2013—2015 Technology Plan
Hopkins Public Schools
Independent School District 270
Hopkins, Minnesota
ORGANIZATION INFORMATION District/Agency/School
(legal name): HOPKINS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
District Number: 270
IDENTIFIED OFFICIAL WITH AUTHORITY INFORMATION
Name JOHN SCHULTZ, PH.D
Title SUPERINTENDENT
Address 1001 HIGHWAY 7
HOPKINS, MN 55305 Phone Number & E-mail 952.988.4021
[email protected] TECHNOLOGY CONTACT INFORMATION
Name SID VOSS
Title DIRECTOR OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY,
MEDIA SERVICES, AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Address 1001 HIGHWAY 7
HOPKINS, MN 55305 Phone Number & E-mail 952.988.4103
The Hopkins School Board approved the Hopkins Public Schools 2013—15 Technology Plan on May 19, 2011.
1.
Technology Needs Assessment
Hopkins Public Schools utilizes a comprehensive strategic planning process for District departments and schools. A significant aspect of this process is the ongoing assessment of progress in accomplishing goals, strategies, and work tasks. Assessment of needs is an on-‐going aspect of the planning process.
In addition to the annual strategic assessment of needs, the District gathered data focused on technology needs utilizing the following:
Focus groups of teachers who reviewed precepts and concepts focused on “21st Century Learning” and their impact on curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Ongoing evaluation by staff of training and staff development experiences.
Study and evaluation of the following organizations’ technology and media standards:
o Minnesota Educational Media Organization (MEMO) o International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) o American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
Conducted a comprehensive assessment of technology and
communication infrastructure and services to facilitate short-‐ and long-‐term educational and fiscal planning. The scope of the
assessments included the following:
o Technology rooms and interior data/ voice cabling o Wide area network (WAN)
o Local area networks (LAN)
o Campus and classroom multimedia systems o Voice (telephone) systems
o Servers, desktop computers, mobile devices
by our teachers in February 2011.
2.
Goals and Strategies
The District used the information from the above needs assessment to develop goals, strategies, and work objectives. A committee of 40 teachers, staff, administrators, and community representatives developed the plan. This committee annually reviews progress on the goals and strategies and provides recommendations for modifications to the original plan.
The following are the goals of our strategic plan for educational technology in the district:
Hopkins Public Schools Technology Goals
Provide an engaging and relevant curriculum that prepares students to take their place in a rapidly changing, and more globally connected society.
Integrate a wide range of technology into curriculum, not only to make learning more engaging, but also to prepare students with skills they will need both in their future careers and personal lives.
Integrate educational technology with teaching, learning, and curriculum to deepen the learning and understanding of our students.
Offer students more personalized options for learning.
Permit students to gain a deeper understanding of how to use tools and applications, and how to find quality information in a world that is saturated with information.
Ensure students are responsible users of technology.
Provide accurate and up-‐to-‐date information for our students and families regarding learning activities and expectations.
Focused on these goals, the planning committee recommended that the District adopt five new strategies related to educational technology, and retain the strategies from the previous strategic plan focused on
Strategy: Staff Use Full Range of Technology Resources
We will provide the training and support for teachers to become competent and confident in using the full range of technology resources to deliver effective curriculum,
instruction, and assessment.
Articulate our vision for effective curriculum, instruction, and assessment, supported by a range of technology resources.
Reframe the role of media specialists to provide increased leadership and support to teachers in the area of technology integration
through collaborative curriculum writing, co-‐teaching, and just-‐in-‐ time training.
Determine the resources, including staffing, needed to support teachers’ competence and confidence in technology integration. Expand opportunities for related professional development including
focused technology camps, online classes, summer opportunities, independent study, curriculum writing, and co-‐teaching.
Establish teacher standards in technology aligned with our vision for effective curriculum, instruction, and assessment supported by technology.
Strategy: Personalized Learning Experiences
We will implement technology strategies that offer data-‐driven
personalized learning experiences for all students.
Expand training for teachers in accessing and using data to determine individual instructional interventions.
Explore and pilot web-‐based programs for delivering personalized instruction to students.
Provide teachers with proven mobile device apps, computer software, and web-‐based resources that support personalized learning pathways.
Provide the necessary training required for teachers to implement digital content such as podcasts, recorded interactive whiteboard presentations, and electronic textbooks/curriculum materials.
Strategy: Curriculum Repository
We will create a web-‐based repository for teachers to share media-‐rich instructional and curricular materials across the district.
Determine the best solution (commercial product, wiki, open-‐ source software) for meeting the needs of our teachers to share curriculum materials, lesson plans, resources, and assessments.
Implement the web-‐based repository so that teachers can easily post and retrieve resources.
Train and support teachers to efficiently use the curriculum repository.
Strategy: Technology Integral in Student Learning
We will ensure that students use technology as an integral part of their learning experiences.
Assure all students have access to up-‐ to-‐date hardware and digital curriculum materials supported by a robust infrastructure.
Pilot the use of mobile devices for curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Establish and implement standards for students in the area of technology and information literacy.
Strategy: Instruction & Learning Communication
We will provide current classroom information, student data, and digital curricular materials to students and families via the Web.
Adopt a common web-‐based platform for communicating class information to parents and students.
