Technology Planning for Educational Leaders

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Technology Planning for Educational Leaders
Bruce D. Baker U. of Kansas
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Organization, Governance Management of Tech.

• District Tech Planning Teams
• District Tech Directors
• School Based Staff
• Tech leadership
• MIS specialist (budget manager, clerical?)
• Tech support
• In-house vs. outsource (district contractual
  issue)

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Bi-Directional Planning

• Top-Down
• Infrastructure (communications network/hardwire)
• General specifications (hardware standardized
  software)
• Vendor relationships (aggregator relationships)
  purchasing
• Bottom-up
• Teacher/Department driven planning
  implementation
• Innovation grants
• Diffusion grants
• The MYTH of equity in tech planning (equitable
  inadequacy in distribution of resources)

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Misinformed tech plan objectives

• From an AASA model tech plan (Groton, CT 1999
  2005)
• Five networked computers including a laptop and
  printer in every Gr. 1 5 classroom
• Note 5 computers in any classroom are unlikely
  to be useful to anyone.
• More than two sets of hands per computer is just
  too much.
• Plan should be built around prioritized complete
  projects
• Prioritization should involve identification of
  teachers wholl really use the stuff
• A 27 TV, VCR and scan converter capability in
  every k-12 classroom
• If the goal is to present video, there are
  numerous alternatives for integrating with
  available technology
• If youre worried about all those VHS tapes going
  to waste, buy a few analog-to-digital converters
  for 100 ea.

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Infrastructure

• Network/Communications Components
• External access
• Within-district
• Within-building within classroom (LAN) (not
  necessarily an infrastructure issue)
• Revenues Financial Planning
• KS Capital Outlay Funds (for infrastructure
  only)
• E-Rate (schools and libraries discount program)
• Grant sources
• www.grantsweb.org
• www.ed.gov
• Contracting Infrastructure
• Establish standards (EIA/TIA available through
  scrtec-ne.unl.edu/scrtecne/techtopics/fisher7.html
  )
• Define terms and conditions (similar to any other
  contracted work)

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Conceptual View
Airport
More hardwiring
Elementary School
High bandwidth voice Data
WWW
Airport
District Office
(Fiber, T1, ATM)
Hardwire to Pod
Note classrooms with ceiling drop projection
monitor jack on teacher console.
Middle School
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E-Rate Discount Table
Universal Service Fund discounts can be applied
to a school or librarys internal connections,
telecommunications services, and internet access.
See www.ed.gov/technology/eratefacts.html
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Hardware

• Top Down Issues
• Standards/Specs
• Note Tech hardware planning includes all media
  communications tools
• Phone systems, library info systems, dvd etc.
  (the key is to optimize the number of different
  types of tools needed to provide necessary
  services. For example, TVs VCRs are not likely
  to be necessary where media is available on DVD,
  data projectors are ceiling mounted and all
  students have laptops with wireless access to the
  classroom LAN). Arguably, the same can be said of
  classroom phones where wireless intercom service
  can be used as a replacement.
• There may or may not be a rationale for a Mac vs.
  PC argument
• Bottom Up Issues
• Instructional Planning/Customizing

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Software/Apps Tools

• Administrative
• General Needs
• Information Systems
• Student Information
• Financial Information
• Analysis Modules (Class-Act etc.)
• New web-based approaches
• E-communities
• E-procurement (www.kawama.com, www.epilon.com )
• Aggregators www.bigchalk.com
• Data warehousing/Info management
• Server based
• Web-based
• Instructional
• Classroom
• Information Access (library systemssee
  bigchalk.com re proQuest etc.)
• Other Standard Apps etc.
• MS Office etc. (site licensing issues)

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Data Management Tools

• Achievement Measurement E-learning
• CAT (computer adaptive testing)
• Computer based diagnostic testing drill systems
• Student Data Organization
• Performance
• Scheduling
• Transportation
• Basic Information (student records)
• Financial Data Organization
• Payroll
• Fund/Account Management (general ledger)
• Financial Reporting

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Info Systems Products (incomplete)
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Data Analysis Tools (MIS supplements)

• Class Act Fox River Learning
• Includes Inite
• Socrates
• Relational d-base for data driven decision making
  
• www.Edmin.com
• Web-based performance management
• Pinnacle
• Maintaining and managing teacher recorded
  assessment info.
• Note Many of these companies are coming up with
  state specific modules that will crank out
  required paperwork for accountability programs.

