Blog #5 Technology Plan

The purpose of a Technology Plan is to define the direction a school or school district is taking to evaluate, assess and accommodate the current and expected technology needs of it's students, faculty and administration. Technology plans may differ from one district to the next, but they all include the same basic elements. Technology plans include a mission statement, a vision statement, a collection of collaborative data, analysis and conclusions in regard to technology needs and assets, a set of clearly defined goals, budgeting and evaluation of it's effectiveness.

The Mission of the Technology plan should support the overall Mission of the district or school. The mission should be to utilize technology to further and enhance the educational mission. The Vision statement of the plan should support the mission statement of the district, but should clearly define how information and instructional technology will support that mission in the district as it currently exists and should also support any foreseeable changes in technology needs, enrollments and budgeting, etc...
The collection of data is more a part of the process than the plan. Collecting data from students, parents, the community, teachers administrators and support staff about the current technology equipment, hardware, software and peripherals is essential. Other important data would include a survey of users' skills and training, professional development and qualifications and the technology needs as perceived and prioritized by all users.
The goals would be directly related to the analysis and conclusions drawn from the collected data. The goals should be"S.M.A.R.T." goals. They should be Specific with start and endadates; most Technology plans should be revised every 2 - 3 years, at most. The goals need to be Measurable, Attainable , Realistic and Tangible . Schools should look at their "school report card" and their state standards to identify the student learning standards they want to achieve and where they may have weaknesses or gaps in student achievement.
Budgeting is another consideration in creating a technology plan. the plan has to consider the budget constraints on the school or district and will need to prioritize it's needs to fit within the budgeting parameters. In looking ahead, the plan should define the district's future needs and propose budgeting changes to accommodate those needs. This is probably the most difficult part of the planning process.
The final part of the plan would be assessment ad evaluation. This should review how the goals and corresponding actions will support the mission and vision statements. This needs to be an ongoing process. Innovations in technology are occurring exponentially. Although the plan should address foreseeable changes, there is always the unforeseeable and it will have to be amended and revised, as necessary.
A technology plan is a very important tool within a school or district to ensure that all are working toward the same goals. Collecting and analyzing collaborative data from all technology users is a very important part of the process. Individuals in varying roles will have different perspectives on the strengths and challenges of the existing instructional and informational technology within the school and different perspectives on what is needed. A well developed plan lays the foundation for good outcome. It is, however, a plan and plans often need to be adjusted to account for change. A plan, though, has a structure and effective changes can be made within that structure.
Schools can use this plan for other things as well . they can use te plan to assess their professional development needs in instructiona technology, they can use it to forecast some of their budgeting needs, they can use it to keep everyone on the same page, so to speak. Many of the Technology Plan templates available on the internet are from State education departments, individual districts use this template and require that all of the schools within their district use it. This keeps everyone focused on the same mission.

Interactive website

Go to: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/social/index.htm

About: This is the Scholastic website. It is a great site for all subject areas. Students will need Flash to play the interactives and there is a quick and easy download available on the website. This is a link to the social studies area. The videos on current events and historic events are interactive, but there is also a really cool interactive about airport security. This gives students a close up experience with terrorism and homeland security in a real life application.

Directions: Click on the "Baggage Screener" activity. You will be an airport carry on baggage screener. You will screen baggage for guns, knives and explosives. You can change colors so that organic (possible explosive) materials turn orange. You can also stop the conveyor belt to study an item more closely, but you will have to listen to the complaints of travelers in line and you only have 2 minutes to complete the game.

Assignment 4 - Acceptable Use Policy

I work for an online learning company. Our shared drive is essential since our offices are located all over the US and many of us work from home offices. Our shared drive is where we store all of our forms, spreadsheets and databases. This allows all of those who need to, to be able to access those items at any time. If we have documents that we do not want others to edit, we password protect them.To get to the shared drive remotely we need to go through a VPN (Virtual Private Network) set up by our IT people. This makes sure that no one outside our organization can access these files.
I am familiar with acceptable use policies. i have agreed to several over the past few years, some very vague and others very specific. I think somewhere in the middle is best; too vague and the school or company is vulnerable. However, there is no way to cover every possibility when technology is constantly in flux. The company I work for does not have an AUP, that I am aware of, for its employees. Our customers are schools and school districts that contract us to teach courses to their students online. Each school or district has their own AUP and we require that all students be informed of this before they are enrolled in an online class. We do this because we want our customers to feel that their rules and regulations will be respected and we tailor our services to their district's needs.
My company uses Microsoft Outlook but in several different ways. Those employees who are located in a corporate office use Outlook. Employees who telecommute (work from their home offices) access MS Outlook through the VPN. These employees are also supplied with a Blackberry or similar device to access their email account. Teachers access their email through Outlook Web Access; this is a trimmed down version of Outlook and it has a lot of issues. The biggest problem is that it times out. Teachers will be in the middle of typing a message and then it times out and they have to sign in again. most times their message is lost and they have to start over. Another big issue is that there is no archiving capability with O.W.A. Teachers' mailboxes fill up quickly and they have to delete old messages or their mailbox becomes full and they can no longer receive or send messages until they clean it out.
Students use their personal emails or an email account set up for them by their sending school. Some schools/school districts do not allow their students to use email because of liability issues and filters. These students use the message center within the Blackboard learning management system to communicate with their teachers. This is a poor tool because the student and the teacher must go into the message center to send and retrieve messages and they can be viewed by all class participants.
The most important part of the lesson this week for me was the email account information. As I have described in the above paragraphs our current email system is not running efficiently for our purposes. I and my colleagues have been asked to evaluate it and research and recommend alternatives. This week's lesson gave me some insight as to what we need and what might be available.