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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Huntsville Indepedent School District Technology Plan

For Huntsville Independent School District, there are four main goals included in their Technology Implementation Plan. They are:
“Goal 1: Technology is used to reinvent and reshape curriculum and instruction, changing the way teachers teach and students learn.
Goal 2: The professional development programs in technology are designed to advance the school’s goals for student learning.
Goal 3: Technology is used as an efficient and effective management and administrative tool to support the instructional program.
Goal 4: The deployment of resources advancing the school’s vision for technology and student achievement” (Newman, 2010).

All of these goals are accompanied by many different strategies that ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ are far too in depth for summarization but can be viewed by visiting HISD's Technology Plan (Newman, 2010). The professional development opportunities that are/will be available are coordinated by  the Career and Technology Education Director  and the Instructional Technology Specialists from the District Technology Department; they focus on different areas of what competencies the teachers and administrators will have to be familiar with and master through an “HISD Technology Staff Development Plan (TAP)” (Newman, 2010) but the specific trainings are not dated or defined. I kept a keen eye to look for the local Education Service Center (Region VI) to provide some of this professional staff development; however it was not mentioned. There appear to be limited financial resources and time to ensure the staff is kept up to date in learning new technologies, but they are allocating their funds to be the most cost efficient as possible. 

The telecommunication services, hardware, software and other services are assessed by the Technology Director to ensure improved student learning. The evaluation process than enables the district to monitor progress toward specific goals and make mid-course corrections is both formative and summative and the Technology Director is responsible for submitting these monitoring reports to the Superintendent mid-year and at the end of the fiscal budget year. The District Technology Committee then “compiles the data to evaluate the effectiveness of the Technology Plan and make recommendations to the School Board and Superintendent for revisions and needed updates.” (Newman, 2010)

Reference:
Newman, E. (2010, June 29). Huntsville Independent School District Technology Plan
             July 2010-July 2013
. Retrieved November 26, 2010 from Huntsville Independent
             School District’s website:
             
http://www.huntsville-isd.org/pdf_files/TechnologyPlan2010-2013.pdf

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