Chart II depicts the course load carried in the first year of ITII and although many of these courses will have dramatic attendance changes as the programs are adapted by the schools, the attendance numbers show very active participation by District teachers. The chart gives an example of the courses offered for Phase I Schools. Chart III shows the preliminary Year 2 registration for Phase I schools. The courses here focus on the integration of technology and daily lessons. All course materials and curricula are written by the department and available electronically on our web site. The department logs extensive data for the course hours taught, the number of hours teachers have accumulated, the proficiencies of the audience. These data provide metrics used to evaluate progress, make adjustments and report benchmarks.
Chart II
Chart III
During the Year I component of the program, School Based Planning Teams are encouraged to develop technology committees essential for the program. Teams are instrumental in driving change and providing school stability and focus as we bring in several waves of new technology over the next several years. In additional, School Based Planning Teams are urged to nurture turnkey trainers within the school. These school advocates will have the opportunity to attend voluntary after-school workshops this year to learn first hand of the Information Technology plans for the district. The intention is for this information to make its way back to the building so that time at staff meetings and professional development opportunities will be allocated for sharing.
Other initiatives include:
- Dell TechKnow-A program for secondary students that provides a forty-hour training program for students. At the conclusion of the training program students take home the computer that they have been building. The also receive a year of free internet access.
- Element K- The company graciously offered the district access to 1,661 of their on line courses and assessments at no charge. Courses range from basic to exceptionally technical topics. The courses with the broadest appeal and application will probably be Office Productivity, which includes courses on email (Outlook, etc.), word processing (Word, etc.), spreadsheets (Excel, etc.), presentations (PowerPoint, etc.), etc. We have arranged to have all teachers pre-registered. Element K will contact our staff members by an email containing a link, the staff member’s username and password for the Element K website. We will create accounts for most of the RCSD employees soon. We hope that everyone will take advantage of these courses to supplement the other staff development opportunities that we provide.
- Library System Upgrade – Most of our libraries have been using Follett’s library management software for several years. This year we have been trying to ensure that our student and staff information is correct and consistent. We have also strongly encouraged each secondary school use Follett’s TextLink to manage textbook distribution. The District is reviewing the possibility of purchasing a web-based product to replace these two products. This would allow for centralized inventory and reporting abilities, less time taken on clerical activities and increased accuracy (because it would exchange information with our student management software) and better sharing of our resources. All of the library and textbook related activities have been done in conjunction with our librarians.
- DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) Online-This online program was implemented to facilitate the collection and use of DRA data for both teachers and administrators in schools and throughout the district. With accountability pressures felt in many districts, this centralized system captures the vital DRA information and makes it available classroom and across the district. The primary purposes of DRA Online are:
- Store and manage student data centrally
- View student progress from K-8 at a glace and comprehensively
- Easily group students by instructional needs
- Generate an array of student progress reports for teachers, school and district level administrators
- Disaggregate DRA data in order to meet accountability requirements, for example, Reading First and School Improvement Plans
- Online Curriculum Resource Library-NY Learns (All Schools)
- School to Work Internship Program
- Secondary Technology Training- High School delegates receive training on several major applications. The turnkey trainers bring the information to each of the high schools for voluntary staff training.
Our training materials and other information regarding the department are available at our web site: http://www.rcsdk12.org/instructtech