A Review and Recommendations for of the School District 79
Technology Plan
Assignment 3 – Venture Pitch
ETEC 522
November 29th 2009
For : Professor David Vogt
By: Mark Reed
Based on the goals set in the School District 79 Technology Plan (SD79TP) I would like to present a model for the development of Computer Assisted Learning with important considerations for the utilization of digital learning technologies in the school district I work in. As the new century is unfolding the growth of ubiquitous communication via the Internet is having a dramatic impact on how we learn and ways in which education is enabled using digital technologies. The first part of the SD79TP has been developed with a detailed focus on the maintenance and development of infrastructure and hardware. The next section presents goals for technology skills and attitudes for success that would benefit educators. Finally there is a detailed implementation timeline and plan for supporting the technology infusion with a scope and sequence for skills development from K-12. Based on my research regarding the implementation of digital technologies this pitch seeks to illustrate the need for a more intense focus on certain areas of the SD79TP that are critical not only for preparing students to be successful in higher education and the workforce of tomorrow but are essential for this plan to be successful. For example, the SD79TP recognizes the potential for the implementation of educational technologies. However, in order to maximize the development of these tools in an efficient and collegial manner the implementation of a staff development program as outlined on p. 8 of the SD79TP would be critical. Through careful planning of how to cultivate these changes negative factors of increased expenses and staff frustration will be minimized. This presentation is meant to illustrate why consultation and training for teachers is as important for the success of the SD79TP as providing an adequately supported infrastructure to create positive learning experiences for students.
Resonant value – what am I trying to sell the district?
In addition to technical support of infrastructure, connectivity, hardware and software an equally important variable for the successful implementation of educational innovations, such as digital technologies, are developing teacher’s expectation for success and their belief that these tools will either supplement or improve learning (Wozney, Venkatesh, & Abrami, 2006). By responding to the needs of staff through support networks and training frustration will be minimized. It is helpful to identify an underlying philosophical basis for the development of instructional technology in the district. The principals of the Web 2.0 as a platform capable of supporting reading and writing as opposed to the read only nature of the Web 1.0 are supported by current educational theories such as, constructivism and connectionism (Ullrich, Borau, Luo, Tan, Shen, & Shen, 2008). The development of applications such as Wiki’s, weblogs and social bookmarking to name a few have been steadily developing as educational tools. I would advocate that one major goal for the SD79TP would be to develop these rich academic tools across curriculum areas. The SD79TP does identify goals related to “developing proficiency with synchronous activities such as chat, virtual classrooms and video/audio conferencing” as well as “asynchronous activities such as email, bulletin boards, discussion groups, slide shows and posted projects etc.” p18 but they are not given the emphasis that is warranted. The development of these skills in conjunction with teaching cyber safety and responsibility are paramount for success in the world of post secondary education and business. A criticism may be that the focus in the SD79TP for developing these skill areas in the intermediate grades (4-6) is too early. However, students at this stage of their development are characteristically very receptive to responsibility, cyber safety and the development of digital technology skills. A major challenge, which is not evident in the SD79TP, is a strategy to provide opportunities for students that enables them to continue demonstrating and developing their digital literacy. Tasks need to be provided that require the use of these skills to demonstrate students’ mastery of learning outcomes in curriculum presented through middle and secondary school.
A more detailed outline of how to achieve goals (identified as Standards Guidelines) needs to be provided. For example, the point on p. 14 that “Schools have access to digital services required for distributed collaboration among classrooms across the district” requires a vision for what that collaboration might look like, what tools are available and an evaluation of their potential as a district learning platform. Opportunities for students to utilize digital technologies to enhance their learning need to be provided now. This is a key time where digital immigrants (teachers) have a large variation in their ability to utilize evolving learning technologies. Digital natives (students) that have grown up using these tools would benefit from using them to support their learning. According to Douglas & Arafeh (2002) students reported many ways that they used computers to get information and complete their homework more quickly with greater understanding of the material they were working with. By not providing students with opportunities to develop their digital literacy skills and demonstrate their knowledge we run the risk of being labeled as redundant and not meeting the needs of students today.
Many teaching practices today are based on good teaching pedagogy that is effective. Therefore I am not advocating that we abandon all practices but that we evaluate how they can be combined with digital technologies to engage the students of today. What we are talking about is facilitating an employment of digital technologies and in particular social software into the curriculum. To do this we need to educate teachers as to what benefits this employment will have for themselves and their students. Regardless of the philosophical basis for their current practices I believe that the vast majority of teachers become interested and invested in learning activities if they observe increased student motivation to become involved in their learning. Collaboration and peer tutoring are not new ideas in education but as this type of teaching pedagogy has been demonstrated to be effective in both face to face settings as well as in distance learning situations (Zorko, 2009). Students of today are more comfortable using the technologies they have grown up with and are currently using. Anxiety levels may be decreased when presenting a personal opinion in a digital forum or as a video presentation. Motivation for teachers will increase if teachers believe that technology increases student learning and is beneficial in creating time that can be used for other strategies that support effective educational practices such as student conferencing and communication with the student’s home if needed.
What are the proposal points
The creation of learning communities within each school and through the district that support the development of “reflective practice and support them in expanding effective instructional strategies that incorporate appropriate technology tools.” p.6
Presentations that explore and illustrate how digital technologies enable a different type of learning that is preferred by students today and will better prepare students to make use of resources and have skills that will help them to be competitive in post secondary education and the business world.
Provide good samples of projects designed to promote collaboration between students for example, a grade 10 class in Georgia, U.S.A. and an international school class in Bangladesh were using digital technologies to share their thinking about Thomas Friedman’s book “The World is Flat”. Teachers reported that the level of presentations and responsibility rose to new levels as the student’s became aware that their work was subject to a global audience (Boss, S. & Krauss, J., 2007).
