What+Do+We+Need?

Where do we go from here?

Please use this page to add, delete or elaborate on what you think we need. Please remember to include the opinions of ALL stakeholders. Ask students and parents what they want to see in the way of technology.

1. Access to Resources. We need a baseline of technology that is available district wide. This is an ongoing need. We have a baseline, but there are still inequities that we need to be cognizant of and plan to remediation them. a. Some technology inequities are due to the inability to connect to the digital world because of requirements which prohibit the use of the world wide web. This could be solved by all buildings having wireless connectivity throughout the building. b. A committee in each building needs to be formed to assess and analyze the needs of technology through surveying students, faculty and parents. This information should then be compared to research and used for Grant writing for the funds to improve inequities across the District. 2. Peer Mentoring: We need integration coaches in every wing of every building. How do we accomplish that? a. Integration coaches in every wing of every building is essential along with a key member of the staff to lead the change, advocate and become a change agent willing to embrace the digital learning environment to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information. b. Through Professional Learning Communities teachers can be encouraged to integrate the use of technologies into lessons which are directed toward essential skills at least once per week. This would make the use of technology in lessons seem natural and less like a burden. Skills would be determined essential by using Dufour's approach: I. Does it have endurance? II. Does it have leverage? III. Does it develop student readiness for the next level of learning? (Learning by Doing, Dufour 45-46) 3. Collaborative Instructing. a. The school librarians are in the ideal position to lead the effort of collaboration and become mentors and coaches as they collaborate with teachers to reflectively question how they can effectively integrate and use new technologies in their teaching and learning. b. The school librarian can help teachers and administrators understand that the new media "is nothing if not simply another way of viewing the world, of interacting with one another, of opening ourselves to learning in realms of possibilities we never conceived of before." (Jones-Kavelier and Flannigan 2006, 10) 4. Technology for integrated learning. We often speak in terms of integrating technology into instruction. That puts the teacher in the central role. We should also consider how we can integrate the technology directly into the learning to empower the student to become a self directed learner. a. When technology is integrated into instruction there is the need for curriculum change. Teaching and learning will need to be viewed as more than delivery and consumption of information. Learning will need to be more of a social process that focuses on the learner,interacting with other learners and resources, to create meaning. b. Students with their mobile devices and non mobile devices -- Cell Phones, MP3 Players, Laptops, Digital Cameras, Computers and so on are always connected to one another and to the web. This student connection with Web 2.0 could be turned into learning experiences by creating classroom blogs, wikis, and Web sites.