Technology Action Plan

This is my action plan for integrating technology in my school system. It was developed as part of my course at Lamar University EDLD 5352.

Integrating Technology, 2011

Personnel/Stakeholders	Role	Responsibilities	Supervised by
Board of Trustees	Advisory	Develop policies to govern use of technologies in accordance with state and federal laws and guidelines.	State and Federal agencies and local tax-payers.
Superintendent	Supervise development and implementation of technology in all venues within the school	The superintendent oversees all elements of technology but is primarily charged with securing the funding for technology integration.	The board of trustees.
Assistant Superintendent	Directly supervises campus principals and IT professionals	Ensures that as technology is being integrated campus principals are aware of board policies, state, and federal laws and guidelines.	Superintendent
Campus Principals	Supervise the integration of technology at the campus level	Communicate with education staff and parents concerning laws and guidelines that govern technology use for students. Ensure all concerned are aware of technology related problems such as cyberbullying and know what to do about it.	Assistant Superintendent
IT Professionals	Technology support	Help all involved with the technical, higher level skills needed to implement specific elements of technology like installing new software and troubleshooting soft and hardware problems. Plus monitoring security in place to identify internet abuses and report abuses to campus principals.	Assistant Superintendent
Teachers, Librarians, and other staff	Instruct students on the use of technology	Provide students with knowledge of how to be safe, legal, appropriate, kind, and ethical when using technology. Educate students and parents on the dangers of digital abuse such as cyberbullying and predators and provide open lines of communication for students and parents to report abuses.	Campus Principal
Students	The users	Demonstrate understanding of technology use in terms of how to be safe, legal, appropriate, kind, and ethical. Feel comfortable talking about and reporting abuse and bullying they see or perceive.	Teachers and Staff and their own parents
Parents	Be responsible for their offspring	Read all materials provided by school and monitor student’s home use of technology.	Unfortunately I don’t think anyone supervises parents when it comes to making sure they take care of their responsibilities.

For the purpose of professional development planning I chose to narrow the scope a bit so that my planning would not have to be generic. As I think about my Week 3 report I see a need in making our instruction interactive. To do this we’d need a quick an easy way to post the teacher-centered portion of our lessons online. My proposal then would be to have each teacher video blog their lecture or presentation so that they could post the video online. We all ready have “smart boards” that allow us the ability to save what we put on our white boards for posting online, printing, and/or displaying again later so why not post the audio and video as well?

SESSION ONE: We could probably get a student to teach this first segment of professional development. That may sound like a joke, but it isn’t. Teachers make the worst students, but how many would misbehave in front of one of their own or potential students?

I. HOW TO USE A VIDEO CAM

a. Setting up your camera

b. Setting up your sound

II. HOW TO POST ONLINE - It’s so easy, a principal could do it!

III. HOW YOUR STUDENTS CAN VIEW IT AT HOME

SESSION TWO: Research in the 21^st Century: The Library is in your laptop!

I. WHAT IS A BLOG?

a. What goes there stays there so make sure you mean it

b. Hosting blogs on the school’s website

II. WHAT IS RSS?

a. Getting your info online

b. Spreading the word

III. WHAT IS A WIKI AND HOW CAN IT HELP?

SESSION THREE: The perils and pitfalls of living and working on the World Wide Web.

I. WHAT HAPPENS ONLINE STAYS ONLINE – FOREVER!

II. SEE NO TRUTH, HEAR NO TRUTH, BELIEVE NO TRUTH

a. People aren’t always who they say they are

b. What you see isn’t necessarily what you get

c. What you read may not actually be true

d. Be sure you know the source of the information

For evaluation of the action plan we’ll need to use several data gathering devices. First, we all ready use the STaR charts so we’ll utilize data gathered from this survey to determine where our staff feels they are in relation to technology integration. In addition, I understand that our own in-house surveys can be set up online via sites like SurveyMonkey where we can assess specifics that relate to the efficacy of our action plan’s implementation.

Secondly, I’d like to set up an action plan blog where I write about my vision for the use of technology in posting video segments of lessons, blogging with students inside and outside the classroom, and researching data to help enrich instruction. Teachers could post comments on the blogs to dialogue about the action plan and ask questions as needed. I’d have a separate blog for students to read and comment on and of course parents would have access to this too, but I’d also offer a parent blog. The student and parent blogs would both serve as an opportunity for them to bring issues to my attention and for me to share with them information on how to be safe, legal, appropriate, kind, and ethical online.

Third, I’d ask each teacher to use their own website to blog to me, other teachers, and students/parents about data they’ve gathered online, online resources they’ve found useful, issues they may have encountered with technology such as the smart boards, the web cam, and/or the school’s website, and lessons they’ve taught using technology. I’d monitor these blogs via RSS feed and comment enough to keep the staff aware that I’m “listening.”