District Technology Plan
School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties is made up of 19 schools serving almost 17,000 students. The district implemented a new technology plan on July 1, 2011. District Five is committed to bringing the limitless and exciting power of emerging technologies to the students, staff and community. (2011 – 2014 Technology Plan).
The technology plan has five dimensions or goals that include Learners and Their Environment, Professional Capacity, Instructional Capacity, Community Connections, and Support Capacity.
The first dimension Learners and Their Environment states that the district will provide students with software, hardware, and instruction to be effective 21st century digital users and producers of information. This goal has four objectives. 1) Students will use technology to demonstrate proficiency in research and information fluency, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and communication and creativity and innovation. 2) Students will select appropriate technology tools to create individual and collaborative projects. 3) Students will engage in learning activities for core content areas that are aligned with ISTE NETS technology standards for Students. 4) Students will access digital age learning environments to promote research and information fluency.
The second dimension is Professional Capacity states that the district will promote teacher and staff development in the use and appropriate application of technology to the educational pursuits of District Five so that students can grow to become productive citizens in a technological society. This goal has the following four objectives. 1) Teachers will promote effective student use of appropriate technologies in all learning environments. 2) Schools will receive technology integration training and support to promote student learning, innovation, and creativity. 3) Teachers administrators, and staff members are effective and efficient users of appropriate technologies. 4) District will create an Office of Instructional Technology that will model and promote effective use of technologies for teachers, staff members, and administrators.
The third dimension Instructional Capacity states that District Five will use current and emerging technologies to promote digital age learning environments for teachers, students and staff. This goal has the following four objectives. 1) Create an Instructional Technology Department to support technology initiatives, information literacy, ISTE NETS, and South Carolina Curriculum Standards. 2) Provide teachers, administrators, students, and staff with access to current and emerging technologies to boost productivity while lowering overall cost. 3) Teachers, administrators, and staff members are effective users of appropriate technologies. 4) Create a district wide shared searchable resource for teachers and staff to share educational resources and lesson plans.
The fourth dimension, Community and Connection, states that District Five will use district, school, and teacher web pages, Parent Portal, social networking sites, school newsletters and a global telephone system, ConnectEd, to maximize community involvement. The four objectives in this goal are as follows. 1) The district will establish business partnerships to foster real-world career and technical education to maximize student achievement. 2) The district will provide current and up-to-date information to ensure effective and efficient communication. 3) The district will provide after-hours community access to media centers, computer labs and classrooms. 4) The district will promote district and school level technology fairs to showcase student created technology projects, artwork, and presentations demonstrating technology skills.
The fifth dimension, Support Capacity, states that District Five will provide a reliable, secure network infrastructure with dynamic bandwidth to support teaching and learning. The four goals for this dimension are: provide all teachers and students with current hardware and software, ensure schools have network infrastructure that will fully support instructional technology initiatives, continue rotation cycle for upgrading and replacing obsolete equipment, and increase IT staff to accommodate the enhancement and expansion of district technology endeavors.
My district offers a variety of professional development opportunities for technology. We have a Technology Training Center (TTC) located at one of the high schools that teachers can take technology courses at for professional development or graduate credit, the TTC also hosts day long professional development sessions for staff member and administrators, Integration Technology Specialist (INTEC’s) that will come to the schools and host technology professional development workshops for teachers during their planning time or afterschool, each school has a Technology Teacher Leader (TTL’s) who is available to host professional development workshops afterschool and during planning periods, we also have online options purchased by the district from our various software vendors. Currently the school based TTL’s work with the administrators to schedule technology professional development either through himself or herself or with an INTEC or the TTC. Occasionally the district will dictate what is to be offered and when.
Teachers and student currently take a statewide assessment matched to ISTE standards to assess technology proficiency. The state and district has cut technology funding drastically in the last three years. We are seeing less support, upgrades, and new initiatives because of this.
School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties, (2011, June 27), Creating a 21st Century Education System. Retrieved from: http://www.lexrich5.org/files/19707/2011%2D2014%20technology%20plan.pdf
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