Appendix H - May 2001
District Vision for Technology 2001-2005 (excerpt)

Executive Summary

The … School District Vision for Technology provides a framework for enhancing education and business functions using technology. Over the last five years the District has made great strides in making technology available at every campus and administrative building. This plan integrates and institutionalizes the technology transforming the infrastructure into a transparent tool with a multiplying effect on all aspects of education and administration. There are several over-arching themes that comprise the plan:

1. Integrate technology into the curriculum to enhance the educational process for every student and teacher.

2. Provide a unified information management system with easily accessible student and business information to authorized users.

3. Provide access to information for parents and students outside the physical school environment.

4. Provide support that is efficient, timely, and cost effective to ensure technology is available when needed.

5. Create architectures, procedures and standards that allow for technology evolution and streamline regular and frequent processes.

Technology is changing the classroom landscape. At the end of this five-year Vision for Technology, it is expected that every student will have an access device that is used as an integral part of daily instruction. Access to electronic textbooks, the Internet, collaboration and editing tools, instructional software, and electronic notes will be available instantly from anywhere within the school environment as well as via common communication means outside the school. This environment will promote increased parent and community involvement and facilitate communication with schools.

The administrative environment is also changing. Data will be entered and accessed electronically as close as possible to the source with user-generated queries. The Internet and Intranet will be used to conduct general employee and administrative functions of the District. Additionally, this data will be available to increase community awareness of District status and initiatives.

These dramatic changes in process and method require a solid and robust infrastructure. Therefore, technology skills and support are key initiatives in this plan. They are required to unlock the potential of this technology and to allow seamless integration with the conduct of business--whether administrative or teaching.

This Vision for Technology includes ten goals that capture the five over-arching themes and addresses evolution in the classroom and administrative environments. These goals are:

Goal 1: Provide instructional technology leadership for District objectives and initiatives. Using technology integrated into all areas of the curriculum, teachers and students will increase their learning and work more efficiently.

Goal 2: Provide a secure, comprehensive information environment that can be accessed at anytime, anyplace, and from any device. Through a stable, secure infrastructure, staff can access information they need when they need it.

Goal 3: Facilitate use of information resources to improve instruction. Taking advantage of new technologies, students and teachers have ready access to appropriate electronic resources for instruction and learning.

Goal 4: Provide educator development to support instructional goals. As a result of training, teachers will be prepared to use technology in their teaching and analysis of data.

Goal 5: Improve collaboration and cooperation between [district] departments, campuses, and outside entities for effective implementation of [district] instructional priorities, goals, and initiatives. Through closer collaboration between Information Systems and [district] departments, and with community partners, support of District goals in instruction can be enhanced.

Goal 6: Increase effective, efficient use of technology resources. With new software systems, enforcement of standards, staff training, and a retooling of current practices, staff can become more productive.

Goal 7: Ensure Customer Satisfaction. As a result of a highly trained support staff, remote network management, and communication with staff on processes and procedures to access customer service, hardware, software and the network will be maintained in optimal condition.

Goal 8: Provide [district] staff, students, parents, and community the opportunity to access appropriate information. Using a common interface, staff and community can search [district] information resources.

Goal 9: Improve [our] reporting process. Using new software tools, … data will be entered, tracked and reported consistently.

Goal 10: Improve data integrity for the District. To ensure reliability of District data, up-to-date software, training, and new procedures will be implemented.

All these goals provide an environment to allow learning to continue outside the walls of the classroom after school hours. However, another issue remains; many students do not have access to computers at home. This is a larger concern commonly known as the "digital divide" and must be addressed by the community in partnership with the District.