1.  Assignment Week 5  Technology Plan  2009-2010  Christy Thornsberry  Nash Intermediate

2. Technology Plan National Level At the present time the U. S. Department of Education is working on a new national technology plan to implement in schools. The new plan will list new, concrete goals for a national and local level technology plan. The writers of the plan are taking into account the new innovative technology’s students are currently using in their personal lives and what is being implemented in today’s current workforce. The technology plan is broken into four categories: Learning Assessment Teaching Productivity  Learning – All students, ESL & students with disabilities have access to needed materials.  Assessment – Provide access to student data and assessment so that decisions are educationally based and provide most productivity to students.  Teaching – Provide support to teachers inside and outside of the school. Making sure teachers are provided proper resources and materials.  Productivity – Taking advantage of valuable time and resources. Teachers and students need to work in the most efficient means necessary.

3.  Nash Intermediate has made great strides in the past 2 years when dealing with technology. Overall, Kaufman ISD is providing online learning for students and more tools for teachers. Teachers seem more eager to use and implement current learning concepts with the new technology and students are excited to see what will happen next. In the past few years, KISD has provided each campus (6) with it’s own technologist and the technology department itself has doubled in size. Since KISD is a Title I school we do have a high percentage of students that do not have internet access at home, but with the popularity of cell phone internet access I think we will begin to see an increase in the number of students with internet access. As the teachers of KISD continue to use new technology and increase the hours of professional development, we will have no choice but to expand, grow and inspire the next generation of American workers, scholars and entrepreneurs.

4. Technology Plan Nash Intermediate Within the past few years KISD has implemented many aspects of the National Technology Plan. Some of these implementation were due to NCLB 2001.  Parent Access to grades, discipline and attendance  Individualized student data reports  Funding for new, updated technology hardware.  Access to training at Regional Service Center  Campus training on new software  Recently updated ELMO systems at Nash and 4 teachers have implemented Smartboard systems in their classrooms  Learning – Uses resources from local regional service center and new software programs to provide individualized help to various student groups. Teachers have access to individualized reports that are generated from online programs.  Assessment – Using data reports from AEIS-IT online to base educational decisions for student groups.  Teaching – C-Scope online curriculum provides access to resources and collaboration among teachers to use best practices’ resources. Curriculum provides much needed scope and sequence for K-12.  Productivity – Provide ongoing training in current hardware and software programs. Training to utilized current resources and provide accurate training on any new programs.

5.  According to the 2009 New Horizons report, collaboration, online communication, mobile computing, smart objects and personal web is on current trends to be implementing. Nash Intermediate faculty has utilized the following of those trends:  Teacher web pages, to be updated and maintained. This has been slow to start, but more teachers are communicating and interacting online.  District technology has enabled teachers to receive online access to resources from mobile phones and PDA’s.  Teachers meet in departments and collaborate, revise and update lessons and resources.  Teachers are encouraged and have access to online storage on district servers to streamline access to lessons and resources.  District provided access to online grades with parental access. Email is still main form of online communications.

6.  The New Horizons report for 2010, lists enhanced mobile computing, open content, e-books and more visual and interactive learning.  To maintain pace with other districts and the workforce, KISD will need to begin to investigate mobile computing for students, student email communications and social networking.  Begin to think of learning as a global ability. Use online, or open content resources to plug holes in outdated textbooks and to enhance the learning experience. Open content allows for a customizable learning experience.  As we begin to experience less resources and funding from state and federal levels, we must investigate the learning opportunities and savings that electronics readers and books will be to the district. Electronic books are becoming a mainstream item in personal lives, with a soon to be boost from the workforce. E- books have the potential to reduce waste, outdated textbooks and provide individualized reading to students.

7.  Critical Issue: Developing a School or District Technology Plan: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te300.hfm http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te300.hfm  The Horizons Report K-12 Edition, 2009. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report-K- 12.pdfhttp://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report-K- 12.pdf  The Horizons Report K-12 Edition, 2010. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdfhttp://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdf  National Center for Technology Innovation. http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2009/11/30/national-educational- technology-plan/ http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2009/11/30/national-educational- technology-plan/  National Educational Technology Plan: http://edtechfuture.org/http://edtechfuture.org/