The document outlines a technology action plan for Wharton Elementary School with two main goals: 1) Improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness through technology integration or curriculum. Strategies include mastering technology TEKS, using technology for projects and collaboration, and demonstrating digital citizenship. 2) Improve campus staff performance with technology. This involves instruction from a technology facilitator on various programs, as well as after-school in-services and summer opportunities covering tools like interactive whiteboards, podcasts, blogs, and digital storytelling. The plan also includes an organizational chart showing how technology decisions will be made and supported throughout the district, and how progress will be evaluated.

1. A Technology Action Plan
A Technology Action Plan
By Lynda Kieler, December 2009
"Do not confine your children to your own learning, for
they were born in another time."
-Chinese Proverb-
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2. A Technology Action Plan
1 Introduction
Our Vision
Students of Wharton Elementary School will have equal access to technologies
that will equip them with the 21st century skills necessary to compete in a global
community.
Our Mission
Teachers will improve their teaching and student learning through the use of
technology as a direct result of their professional development and the support of
the district instructional leaders' commitment and support through a technology
rich infrastructure and ongoing evaluation of all areas and stakeholders' needs.
Planning Evaluation
With an understanding that evaluation is key to moving this action plan forward
towards success for all stakeholders, preliminary evaluation was done before
reflecting on a course of action. Based on interviews with a campus principal, the
district technology director, a technology facilitator, teachers and students; the
district and campus technology perceptions and climate was assessed. Further
preliminary evaluation consisted of a review of the Texas STaR Chart data which
indicated that our district is lacking in the areas of professional development and
implementation of technology into the curriculum. The results from the Project
Tomorrow Speak Up findings, and a review of the Texas Long Rang Plan,
Wharton’s Three Year District Plan, and ISTE’s National Educational Technology
Standards also gave direction for this action plan and reiterated the need for
instructional leadership and accountability.
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3. A Technology Action Plan
Organizational Chart
Superintendent
District Technology District Curriculum
Director Director
District Technology Technology Principals of
Committee Facilitator Curriculum and
Instruction
Campus Technology Teachers
Committee
Technology
Assistants
Students
The Superintendent gives the Technology Director the budget and supports
decisions made by her/him. The Technology Director and the District Curriculum
Director discuss needs for integration of technology into the curriculum. The
District Curriculum Director then meets with the Campus Curriculum Principals
to oversee that technology is an integral part of the curriculum. The District
Technology Director meets with the District Technology Committee made up of
district teachers representing each campus to determine needs for the campuses
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4. A Technology Action Plan
of the district. The District Facilitator listens to the needs of the campuses and
with the Technology Director, plans services for each campus per their needs for
development for teachers and students as well as overseeing that the Technology
TEKS are taught. Evaluations made at this level are formative.
The Campus Technology Committee meets before the district committee meets
to discuss technology needs and the Curriculum principal may also attend the
meeting to ensure that technology is being asked for that will impact students in
a positive manner. In addition to help from the Technology Facilitator, teachers
can receive technology assistance from the assistants that run the labs and report
computer issues to the facilitator. Through the organizational make up, it is
hoped that when all of the fore-mentioned individuals are groups are aligned,
that students will benefit from the technology and technology integrated learning
that they need in order to be successful 21st century learners.
2 GOALS
Teaching and Learning Goal 1:
Improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness through the use of technology
Strategies Student Evidence Teacher Evidence
Students will master Technology  Student checklists of  Records on student
TEKS mastered TEKS mastery
 Student products  Lesson Plans
Teachers will integrate technology  Student projects related to  Integrated Lessons
in their curriculum curriculum will demonstrate  Collaboration with
an understanding of concepts colleagues on ways to
using presentation software integrate
and multimedia applications.  Effectively incorporate the use
 Student will work of new technologies such as
interactive whiteboards,
collaboratively using
blogs, websites, web-quests,
technology to effectively podcasts, and RSS, to
communicate information and communicate and enhance
ideas to multiple audiences instruction.