Establish expectations for teacher web-‐presence and provide training and support to teachers.
Establish means and methods to support teachers in creating and delivering digital curriculum via the Web.
Support secondary teachers in the use of Infinite Campus to provide timely student progress information to parents.
Strategy: Technology Infrastructure
We will provide a reliable and dynamic infrastructure that includes network connections, wireless access, necessary hardware and software, and user support.
Phone system upgrades, including Voice Over IP phones, voicemail, caller identification, improve 911 information, and improve access for teachers
Network upgrades, including upgraded wireless access Data cabling and communications rooms upgrades
Improve cabling termination in all communication rooms and provide battery backups.
Implement security policies for electronics infrastructure.
Investigate and implement an online library and repository with Instructional technology leaders as a way for staff to share resources, lessons, interactive whiteboard documents, and electronic
curriculum materials.
Investigate single sign-‐on solution for staff and student web based services to increase awareness and use of currently available
resources
Educate staff on increasing personal security of digital assets. Implement strong password policy for all staff.
Strategy: Efficient Integration, Services, and Support
We will provide unified District-‐wide standards and
recommendations for hardware and software purchasing that is equitable across schools to achieve efficient integration, services, support, and training.
Continue to purchase equipment in a manner that establishes a replacement schedule and is mindful of the Total Cost of Ownership of equipment and services.
Service Desk
o Establish evaluation process of service desk, response times, and service metrics.
o Implement Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) process management.
o Increase ownership of incidents at the service desk level to better manage experience for staff from ticket initiation through resolution.
o Increase awareness by all technicians with systems used across the district, ensure comprehensive support can be provided for all platforms currently deployed.
Establish a Configuration Management Database Develop expectations for personal data responsibility Provide backup facility for ‘business critical’ staff
Assess and analyze cost effectiveness of district repair services
3. Professional Development Plan
Hopkins Public Schools is committed to the training and support for teachers to become competent and confident in using the full range of technology resources to deliver effective curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Professional development is integral in each of the strategies.
To support professional development of teachers, the District is broadening the role of media specialists to provide increased leadership and support to teachers in the area of technology integration through collaborative
curriculum writing, co-‐teaching, and just-‐in-‐time training. We have also increased our staffing in the area of technology integration from less than half of a full time equivalent to close to a 2 FTE.
Teachers will have expanded opportunities for related professional
development including focused technology camps, online classes, summer opportunities, independent study, curriculum writing, and co-‐teaching. These opportunities will fall in three major areas, and all teachers will be expected to demonstrate competency in each area: Google Apps for document collaboration, Moodle courseware, and Activboard interactive whiteboard technology. In addition, teachers will have optional
opportunities to pursue learning in the area of social networking, digital gaming, and hybrid course development
Hopkins Public Schools will use Google Apps to promote effective
collaboration among staff and students. All licensed staff were introduced to the primary set of Google tools this past spring and in the future the staff development will promote use of Google for enrichment of classroom
activities and effective use of digital communication strategies. The District adopted Moodle as a course management system over five years ago and has used it to supplement face-‐to-‐face instruction with digital curriculum.
All teachers will be expected to maintain a web presence starting with the secondary teachers this next school year. Teachers are participating in both
face-‐to-‐face instruction in Moodle as well as several online classes tailored to meet their individual skill levels and goals for their course website.
At this time, all grade level classrooms K-‐6 are equipped with interactive whiteboards and 75% of the secondary classrooms have boards installed as well. Teachers participate in 24 hours of staff development over the course of their first year of ActivBoard adoption with a coaching and collaboration model of training. We will continue to provide this same opportunity to the teachers who are not yet trained. Our goal now is to bring the early
adopters along with additional training to promote the use of the board as the digital hub in the classroom to harness the richness of the Web and the interactivity possible through the range of digital services to which the District subscribes (Discovery Education, BrainPop, Study Island,
Tumblebooks). This past school year, 100 experienced ActivBoard teachers were challenged to improve their skills and use of the tools in innovative ways and this next year, 75 more teachers will be participating in this expanded training.
4. Evaluation
The plan is reviewed annually and the School Board is provided an annual report. The progress of each strategy is assessed, along with supporting work tasks. The progress of each strategy is evaluated in relationship to achieving the listed goals. As a part of this review and evaluation process strategies and supporting work tasks may be modified.
We will continue to assess effectiveness of staff training and development experiences by surveys and evaluation forms.
In addition, several of the strategies identify specific evaluation metrics. For example, the Effective Integration, Services and Support strategies calls for evaluation of the service and support systems for our users.
5. Links of Interest
District Website: www.hopkinsschools.org
District Strategic Plan: www.hopkinsschools.org/future Hopkins Tips for Parents Online Safety:
www.hopkinsschools.org/parentsstudents/online-‐safety
Community Survey Results: www.hopkinsschools.org/survey11
6. Hopkins Technology Plans Link
www.hopkinsschools.org/servicesdepartments/technology-‐
media/strategic-‐planning
7. Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
The district has an Internet Usage Policy that complies with the Children’s Internet Protection Act. The policy may be found at
www.hopkinsschools.org/about-‐us/policies-‐
procedures/students/acceptable-‐electronic-‐resources-‐use .
This school district deploys an Internet filter to protect minors from material that is pornographic or otherwise harmful to them.
