Technology Action Plan

Above all, in the below mentioned action plan, team collaboration amongst all teachers/staff and students has to be the main focus. To ensure positive collaboration I have instilled four primary goals for my action plan. The first goal is to ensure all teachers are trained in technology. The second goal is to put more technology in every classroom. The third goal is to give students more freedom to explore and collaborate with other students and teachers through the use of technology. The fourth goal is to incorporate more online courses for high school students. These goals are attainable by offering more technological professional development opportunities’ and mentors for teachers, budget more money for technology (for the 2009-2012 technology goal, CCISD budgeted $2,758,235 for technology) , allow students and teachers to access blogs and other blocked information on the Internet, and to create/incorporate more accessible online courses for students.
For Clear Lake High, I would purchase sets of laptops for an entire classroom to be stored in the library on carts for teachers to checkout. Finding an available computer lab is next to impossible at our school because core teachers get top priority. The wireless laptops would be for any teacher to use. I would also have a plan to put Elmo projectors in every classroom. This way the teachers would be able to incorporate technology in their class while keeping the students engaged in the lesson. Teachers would be able to request other technology equipment with explanation of its importance in his or her classroom. Professional development sessions would be offered for teachers to learn how to use the technology in their classrooms.
The STaR chart report states that teachers need more technology equipment to utilize in their classrooms. To assess technology needs, administrators could pass out surveys at the monthly faculty meetings. Administrators would look at the surveys and determine a plan of action to meet teacher needs. These needs could include needing more tools, needing more training, or needing more help implementing technology in the curriculum could be.
Students are required to take technology courses which teach how to use technology and software. These courses are monitored closely and all students are learning the same thing at the same time, which takes away from the innovation mentioned in our districts goals. Teachers must give the students more freedom. The problem with giving them more freedom is that some students would try to access inappropriate materials.
An administrator and I observed a technology class in order to gain insight on how technology teachers were integrating technology. There was little opportunity for students to use technology on their own. As mentioned before, students should be given an ID for them to access the internet. This would help us in monitoring their use, which would decrease negative browsing/surfing. Students would benefit from using blogs during school to collaborate with each other and their teachers. Forming a team of technology teachers and students to collaborate about how students are using the technology would be extremely beneficial in the future of CCISD and Clear Lake High.
Students are required to take more courses to graduate; they should be given the option of taking more courses online. Many college courses are now offered online, so it would be beneficial for the students to be able to take more on-line courses in order to prepare for on-line college courses. I have taken a majority of on-line courses throughout my post high school career and only wished that my high school offered on-line courses to better help me prepare for the college courses.
All in all, these four goals would help Clear Lake in our venture to maintain elite status and to be a leader in Texas schools and in technology. Technology must be a main focal point for schools in their preparation of grooming future positive citizens of society. Students will be better prepared for the ever changing world of tomorrow.