1. What is Smyrna's Technology Goal?

Technology will be used throughout the district to help every student meet or exceed the standards.  These uses include instructional (both teacher-directed and student utilization), administrative (teacher-level to district-level), and support services applications of technology.
 

2. What components need to be in place to accomplish that goal?

Instruction	Administrative	Support
***    Training     ***     based on Technology Standards
***    Evaluation of the Infrastructure    ***     Can this support what we want to do?
***    STUFF -- hardware and software     ***     How to we stay up-to-date? How do we reuse what we have?
Curriculum Guidelines with integrated technology
***    Money   ***
***    Time  ***
***    Tech Support   ***
Outcomes evaluation (How do we measure? Utilization?)

3. What's already been done? And how can we improve it?

Hardware/Software

• Acquisition 
1. Agreement: Tech Coordinator will be responsible for setting and publishings specs for computer purchases. Building Principals will make decisions on purchases based on their instructional plans and adhering to the standards set by the Tech Coordinator. 
2. Dave, with input from and approval from Fran, will set and publish specs for computer purchases. There is a need to standardize machines to allow for efficient support by the Tech Coordinator and staff. Since the standard machine changes regularly, a web page will be available to show people the current recommended models, features, and vendors. For the present time, Microsoft Office is the standard productivity package, Pentamation is the standard for administrative uses, and networking standards will be built into the machine recommendations. Specs will also be provided for peripherals such as scanners and printers. 
3. These specs will be tied to feedback from the schools regarding the hardware needs of the software the schools intend to purchase or continue using. 
4. When instructional needs and tech specifications are in opposition, instructional needs will take precedence and every effort will be made to find a technical way to accomodate the instructional needs. This will allow the district to maximize its return on the investment in technical and pedagogical expertise. 
• Maintenance 
1. Training??? 
2. Share the problem with users 
3. To allow for quick repairs of routine problems, each school will receive a spare parts inventory. Jacqui Wilson and ??? will develop the list in consultation with Dave Brown. 
4. Shirley Dear, Gavin Standish, Lori Robinson and Debbie Hatfield will develop a list of common technical problems that users could solve for themselves and a step-by-step guide to solve each problem. This will be available on the Web and will be updated regularly. 
• Software 
1. Using the standard packages and specs for machines, each building will purchase software appropriate to its curricular needs. 
2. To make the purchases more economical, guidelines for purchasing software will be published and maintained on the Web by Kathy Andrus, Lori Robinson, and Barbara Lesley. These guidelines will include how to find software to meet instructional goals, how to determine if the software will run on district hardware by accessing the district guidelines, and strategies such as grouping orders or buying on preview to make the most effective use of the budget. 

Instruction

1. The goal is to integrate technology fully into the curriculum and to have this become the problem of teachers. (Work to be done...) 

Policies

1. Board Policy -- To set out rules and regulations, parameters of the district plans for technology and the responsibilities of all parties a Board Policy will be developed and sent for board approval. Debbie Wicks, Bev Rennie, and Stan Borowski will develop this based on the template from Nancy Willard.
2. AUP -- Once the Board Policy is in place, Smyrna will no longer require a signed AUP for Internet and computer use. However, to help students, teachers and parents understand the new district position on the use of the Internet a handbook will be developed to be sent to every student starting fall, 2000. Pat Dunn and Amy Hodges will create the booklet, possibly by using the Milford handbook.
3. Web Publishing Guidelines -- Since web publishing includes both issues of student safety and copyright, the district will use a web publishing permission form for at least the next year. This will be revisited as the use of the Web for publishing student work is more fully developed as part of the curriculum. Janet (as informed by Shirley) and Anita Bullock will work on a form for this purpose. The form will be used on a class-by-class basis for the time being. 
4. What will we do next to get closer to the goal?
• Meeting February 4 to review the work of the committees and proceed with planning for instruction. 

Resources

• AUPs
• Acceptable Use Policies:  A Handbook
• A Legal and Educational Analysis of K-12 Internet Acceptable Use Policies

 
• Web Publishing Permission Forms
• Parent Permission Form from Bellingham, WA
• Empowering Student Learning  with Web Publishing (guide and form)

 
• Technology Planning
• National Center for Technology Planning

 
• Instructional Goals 
• National Standards for Technology in Teacher Preparation
• National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for K-12 students
• Learning With Technology Profile Tool

 
• Milford's Work in Progress

Please send any comments to sine@udel.edu. 
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