Gap+Analysis+Summary

Gaps in Professional Development

• The content on the district cable channel has increased significantly in the last year. However, not all community members are able to see the cable channel because of television service or schedules. We know that the traffic on our web page is consistent and parents look to the web page for district information including information videos. • Teachers and administrators need to become more familiar with NETS-T and NETS-A and begin to systematically implement the technology standards for each user group. Inconsistent implementation of educational technology among classroom teachers is noted and indicates the need for continued staff development and support. Staff members indicate the need to know how to use various components of technology in their buildings. Teachers indicate they need skills for designing, managing, and assessing learning projects that incorporate technology. • A pilot program introduced a new position at one building called a Technology Facilitator. This position assists with professional development, curriculum integration and technical support. This position has effectively helped teacher bridge the gap between ideas and implementation. • Professional development can extend outside the meeting room through distance learning or online learning. Presentations and training sessions can be available on-line to assist with staff development as well as the acquisition of CPDUs. • District 25 provides several technology professional development opportunities throughout the year such as Tech Academy and Tech SIP Day. Staff have indicated that follow-up to these sessions during the year would be beneficial for continued growth. • The creation of various training/professional development materials has created more opportunities for staff to access information. Production of training content in a variety of formats (videos on-demand, techtorials, how-to guides) should continue. • As staff use of technology continues to increase, staff members need to be made more aware of the wide range of copyright information as it pertains to computer usage, videotapes, publishing student work on the Web, creating teacher Web pages, using software, or copying from print material. Reminders of appropriate use of print and electronic resources must be communicated on an annual basis and practiced by all users. • Assessment data (achievement scores, survey data, feedback) is used to to guide instructional decisions and professional development choices effectively.

Gaps in Community Involvement

• Collaboration between the school district and community organizations has increased over the past three years. Additional opportunities to work with organizations such as the senior center, library, community colleges should be explored. • The District operates a cable access channel that is carried on the two local cable companies providing service to subscriber homes but lacks the staff, hardware, and facility to produce professional videos. • The District currently has methods to reach out and communicate with parents but limited methods to all community members. • The District has limited resources to produce community communications such as color copiers. • The number of staff and district web pages continues to increase. Accuracy and timeliness are essential and a plan is not in place for accountability. • Expansion and consistent updating of the district and school Web sites is needed and requires personnel, time and equipment for this method of communication to continue to be effective.

Gaps in Curriculum and Instruction

• The current standard is two computers per classroom. There is also a laptop cart of 30 computers available for checkout. However, demand for access to computers throughout the day continues to rise and the current supply is not meeting the demand for staff and students. • The use of laptop computers by staff and students has increased significantly in the last three years and will continue. A managed, robust wireless infrastructure is not in place to provide adequate coverage for future expansion. • A consistent approach and timeline for keyboard instruction is not defined for the schools. • Updating hardware or operating systems can cause some software or peripherals to become obsolete. A plan is not in place to account for or replace software and peripherals that cannot work with new hardware or operating system. • The district currently provides monochrome and color laser printers for staff and student use. Printers for non-traditional size paper (poster size) and color copiers are not available in the school. • A continuum of technology skills is not present and a curriculum map would assist in communicating these skills and providing a framework for accountability and assessment. • Each student saves their work to a server at their school. They do not have access to those files to continue working from outside the school. • While we have a strong academic assessment plan, systematic evaluation of student technology skill acquisition is limited and is not present on progress reports. • New educational technologies that will be developed in the next few years may offer special opportunities to enhance student learning. We need to explore the feasibility of bringing these technologies to our students. We need to position ourselves to be able to explore and adopt emerging technologies as they become available. Adequate time is not available for the LMC/CLC directors to co-plan with teams.

Gaps in Technology Deployment

• Technology purchases go through both the school and district offices causing increased time in managing inventories, assets and licenses. • School and district inventories are kept separately and in some cases are in database formats that need to be updated. • Currently the school district purchases all software and hardware. Leasing is an option that was used successfully in the past to acquire necessary equipment. • The current replacement cycle is 5-6 years on computers. This timeline has allowed for maximum use of equipment. However, technology continues to change and the replacement timeline should be reviewed. • The amount of technology and expectations to support student learning continues to increase. Existing amount of staff will have a hard time covering all of the technical and instructional responsibilities to support the Technology Plan. • Increased technology requires additional infrastructure needs such as power and HVAC for cooling. The current infrastructure will lack in handling the power requirements for future expansion and not all data centers have temperature management options. • Currently there is a limited system for document management. Additional options for organizing, managing and retrieving documents is needed to improve efficiency and conservation. • Requirements for data storage continue to increase with media files and archiving. Current storage capacity will not be sufficient and needs to be reviewed. • Supporting existing technology is a critical component of the technology plan. However, emerging technology may provide additional opportunities for staff and students and should be explored for educational relevance. • With the increased use of equipment and servers, electronic confidential/sensitive information on district equipment continues to increase. Current security measure are robust but need to be reviewed in order to provide a highly secure network environment. • The district needs to evaluate the existing student information system to ensure that the features and functions meet the needs of the district including staff access, attendance, and web access. • Larger schools have greater demands for LMC/CLC lab time. Access to LMC/CLC computers needs to be equitable for all students. • Even with the infusion of new equipment, teachers and students have identified the need for additional access to computers. An increase in our inventory also escalates the demand for technical support. Although technical support is adequate today, increased student use of computers will significantly impact our ability to provide timely repairs and maintenance. • The standard for video is scheduled to be changed in the next 2-3 years to high definition. A majority of district video equipment does not handle high definition.