It would also be beneficial to evaluate the possible utilization, advantages and disadvantages of proprietary learning platforms and their associated costs in comparison to open source platforms that can be used to support course modules.
Criteria that are relevant, comprehensive, and clear for the substance of this proposal
Academic research indicates that our definition and concept of literacy is changing to appropriately reflect what is happening in the world as technology affords new opportunities for communication and information dissemination (Leu, D., Kinzer, C., Coiro, J., Cammack, D., 2004). The use of digital technologies promotes the development of writing skills through the use of technologies such as weblogs with discussion forums. This type of learning is based on constructivist learning philosophy which differs from behaviorist computer based learning systems that are usually presented as static web pages enhanced with multiple choice questions (Ulrich et al., 2008).
By explaining how and why the utilization of digital technology is effectively supported by the learning theory of constructivism in combination with positive initial learning experiences teachers will be more inclined to incorporate these ways for learning as opposed to feeling that digital technologies are not serious learning tools.
Digital literacy is necessary for students to participate effectively in post secondary education, in particular distance education, as well as in the business world of today and tomorrow.
Schools need to initiate, develop and promote digital citizenship and responsibility for students when they are interacting on the Internet, utilizing a high degree of integrity and awareness. This goal is difficult to achieve if students do not have opportunities to cultivate appropriate practices.
Communities for learning established and supported at each school would receive and pass on training in the establishment of pedagogically sound learning strategies that utilize digital technologies.
Aspects of teaching styles, personal computer use, technology related training and access to computer resources are identified as significantly affecting the frequency of computer use and the manner in which technologies were being used (Wozney, Venkatesh, & Abrami, 2006). Teachers who believe that they have the skills and value the outcome for digital integration into their courses tend to be at the high end of the “technology user” spectrum.
Open source applications have potential benefits and challenges as does proprietary software. The district has a good policy of inclusion for open source software after it has been approved by the Technology Department.
Strengths of the proposal
Planning to implement digital technologies and establish pedagogical practices supporting these ways of learning can be challenging but administrators can support this endeavor by ensuring that teachers have adequate time for planning, collaboration, and critically reviewing each project. Teachers with experience should be paired with teachers that are newer to this type of learning. Digital collections of learning experiences will begin to be collected into libraries that all teachers can access for their daily teaching. The current SD79TP contains all the essential elements (infrastructure, goals for teachers’ skills and attitudes, technology infusion timeline, support for technology infusion K- 12) to successfully achieve the goal of utilizing technology to improve student achievement. This proposal is in alignment with the current plan but calls for the inclusion of a more extensive and detailed content regarding the development of curriculum that builds and utilizes digital technologies. A strong recommendation rising from this review would be to develop potential models for the implementation of both synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities in completely web based courses as well as hybrid courses utilizing online and face-to-face environments. This will enable an evaluation of the extent to which this type of learning could be used to provide positive educational experiences for the students in the district.
Weaknesses of the proposal
This proposal is based on the assumption that learning strategies utilizing digital technologies are increasingly becoming a significant way for teaching in this district. Affecting change will potentially meet with resistance and future plans need to be aware of a digital divide developing between contrasting styles of teaching. Staff are already stretched for time that would be needed to create opportunities for learning based on digital technologies, as a result funding for release time may be a necessary incentive, which in this time of fiscal restraint may be difficult to implement. Planning needs to address the perception that learning pedagogies associated with elearning or web 2.0 are a fly by night current fad in education. If staff are overwhelmed by this fundamental shift in the evolution of education they may be resistant. If the infrastructure is not provided to support this shift in pedagogy there will be frustration on the part of the students and teachers. If teachers and parents are not provided with adequate information and rationale there will be a lack of support with resistance to change, which will be detrimental to the implementation of the SD79TP and the motivation required to make this shift in education successful. As courses begin to become more content driven there may be a tendency to claim that we don’t have time to implement these learning strategies that utilize digital technologies. Another challenge will undoubtedly be access to the tools necessary to create and participate in learning activities utilizing digital technology.
Conclusion
Planning for the implementation of digital technologies across the curriculum will require creative solutions and appropriate funding to enable students to have accessibility and become literate with the use of these tools. This pitch to establish a comprehensive instructional plan to provide training for teachers on how to use and implement digital technologies into their curriculum is most significant in perspective of expenditures for computer labs, digital cameras, and software that will seem to be fiscally irresponsible if their use is not maximized.
References
Boss, Suzie and Krauss, Jane (2007). Real Projects in a Digital World. Principal
Leadership. 8 (4): 22-26.
Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C.K., Coiro, J., & Cammack,D. (2004). Toward a Theory of New Literacies Emerging from the Internet and Other Information and Communication Technologies. Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading. 5th ed. Ed. R. Ruddel and Norman Unrau. D. E. International Reading Association, 2004. 4 Aug. 2004 (Preprint version) Retrieved November 18th, 2009 from http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/leu/
Ullrich, C., Borau, K., Luo, H., Tan, X., Shen, L., & Shen, R. (2008). Why Web 2.0 is Good for Learning and for Research: Principles and Prototypes. World Wide Web Conference 2008 (pp. 705-714). Beijing, China: International World Wide Web Committee (IW3C2).
Wozney, L., Venkatesh, V., & Abrami, P. C. (2006). Implementing computer technologies: Teachers’ perceptions and practices. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 14(1), 173-207.
Zorko, V., (2009) Factors affecting the way students collaborate in a wiki for English language learning. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(5), 645-665
Mark Reed