Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Mission and Goals for Roundup Public Schools 3
Objectives
Technology Standards For Students 5
Roundup Standards based on Montana Standards
Technology Standards For Teachers 10
Roundup Standards based on National Educational
Technology Standards for Teachers
Implementation and Integration 12
Instructional uses of technology 14
Examples of present uses of technology
High School 15
Elementary 17
Community and Staff 18
Equity of Access to Technology 19
Staff Training 20
Innovative Technology Projects 22
Student Information Systems 23
Management uses of Technology 24
Security and User Guidelines 25
Capabilities of Hardware and Software 26
Acceptance and Management of Donated Technology Resources 27
Inventory Control 28
Technology Inventory 29
District Needs 30
Technology Committee and Responsibilities 32
Funding and Funding Sources 33
Assessment of Technology 34
Survey Results
Central School 35
Junior/Senior High School 41
District acceptable use policy 47
Appendix
District E-Rate Technology Plan Review Submittal Cover page
Guidance on the Enhancing Education Through Technology program and evaluation Rubric and Plan Requirements
Eastern Montana Education Telecommunications Information
Montana Standards for Technology
National Educational Technology Standards for Students
National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
Technology Applications Standards for All beginning teachers
Examples of Elementary Technology Uses
Cultural Fair Map Project
Rainbow Fish Searches-WebQuest
Writing Project for 1st and 2nd Grade
Roundup Public Schools Technology Plan
Introduction
Roundup Public Schools is located near the center of the state of Montana. This Class B district serves approximately 600 students with approximately 50 certified teachers. Roundup High School is the home of the community Library, a combined project of the City of Roundup, Musselshell County, and Roundup Public Schools. This creates a unique situation for technology. As part of this library, the School District provides extensive technology for the community to use.
The purpose of this plan is to put direction and structure to the growth process, which is inherent in the evolution of technology. It is also designed to augment the mission and vision as set forth by the Board of Trustees. The plan is formulated to help articulate instructional goals, which address equity, identify technology skills, broaden educational goals, enhance communication, build community support, and promote integration of technology into regular classroom activities, all of which can have a major impact on student learning.
In a survey taken on March 1, 2004, kindergarten students indicated that 90% of those students have computer access at home and use that computer, 25% also use some type of email. This type of student is now becoming the norm and should be considered in all technology decisions in the future.
Roundup Public Schools has had a technology plan in place since 1994 with revisions and updates as needed and approved.
The technology plan is just a beginning level standard that will be constantly changing as the technology demands and necessary skills change. With the Districts adopting the Common Core Standards and technology being a cornerstone in implementing and evaluating those standards, a continuing and constant evaluation of the technology needs of the district is necessary…. Evaluations will take place in three ways. 1. A written evaluation by teachers, students, and staff. 2. An informal evaluation by administration and technology staff. 3. An informal evaluation of technology and technology resources by the community, using the Community Library and resources available to the community through the school.
New iMac Lab at Central School
Mission and Goals
The following mission statement and beliefs are part of Roundup Public Schools board policy and goals.
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Roundup Public Schools is to challenge and empower each student to maximize individual potential and become a competent, productive, responsible and caring citizen.
This mission will be supported through the wise use of resources to meet students' needs, regardless of interests and talents. Students, families, educators and the community are committed to sharing the responsibility for creating a student-centered educational community that acknowledges learning as a life-long process.
We Believe that...
· staff, administration and board are here to serve the educational needs of the community.
· education is a life-long experience intended to benefit every member of the community.
· public education must strive to meet the unique needs of each student and promote self-esteem and
success so that each student can reach his/her potential.
· students must develop intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, problem-solving abilities and
aesthetic appreciation to function successfully in a rapidly changing, highly competitive world.
· all students can learn and will do so according to their individual learning styles.
· students should develop habits and skills necessary to maintain life-long learning, physical fitness
and mental health.
· diversity and creativity should be expected and valued in students, teachers and staff.
· an environment that challenges each individual to meet high expectations produces high
achievement.
· curriculum must be responsive, current, proactive and flexible.
· all school district activities should be conducted with respect to a balanced environment.
· we must invest our resources in programs and management systems that promote our goals and
objectives and evaluate our progress.
· employees must be held accountable for their performance, and exceptional performance should be
rewarded. There is a place in staff evaluation for student and parent input.
· our schools should provide safe and physically non-threatening environments.
· technology is an important aspect of curriculum.
· public education must be a cooperative effort among students, parents, educational personnel and
community.
· effective and efficient public education is a critical economic investment that encompasses
facilities, equipment and other aspects of the infrastructure necessary to meet the needs of the
learning environment.
The use of technology to meet Roundup Public Schools' educational goals is reflected throughout this plan and is the overriding emphasis in all decisions made toward technology.
This plan conveys our vision statement, our belief in technology and our K-12 instructional goals as they relate to technology skills. Through this plan we would hope to provide equitable access to the use of technology to enable students to become lifelong learners.
Roundup Public Schools believe that through the use of technology in the classroom teachers can provide exciting, stimulating and efficient instruction that will include all students working to their potential. Technology is key to learners' achievement of world class standards. First and foremost is the critical need for students to be able to access information, manipulate data, synthesize and understand concepts and creatively express ideas to others using video, text and audio media. Technology can virtually bring the world to the student's fingertips. It is becoming apparent that for students to be competitive in the job market, even in entry-level positions, some working knowledge of computers and technological communications systems is mandatory.
