Luke Wiggs

Boise State University

ED TECH 501

In Henry county our vision is to be within the top 10% of the nations school systems in all academic areas on or before 2014. We believe that technology does not drive education but it is a tool that enables and accelerates it. A technology use plan will provide direction to our county in reaching our goal by 2014. It will allow us to see where we currently are and where we need to be. We have to prepare our future leaders of our society to be successful in the technology rich environment we currently live in, a technology use plan will ensure that we accomplish this.

The first step to our technology use plan is to determine who will be on our team and develop and lead the implementation of this plan. Our team must consist of:

Students

Teachers

Parents

Community leaders

Administrators

County Officials

Educational Technologists

There are several steps to developing a technology use plan and getting the process started.

1. Each school must complete a technology inventory to see what technology we currently have available to our students and teachers.

2. We must access our current budget and look at the funds currently available and what resources are available to get additional funding.

3. A survey needs to be completed to determine the students, parents and teachers perception to technology.

4. We need to determine how technology is currently being used for example:

- monitor internet use and activity

- student and teacher computer activity

5. We will have to review each schools annual improvement plan and see how and if technology is directly related to the improvement of each school.

6. Lastly, in this process we must remember that planning is a continuous process and that we must continue to evaluate and revise our plan to make sure we are reaching our goal of being in the top 10% of our nations schools in all academic areas.

In Henry County our vision is to be in the top 10% of the nations schools by 2014. Technology will not guide instruction but it will allow our teachers to accelerate the learning curve. Our classrooms will be technology rich and allow teachers to differentiate instruction to meet each individuals academic needs. Through technology not only will our teachers be able to continue their education but it will allow our students to generalize the skills they are learning in the classroom to the real world. The opportunity to generalize will ensure that are students are highly competitive when entering post-secondary schools and the work force upon graduating from a Henry County School.

Our goals in Henry County will be aligned with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

ISTE’s standards for teachers and students provide goals and objectives that provide the framework for students to be successful and competitive in the digital environment we currently live in.

1. Teachers use their knowledge of subject content and technology to assist experiences that promote student learning and creativity in both the real world and virtual world.

2. Teachers will customize their lessons to accommodate the individual learning styles of their students using technological devices that supplement and support the individual needs of each student.

3. Teachers will communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using e-mail, class websites, infinite campus, etc .

4. Teachers will promote and model web and classroom etiquette insuring a safe learning environment for each student.

5. Teachers will participate in local and national professional development activities that enable them to continually learn about new technologies and strategies to help accelerate the learning curve of all students.

1. Students will interact with classmates and peers employing and using a variety of digital devices.

2. Students will evaluate and select information from technological resources available to them that are appropriate to specific curriculum objectives.

3. Students will use technology to develop a solution or complete a project related to the state curriculum.

4) Students will promote safe and responsible use of the internet and communication devices in the school and community.

5) Students will use what they know about technology and apply it towards the learning and understanding of new technologies available.

I have created a needs assessment survey for teachers and students.

Every teacher and student will be required to complete the survey so we can gain information that will help guide our plan.

In the needs assessment that I have created I have broken the assessment down into three pages.

The first page is designed to gain personal information from teachers. It asks some basic questions such as where you work, what grades and subjects you teach. Page one is simply designed so we can classify teachers responses by subjects taught, grade level and school if we wanted to.

The second page is the survey which will be completed by all teachers.

The Needs Assessment for teachers is designed to gain knowledge about their technology background. The purpose in the assessment is so that we can see what technologies our teachers have used and are familiar with and which ones they are using in their classroom.

This assessment has 4 broad questions that have several sub questions to gain information from our teachers.

The following are the four main questions on the assessment:

1. Have you used the following technologies?

2. Have you used the following computer technologies for your job as an educator in the Henry County School System?

3. How do your students use technology in your classes?

4. Please indicate your level of agreement for each statement listed. (10 statements about technologies and beliefs in schools)

The student centered technology survey that each student will fill out is designed to determine what technologies and resources these students have available to them at home and in the classroom.

