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GESD Technology Plan 2018-2021

Strategic Technology Planning

What is the overall district mission?

The purpose of our school district is to forge a community partnership that challenges people to reach their full potential as lifelong learners and productive citizens in a changing society.

What is the vision statement that guides instructional technology use in the district?

Our vision is to facilitate learning and communication by enabling our learning community to become proficient critical thinkers who can access, process, analyze, synthesize and evaluate information using a variety of technological media. High quality learning technologies must continue to be available to all of our students on an equitable basis. The District will continue to maintain and enhance our technology resources to provide an environment where teachers, administrators, parents and the community can help all students to achieve high standards. We will provide teachers with the learning technologies that support their own learning and professional development. All teachers will receive high quality and sustained professional development in integrating technology into curricula and instruction. This will strengthen their ability to employ teaching strategies that address multiple learning styles that motivate and engage students and that support student exploration and growth. 3. List three goals that will drive the attainment of the vision.

Goals

Goal 1: The District will upgrade and maintain a high quality infrastructure so that the hardware, software, and telecommunications capabilities of our systems support student achievement and management safety needs.

Goal 2: Replace current teacher and student computing devices with more robust touchscreen tablet capable models.

Goal 3: Replace current overhead classroom projection systems with ActivPanel Displays for immersive learning, providing a tablet-like experience in the classroom.

The Technology Planning Process

The technology plan contained herein addresses a variety of areas but focuses largely on the following critical ideals derived from the District Technology Committee’s overarching goal-setting process:

  • Every student will have the opportunity to use learning technologies to access and analyze information in ways that develop higher order thinking skills and increase their ability to use technology as a tool in solving problems. They will gain confidence in using technology skills they will need for success in their future study and employment.
  • Every teacher will meet technology competency standards, as defined by ISTE, that ensure their ability to use learning technologies effectively in supporting student achievement of the New York State learning standards.
  • Every administrator will be technologically literate and will provide leadership in integrating technology into curriculum, instruction, and student learning activities. They will have access to technology resources that support them in developing management systems and in creating a school climate and culture that results in high student achievement for all population groups.
  • The District will support parents in monitoring and reinforcing the instruction their child receives at school. Parents will have the opportunity to access web-based information about their children’s learning environment, climate and outcomes, as well as a wide range of student resources that can help them assist their children at home.
  • The District Technology Plan will support the achievement of high performance standards, including those for technology literacy, by all students, teachers, and other education professionals. It will include federally mandated protection from inappropriate materials. It will ensure that every school media center is an electronic doorway with internet access, library and other electronic content.
  • At the K-5 level, the building Literacy Coach responsibilities have been expanded to include management of the media centers. In this environment, students will use technology as a tool to conduct research, investigate and evaluate literary genres, improve fluency, and foster increased achievement in vocabulary development and comprehension.
  • The ongoing professional development needs of K-5 teachers and other instructional staff will center on the Literacy Media Centers and both the coaches’ and administrators’ review of teacher/staff requests and analyses of student achievement. There will be ongoing training and support for all grade levels to implement the power tools of technology to enhance programs with a focus on Project Based and Blended Learning models.
  • The District will maintain high quality infrastructure so that the hardware, software and telecommunications capabilities of the system support student achievement and management needs.
  • This plan has been the result of many hours of planning, preparation and meetings. Without the hard work of all those involved, the plan would not have been possible. The District Technology Planning Committee began the process by brainstorming the present and future state of the eight categories to develop specific technology goals for technology infusion in the district over the next three years. Using these goals as a central focus, a comprehensive technology plan was crafted.

Professional development plan

The Gloversville Enlarged School District will use primarily Title IIA funds to make effective staff development activities available to all teachers, administrators and other staff over the next three years. Every effort will be made to make the same software available to all schools in the district, based on applicability. Fiscal resources will be used to acquire technology that is necessary to maintain a high quality system that will be used to help all students to achieve the learning standards. The District will support the continuation of Digital Learning Specialists in each district building. This person is a teacher who works on a daily basis with fellow teachers to integrate technology into daily lessons.

Professional development activities have included instruction in the use of Internet resources such as Google Drive and Google Classroom and other purchased software packages (School Tool, StaffTrac, Bright Bytes Early Warning and Survey, Frontline).

Teachers have and will continue to participate in workshops that enable them to make their own websites and to develop their own teaching materials through the use of PowerPoint, Google Present and YouTube video streaming. Training has helped teachers to learn to use new hardware resources such as projection devices, interactive graphical interface devices, digital photography, Ipads, Laptops and Copier/scanners.

The district will continue a model for professional development in which teachers are given paid time to search for appropriate technology resources and to then develop actual lessons that effectively address learning standards in mathematics and ELA, with a particular emphasis on finding resources for students with disabilities.

Between 2018 and 2021, the District will continue to provided faculty with intensive, high quality and sustainable professional development in the Google apps for Education Platform for the District’s 1:1 Chromebook program for grades 2-12. The professional development is targeted for educators in the middle and high school and then elementary.

The project objectives are:

  • To provide K-12 teachers, librarians and administrators with meaningful professional develop in the Google apps for education platform.
  • To increase the percentage of Gloversville educators utilizing Google apps for education into standards-aligned curricula. Instruction will focus heavily on how to leverage the collaborative power of the platform to enhance students’ learning experiences.

Teachers will be instructed in how to review student works-in-progress, leave comments and insert links and relevant texts. They will be shown how students can act as peer editors for their classmates as well as collaborators in writing on a single group project using their Chromebooks. The tools will be equally important to solve complex problems in math, science, technology and engineering in support of mathematics, Science and technology standards.

How will the instructional technology goals be measured and evaluated during and after implementation?

We will use our Bright Bytes Survey software to access our continued success providing a safe, robust computing and communications environment.

The technology will be visible and in use. Bright Bytes will also assist in the evaluation process.