E-Rate & Technology Plan presentation

E-Rate and technology plans are interconnected processes. The following presentation was created to train personnel on E-Rate and the district technology plan for WISD.

E-rate & Technology Plan Presentation

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National Educational Technology Plan

On November 9, 2010 the U.S. Department of Education released a National Educational Technology Plan (NETP): Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology.  The technology plan, under the Administration of Obama, is driven by two main goals: increasing the percentage of college graduates from what it is today (41%) so that 60% of the population has a two-year or four-year degree by 2020 and to refine K-12 achievement so that high school graduates are ready to succeed in college and careers.  It is known that technology is the foundation of everything we do today so it must be a core value for education. 

NETP presents a model of learning based on five criteria: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Learning must engage and empower students to collaborate, utilize resources, problem solve, and exercise real-life experiences in the classroom and the use of technology is key to this goal.  Technology-based assessments should be implemented to gather relevant assessment data, accurately analyze it, and apply continuous improvement.  These assessments could be interconnected allowing feedback from students, teachers, administrations, parents, and other relevant stakeholders.  Teachers are a critical component of educational transformation so it is important to make sure join together in the vision of the 21^st Century education.  Connecting educators will enable collaboration and continuity of professional development which will prove to be a more effective use of resources and allow more opportunities.  In order to facilitate technology-based learning, there must be a robust infrastructure in place that offers anytime, anywhere connectivity.  This infrastructure would not only support access to information but to people and online learning communities to enhance real-world learning and problem solving skills.  Another goal of NETP is to increase productivity by redesigning and transforming the educational landscape.  The business world and other sectors have integrated new practices to increase productivity and decrease cost and it’s imperative that education adopt some of the same practices.  This will require rethinking basic assumptions that may hinder the need to integrate technology into learning.

Ultimately, these changes should be internally driven from within each state and local district. The Department of Education will play a large role in facilitating these goals and objectives down to each state to boost this transformation. 

  

District Technology Plan

In assessing the 2011-2012 approved technology plan for my district, it was identified in teacher and campus STaR Charts that professional development is the key area of focus for improvement.  It is clearly notated that teachers have a dire need for training on and use of digital tools in the classroom.  There are several strategies outlined in the technoloyg plan to support the goal of Professional Development on integrating technology into teaching and learning, instructional management, and administration.  Professional development opportunities include multi-level technology staff development programs, based on SBEC standards and Technology Application TEKS, that promotes integration of technology into curriculum and training on the use of technology based student projects as an assessment of student learning.  Along with Professional Development is the need for infrastructure and connectivity resources to enable technology integration.  The district is taking strides to implement and upgrade the local area network and wide area networks infrastructure as well as bandwidth adequacy to support the use of technology.

The district has identified the financial resources necessary and available to implement these aforementioned objectives.  Staff development will be funded locally while infrastructure upgrades and connectivity will be funded through local funds (12%) and federal funds, E-Rate (88%).

Frequent asssessment of this objective will be done by performing data walks to focus on the use and integration of technology in the classroom, on-site inspections, equipment repair history logs, physical inventories, utilization reports, and faculty and staff input.  It is important to note that collaborative efforts with other districts as well as business experts aided in providing input for improvements in technology integration.  The district peforms employee surveys to assess staff feedback during training and course of implementation which identifies continuous improvment opportunities for the technology plan committee.  The evaluations will be performed annually at a minimum.

Technology Assessments

I think it is important and extremely valuable for stakeholders to have access to educators' technology leadership knowledge and skills because they are involved in the success and outcome of student achievement.  If stakeholders understand the mission and vision of today's educational system and the importance of technology, this creates a positive and ubiquitous mentality and "buy-in" from the community to support this initiative and less push-back in the long run.  If the community is more informed of the education they are supporting as taxpayers and voting constituents, they are more inclined to support and encourage this movement.  All community members are stakeholders whether they believe it or not!  If they have children, they are stakeholders.  If they have a job, they are stakeholders.  If they vote, they are stakeholders.... and so on.  Therefore, they should play a vital role in keeping up with educational trends and reform and voicing their opinions.  Technology literacy is critical to our future and this is exactly what 21st Century learning entails.  The more invested stakeholders become, the more resources there will be for the 21st Century learning environment including facilities, available technology, and professional development opportunities. 
Along with this level of community involvement comes pros and cons.  A pro would obviously be that stakeholders know where their money is going and know it is being used wisely and successfully.   The other side of this is of course that they realize the effectiveness of technology is not at the target level defined in the plan and this can be discouraging.  Frequent blogging from educators and students can limit the feeling of discouragement if the level of technology achievement can be explained and rectified by a certain timeline.  Posting ongoing data analysis and trends to report to the community will keep them updated and optimistic.  This not only gives stakeholders something to look forward to, but also creates accountability for students, educators, and leadership to meet these standards.

Week 2 Web Conference

I attended the Week 2 Web conference and Professor Borel described all the requirements of the Educational Technology Master's Degree.  There is a lot of ground to cover in only 18 months and the coursework seems rather aggressive but this is the investment in which I committed my evenings and weekends.  That said, I will do everything I can to keep up with everything and "do not get behind" as Prof. Borel recommended.  She discussed the internship for the program as well.  My video conference was breaking up quite a bit so I need to keep up with all the requirements on the Ed Tech Cohort 22 web page, which is where the syllabus and internship description can be found. 

Another thing that was discussed during the video conference was the creation of our blog this week.  I thinking blogging is great and allows for creativity and sharing.  I have blogged before but only on my family website that I created when my daughter was born in 2009.  It was important for me to keep up with all the milestones during those two years that I would have otherwise forgotten.  I think blogging is a great data and discussion tool.  I'll be anxious to see how it helps me during my master's degree venture.

Week 2

I began my Master's Degree last week in Educational Technology Leadership.  I will say that I'm a little overwhelmed with the amount of work being laid out before me but I am confident I will succeed.  I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this way.  If any of my colleagues have some suggestions of how to keep things running smoothly, please share.  I'm excited to be a part of this progressive and powerful group!