruction in their day to day jobs. Software can cover a wide range of tools, we talked about authoring tools and internet-based tools, but what about the basics of updates and patches. All three members update their software on at least an annual basis if not more frequently. Shelly's employer applies patches and updates monthly to a variety of applications and software. The differences between the three situations explains the different beliefs about upgrading and patching software. As an insurance company with personally identifiable information, Shelly's employer must ensure all bugs have been fixed. Our final software question covers types of statistical systems at each of our employers. In today's day and age, technology is vital as is data. Within the insurance industry numbers help guide business and decisions. Within Shelly's company many off the shelf statistical programs are utilized. This type of software can generally be found in actuary, finance, and risk management. Alexa and Asma's offices do not use any statistical programs.

3a-3f: Office Training & Trained Personnel (Asma Alshammari)
In this part, we compared our level of training and trained personal. As we mentioned before, there are no teachers in our group. However, Alexa’s office requires all the staff to know how to use the computer, whereas Shelly stated that the requirement questions not available. In my case, I have already known and used the basic computer skills. When I made a comparison between the number of the administrators who are trained, I found that Shelly and I do not have administrators, whereas all the administrators in Alexa’s office are trained to use the computers. Alexa and Shelly agreed that all the staff people used the computers. Though, Alexa’s stated that all the staff members are trained to use the computers, whereas Shelly said that all members have to use the computers and her employer offers a training budget for the staff. All members in Alexa and Shelly’s offices have their own computer and as well as my office. In the past three years, I do not have available information about that, whereas Alexa declared that they offer 1-2 training in each quarter. Moreover, each member in Alexa’s office has at least 12 courses in the last three years. When I compared the number of the members who have computers at home, I found that Alexa's office members and I have computers at home. However, Alexa stated that the staff can take their computers to home for work. Both Alexa and Shelly feel that the technology and support/training in their work environments are not adequate for your school/workplace. Alexa stated that the Human Resources offers training programs but have limited seats and cost money. While Shelly reported that they are a version behind. Moreover, Alexa and Shelly agreed that there is a need to have more frequent training for the staff. Shelly declared that “there are plans to enhance the frequency and types of technology-type learning sessions available to staff” and the staff can take a training program and the company will cover all the cost. We all agreed that the education technology world has changed continually, and we need to meet its requirement to offer all new for consumers. As a student, I believe that I have and know how to use the technology that I need to study. However, in the future I know I would need to get a professional training to meet the future’s requirement.

4a-4d: Office Evaluation Process (Alexa Tyler)
When our group compared our offices' evaluation processes we were surprised to find that there weren't any in place currently. However, the group did understand that many teachers within schools would probably need to be evaluated in some way as their skill sets may differ from a typical office professional which is why this was included in the technology survey. The reason we believe that our offices do not have these types of processes is because when someone is hired to work in our offices it is assumed that they have basic computer knowledge and skills, especially for Shelly's department in IT. The main difference that we had in this area is that Alexa's office, which has a primary focus on online education, there is a 1 to 1 ratio in terms of computers, students, and faculty. Every person involved has their own personal computer to work on - there is no computer sharing. The same holds true for Shelly's company.

Conclusion
After reviewing and comparing our technology surveys as a group we have decided that the current technology and support/training is not 100% adequate for our offices. The reason behind this is that technology is always changing and so, as mentioned earlier, it is hard for entire offices to adopt the latest software and hardware - this can result in slower or outdated practices. Another reason getting new technology is hard is it requires training which costs time and money for the office. Currently, none of our offices offer any kind of consistent training in regards to technology, which we believe should be changed. While it is expected that everyone working in the professional office setting has basic computer skills, the level of skill varies from employee to employee. By offering various training, ranging from amateur to experienced, on commonly used software could greatly benefit our offices by increasing job satisfaction and productivity. = = Technology Comparison Spreadsheet ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||



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