Week 8, Step 6
Develop strategies
for funding.
Goal 1: Establish a one-to-one laptop structure within the core
teachers’ classrooms in the INQUIRE Academy through the use of COWs in their
classroom.
Funding: Currently BISD is receiving funding through eRate and also
has been evaluated by the FIRST (Financial Integrity Rating System of
Texas). Within the budget for
Technology of BISD it is stated to maintain computers currently in the district
that are under 3 years old. The
cost for this maintenance is currently being fulfilled by the district within
the budget. Once these current
computers are set up in the classrooms, and as the computers are retired the
campus intends to establish a Bring Your Own Device for the students to have
access to technology within the classrooms. The current budget will allow for the network to support the
extra demand on the servers.
Goal 2: Training to support teachers in troubleshooting own
computers.
Goal 3: Professional development to assist teachers in designing web
pages and online quizzes and interactive games.
Funding for Goal 2 and 3: These two goals
will require some outside funding support to encourage the INQUIRE teachers to
participate in these two goals and staff development would be to apply for an
ATPE Technology Grant. These
grants are small amounts of $2500 that support the use of technology in the
classroom. This amount would be
sufficient to establish the vouchers and stipends to support he teachers. (ATPE, 2007-2012) To be able to continue the program
beyond the first year, an option would also be to apply for the ThinkQuest
Collaborative Learning Website Development Competition to have the teachers
participate in the Oracle “Help Us Help” Foundation.
Develop strategies
for management plans.
Goal 1: Establish a one-to-one laptop structure within the core
teachers’ classrooms in the INQUIRE Academy through the use of COWs in their
classroom.
Management of Goal 1: TSC (Technology Services Center) will
be primarily in charge of setting up the laptop structure in the core teachers’
classrooms in INQUIRE. Teachers
will be furnished with an established check out program for their classrooms
and for the COWs. The campus
liaison will be responsible for making bi-weekly checks on all classrooms to
make sure teachers and students are following the procedures set up for check
in and check out of the laptops in the COWs.
Goal 2:
Training to support teachers in troubleshooting own computers.
Goal 3: Professional development to assist teachers in designing web
pages and online quizzes and interactive games.
Management of Goals 2 and 3: These will be monitored through the
teacher sign ins that occur when the teachers attend the workshops. Also follow up will occur through
online surveys for teachers to offer feedback on how to improve the training. Teachers will be asked to keep a log
that they will share with the technology liaison on campus of how they have
used the training and of successes and needs that they have identified while
working on their web pages, quizzes and interactive games.
Describe the required
procedures for the proposed strategies.
Goal 1: Establish a one-to-one laptop structure within the core
teachers’ classrooms in the INQUIRE Academy through the use of COWs in their
classroom.
Goal 2: Training to support teachers in troubleshooting own
computers.
Goal 3: Professional development to assist teachers in designing web
pages and online quizzes and interactive games.
The procedures for the above strategies
will fall mainly on the campus technology liaison and the campus principal to
hold teachers accountable for the implementation of all three goals. The technology liaison and campus
principal should meet once a month to share how these goals are being met by
the faculty and the students in the implementation of the technology
expectations.
Works Cited
ATPE. (2007-2012). ATPE
Foundation. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from ATPE Foundation Grant Website: http://www.atpefoundation.org/technologyGrant.asp
Oracle, F. (2012). Oracle
Foundation. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from Oracle Foundation: http://www.oraclefoundation.org/
You mention the use of COW in the classroom, research supports the use of mobile units.
ReplyDelete"The use of mobile technologies has been rapidly increasing in recent years. Emerging
from current mobile technologies, mobile learning, or m-leaming, is beginning to offer
stunning opportunities for education. The Mobile Computer Supported Cognitive Tool
(MCSCT) model has been proposed to facilitate meaningful technology integration in
middle schools" (Peng & Chou, 2007)
Reference:
Peng, H. & Chou, C. Mobile computing cognitive tool for middle schools: connecting curriculum and technology. Int'l J of instruction of media, 34(3.
Lori,
DeleteThanks for sharing the article. One of the new ways of addressing technology is tying in the use of personal mobile devices. This is going to be a very big learning curve for our teachers. Establishing policy as to how to handle them appropriately in the classroom is going to be a big task and how to manage them effectively.
I LOVE your goal of providing teachers with the knowledge to troubleshoot their own computers! At my district last year, I was often seen as the "computer guru" on my campus. Our technology support was small and often unreliable, and I was called upon often to fix problems for my coworkers. I didn't mind (mostly) but I was reprimanded by the technology support team. I never understood why they minded me helping them! I think having teachers learn and be able to support themselves and each other for small problems would allow our IT teams to focus on more pressing and important problems without being overloaded. Bravo on a great idea!
ReplyDeleteCasey,
DeleteDid you see this a "protecting turf" or defending your instruction time? It seems to be a common experience that the IT people view the users as less than interested (and maybe less than able) of even basic troubleshooting. It will be nice when we are able to work on a team of people working together to facilitate life-long learning--for teachers and for students.
Casey and Allison,
DeleteIn the past I would say that "protecting turf" was what was happening between many of our teachers and the technology staff. Now that the technology team is stretched so thin with in a district that has over 15 elementary schools, 5 middle schools and 3 high schools (counting Collegiate), they are looking for any help they can find. Hopefully this will help them to help us. I know many of our teachers run from being technology literate but they know who to run to when they have problems.
I am hoping that by having the IT people train us, they can give us what they think we can handle and then expand what they train specific individuals to be able to do for others. Running to a neighbor is so much easier then running to another building for technology help. Especially if what you need is right then for a class instruction.
Deborah,
ReplyDeleteI heard that Bryan ISD is running a BYOD pilot for using phones/itouch in the classroom. Have you heard how that is going? I am rather disappointed in how the ipads have been turned into encyclopedias and atlases rather than interactive learning by some teachers.
I watched a news report on a teacher who had kids responding to Google forms questions and filling out a spreadsheet with comments while reviewing peer artifacts on a document camera. Another had students responding to questions in a tweet-deck style view. Stronger writers inspired weaker ones. The teacher and the students could point to elements of strong writing in real time. This use of high-level critical thinking to create useful feedback with accountability is astounding.
What do you envision as being a useful teaching technique with personal devices?
Allison,
DeleteThe first example of the use of mobile technology devices that could be used is for lab experiments in science. We had a class that was using membranes to demonstrate diffusion of particular liquids. They used their cell phones to record photos every 15 seconds. They then sent them to their computers by email and used them in their report.
Another teacher has group texting set up for a class and sends a question out to the students phones and they respond to her text with their answer.
I think the use of mobile devices is only limited by what we can't envision.
I love the idea having the teachers keep a log of the trainings which they attended and how they implemented it into their instruction. This makes them accountable for what they have learned plus it is a way to make sure the district is getting quality in-service for its teachers.
ReplyDeleteLaura,
DeleteI am thinking also about encouraging teachers to keep a Google doc for themselves that they share with their evaluator to share what they have learned and accomplished. Something like what we do for our DDP.