Pennsylvania Department of Education COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 333 MARKET STREET HARRISBURG, PA 17126-0333 Educational Technology Plan Thursday, September 06, 2007 Entity: Northern Bedford County SD Address: 152 NBC Drive Loysburg, PA 16659-9549 Phone: (814) 766-2221 Contact Name: Scott King
Core Purpose Mission The mission of Northern Bedford County School District is to uphold high standards to educate each student to be a responsible member of a global society. Vision We see: We see: We see: A school district where all students receive a quality education emphasizing skills, knowledge and character development. A school district where all employees continue to improve their skills, knowledge and procedures to meet the needs of all learners. A community of well informed citizens who support educational excellence and work in a partnership with the school community to achieve quality educational results for all students. Shared Values The shared values of the Northern Bedford County School District are: Learning is a lifelong process. Parents or primary care givers are a child's earliest teachers and remain critical influences. All children can learn Every child deserves the best educational opportunity the school district can provide. The developmental processes of preschool children are enhanced through schoolbased early childhood program services. Learning is a shared responsibility among students, teachers, parents, and community. School is the focal point of the community. The school is a moral force that both shapes and reflects community values. A safe, orderly, and disciplined environment is essential for learning. Curriculum and instruction must address the differing needs and learning styles of each student. The high school diploma represents the acquisition of a core of academic skills.
The school strives to lead the community in the use of technology The school fosters an environment which builds positive relationships among all students. The school stresses an appreciation of the varied cultural influences which shape the world. All school personnel serve as positive role models. The school provides a caring influence which promotes emotional stability. Needs Assessment Our district is composed of three buildings (Vocational Technical, Middle/High School, Elementary School) which reside on the same campus. We have fiber connection between each building. Our infrastructure hosts all telecommunication and ethernet traffic. All servers are maintained from the technology office at the high school building. All major school functions operate on technology related software/hardware including Transportation, Business Office, Student Administration including online attendance, Gradebooks, Library, Heating, Telephones as well as software curriculum, web portal for the parents and students. We are part of the Intermediate Unit 08 WAN Consortium which has significantly increased and improved our bandwidth and curriculum offerings across the K-12 platform. We view keeping up-to-date on the technology for our school district as critical for the success of our faculty and students. Hardware-Telecommunications We have been following a 4 year cycle rotation on technology/computer equipment throughout the district. Every faculty member has their own computer with network and email capability. Three hard wired labs exist in the high school building as well as 3 wireless lab carts; 1 hard wired lab in the elementary and 1 wireless lab. Other student computers are available in various classrooms throughout the campus. We have a 2.38 ratio of students to student computers in the district. We have smartboards and lcd's available for teachers to sign out. We also have 12 mounted lcd projectors in the high school building. Each classroom is also equipped with a television and most classrooms also have vcr/dvd's. We utilize a Vodavi voice mail and digital phone system. Each classroom has a digital phone with voice mail for the teachers. All teachers have connectivity to a printer within the school district. Some color printers are available for staff use at various locations within the district. We utilize a homework hotline system for the elementary and middle school students and parents. We use a PRI circuit for the entire school district with DID lines for all the offices to have direct in dialing as well as directed fax numbers for each office member to receive their faxes via their email. All administrators and offices utilize Motorola radios to communicate in emergencies. We currently maintain approximately 50 of these units by the custodial, office and administrators. Cell phone services are not available in our rural area yet, but we hope to incorporate cell phone technology over the course of this strategic plan as the resources become available to us. Our network closets located throughout the district are wired using fiber connections. We have a 48 Port and fiber gigabit backbone switch and 17-24 port 10/100 switches total district wide along w/an 8 port Gigabit switch for servers. We also have numerous 5 port switches in classrooms for additional connectivity. We have 2 wireless access points in strategic locations and 4 mobile laptop labs w/wireless access points. Our network backbone has a speed of 1Gb and we have 100Mb connections to all pc's. Our WAN connection to internet through IU8 and Sting Comm. is 4Mb. We also have a 2MB connection to Internet 2 through IU8. We also have a 4Mb connection to Capital IU15 and any other district that is on the WAN that we can utilize. We have a mixture of Netware and Windows servers. We have 2 Novell Netware servers we use for file storage. One for student use and the other for Teacher and administrative use. Both have Raid 5 storage and are backed up daily. We also have 3 Windows servers that we run email, web services and sql database on. We house our own email service via Microsoft Exchange server. We also run
