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Rationale: Meaningful standards are necessary to measure the progress of teachers and students in obtaining the skills they will need. The current 4J computer goals[2] are not proficiency or standard based. The ISTE goals provide specific standards in six areas with competency levels for K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. These standards reflect the underlying assumption that all students should have the opportunity to develop technology skills that support learning, personal productivity, decision-making, and daily life.
ISTE Recommended Foundations in Technology for All Teachers: (see Appendix C)
ISTE is an internationally respected organization of educators and researchers which has spent many years developing standards for teachers and students. They have processed the standards with national and international groups. By adopting these standards we will have a framework for our staff developers and teachers to focus their efforts. Using the standards in hiring will give us a better prepared staff.
Rationale: We must give students the skills they will need to prosper in the 21st century. The twentieth century skills that students are currently exposed to in the learning and teaching environment are insufficient. The 4J school district will encourage active, rather than passive, learning. Active learning helps students develop skills and strategies for lifelong self-directed learning. This recommendation is the very heart of educational technology. Project-based learning and technology go hand-in-hand and allow students to become active participants in their own education. All of the above recommendations are closely linked to those of the Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report that were developed as critical workplace skills. The SCANS report states:
District 4J will establish a Technology Steering Committee to guide the implementation of technology throughout the district. Membership on this committee will include: teachers, administrators, students, parents, and representatives from the private sector. Rationale: It is important that the district plan the implementation of technology in the district and that those planners represent all of the stakeholders who have the most to lose or gain as a result of that implementation. This committee will be similar to the Instructional Policy Committee except it will focus on integrating technology in the curriculum. The committee will assist in setting policy and making recommendations to superintendent’s staff or school board.
Rationale: As networks provide the opportunity for enhanced collaboration between schools and the community, professional software will allow teacher and staff to work seamlessly with outside organizations. If we are going to prepare students for the workplace and/or higher education, we must provide them with the skills to use current technology and the ability to adapt skills to new technologies.
Rationale: In order for students to prepare themselves to thrive in an information-driven society, teachers must integrate technology in their learning process. This technology must be available to students in sufficient quantities to be meaningful.
Information technology hardware will be replaced and/or updated as needed to maintain functionality and currency at least every three years. Software will be upgraded or replaced to remain current and fully functional. The Technology Steering Committee (see Recommendation 3) will be responsible for conducting an annual review of district 4J replacement needs. Rationale: Systems tend to work poorly and support costs increase substantially when hardware and software requirements are not matched with each other. Over time, hardware and software becomes less reliable due to changes in technological standards, physical wear and tear, and other factors, regardless of maintenance efforts. The only remedy for this obsolescence is to replace existing systems periodically to bring them up to the prevailing standards.
Teachers, parents and youth-serving agencies will have appropriate electronic access to student information as permitted by public information laws and school board policies. Rationale: In an information-based society, it is important that information be available to all stakeholders and that information be managed for maximum privacy, maximum accessibility, and increased parental involvement and strengthened community ties.
Rationale: This recommendation allows and empowers students to be responsible for their learning by providing online information resources. It expands the concept of learning beyond the walls of the school. The educational environment will become more participatory and rewarding when network based resources replace textbooks to the extent that student learning is enhanced. Network based resources increase the teaching and learning opportunities for students, teachers, staff, and parents by providing for the easy exchange of information with the community.
Rationale: Because technology will be integrated into all areas of education, the technology must be operational for learning to proceed without interruption. The most expensive technology is the technology that is unused. The most cost effective use of the district's extensive technology investment is to keep that technology operating for as many days as possible throughout its life cycle.
Rationale: One task of the Technology Steering Committee (see Recommendation 3) is, logically, to make recommendations concerning software, hardware and technology that have proven to work well in the school environment. At the same time, the Technology Steering Committee should be careful to act in a way that will encourage experimentation and evaluation of new technologies.
Rationale: Technology has changed the way the district will interact with other agencies and the community. The district has an increased opportunity to collaborate and interact with other agencies in our community to provide the maximum benefit for students. Creating a community infrastructure that provides access to information has the potential to increase public support for education. Community collaboration is cost effective and increases local influence in the education process. Higher quality public services result when public agencies combine expertise and public assets in pursuit of a common purpose.
Rationale: A significant threat to our society is the widening gap between the technological haves and have nots. An important force available to combat this digital divide rests in the hands of public education. We simply cannot have technology-rich schools and technology-poor schools. Technology will need to be "application-centric" NOT "platform-centric" to increase availability meaning applications will be run on all platforms.
We want the best and most equitable utilization of the technology that we have available to the education community. In some situations equitable distribution may mean a concentration of resources to assure the effective use these resources.
Rationale: The implementation of technology in education simply cannot be funded though heroic efforts like bond levies, "belt tightening," grants, or bake sales. Funding must be a long-range, systemic effort.
The task group supports the School District 4J policy on privacy of student information and endorses the Internet Guidelines Committee’s efforts to be vigilant about security, protection, and privacy. See Appendix D for district guidelines. Rationale: The school district has an obligation to protect student safety and district resources and to balance this with the need for open communications when using the Internet.
The task group recommends that representatives from appropriate Schools of the Future task groups meet to craft recommendations about the staff development needed to implement the recommendations contained in their collective reports. Rationale: Without a properly planned and coordinated effort, staff development will be sporadic and inefficient resulting in inconsistent and poorly trained teachers.
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Eugene School District 4J