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5. A Technology Action Plan
Access to digital content is available  Independent student  Use of on-line resources
through internet research such as United Streaming
 On Line assess to Library  Use of on-line curriculum
and databases  Use of virtual field trips
 Student Blogs
Demonstration of Digital citizenship  Will exhibit the proper  Will exhibit proper
and cyber ethics behaviors and expectations of behaviors and expectations
digital citizenship in their roles of digital citizenship in their
as students.
roles as teachers
 Will follow the Internet
 Will follow the Internet
Usage Policy
Usage Policy
Summary: The goal of teaching and learning is for teachers and students to use technology
in an integrated manner which will enhance both learning and teaching. Proper internet
usage is expected of all technology users and we feel that as educators we have a
responsibility to educate our students on how to use the internet safely. From mastery of
Technology TEKS to use of programs that help students and teachers communicate to
internet safety when interacting with others and researching, we expect our students and
teachers to develop the skills needed to compete in the 21st century.
Educator Preparation and Development Goal 2:
Campus staff performance with technology will improve
Strategies Student Evidence Teacher Evidence
Instruction by Facilitator on use of  Students will show mastery  Teacher will be an indirect
various computer programs through projects learner in the lesson
 Use of programs to produce  Teacher will integrate
evidence of curriculum programs into curriculum and
objectives will increase and use them to present lessons
students will become
independent in use of the
programs
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6. A Technology Action Plan
After school in-services and summer Summer Opportunities:  Attendance logs
opportunities on use of interactive
whiteboards, use of mp3 players for  Creating a digital story  Teacher lesson plans
podcasts, blogs, website creation,
 Podcasting  PDAS Observations
interactive games, virtual field trips,
digital storytelling, digital cameras, etc
 Use of digital cameras  Integrated Curriculum by
as needs arise confident teachers
 Teachers mentoring other
teachers
Summary: Knowing that effective use of technology will only occur if we have the skills or
know how of the technologies, staff development becomes key to our plan to improve the
use of technology on our campus. Staff development has to evolve to meet the needs of the
stakeholders. Using facilitators on each campus to teach students lessons will provide
indirect training for teachers in a non threatening way. Dialogues that initiate from the
student lessons between the facilitator and teacher or even teacher to teacher will lead to
one on one instruction and teacher to teacher mentoring. Due to the current use of
Professional Learning Communities within each grade, technology needs and trainings can
be tailor created for grade level, subject level and campus level in-services.
Administration and Support Services Goal 3:
Administration will provide instructional leadership for the campus in integrating
technology into the curriculum and improving efficiency.
Strategy Administration Evidence Teacher Evidence
Provide a rich technology  Campus technology is  Teachers use a variety of
environment for teaching and learning maintained and up to date technology hardware, software
 Technology on campus reflects and internet sources to meet the
the current tools needed to needs of their students
st
create 21 century learners  Teachers facilitate their students'
use of a variety of technologies to
learn and to create meaningful
learning products
Instructional leaders will show  Leaders look for evidence in  Teachers take initiative to try new
commitment and support for use of lesson plans technologies with their students
technology  Leaders showcase students and  Teachers and their students are
teachers who use technology in showcased in newsletters or
their teaching and learning newspapers for their initiatives
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7. A Technology Action Plan
Instructional leaders will model new  Leaders will model use of  Principals will use the technologies
technologies technology in communications they expect teachers and students
with faculty to use in effective ways to
communicate with a variety of
audiences
 Community /school
communication will be improved
through the use of technology
utilized by the instructional
leaders.
Summary: Knowing that the instructional leader can facilitate the use of technology used
on a campus by his/her support and patience with teachers and students as they
experiment to find the best way to use the technologies, administrators will demonstrate to
the faculty and students their appreciation for effort and by making sure that the
technologies on the campus are maintained and up to date. Use of old technology will not
serve the students or teachers in the most effective way. The leader will make sure that
the students and faculty are receiving the training they need to effectively use the most
current applications and technologies.