The Districts have been successful in acquiring a substantial amount of technology infrastructure with a constant eye toward upgrading and modernizing both hardware and infrastructure to meet the needs of the educational process.
Objectives
The Districts will ensure ongoing, sustained professional development for teachers, teacher aides, administrators, technology staff, and school library media personnel to further the use of technology in the classroom or library media centers.
The Districts must continue to develop and expand staff and administrator's technology competency levels through peer mentoring and exposure to training programs, conferences, etc., with printed material, videos and other media available as backup to answer questions. Ongoing staff in-service will be provided by times made available through early release of students, Pupil Instruction Related (PIR) days, adult education training, summer training sessions, ITV, conferences, and annual reviews of curriculum usage. New staff hired by the Districts will be encouraged to be technology literate.
The Districts have hired a Technology Director. This person is responsible for computer maintenance and technical assistance with computers, operating systems, and peripherals, and coordination of in-service, curriculum development and training of the staff and administrators. This person must be a knowledgeable resource person for curriculum, hardware, software and multi-media updates, and is proving to be an essential link between acquisition of new technology and its integration into classroom curriculum.
The Districts are providing in-house and grant funding for travel expenses and the release of staff as they continue to receive training in technology and multi-media classes and conferences, and interactive television (ITV) in and outside the districts. Release time will also be provided for staff personnel to pursue new grants and grant writing.
Students need to be able to use a wide variety of technological tools to enhance their future success as students and workers. It is imperative for all students to have access to information via technology as a basis for lifelong learning. It has become essential for all learners, including educators, to process and manage information through the skillful use of technology.
All curriculum and program revisions will include a technology component. These components will be based on the Curriculum needs and the Montana Standards for Technology and the National Standards for Technology. See appendix
New technologies support the development of process skills such as flexibility, adaptability, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration, all of which are essential to success in our rapidly changing information age. Networked technology systems permit efficient and effective communications within and outside the Districts.
Technology allows us to better serve the diverse learning styles of our students and educate them for a wider range of intelligences. Technology maximizes productivity and efficiency and enables schools to better prepare students for future learning. Our schools must prepare students for today's work place and the work place of the future.
Equal access to technological tools and integrated technology based curriculum for all classrooms and students is a major objective of the Districts. To make the Districts' "technology infrastructure" accessible and functional to all, additional technology hardware and software acquisitions need to be made so that equal availability allows trained teaching staff to provide students with opportunities for hands-on research, expanded local and long range communications, participation in joint projects with distant partners, posting and publishing of reports, tying together local, national, and international events and changes using current information and maps, sharing outdoor classroom methodologies, creating high quality presentations and conducting career research, just to name a few.
The use of the Internet and technology has dramatically changed our world. The term community now has a bigger and broader definition, the one of the physical community that we live in and the other of the cyber community. Students, parents, teachers and community members need to be aware of the pitfalls and dangers and value of the cyber community. The use of technology comes with some responsibilities and need for necessary knowledge. Roundup Schools has the belief that part of our responsibility is to teach our complete community about the areas of Cyber Community, Cyber Security, Personal Safety, Cyber Predators, and Intellectual Property. Through staff training and the use of the I-Safe program, we hope to develop safe and responsible citizens using technology and the Internet.
Student Technology Standards
Based on the Montana Standards for Technology
The following standards are beginning level standards that will change yearly and in fact daily as the technology demands and necessary skills change.
Grade 4
A fourth grade student at the proficient level in technology demonstrates solid academic
performance. He/she:
1. Demonstrates understanding of the overall operations and responsible
use of appropriate technology. For example, students will demonstrate
their knowledge of turning on the computer, turning off, sending a print job,
locating and starting programs and ending programs, running programs,
using the menu and tool bars, knowing their way around the desktop.
Students will also be able to delete and save files, use a spell checker and
thesaurus, open a web browser, and use simple appropriate search tools
to locate and save information through the network.
2. Identifies and chooses appropriate technology to complete the task. For
example, students will be able to identify and select the appropriate
software and hardware for the task.
3. Uses technology to communicate understanding. For example, students
will be able to create reports, multimedia presentations, or web pages
using technology appropriate for their grade level to demonstrate what
they have learned.
4. Recognizes impacts of technology on society and uses technologies
ethically and safely. For example, students will be able to identify and
model why safety on the Internet, email and file privacy issues are
important in today’s society.
5. Finds information from technological sources and communicates the
information through an original product. For example, students will use
the Internet, reference CD and DVD-ROM materials as well as print
materials to create a product using word processing, desktop publishing,
multimedia graphics, presentation and web page software appropriate to
their grade level to demonstrate what they have learned.
6. Uses technological skills to create original work and solve problems in
multi-disciplinary contexts. For example, students could use various
software to integrate graphs, writing, reading, math and geography skills
to solve problems.
Grade 8
An eighth grade student at the proficient level in technology demonstrates solid
academic performance. He/she:
1. Demonstrates clear understanding of the overall operations and
responsible use of appropriate technology and sometimes explores new
concepts. For example, students will demonstrate their knowledge by
pulling information from a variety of resources and integrating that
information to show what they have learned.
2. Integrates technology into most phases of projects by matching
technologies to the task. For example, students will know when it is
appropriate to use spreadsheet software, when to implement a database
to help solve problems, how to use a multimedia desktop publisher and
when it is appropriate to use a word processor.
3. Identifies and uses communication technology to communicate and
collaborate in a variety of ways: For example, students will be involved in