a technology action plan2

A Technology Action Plan

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By Lynda Kieler, December 2009

"Do not confine your children to your own learning, for

they were born in another time."

-Chinese Proverb-


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1 Introduction

Our Vision

Students of Wharton Elementary School will have equal access to technologies

that will equip them with the 21st century skills necessary to compete in a global

community.

Our Mission

Teachers will improve their teaching and student learning through the use of

technology as a direct result of their professional development and the support of

the district instructional leaders' commitment and support through a technology

rich infrastructure and ongoing evaluation of all areas and stakeholders' needs.

Planning Evaluation

With an understanding that evaluation is key to moving this action plan forward

towards success for all stakeholders, preliminary evaluation was done before

reflecting on a course of action. Based on interviews with a campus principal, the

district technology director, a technology facilitator, teachers and students; the

district and campus technology perceptions and climate was assessed. Further

preliminary evaluation consisted of a review of the Texas STaR Chart data which

indicated that our district is lacking in the areas of professional development and

implementation of technology into the curriculum. The results from the Project

Tomorrow Speak Up findings, and a review of the Texas Long Rang Plan,

Wharton’s Three Year District Plan, and ISTE’s National Educational Technology

Standards also gave direction for this action plan and reiterated the need for

instructional leadership and accountability.


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Organizational Chart

The Superintendent gives the Technology Director the budget and supports

decisions made by her/him. The Technology Director and the District Curriculum

Director discuss needs for integration of technology into the curriculum. The

District Curriculum Director then meets with the Campus Curriculum Principals

to oversee that technology is an integral part of the curriculum. The District

Technology Director meets with the District Technology Committee made up of

district teachers representing each campus to determine needs for the campuses

Principals of

Curriculum and

Instruction

Superintendent

District Technology

Director

District Technology

Committee

Technology

Facilitator

District Curriculum

Director

Campus Technology

Committee

Teachers

Technology

Assistants

Students


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of the district. The District Facilitator listens to the needs of the campuses and

with the Technology Director, plans services for each campus per their needs for

development for teachers and students as well as overseeing that the Technology

TEKS are taught. Evaluations made at this level are formative.

The Campus Technology Committee meets before the district committee meets

to discuss technology needs and the Curriculum principal may also attend the

meeting to ensure that technology is being asked for that will impact students in

a positive manner. In addition to help from the Technology Facilitator, teachers

can receive technology assistance from the assistants that run the labs and report

computer issues to the facilitator. Through the organizational make up, it is

hoped that when all of the fore-mentioned individuals are groups are aligned,

that students will benefit from the technology and technology integrated learning

that they need in order to be successful 21st century learners.

2 GOALS

Teaching and Learning Goal 1: Improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness through the use of technology

Strategies Student Evidence Teacher Evidence

Students will master Technology

TEKS

Student checklists of

mastered TEKS

Student products

Records on student

mastery

Lesson Plans

Teachers will integrate technology

in their curriculum

Student projects related to

curriculum will demonstrate

an understanding of concepts

using presentation software

and multimedia applications.

Student will work

collaboratively using

technology to effectively

communicate information and

ideas to multiple audiences

Integrated Lessons

Collaboration with colleagues on ways to integrate

Effectively incorporate the use of new technologies such as interactive whiteboards, blogs, websites, web-quests, podcasts, and RSS, to communicate and enhance instruction.


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Access to digital content is available

through internet

Independent student

research

On Line assess to Library

and databases

Student Blogs

Use of on-line resources

such as United Streaming

Use of on-line curriculum

Use of virtual field trips

Demonstration of Digital citizenship

and cyber ethics Will exhibit the proper

behaviors and expectations of digital citizenship in their roles

as students. Will follow the Internet

Usage Policy

Will exhibit proper

behaviors and expectations

of digital citizenship in their

roles as teachers

Will follow the Internet

Usage Policy

Summary: The goal of teaching and learning is for teachers and students to use technology

in an integrated manner which will enhance both learning and teaching. Proper internet

usage is expected of all technology users and we feel that as educators we have a

responsibility to educate our students on how to use the internet safely. From mastery of

Technology TEKS to use of programs that help students and teachers communicate to

internet safety when interacting with others and researching, we expect our students and

teachers to develop the skills needed to compete in the 21st century.

Educator Preparation and Development Goal 2: Campus staff performance with technology will improve

Strategies Student Evidence Teacher Evidence

Instruction by Facilitator on use of

various computer programs

Students will show mastery

through projects

Use of programs to produce

evidence of curriculum

objectives will increase and

students will become

independent in use of the

programs

Teacher will be an indirect

learner in the lesson

Teacher will integrate

programs into curriculum and

use them to present lessons


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After school in-services and summer

opportunities on use of interactive

whiteboards, use of mp3 players for

podcasts, blogs, website creation,

interactive games, virtual field trips,

digital storytelling, digital cameras, etc

as needs arise

Summer Opportunities:

Creating a digital story

Podcasting

Use of digital cameras

Attendance logs

Teacher lesson plans

PDAS Observations

Integrated Curriculum by confident teachers

Teachers mentoring other teachers

Summary: Knowing that effective use of technology will only occur if we have the skills or

know how of the technologies, staff development becomes key to our plan to improve the

use of technology on our campus. Staff development has to evolve to meet the needs of the

stakeholders. Using facilitators on each campus to teach students lessons will provide

indirect training for teachers in a non threatening way. Dialogues that initiate from the

student lessons between the facilitator and teacher or even teacher to teacher will lead to

one on one instruction and teacher to teacher mentoring. Due to the current use of

Professional Learning Communities within each grade, technology needs and trainings can

be tailor created for grade level, subject level and campus level in-services.

