Evaluation_BennettL, Summer 2012

Tech Times at Ridgemont High - Our Demographics Our high school is part of a unit district which includes two high schools, five middle schools, fourteen elementary schools and one early learning center. Our high school has 236 certified staff members, and enrollment for the 2011-2012 school year was 2,917 including 704 freshmen, 712 sophomores, 756 juniors, 716 seniors and 29 transition students. We are located in a suburb of Chicago, population 141,853. The estimated median household income in the community is $98,488 (statewide average is $53,966). 1. Administrative Filter Focus is resource availability and the behaviors of Administrators and Staff. Policy Behavioral: Islands. There are formal, published policies for how technology should be used by staff and students. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated. Formal policies exist but it is unclear if they are promoted and monitored equally throughout all 22 schools.

Planning Behavioral: Islands. Formal planning takes place but it is not uncommon for multiple projects to be planned in isolation only to find the solutions are incompatible. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands. Connections between projects is definitely a weak point. For example, it is rumored that our new LMS and current grade program may not be instantly compatible.

Budget Behavioral: Islands. There is a formal technology budget and allocation process but I was unable to find any details on how the resources are allocated as they are or whether that comes from multiple sources. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands. We operate within very defined budget silos and we are not allowed to reallocate funds. Example: to get seven desktop computers for my classroom I had to write an independent grant even though at the end of that year we had money left in the department budget for supplies and capital.

Administrative Information Behavioral: Intelligent. All of our attendance, grade, email and referral systems are online with no paper equivalent. We are actually fairly advanced as far as the technology to manage data, we just lack widespread technology to use for teaching. Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent. Every member of the staff, students and parents have access to the grading and email systems.

2. Curricular Filter Focus is resource availability and the behaviors of Teachers and Students. Electronic Information Behavioral: Islands. We depend on technology to handle the administrative end of teaching (attendance, grades, email) but not for curriculum. There are still teachers using white boards as their only content delivery methods. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands-Integrated. Access to basic technology including shared drives and high speed internet is available in every classroom.

Assessment Behavioral: Emergent. We are die-hard members of Scantron Nation! We are moving toward collecting data in programs like Author which capture and categorize Scantron data, but aside from low-stakes quizzes using online programs like QUIA almost no assessment is done electronically. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent. Some content areas have special permission/funding for online assessment programs but that is not the norm and in all cases budgets only allow for a limited number of users.

Curriculum Integration Behavioral: Emergent-Island. At this point the use of technology to deliver curriculum is optional, and somewhat limited. Some teachers classes are very dependent on technology while others use the SmartBoards just to project PowerPoints while students copy notes using pen and paper. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated. All classrooms have SmartBoards, laptop docks, and high speed internet access. As far as I know the Fall 2012 pilot will be the first group of classes (outside of computer classes) that requires students and teachers to use technology as the backbone of the lessons outside of the computer classes.

Teacher Use Behavioral: Islands-Integrated. Daily use yes, but primarily for administrative not curriculum. While a majority of teachers turn on the SmartBoards and plug in their laptops daily, from a curriculum standpoint the tools are still used more for projecting static presentations or showing video clips than they are for delivering dynamic or interactive lessons. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands-Integrated. All teachers have access to basic technology in their classrooms, though most classrooms do not have classroom computers, In math/science, for example, 40 teachers share five laptop carts (15 laptops per cart) so daily use is just not possible.

Student Use Behavioral: Islands. This depends largely on the content area. For example, students in computer science use computers extensively and cannot meet outcomes without them. In other areas students may never turn on a computer. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated-Intelligent. All students have access to basic technology in the LRC (library), Academic Center, Writing Center and in free-standing hallway kiosks.

3. Support Filter Focus is resource availability and the behaviors of Teachers and Support Staff. Stakeholder Involvement Behavioral: Emergent. There always seems to be a great deal of technology planning going on in the background, yet few end users are brought in until final decisions have been made. For example, the district just picked an LMS for 22 schools based on small focus groups of a few dozen users. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent. Few different groups are included in technology planning outside the actual technology department specialists and a handful of teachers who have been identified as early adopters or tech savvy.

Administrative Support Behavioral: Emergent-Islands. District administrators are actively involved in technology planning but individual building administrators do not seem to be heavily involved in the first stages of the technology use planning. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands. Some formal administration time and support is allocated to planning and implementation, though it seems to be more from district technology administrators than individual building administrators.

Training Behavioral: Integrated-Intelligend. In the case of school-wide, mandated technology (new grading program, new email system, etc.) all staff members participate in ongoing technology training provided by site and district personnel. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands-Integrated: In the case of curricular support technology (SmartBoards, cameras, software) training is usually provided on a one-day basis at institute days or in optional professional development classes after school or during the summer.

