HCS Tech. Plan

Harrison Community Schools being located in the center of Michigan’s lower peninsula, covering a vast rural/resort region creates many unique and challenging opportunities. Because of our rural nature many students lack the resources and contacts by which to access the growing technological nature of our society.

The transient nature of a large portion of our student population makes it imperative that the School District stays abreast of and makes available the developing technologies. Within our district the free and reduced lunches exceed 70% in several school buildings, demonstrating the necessity of the technology planning process.

The School District is currently facing the prospect of enacting some very drastic budget cuts this coming year. In the last two years of concurrent cutbacks, one school building has been closed, which has had a profound effect on the district as a whole. During this time measures must be undertaken to ensure that the student’s access to technology remains uninterrupted and that the school can continue to provide for the ever-changing needs of the technology world.

These demographics along with unemployment, welfare, inadequate housing, and substance abuse demonstrate the importance of obtaining funding to provide opportunities for educational use of technology.

The Harrison Community Schools Board of Education has demonstrated the desire and commitment necessary for advancing the level and availability of technology within our district by considering technology whenever possible when decisions are made. Instructional and administrative applications of technology must drive decisions related to the acquisition of new technology and subsequent activities that provide staff training and professional development in the use of technology.

Harrison Community Schools
Vision and Goals of the Technology plan

District technology vision/mission statement: Harrison Community Schools believes that in order to be a successful member of a rapidly changing society, our students will be able to: gather, understand, and manipulate information utilizing a variety of technologies.

How the technology plan ties in with the district mission and school improvement plan: Under the District School Improvement Plan, Technology standards specify what students must know and be able to deal with in technology, as they progress through stages of schooling. Mastery of these standards is important in fostering the children’s development; these standards are valuable to our society at large for students, educators, parents, policy-makers, employers, and providers of goods and services. The Technology Plan includes areas that target MEAP and other testing as well as providing professional development for staff, both of which tie in closely with the goals of the district in enhancing quality of education and ultimately student performance.

Goals for district teachers and students

Goals for Teachers:

Explore, evaluate, and use technology to accomplish, independently and cooperatively, real work tasks;

Develop knowledge, ability, and responsibility in the use of resources, processes, and systems of technology

Acquire, organize, analyze, and present information to their colleagues through technology
Expand the range and effectiveness of their communication skills within the classroom
Actively seek out new ways to apply technology to aid them in their curriculum, instruction, or work functions

Goals for Students:

Use the Internet and digital media to gather resources for their studies
Acquire, organize, analyze, and present information using technology
Demonstrate problem solving using computers
Demonstrate knowledge of the social and ethical implications of current technology uses
Use the hardware and network resources available to them to enhance their assigned tasks
Use technology to expand their range and effectiveness of communication skills
Perform technology related activities and demonstrate technological literacy in conformance with state and national technology standards

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Part I. CURRICULUM

An explanation of how acquired technologies will be integrated into the curriculum to enhance teaching, training and student achievement. How parents and the community will interact with this program as well as what collaborations the district is pursuing will also be covered.

CURRICULUM

Curriculum integration is essential to Harrison Community Schools Technology Plan. Technology should not be a separate course of study, but must be a part of the curriculum. To this end, commitment by teachers, administrators, and the Board of Education is necessary. Commitments and goals in the following areas apply:

1. Staff and students model and use technology.

2. Staff is trained in technology applications.

3. Michigan Core Curriculum areas need to be identified where technology can be utilized to progress in alignment towards the state and federal standards.

4. Harrison Community Schools will access professional organizations and businesses for help and consultation.

5. Time for learning technology and placement in the curriculum must be provided for staff.

6. Technology will be integrated by teachers into daily and unit lesson plans.

7. Students and teachers observe use of technology across the curriculum.

8. Students and staff will be presented with and be expected to follow an acceptable use policy in accordance with ethical usage of technology.

9. Students will learn and be able to demonstrate the usage of technology in daily life.

10. Students will be able to use technology to aid in problem solving within the context of their assignments.

11. Students will be able to make use of interactive media and distance learning opportunities to enhance instructional value.

Increased student performance and technological literacy will be accomplished by a combination of strategies:

1. Increased accessibility and exposure to technology at lower grade levels.

2. Further integration of technology oriented devices and ideas with current core curriculum.

3. Interaction with the community and local businesses to provide increased opportunities for learning.

Harrison Community Schools will identify and exploit new opportunities for curriculum integration by conducting repeated short department, grade level, and team meetings to discuss both the current usage of technology as well as any new ideas that have been found and deemed applicable. Difficulties and concerns relating to technology will also be discussed at these meetings.

Current Curriculum Plans

Current projects that have been proposed or are already being implemented for curriculum integration include:

1. Initiating a plan from K-8 to teach keyboarding and general computer familiarity by integrating lessons into elementary projects and lesson plans, while expanding the technology offerings in grades 6-8.

2. Integrating presentation software and research based methodologies into high school English department curricula.

3. Providing expanded CAD software offerings for use in the drafting classes.

4. Increased usage of spreadsheet and database software as aids in problem solving.

5. Increased offerings of distance learning opportunities through streaming media and the virtual field trip programs.

6. Make use of sign-out labs for science classes for such activities as “virtual dissections.”

Student achievement will be further enhanced by increased usage of data mining techniques to track standards progress with software packages and administrative software.

Technology delivery will be enhanced through the usage of online streaming media based on Michigan standards for education as well as offering homework over software such as Black Board in order to allow students greater access from the home.

Community involvement will be achieved by making use of a variety of means available to the school district.

1. Open computer labs and media centers to parents, senior citizens and other community members during evening and weekends where staffing provides.