Administration and Support Services Goal 3: Administration will provide instructional leadership for the campus in integrating

technology into the curriculum and improving efficiency.

Strategy Administration Evidence Teacher Evidence

Provide a rich technology

environment for teaching and learning

Campus technology is

maintained and up to date

Technology on campus reflects

the current tools needed to

create 21st

century learners

Teachers use a variety of

technology hardware, software

and internet sources to meet the

needs of their students

Teachers facilitate their students'

use of a variety of technologies to

learn and to create meaningful

learning products

Instructional leaders will show

commitment and support for use of

technology

Leaders look for evidence in

lesson plans

Leaders showcase students and

teachers who use technology in

their teaching and learning

Teachers take initiative to try new

technologies with their students

Teachers and their students are

showcased in newsletters or

newspapers for their initiatives


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Instructional leaders will model new

technologies

Leaders will model use of

technology in communications

with faculty

Principals will use the technologies

they expect teachers and students

to use in effective ways to

communicate with a variety of

audiences

Community /school

communication will be improved

through the use of technology

utilized by the instructional

leaders.

Summary: Knowing that the instructional leader can facilitate the use of technology used

on a campus by his/her support and patience with teachers and students as they

experiment to find the best way to use the technologies, administrators will demonstrate to

the faculty and students their appreciation for effort and by making sure that the

technologies on the campus are maintained and up to date. Use of old technology will not

serve the students or teachers in the most effective way. The leader will make sure that

the students and faculty are receiving the training they need to effectively use the most

current applications and technologies.

Evaluation Goal 4: Effectively evaluate the use of technology by all stakeholders and maintain and improve the

infrastructure as needs develop so that we meet the standards outlined in the Long Range

Technology Plan. Types of Evaluation Of Students by Facilitator,

Teacher and Campus

Leaders

Of Teacher and

Administrator by

Facilitators, Technology

Director

Planning Student records on mastery of Tech

TEKS from previous year

Student products

Student participation in summer

activities

Previous year in-service training

and subsequent use of

technologies in the day to day job

Campus technology requests and

teacher technology requests

STaR Chart data

Formative Students continued mastery of

Tech TEKS

Student products that improve in

sophistication

Finding ways to improve on past

use and find alternate ways of

doing learning tasks

In-service and development

opportunities show that teachers

are advancing in their mastery of

programs

Teachers and administrators

problem solve to find ways to make

learning and their job more

effective and efficient through the


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use of technology

More teachers and administrators

are using technology more of the

time versus the way they used to,

making modifications and

adjustments as needed.

Summative Students fill out questionnaires at

the end of summer learning

opportunities

Students evaluate the technology

they used during the year and

highlight their learnings

Students electronic portfolios

should reflect an increasing mastery

of skills and programs

Student interviews can assess what

learning needs they have that still

need to be addressed

Teachers and administrators

comment on how they felt about

in-services and which ones they felt

helped them the most

Monitoring of use and mastery in

using the technologies acquired

Teachers and administrators show

collaborative effort to solve

problems with facilitators that

occur when using new technology

so that they will have future

successes

Because of teacher and

administrators learnings students

are introduced to new technologies

being integrated into lessons

Summary: Professional development evaluation and program evaluation should include

three types of evaluation: planning, formative and summative. Evaluation should take

place at every level and be an ongoing process. In the planning evaluation, data from the

STaR chart, in-service records, observations from the previous year and technology

requests will move the professional development and for the following year and help to

determine how well we are in line with meeting our goals. The formative evaluation will

occur throughout the year as direct observations and products and integration of

technology with lessons and job performance. The summative evaluation will take the year

into account and look at the critical levels of professional development evaluations:

participants' reactions, participants' learning, organizational support and change, use of

new knowledge and skills and the impact the development subsequently had on student

learning outcomes(Gusky, 1998).


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3 Summary

This action plan is but a start of where we hope to go. It is hoped that by being realistic

and creating situations that will immerse teachers in learning situations that the use of

technology will increase at an exponential rate as teachers feel comfortable with the

technology through the forms of professional development outlined above. Evaluation will

be key to monitoring the success of this plan at each step of the way. Though Wharton is a

small district, we feel strongly that our students deserve the opportunity to hone skills they

will need to collaborate in the 21st century global community through the use of technology

both during the school year and with summer learning opportunities.

4 Resources Agency, T. E. (2006). Long-Range Plan for Technology. Austin: TEA.

Education, I. S. (2008). National Educational Technology Standards. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from

http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

Ganske, S. (2008-2011). Wharton ISD Three-Year District Technology Plan. Wharton: Wharton ISD.

Guskey, T. (Fall 1998). The age of our accountability. National Staff Development Council , 36-44.

May, S., Ganske, S., & Roddy, H. (2009, December 4). Technology in Wharton ISD. (L. Kieler, M. Rath, &

P. Parsons, Interviewers)

Selected National Findings. (2008). Retrieved Dec 1, 2009, from Speak Up 2008 for Students, Teachers,

Parents and Administrators:

http://www.tomorrow.org/docs/SU08_selected%20national_findings_complete.pdf

Texas Campus STaR Chart Summary. (2008-2009). Retrieved 11 14, 2009, from School Technology and

Readiness:

http://starchart2.esc12.net/campusSearchlist.aspx?foryear=20082009&district=Wharton&campus=