The student needs assessment is broken down into two statements one about technology at home and the other about technology at school.

The first statement:

-Last week at school I did the following . . . .

Following this statement are roughly 20 different statements about technology such as:

sent an e-mail

used a computer during class for instruction

used a digital camera

used a computer to study for a test (USA test prep)

designed a web page

etc . . .

The second and final broad question in the student assessment is:

-How much technology is in your house and how often do you use it?

Following this statement are roughly 20 statement such as:

have a computer at home

have your own personal computer

have an ISP

have dial up internet

have high speed internet

etc . . .

The following link is to the Needs Assessment Survey that I have created for the Henry County School system:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Sfmy6HapU9arxb1QwVm1ng_3d_3d

Possibly the most important part of our technology use plan in Henry County will be the planning and implementing of professional development for teachers.

In Henry County we want our teachers trained and comfortable to all the technologies available in our schools.

We also want to train them on all of the latest technologies that are on the market today.

The Educational Technologist at each school or cluster of schools will be in charge of designing, implementing and mandating the professional development opportunities.

In Henry County our Educational Technologist will concentrate on two main areas when designing and structuring professional development opportunities.

We must remember to make sure our training sessions are interactive and the teachers do not feel like they are a waste of time. We must create “meaningful experiences while learning”

The two main areas our Educational Technologist will focus on when designing these courses are:

1. Make sure our courses are designed and aligned with supporting the standards based instruction technology is supporting.

2. The final thing we will focus on when designing these courses is directly related to our vision and rationale of the plan. We want to develop courses focusing on how technology can enable and accelerate standards based learning.

Once we start to implement our technology use plan we must continue to evaluate and revise the plan as needed.

As previously stated planning is an on-going process as is evaluation.

In Henry County we will have formal and informal assessments.

In Henry County we will formally evaluate or staff and students every six weeks for the first year of our plan.

After the first year of out plan is finished we will continue to formal evaluations but these will only occur every 12 weeks.

Teachers at times don’t like completing formal assessments and we don’t want to the teachers to get a bad perception of the plan. That’s why we will reduce the frequency of formal testing each year of the plan.

When we are designing our formal evaluations they will be much like our needs assessment.

The only difference is that they will not be as long.

Our needs assessment provided us with a baseline to judge our technology progress with.

Our needs assessment will be revised and updated to align with our goals and objectives we have set each year as they relate to current technologies.

Informal Evaluations will be our most valuable evaluation tool for our Technology Use Planning Team.

The purpose of the evaluation process is for our team to figure out what is working and what is not.

Once we have determined this we can align our goals and professional development to these needs.

Members of the planning team will do the following informal evaluations on a regular basis set by the planning team:

Frequent Classroom Observations

Internet Activity Observations

Student Account Observations

Informal Student Perception Surveys

Etc . . .

School Year Fall Semester Spring Semester

2009-2010 1. Establish Planning Team

2. Set goals and objective for the next three schools years

3. Students and Teachers complete needs assessment survey

1. Evaluate NeedsAssessment and align Staff Development to meet the needs.

2. Determine if additional funding is needed for students to gain internet access at home.

3. Educational Technologist presents plan to faculty staff and parents.

School Year Fall Semester Spring Semester

2010-2011 1. Start Informal Observations and data collection. This information adds to baseline.

2. Three Mandatory Staff Development Courses taught by Educational Technologist.

3. End of each six weeks teachers and students will take formal evaluation.

4. Planning Team meets every 12 weeks to revise and evaluate plan.

1. Necessary changes to plan have been made.

2. Three more Mandatory Staff Development Courses will be taught related to teacher needs.

3. Informal Evaluations on student progress will be a focus.

4. Update Goals and Objectives for the 2011-2012 school year.

At the end of each year of the plan a new timeline for the up coming school year will be set.

When considering our timeline for each school year we need to consider where we currently are and how far we need to go to reach our goal.

If you have any questions or input you want to add regarding the Technology Use Plan I have designed for the Henry County School System. Please e-mail @ lukewiggs@u.boisestate.edu