Highland Park Independent School District envisions the use of technology as a tool to enhance teaching, learning, and student achievement as students prepare for the 21st century. The Highland Park Technology Plan encompasses four main goals, supported by objectives and action strategies.
I truncated and listed the goals and objectives as follows:
1. Ensure quality teaching and learning experiences for students, staff, and the community using innovative technology resources.
• design authentic learning opportunities (utilize existing talents and abilities; integrate technology into new and existing curriculum)
• promote process individuals and groups use to increase instructional effectiveness (teachers participate in online forums, online learning, and staff development)
• provide effective support for all stakeholders utilizing technology design authentic, on-going (sponsor student tech projects for contests; establish user groups to train, mentor and model)
• assessment that drives instruction (create authentic assessments w/tech tools; use technology to format assessments; design instruction culminating in mastery of TA TEKS; and continue to assess 5th and 8th grade students on T A performance assessments)
• enrich educational opportunities for teachers, students and community (implement enhanced web sites; provide variety of online library resources;. provide distance education; increase communicate using teacher-created web sites; continue to provide TV broadcast and enhance existing community communication)
2. Ensure sustained educator preparation and development in the use of technology that is
standards-based, meaningful, and engaging.
• Enhance professional development opportunities that promote teacher collaboration, leadership opportunities, and training support in best practices.
• Create a collaborative environment that nurtures small, personalized, and sustainable learning communities for students and staff.
• Increase the effective use of technology as a tool to design, deliver, and evaluate meaningful and engaging learning experiences for students.
3. Build a strong foundation of leadership, administration, and services that support exception
teaching and learning through the integration of technology.
• Empower leadership among staff, students, and community to develop a clear vision of integration of technology (communicate tech planning to all stakeholders; ensure ongoing evaluation-tech integration strategies; develop models-peer collaboration and teacher leadership; train district techs and campus instr. techs; and provide training/ support for campus webmasters)
• Provide hardware/software to support the learning environment for students (meet annually to review programmatic needs; continue to expand capabilities through online student enrollment system; continue to integrate Personnel services through district website; and investigate Sp Ed student management software)
4. Ensure a progressive, stable, and robust infrastructure for technology that supports the educational vision of the Highland Park Independent School District.
• Provide a physical support structure that optimizes the use of technology (maintain/upgrade servers and hardware/software; plan for tech environment; investigate cost-effectiveness of VPN; integrate user-authentication across applications; and investigate options for data warehousing)
• Establish effective policies and procedures for accessibility to district technology (establish uniform system for upgraded hardware and software; develop uniform obsolescence procedure campuses hardware; develop acceptable use policy for controlled data portals, allowing network access, and use of server space)
Below, I listed some of the evaluation processes HPISD uses to monitor specific goals and objectives.
• attendance and collaboration in meetings
• teacher STaR Chart
• SDAS goals and objectives
• integration of technology into content
• portal usage reports
• acquisition of best practice lessons in repository
• forum discussions
• integrated best practices in classrooms
• teacher collaboration and shared information
• teacher web site presence
• community usage reports and feedback
The Highland Park Independent School District’s Technology Plan includes strategies for action, designates staff responsible for implementation, identifies timelines, costs and their funding sources, and provides the evaluation measure, which assesses the completion of plan activities. Even though staff development is a separate goal, the plan notes staff development activities throughout. The primary focus of the district’s technology plan is teaching and learning; all other activities support this effort. The technology plan provides a guide for the district to follow throughout the year, as goals and objectives are completed. The technology committee reviews the plan yearly to assess the status of activities and modify or add new objectives for keeping up with our changing technology needs.
Our district also recognizes the need for technology instruction as a key component of the overall academic program in order for students to be contenders in the 21st century global workforce. Technology, which is now a large part of the HPISD curriculum, provides a great tool for aiding students and educators in research, information acquisition, problem solving, and communication. The district is aligning curriculum, state standards, and assessment standards to ensure educators have access to current, correct information and materials. HPISD administrators recognize need for educators to learn to access and incorporate a wide variety of appropriate resources for instructional support, research, and administrative tasks. They also provide excellent professional development opportunities. The administrator of instructional technology, the campus instructional technologists, and selected campus teachers and trainers investigate, coordinate, and often, teach our professional development sessions.
In conclusion, Highland Park ISD does not accept Federal Funding; however, they make every effort to expend 25% of the local technology funds on professional development. Fortunately, our district has financial and time resources that ensure staff is up-to-date in learning about new technologies. In addition, the administration, school board, and community show tremendous support for our district’s acquisition of technology – recently, the district passed bond referendums, received state grants, and received donations from the local PTA and Education Foundation to support technology efforts.
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