2. Sharing expensive resources with community providers for goal based activities.

3. Communication between teachers and parents via web based newsletters.

4. Cable companies provide facilities and equipment for community broadcasting projects.

5. This technology plan will be available on the web and through district/parent newsletters

6. Community contribution to this document and its implementation are both considered and encouraged.

Curriculum Integration Timeline
Objective: Technology as a part of curriculum
Step	Action	Assigned to	Start	Notes
1.	Teacher Training	Building level administration	Ongoing
2.	K-8 Classroom Integration	Building level administration	9/05	Usage of new computer labs, enhanced tech familiarity, expand keyboarding
3.	9-12 Classroom Integration	Building level administration	9/06	Increased usage of network resources, expansion of computer lab usage
4.	Department Meetings	Building level administration	9/05
5.	Re-evaluation of curriculum	Staff and administration	1/06

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COLLABORATIONS

adult literacy service

Harrison Community Schools will work with adult literacy services and the Harrison Adult Ed program to take maximum advantage of technologies available. After school tutoring programs have been established to make technology available for youth, and adult patrons will have enrichment courses available in the future. School facilities are available for teaching of adult literacy services through the Community Ed program.

Harrison Community Schools connects with existing adult literacy service providers. These connections with groups and organizations maximize the use of technology.

Providers:

Public Libraries
Local colleges
Private schools
Clare-Gladwin RESD Consortium
Family Independence Agency
Health Department
County Extension Agency
Law Enforcement Agencies

Access:

The hardware and software acquired, along with the results of training given to the staff, will be used with all students in our elementary, middle and secondary populations. Access is also available to teachers, support staff members, and parent volunteers for the purpose of securing information that will enhance instruction and learning. To increase accessibility in the future, a sign-out lab has been proposed for each building in the district that would allow staff and students to make use of technology more readily in coordination with a software check out program to make economic use of available software licenses.

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Part II. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

A description of ongoing, sustained professional development for teachers, administrators, and school media personnel to further the use of technology in the classroom or media centers.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

In order to better teach technology, steps will be taken to ensure that teachers have the tools they need to effectively understand the technology and communicate it to the students. This means that teachers must be progressing towards both the state and national standards for educators. The following plan will be implemented to reach these goals.

Outline of Harrison Community Schools professional development plan:

· Involve participants in planning professional development.

1. Poll staff at building level meetings

2. REMC Advisory Council

3. The use of committees, School Improvement Committee, District Technology Committee, Building Technology Committee, etc.

4. Administrative planned school in-service days.

· Assess needs and assure a sound planning process

1. Use of mentors for specific staff needs

2. Administrative surveys

3. Evaluate survey results

· Ensure knowledge of ethical usage

1. Professional development meetings to discuss ethical usage.

· Garner commitment and support from staff and district leadership

1. Use of building level mentors.

2. Administrative Meetings

3. Through the use of committees and staff meetings at the building level

4. Superintendent’s Meetings

5. REMC Advisory Council

· Plan for adequate time and resources

1. After school in-service

2. Staff meetings used as professional development

3. Full day in-service

4. Half day in-service

5. Release time for conferences or workshops with expenses paid

· Provide continuity of programs over time

1. Upgrading and reviewing software use and where it is most beneficial.

2. Workshops on specific software, MMS2000, Student attendance, Accelerated Reading, Grade book software.

3. District and Building Technology Team coordination of programs.

· Provide clear expectations for program participants

1. Meeting agendas

2. School announcements

3. Program flyers, brochures, etc.

4. E-mail reminders

· Provide a conducive environment for learning

1. Appropriate setting

2. Central location

3. Appropriate materials, level

· Use adult learning principles

1. Hands on practice

2. Small group discussions

3. Curricular area break out sessions

4. Round table discussions.

· Provide flexible scheduling and options for participants

1. Scheduled at various times and locations.

2. Voluntary after school workshops.

3. In-service with specific topic choices.

4. Special interest conferences and workshops.

· Provide effective trainers/presenters

1. RESD Challenge Grant trainers

2. Vendor support personnel training

3. guest speakers at in-services or workshops

4. Volunteer staff with in-depth knowledge

· Use effective follow-up strategies

1. Design evaluation procedures

2. Refresher programs for program continuity.

3. Observation of classroom use

4. Implementation of technology in the classroom

· Use sound evaluation procedures

1. Follow up Survey of staff.

2.Staff feed back at meetings.

3.Verbal responses of participants

Supporting resources

· The school’s accessibility, loan and use policies

· The policies for selecting software, hardware and related technology resources

· The school and district’s maintenance and security resources

· The human resources that are needed to advance the school’s vision for technology and the student’s achievement of the goals and expectations of their learning

· Operating manuals

· Training resources

· School district web page that lists available supporting resources

Description of the supporting resources that are presently available, and an outline of steps that need to taken for future growth:

· District and building level technology teams

· Coordination of Acceptable Use Policy

· Internet use is now handled on an individual building basis, with the addition of the firewall, grade/age level access guidelines need to be developed

· Software purchases appropriate to age and grade need to coordinate with curriculum

· Hardware purchases need to be standardized and authorized

·Lab rules and regulations should be standardized

Technology Resources
Objective: To provide knowledgeable resources for consistent implementation of technology.
Step	Action	Assigned to	Start	Due	Notes
1.	Write policies for adding software and hardware to computers	District Technology Committee	9/03

·Mr. Ben Muscott	District Technology Coordinator
*·Ms. Beth Canute*	Science, Computer Teacher
*·Mrs. Mary Oakley*	Science, Computer Teacher
*·Mr. Joel Woolston*	Middle School Teacher
·Mrs. Eileen Walsh	Elementary School Teacher