Areas+of+Improvement

On this page please identify those **__ broad __** Areas of Improvement that you feel you can support based upon your own comments as well as the comments of our colleagues. You will note that I have divided the page into Areas To Maintain and Areas To Improve. Please remember that these areas may seem vague now, the next step will be to make recommendations for each and then finally to make specific action items. Think big here!

AREAS TO MAINTAIN.

Steve Uhr:

1. **__ Network Security & Growth __** - rationale: Technology infrastructure is a hidden component of school technology programs. To often schools have grand pedagogical plans that are impossible to support with current infrastructure. Continuing to use resources to grow (note: "growth" may actually mean shrink in this case - think virtualization) and expand the FWCDCN will provide necessary structure to support educational goals.

2. **__ Curricular Integration and Professional Support __** - rationale: Support for teachers who are integrating technology into their curriculum has many components. Delineating traditional help desk support (for both hardware and software) from curricular support places emphasis on the importance of collaboration between technology and teaching. Teachers who are seeking opportunities for non-traditional delivery of content, technology oriented assessment techniques and student-centered learning should be supported. Technical integration should be considered on many levels and it should use many models as there are countless mechanisms of innovation.

Jim Aldridge:

3. **Hardware and Software Updates** - The School has done an excellent job maintaining hardware and software currency.

NEW AREAS TO IMPROVE.

Steve Uhr

1. **__Software Acquisition__** - rationale: Software costs; from front-loaded purchases and after-market maintenance represent an increasing percentage of the technology budget. Alternatives to traditional software are becoming more obtainable and affordable. Web based software and social media also offer opportunities for expansion. Alternatives to current "official" software should allow faculty and staff to utilize products which meet their needs while also ensuring a consistency of end-product desired by the institution. These avenues must be explored carefully and implemented centrally to ensure that licensing compliance is maintained. Thorough documentation and support of all software products endorsed by the institution should be available to faculty and staff to ensure that they make knowledgeable decisions regarding software for both professional and pedagogical use. Additional emphasis should be placed on developing educational goals for educational software implementations rather than less formalized experiments.

2. __**Technology Diversity & Accountability**__- rationale: FWCD currently has the strongest infrastructure and the strongest commitment of resources for technology amongst its local peers. Technology integration occurs at all divisions and in all subject areas. There are programs with clear goals and expectations such as the FIT Program and there are individualized programs developed and implemented by innovative teachers all over campus. In order to be viewed as a school that utilizes broad, effective technologies to enhannce student learning and better prepare our students for their lives as citizens, our faculty should view technology as the norm rather than an "extra." While many teachers certainly do this already, they are thought of as innovators, experimentors and fast-horses. We need to make them the norm and develop mechanisms to move others along. (NOTE: the above paragraph rambles a bit, but I think you get my point. In this case, I would welcome others to directly edit this paragraph. SU)

Jim Aldridge:

3. **Technology Diversity** - Plans need to accommodate diverse technology needs. For example, teachers need to be provided with platforms for such Web-based presences as wikis, websites, blogs, and chats. Funds need to be available for "Web 2.0" subscription fees. Vertical hardware and software needs should be accommodated (science probes, language software, as examples).

4. **Technology Education for Teachers** - The only way to leverage our considerable investment in technology infrastructure to serve the core academic mission of the School is by cultivating teacher interest. For US, this might be largely centered within departments. I don't know about other divisions. The most effective way for this to happen is to allow time for teachers to investigate and incorporate new, technology-based solutions for their areas, and to allow time for technology-savvy faculty to help others. Time in the key. I think we must move towards something like a 4 periods on / 3 periods off model. Or, perhaps better, a 4 day school week, with the 5th day given over, at least in part, to such work.


 * Teresa Crafton: Another way to cultivate teacher interest is by providing them with a technology sandbox, such as we saw at the NECC conference. This "sandbox" could be a classroom of the future somewhere on campus, where teachers can schedule themselves to use the latest technology devices available for teaching with staff support for lesson creation. This could be the testing ground to see what's productive and what's not before deciding which technology to disseminate across campus. Maybe there is space in the library that could be used for this purpose?

5. **Computing and Electronics as Academic Disciplines** - These two knowledge areas permeate modern society, and yet many schools offer few related educational opportunities. Our Computer Science department is ill-defined. Electronics, as taught in Computer Programming and Design, is exciting for the students who do it, but largely unknown in the larger student body. I could make the case that the skills learned in a solid one-year programming class, like our Advanced Computer Programming class in java, are consilient skills both important and broadly applicable across an impressive array of problems. In summary, I suppose I am trying to make the case that we carefully examine the role of these studies within the context of our larger curriculum.

Teresa Crafton: 6. **__Streamlining of Student Usernames/Passwords__** - Right now a student's network, portal, and email login info are all different. We should also consider whether we could move to a single sign-on. [NOTE: I know this isn't really a broad topic; perhaps it can be combined with something else ... or possibly it is an action item that can go under another broad category?]
 * Teresa Crafton: Maybe it is time to also consider a flexible technology elective, much like the fine arts self-defined elective, where a group of students can define what they would like to explore. Some students this year have asked about a hardware course for building computers while others have asked about advanced Flash animation or CSS web design. If this variable-content course were an academic elective, there would be interest from juniors and seniors. Or, maybe better yet, we could offer an elective in more cutting edge types of technologies, and it could be taught in the classroom of the future that I described above.