Junior High- Lindsey Pippen week 6

1. Recognize the related legislatures and regulations to support the needs from your institution.

The Long Range Technology Plan states that in order to meet the needs of the plan, strategies must be implemented, which can be accomplished and measured over time (TEA, 2012). According to the Connally ISD Technology Plan, the document is living and working so it can be updated on a yearly basis to meet the needs of the district. In 2011, the document was rewritten in order to meet the requirements of the Long Range Technology Plan and the federal No Child Left behind act (Connally, 2012).

One of the needs that was identified in Report 1 was the lack of technology professional development. According to the the Long Range Technology Plan, Priority 5 Teach Competencies and Certifications, "All of the investments in hardware, software, online resources, networks, Internet, planning, and others will not produce the desired results in learning if teachers do not possess the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate technology into their daily educational planning and classroom instruction" (TEA, 2012).

Another need that was addressed in Report 1 was trying to find funding for the technology of the district. The Long Range Technology Plan states, "Significant and “dedicated” funding is necessary to maintain what has already been accomplished in Texas and to (1) improve the student-to-computer ratio, (2) provide instructional support and professional development, and (3) ensure adequate technical support, so that Texas can move forward into the 21st Century" (TEA, 2012).

A third need for the district was increased bandwidth. The 2010 Progress Report on the Long Range Plan said,
            "the majority of Texas public school districts take advantage of the purchasing power of the Texas Education Telecommunications Network (TETN) to procure broadband services through their local regional education service center. By providing broadband
connections between service centers utilizing the LEARN network, regional service centers can eliminate redundant connections and be able to plan collaborative projects that utilize the greater bandwidth and that will result in the exponentail growth of network usage in the schools" (TEA, 2012).2. Develop the objectives for the school technology plan based on the needs from your institution.

The needs of Connally ISD identified in the district technology plan were campus support personnel, professional development for teachers, increase bandwidth, and equal access to technology (Connally, 2012). The needs that are outlined in the district technology plan were responses from district teachers to the STaR chart. The purpose of the STaR chart is to help districts reach the goals of the Long Range Technology Plan and No Child Left Behind (TEA, 2012). The following objectives were what I discovered as weakness from Report One:

Objective 1

Connally ISD will develop a comprehensive professional development program for technology training with 100% professional educator participation, that will be measured by having teachers complete an online survey after they participate in the training during inservice and during two six weeks early release days.

Objective 2

Connally ISD will enforce technology standards to ensure compatibility, cost-effectiveness and efficient support by having teachers, students, and parents fill out surveys, after the acceptable use policy and Internet safety policy is gone over.

Objective 3

Connally ISD will provide a high-speed, cost-effective, district-wide telecommunications network, by upgrading the operating systems of the teacher's computers and then the student workstations, by increasing the bandwidth from 12mbps to 14mbps, and maintain and upgrade network equipment. This will be measured by the use of work orders submitted into Eduphoria.

3. Identify the objective for each area of Technology, Funding, and Management. Provide the needed elements for each objective to make sure that it’s measurable.

Technology

Connally ISD wants every parent and child to be provided with a family and school connection thru the Family Access portal to the student grade book and district and teacher web pages. This will allow parents and students to stay up-to-date with grades and missing assignments. Accounts can be created at school or home and can be measured by looking at the amount of logins to the account. Parents can set up an account at open house and at various events throughout the year and students can set up an account through technology and history classes.  

Funding

The district will continuously be searching for outside sources of funding. Connally ISD will continue to use local funds and ERate discounts.

Management

Connally ISD will provide a director, network manager, two technicians, instructional coordinator and campus facilitators for both technical and instructional support for each campus. The district will also use an online professional development training service to provide online technology training and portfolio management for all teachers and staff to complete within eighteen months of implementation.

References

Connally. (2012). Connally ISD: Technology plan. Retrieved February 24, 2012 from http://www.connally.org/cms/lib/TX21000281/Centricity/Domain/12/CONNALLY%20ISD%20Technology%20Plan%202011%20-%202014.htm

TEA. (2012). Educational technology: Long range plan for technology. Retrieved February 24, 2012 from
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=5082&menu_id=2147483665

TEA. (2012). Long-range plan for technology, 2006-2020. Retrieved February 24, 2012 from
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=2147494561&libID=2147494558