Within my organization, technology and education plans are not published and accessible to the public. The "current state" of curriculum, education, and technology are outlined in the School Handbook but nothing is stated about plans for the future. I know that within our WASC document, we set education and technology goals at the beginning of each school year and we address whether we met, need to adapt, or retire former goals each fall. In recent years, technology goals and education goals have become a combined effort as we work to incorporate more and more technology into our teaching and learning practices.
I believe that on a district level, technology plans and education plans should absolutely be merging (if they have not already). Technology is not the answer to achieving educational goals, but it is a tool that can be applied and utilized to help schools, teachers, and students realize some of those goals. When doing some research on this topic I went to San Diego Unified School District's page and looked for both their district education and technology plans. I found information on Technology and Infrastructure Upgrades which outlines the 21st Century Interactive Classroom Initiative. This discussed what new technologies were being implemented into the classrooms - but there was nothing about how this new technology was going to enhance education or help students and teachers to reach educational goals. This is a flaw (in my opinion) on the part of SDUSD. I did however find more information when looking for the education plan. From what I gathered, their education plan was called Vision 2020. This initiative has set future education goals to reach by the year 2020. Technology was included as part of these goals -but the information given was very vague.
We've talked a lot this semester about how IT is no longer it's own separate department, but instead is embedded into the entire organization. This requires leaders and educators to be much more knowledgeable about the technology tools that are being used in schools. It also requires them to work with IT personnel and not expect IT to be the sole technology decision makers, do-ers and the fixers. The same goes for education plans regarding curriculum, delivery of content, differentiation and assessment. Technology goals should be embedded into these plans and goals just like it has become embedded into every facet of education.
Resources
Parent/Student Handbook. (2015). Solana Beach, CA: Saint James Academy.
SDUSD (2016). I21: 21st Century Interactive Classroom Initiative. Retrieved from https://www.sandiegounified.org/technology-infrastructure-upgrades
SDUSD (2016). Vision 1: Student Achievement. Retrieved from https://www.sandiegounified.org/vision-1- student-achievement
I believe that on a district level, technology plans and education plans should absolutely be merging (if they have not already). Technology is not the answer to achieving educational goals, but it is a tool that can be applied and utilized to help schools, teachers, and students realize some of those goals. When doing some research on this topic I went to San Diego Unified School District's page and looked for both their district education and technology plans. I found information on Technology and Infrastructure Upgrades which outlines the 21st Century Interactive Classroom Initiative. This discussed what new technologies were being implemented into the classrooms - but there was nothing about how this new technology was going to enhance education or help students and teachers to reach educational goals. This is a flaw (in my opinion) on the part of SDUSD. I did however find more information when looking for the education plan. From what I gathered, their education plan was called Vision 2020. This initiative has set future education goals to reach by the year 2020. Technology was included as part of these goals -but the information given was very vague.
We've talked a lot this semester about how IT is no longer it's own separate department, but instead is embedded into the entire organization. This requires leaders and educators to be much more knowledgeable about the technology tools that are being used in schools. It also requires them to work with IT personnel and not expect IT to be the sole technology decision makers, do-ers and the fixers. The same goes for education plans regarding curriculum, delivery of content, differentiation and assessment. Technology goals should be embedded into these plans and goals just like it has become embedded into every facet of education.
Resources
Parent/Student Handbook. (2015). Solana Beach, CA: Saint James Academy.
SDUSD (2016). I21: 21st Century Interactive Classroom Initiative. Retrieved from https://www.sandiegounified.org/technology-infrastructure-upgrades
SDUSD (2016). Vision 1: Student Achievement. Retrieved from https://www.sandiegounified.org/vision-1- student-achievement