terminal services to allow for remote access for teachers and administrators. We also run windows update services on these servers to centrally manage windows updates. All systems are protected by Symantec Antivirus and Windows Defender. Virus definitions are updated daily. We also have a Watchgaurd firewall to protect from outside threats and it has internet content (cipa) filter which is updated weekly. All login accounts are password protected. We would like to move to expand wireless coverage w/more access points and begin to upgrade ethernet swtches to gigabit managed switches to allow gigabit speed to all desktops. We also would like to provide more laptops via mobile labs to the students. Software Every computer in the district has Microsoft Office installed. The majority of the desktops have Windows XP SP2 for the operating system. We have a few w/windows 98 and very few w/windows 2000. All computers have internet access. All teacher and administrator pc's use MS Outlook for the email client. We use MMS Generations for our student information system. All teacher stations have access to this for attendance. Teachers use Jackson Gradequick for grading. All pc's also have access to United Streaming for educational streaming videos. The district has access to Nettrekker (a standards based k12 search engine). We use Edline for teachers to post class information, grades etc. for students and parents to view. All students and teachers have their own unique account username and password to login into the school network. We use an online forms system (SchoolStream) for all employees to submit frequently used forms to the offices. DIBELS is utilized by the elementary staff for testing and assessment. In the business office, we utilize BusBoss for transportation software and ESO for accounts payable, payroll and general ledger. The food service department utilizes CafeTerm/Comalex for their food service administration and free/reduced lunch applications. The building construction teacher utilizes CAD daily in his curriculum. Support All support calls are addressed the same day either by email, phone call or by visiting the pc or room. We use a service call request system that is online via internet and accessible by everyone in the district. We take pride in having little or no "down time" for all users. Conclusion - Strengths & Weaknessess The Northern Bedford County School District (NBCSD) Technology team is constantly looking for ways to improve and expand our capabilities within the limited financial resources that we are faced with. Strengths: Dependable infrastructure with little or no downtime Edline, web portal for students and parent information Good integration for exchange of information between various district operation software Weaknesses: Professional development for teachers in area of technology integration into their curriculums Availability of the wireless labs
Goals and Strategies Goal: TECHNOLOGY : Through 2011, the district will enhance the technology capacity of all users by levering industry's standards best practice, fiscally sound procurement, and access to relevant data and resources. Strategy: Extend the student computer workstations and LCD Projectors : From many teacher and perception survey results, it is felt that more wireless labs would be beneficial to the school district. At the middle/high school level, we would like to see a wireless lab in each area including: social studies, science, english, and math. Review if an LCD Projector in classrooms without mounted projectors would aide in the integration and use of technology in the classroom. Educational Practices: Quality Teaching Activity LCD Projectors Person Responsible Larry Williams Review the district if LCD Projectors would aide in the classroom without a mounted LCD projector. Timeline for Implementation Start: N/A Finish: N/A $42,000.00 Activity Wireless Labs Person Responsible Larry Williams Purchase an additional wireless lab each year to the current purchases to allow for one lab per area of social studies, english, math and science. Timeline for Implementation Start: 9/1/2008 Finish: 9/1/2011 $300,000.00 Strategy: Improve student technology skills : Educational Practices: Activity K-12 Technology Curriculum Person Responsible Scott King Purchase a K-12 Technology Curriculum to aide in the development of students K-12 in the area of computers from keyboarding, to various software programs. Timeline for Implementation Start: N/A Finish: N/A $20,000.00 Strategy: Maintain the current infrastructure : Maintain the current number of computers effectively within the district with the funding resources restrictions. Educational Practices: Artful Use of Infrastructure, Continuous Learning Ethic, Quality Teaching
Activity 4 Year Computer Cycle Person Responsible Larry Williams Keep replacement of faculty, staff and mainstreamed student computers on a 4 year renewal cycle. This will allow for less inopportune failures and keep efficiency and technology renewed in regard to operating systems and memory. Timeline for Implementation Start: N/A Finish: N/A $450,000.00 Activity Switches and Bandwidth Person Responsible Larry Williams Upgrade network switches for NBCSD network closets to gigabit speed access for the end user connectivity. Currently we are 10/100 access between the end user and the network. With the advent of gigabit network cards in the end users computer, we feel this needs to be equal to maximize efficiency. Also review bandwidth resources to assure adequate bandwidth for all district resources. Timeline for Implementation Start: N/A Finish: N/A $27,000.00 Strategy: Technology Integration into the Classrooms : Aide in the integration of technology into the classrooms by the use of technology coaches. Educational Practices: Quality Leadership, Quality Teaching Activity Integration Activities for Classroom teachers Person Responsible Scott King Provide professional development to technology coaches who can cross train teachers in their buildings for further integration of technology into their classrooms Timeline for Implementation Start: 5/17/2007 Finish: N/A $54,800.00 Number of Hours Per Session Professional Development Activity Information Total Number of Sessions Per School Year Estimated Number of Participants Per Year 2 1 85 Organization or Institution Name Type of Provider Provider's Department of Education Approval Status