Evaluation Goal 4:
Effectively evaluate the use of technology by all stakeholders and maintain and improve the
infrastructure as needs develop so that we meet the standards outlined in the Long Range
Technology Plan.
Types of Evaluation Of Students by Facilitator, Of Teacher and
Teacher and Campus Administrator by
Leaders Facilitators, Technology
Director
Planning  Student records on mastery of Tech  Previous year in-service training
TEKS from previous year and subsequent use of
 Student products technologies in the day to day job
 Student participation in summer  Campus technology requests and
activities teacher technology requests
 STaR Chart data
Formative  Students continued mastery of  In-service and development
Tech TEKS opportunities show that teachers
 Student products that improve in are advancing in their mastery of
sophistication programs
 Finding ways to improve on past  Teachers and administrators
use and find alternate ways of problem solve to find ways to make
doing learning tasks learning and their job more
effective and efficient through the
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8. A Technology Action Plan
use of technology
 More teachers and administrators
are using technology more of the
time versus the way they used to,
making modifications and
adjustments as needed.
Summative  Students fill out questionnaires at  Teachers and administrators
the end of summer learning comment on how they felt about
opportunities in-services and which ones they felt
 Students evaluate the technology helped them the most
they used during the year and  Monitoring of use and mastery in
highlight their learnings using the technologies acquired
 Students electronic portfolios  Teachers and administrators show
should reflect an increasing mastery collaborative effort to solve
of skills and programs problems with facilitators that
 Student interviews can assess what occur when using new technology
learning needs they have that still so that they will have future
need to be addressed successes
 Because of teacher and
administrators learnings students
are introduced to new technologies
being integrated into lessons
Summary: Professional development evaluation and program evaluation should include
three types of evaluation: planning, formative and summative. Evaluation should take
place at every level and be an ongoing process. In the planning evaluation, data from the
STaR chart, in-service records, observations from the previous year and technology
requests will move the professional development and for the following year and help to
determine how well we are in line with meeting our goals. The formative evaluation will
occur throughout the year as direct observations and products and integration of
technology with lessons and job performance. The summative evaluation will take the year
into account and look at the critical levels of professional development evaluations:
participants' reactions, participants' learning, organizational support and change, use of
new knowledge and skills and the impact the development subsequently had on student
learning outcomes(Gusky, 1998).
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9. A Technology Action Plan
3 Summary
This action plan is but a start of where we hope to go. It is hoped that by being realistic
and creating situations that will immerse teachers in learning situations that the use of
technology will increase at an exponential rate as teachers feel comfortable with the
technology through the forms of professional development outlined above. Evaluation will
be key to monitoring the success of this plan at each step of the way. Though Wharton is a
small district, we feel strongly that our students deserve the opportunity to hone skills they
will need to collaborate in the 21st century global community through the use of technology
both during the school year and with summer learning opportunities.
4 Resources
Agency, T. E. (2006). Long-Range Plan for Technology. Austin: TEA.
Education, I. S. (2008). National Educational Technology Standards. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from
http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS
Ganske, S. (2008-2011). Wharton ISD Three-Year District Technology Plan. Wharton: Wharton ISD.
Guskey, T. (Fall 1998). The age of our accountability. National Staff Development Council , 36-44.
May, S., Ganske, S., & Roddy, H. (2009, December 4). Technology in Wharton ISD. (L. Kieler, M. Rath, &
P. Parsons, Interviewers)
Selected National Findings. (2008). Retrieved Dec 1, 2009, from Speak Up 2008 for Students, Teachers,
Parents and Administrators:
http://www.tomorrow.org/docs/SU08_selected%20national_findings_complete.pdf
Texas Campus STaR Chart Summary. (2008-2009). Retrieved 11 14, 2009, from School Technology and
Readiness:
http://starchart2.esc12.net/campusSearchlist.aspx?foryear=20082009&district=Wharton&campus=
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