5. Vision of a Hawaii Public School Graduate All Hawai`i public school graduates will: Realize their individual goals and aspirations. Possess the attitudes, knowledge and skills necessary to contribute positively and compete in a global society. Exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Pursue post-secondary education and/or careers without the need for remediation.
6. Plan Goals and Objectives Goals aligned to the Vision Objectives specific to making measureable progress towards the goals
Welcome to my presentation on Technology Use Planning. This presentation was created as part my coursework in the Master’s of Educational Technology Program at Boise State University.
Back when I was teaching reading to first graders, I would start the day by reading a book to them, and along the way, I would ask questions in order to engage the students and check for understanding. When I was reading “There’s an alligator under My Bed”, I asked the class what the first thing they would do if they found an alligator under the bed. One youngster popped up and said “I’d make a PLAN”. I’ve noticed over time that the tendency is for people come up with great ideas, but those ideas always need to be put in order. A technology plan will accomplish this.Having a good plan is especially warranted in these times of uncertain budgets. Even in the best of times, it behooves us to make the most of our budgets. Secondly, we can be more efficient in implementing our technology if we train faculty and staff in a timely manner. Third, our plan can prioritize the purchases to insure that we are furthering our mission.
Now we that we know the ‘why’ for a technology plan. The next decision is who should be on the planning team. We need to have at least one faculty member and at least one non-teaching staff member. This is to get input from the ‘front lines, the people that are in the classroom every day, and to get the input from the staff in support roles.. There needs to be an administrator, so that the team knows what resources are available. Finally, there should be a representative of the community. ideally this would be a parent. We need this member to report to the community and have someone on the team that may be aware of resources outside the school. Finally, there should be a student member. Why? Well, that’s part of learning, which is, after all, why we’re doing this in the first place. Besides that, sometimes the young folks, being ‘digital natives,’ are aware of technological tools that the older folks may not be.
The process for completing a technology plan starts with a central vision. Keeping the vision in mind, the team needs to formulate goals and objectives. Then, a needs assessment should to be performed to determine what is required to reach those goals and objectives. Next, Faculty and staff need to be trained to be ready to use the tools that the team chooses. Finally, there needs to be a periodic evaluation of the plan, and data needs to be collected and analyzed for this to inform the formulation or revision of the plan---all the while keeping in sight the vision.
The Hawaii State Technology plan stated these four standards for all graduates of our public schools. I use it as the ‘take off’ point for any vision statement, because, after all, these are the core of what we want see in a graduate of Hawaii public schools.The vision of a Hawaii public school graduate is for them to realize their individual goals, possess the skills to contribute to the global society, be good citizens, and pursue further education and careers without any need for remediation.
Once the vision is finalized, the team then creates goals that are aligned to one or more of the four parts of the Vision. In order to make progress towards those goals, they need to be broken down into specific, measureable objectives. The natural outcome of these objectives should be reaching the goals.
Now that the team has goals and objectives, a needs assessment should be performed. First, data needs to be collected and analyzed to see how far you are from completing any of your goals and objectives—a ‘gap’ analysis. Once the team knows what it needs, it needs to prioritize what technological and budgetary resources are required to reach the goals and objectives. Also, the team needs to identify problems that it may encounter, and put forth possible solutions. The team needs to insure no opportunities are missed—no stones left unturned.
Once the team has determined the technology needs, the next step should be to address faculty and staff development. For every piece of hardware, software, or other technological tools added to the school, there needs to be a plan for training on the use of those tools. After all, that’s why they include manuals! This training can be as formal as using a Professional Development day, or perhaps a webinar could be created. It could be as informal as identifying in-house ‘experts’ and engendering a culture of peers teaching peers.
The next step is to evaluate the plan after it has been in place for a period of time. The data should be from a variety of sources, gathered in the form of surveys from teachers, staff, students and parents. Classroom observations should be conducted. Analysis of student test data could also be useful in determining the effectiveness of the plan.
Since all of us involved in the schools tend to think of each fall as a new beginning, I think it wise to have the plan in place the very first day of the fall semester. I would propose that the team be formed at the beginning of the spring semester, before the members have a chance to be overwhelmed by all of the things that they have to do at the end of the semester. If there was a plan already in place, the team should start by evaluating the present year’s plan. Then they should follow the process– review the vision, set goals and objective, do a needs assessment, address faculty and staff development, and conduct further research. The plan should be complete by the end of the semester.The fall semester should be taken up by implementing the plan, and collecting data for the next team to analyze.
Thank you for listening, and please consider being on the technology planning team.There are evaluations to complete. Please answer the questions and include any comments about this presentation. Any additional ideas are welcome and appreciated!