School Entity Approved Knowledge and Skills Research and Best Practices Designed to Accomplish For classroom teachers, school counselors and education specialists: Enhances the educator's content knowledge in the area of the educator's certification or assignment. Increases the educator's teaching skills based on research on effective practice, with attention given to interventions for struggling students. Provides educators with a variety of classroom-based assessment skills and the skills needed to analyze and use data in instructional decision-making. Empowers educators to work effectively with parents and community partners. For school and district administrators, and other educators seeking leadership roles: Provides the knowledge and skills to think and plan strategically, ensuring that assessments, curriculum, instruction, staff professional education, teaching materials and interventions for struggling students are aligned to each other as well as to Pennsylvania's academic standards. Provides leaders with the ability to access and use appropriate data to inform decision-making. Empowers leaders to create a culture of teaching and learning, with an emphasis on learning. Instructs the leader in managing resources for
effective results. Educator Groups Which Will Participate in this Activity Role Grade Level Subject Area Classroom teachers Principals / asst. principals School counselors Other educational specialists Early childhood (prek-grade 3) Middle (grades 6-8) Elementary (grades 2-5 High school (grades 9-12) Pre-Kindergarten Early Learning Standards Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening Science and Technology Arts & Humanities Civics and Government Environment and Ecology Health, Safety and Physical Education Kindergarten Early Learning Standards Mathematics History Career Education and Work Economics Family and Consumer Sciences Geography Follow-up Activities Team development and sharing of content-area lesson implementation outcomes, with involvement of administrator and/or peers Analysis of student work, with administrator and/or peers Creating lessons to meet varied student learning styles Evaluation Methods Staff Development The implementation of technology coaches will aide in the professional development of our teachers. In conjunction with the technology administrators, the technology coaches will be responsible for updating each teachers technology binder yearly. These updates will include any changes to current procedures in regard to technology, hardware, or software changes for the district. It also is an important aide for new teachers to use to learn all the necessary software the teachers use on a daily basis. In the advent of new technologies or softwares being implemented, it will be the responsibility of the Administrators along with the technology coaches to implement any professional
development. In the event that it would be more efficient for the training to be done by the vendor, this will be provided as well. Staff are encouraged to attend any technology seminars offered by the Intermediate Unit 08 through out the school year or in their summer technology academies. On a daily and ongoing basis, the technology coaches and technology administrator are available for one on one instruction of any problems or questions which may arise. Budget Summary: Potential Funding Distribution Funding Source 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 Total $195,000.00 $195,800.00 $126,400.00 $517,200.00 TOTAL $195,000.00 $195,800.00 $126,400.00 $517,200.00 Goal: TECHNOLOGY Through 2011, the district will enhance the technology capacity of all users by levering industry's standards best practice, fiscally sound procurement, and access to relevant data and resources. Extend the student computer workstations and LCD Projectors 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 Total Funding Source LCD Projectors $3,500.00 $3,500.00 $3,500.00 $10,500.00 LCD Projectors $3,500.00 $3,500.00 $3,500.00 $10,500.00 Wireless Labs $30,000.00 $30,000.00 $30,000.00 $90,000.00 Wireless Labs $30,000.00 $30,000.00 $30,000.00 $90,000.00 Improve student technology skills K-12 Technology Curriculum K-12 Technology Curriculum 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 Total Funding Source $5,000.00 $5,000.00 $0.00 $10,000.00 $5,000.00 $5,000.00 $0.00 $10,000.00
Maintain the current infrastructure 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 Total Funding Source 4 Year Computer Cycle $50,000.00 $50,000.00 $0.00 $100,000.00 4 Year Computer Cycle $50,000.00 $50,000.00 $50,000.00 $150,000.00 Switches and Bandwidth Switches and Bandwidth $3,000.00 $3,000.00 $0.00 $6,000.00 $3,000.00 $3,000.00 $3,000.00 $9,000.00 Technology Integration into the Classrooms Integration Activities for Classroom teachers Integration Activities for Classroom teachers 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 Total Funding Source $6,000.00 $6,400.00 $0.00 $12,400.00 $6,000.00 $6,400.00 $6,400.00 $18,800.00 GRAND TOTAL $195,000.00 $195,800.00 $126,400.00 $517,200.00 TOTAL $195,000.00 $195,800.00 $126,400.00 $517,200.00 Monitoring The technology administrator, in cooperation with Principals, will be responsible for monitoring all activities included within this Technology Plan. The administrators will work in conjunction with the technology administrators to assure that the classrooms and teachers are up to par with the technology in their classrooms as well as offer any places that improvements could be made to aide in the educational process. In addition, the professional staff have the opportunity during the budget process of the school district to make requests for improvements/replacements to the technology administrator. The implementation of our technology coaches in the upcoming year, will also allow us specific feedback and insight as to which educators may need infusions or replacements of technology within the school district. Evaluation The Northern Bedford County School District (NBCSD) administration will evaluate the effectiveness of our plan in meeting the goals stated in the NBCSD Technology Plan on an annual basis. In addition, the technology administrator will review the progress and monitor the
effectiveness of the goals stated within this plan. With yearly reviews of what we have done to date and where improvement needs to be accomplished yet. During our budget process, the strategic plan goals and activities will be reviewed and included where needed.