Technical and Infrastructure Support Behavioral: Integrated. Most staff take advantage of formal and informal support for the required technology (LMS, grade program) and classroom technology (A/V equipment, SmartBoards, laptop interface to projectors, classroom computers, etc). Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent. We are lucky in that each department has a dedicated TIC (technology integration specialist), who has release time (teaches one fewer class) in order to assist us with technology needs.

4. Connectivity Filter Connectivity impacts all segments of the institution. Local Area Networking Behavioral: Integrated. Welcome to our own personal digital inequality. I truly believe our district has and puts considerable effort into maintaining a robust, current backbone for our technology needs. It is the user layer that fails to take advantage of it, either because they are not aware of what is available or they are still more comfortable doing things as they have always done them. Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent. Our Local Area Network features a redundant layer 3 core with dual homed switched IDFs. Most locations follow this model and have multiple distribution facilities, though smaller buildings need only a single distribution facility.

District Area Networking Behavioral: Integrated. Much like usage of our LAN, I think any missed opportunities in utilizing the district network are more cultural than technological. We all store files on the shared drives, but few teachers take advantage of all available features. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated. The districts 22 schools and the Administrative Center are connected via a meshed gigabit fiber network. All staff have access to the network drives from all locations.

Internet Access Behavioral: Islands. Two words: email and YouTube. Those seem to be the primary uses of the internet (outside our required administrative tasks). Since in-class computers and computer labs are limited, I still see internet use among teachers largely as a means to deliver content, not so much to directly engage students. When student computers are available they are mostly used for WebQuests and project research. Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent. We have wide-spread, well supported internet access both wired and wireless throughout all buildings.

Communication Systems Behavioral: Intelligent. Our district relies very heavily on email for dissemination of district information, idea and file sharing, and communication between teachers, between teachers and parents, and between teachers and students. Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent. All teachers and students have dedicated school emails, though my experience has been that students rarely check their school emails unless instructed to do so.

5. Innovation Filter Focus in this area impacts teachers and students the most. New Technologies Behavioral: Islands. Problems with integrating new technologies into our curriculum is two-fold. First there is a significant population of teachers who resist change, especially because we tend to change technology so frequently (the brand new digital projector installed they installed in my room last September is being replaced this year with a wireless one). Second, because our district tends to purchase test quantities of new technology, there is often a hoarding phase during which opportunities to experiment with new technology is limited to who gets their first. Teachers have been known to hide laptop carts, probes, clickers, and cameras in their classrooms and bypass the sign out procedures, one can only assume operating on the idea that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands. We also suffer, as a group, from the play with it and drop it syndrome because trying new technology and building new lessons to truly utilize it are two different things. When the department first bought three sets of Senteo clickers people were lining up at the door to use them. Now, just a few years later, they largely sit and gather dust.

Comprehensive Technologies Behavioral: Integrated. We have technology beyond A/V and scanners, including digital cameras, tablets, data gathering probes, and SmartBoards, but they are often underutilized except in advanced classes. In the science department only the physics curriculum truly and consistently integrates technology using probes and data gathering software. Resource/Infrastructure. Islands-Integrated. The majority of the school falls into Islands in that one or two types of technology (laptops and Flipcams) enjoy widespread use. A few groups have advanced to Integrated. For example math has truly integrated their SmartBoards to create interactive lessons, physics relies heavily on probes and graphing software, and a few teachers schoolwide are creating Podcasts to try the flipped classroom model.

Summary Islands in the digital stream, that it what we are. I believe on paper (and on the ten-page Technology Department website) our district sees itself as Integrated at the very least and probably hopes in most areas that we have matured to become technologically Intelligent. But paper isnt people and there are a number of disconnects that in my opinion keep us on the Islands. Awareness. I have been with the district six years and this is the first time I knew we had a Technology Department website. I believe we have a great infrastructure that would support more technology use, but little beyond what we need to do the administrative part of our jobs is actively promoted. Release Time: Learning the basics of new technology, let alone learning to use it effectively, takes time and little is given to teachers to explore new technology options. At best we have a few short workshops on institute days, at worst we are challenged to learn it on our own. Resources: When 40 math and science teachers share five computer carts (15 laptops each) and most classrooms lack in-class computers, it is difficult to plan to integrate technology on a daily basis. Scheduling conflicts become a big enough issue that some teachers avoid using the technology altogether. Resistance to Change. We still have one teacher in our Math-Science department who physically cuts and pastes together his worksheets and exams from old Xerox copies. Other teachers mourn the switch from chalkboards to whiteboards (never mind SmartBoards) and many teachers still keep paper grade books. Two years ago when one of our Geology teachers retired part of his going away present was the acetate roll for his overhead projector. He never accepted technology for much more than email and attendance. Sibling Rivalry. We have 22 schools in our district and all technology plans are not created equal. For example, I understand two of the middle schools have had iPads for years and our sister high school has twice the number of laptops we do. And so it goes. Our own little digital divide.

Overall I think we have a great infrastructure, appropriate administrative support, and a changing culture among staff, so with any luck (and a little more promotion and training) well get voted off the Islands in no time.