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Other Tools Systems

• VersaTrans
• Bus routing, mapping, redistricting
• GIS software (ArchInfo, MapInfo etc.)
• Online community
• www.Powerschool.com
• Web-based info system and online community
• www.ProjectAchieve.com
• Similar to powerschool
• www.Timecruiser.com (another e-community)
• www.Visionplanet.com
• IEP management
• www.Way2Bid.com

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School/District Hosted Web Sites

• State programs to get schools on web
• Domain Registration ( www.register.com )
• Defining Controlling Content?
• PR
• Parent Info
• Student Info
• Authoring/Access
• Teacher web sites
• Student web sites?
• External providers/managers (e-communities)

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Instruction Issues
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Background Stats

• 50 of teachers who had internet access available
  in their classrooms actually used it
• Percent of teachers who assigned students
• 61 assigned word processing or spreadsheet
  assignments
• 51 assigned internet research
• 50 assigned drills
• 99 of teachers report having computers available
  somewhere in school
• 84 of schools report having at least one
  computer in classrooms. 36 of teachers reported
  having one computer in their classroom.
• Teacher preparation (see upcoming book by Howard
  Mehlinger)

NCES
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Note

• To a large extent, computers and other new
  technologies like hand held devices are simply
  the tools we use to do things these days. As
  kids, we didnt go to the pencil room to write
  things down, nor did we write them in chalk on
  our slate before transcribing them to pen or
  pencil.
• Sub-note
• It is equally important to know when not to
  use a technology as it is to know when to use it.

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Basic uses (no excuses) of tech in curricular
endeavors

• Where appropriate tech is available (and it
  should be)
• No child should ever be forced to write a draft
  of a paper on paper before transcribing it to
  computer (this is simply a stupid waste of time
  that even reinforces a dated approach to
  organizing thoughts and constructing an essay)
• No child should ever be asked to write down their
  lab data in one of those black and white covered
  lab notebooks with the graph paper. Data can be
  entered directly into a spreadsheet on a laptop,
  or direct to the relational d-base on the server
  of the LAN via wireless connection. In fact, much
  data can be directly input to a computer device
  (temp. probe etc.)

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Some stuff thats out there

• Several schools have school wide systems thinking
  curricula that integrate systems modeling
  applications for kids as young as elementary
  school (see sysdyn.mit.edu and core models
  project) since the 1980s
• Pasco.com produces hardware for directly
  collecting data from science experiments
  (temperature, motion, pH, pressure probes etc.)
  Data can easily be imported into a spreadsheet
  where more complex analyses can be performed.
  Since the late 1980s www.pasco.com

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Increasing appropriate use of tech in classrooms

• Your best friend toward achieving technology
  innovation in the present environment is
  attrition!
• Effective recruitment is likely to generate much
  greater returns than retraining

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Screening teacher candidates

• General skill requirements
• Knowledge of word processing, spreadsheet, web,
  school district based info. Systems software
  and web devel.
• Example Skills Requirements for Science Teacher
• Software Apps
• MS Excel (advanced proficiency)
• MS Access (ability to construct and use simple
  relational databases for a local area network for
  data gathering projects)
• Network Knowledge
• Local area network troubleshooting
• Recommended Training (Self-Tutorial)
• PASCO (www.pasco.com) lab tools
• Probe data input/access tools
• Desired additional skills
• Basic web development (for creating homework
  pages etc.)
• What can new teachers generally do?
• Most have web word processing skills
• KU grads know how to play with trackstar and
  maybe profiler
• Note that while your candidates may not come in
  with these skills you can require them to acquire
  these skills while on probationary status.

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Classroom Concept (middle school science)
PASCO Hardware Lab Equipment Laptops handhelds
with wireless capacity
Student Work Station
Screen
Ceiling Projector
T1 etc.
Teacher Station
Laptop Palm Docks Workstation Projector
Port PASCO Hardware ELMO (or webcam) AIRPORT
All units provided with standard software
science software