Running head: KRISTI ROBB: TECHNOLOGY PLAN REVIEW: 07/27/2014 1

Technology Plan Review: Farmington Public School District

This review will highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of one school districts
individual technology plan. The Farmington Public School District is located in Farmington, MI,
and it served a population of over 11,000 students in 2011 (Farmington Public Schools, 2012).
Currently, the school district has just completed its second year of a three year technology plan
that will conclude at the end of the 2014/2015 school year. The link to the Farmington Public
School Districts technology plan can be located with the following URL:
http://www.farmington.k12.mi.us/district/instructionaltech/district-tech-plan.pdf
Combining the common characteristics of two different sources, a good technology plan
must include some type of mission or vision statement; goals that are realistic in nature for how
technology will be utilized to advance education and/or library services to students and staff;
have a professional development aspect to it where teachers and staff are able to learn to use the
new and needed technology; outline and consider the various hardware, software, etc. that will
be necessary as a result of the technology; make financial sense in that the budget must be
sufficient in order to obtain the necessary hardware, software, and other services needed to
maintain these aspects; and have an evaluation procedure for assessing the progression toward
the goals laid out (Knox, 2011; WebJunction Connecticut, 2012). These guidelines will be used
to evaluate the technology plan of the Farmington Public School District in Farmington, MI.
Knox (2011) states that it is important for the district and/or the library to develop some
type of mission or vision statement to provide clarity and focus for the technology plan as a
whole. The WebJunction Connecticut (2012) website provides a little more detail regarding
what this statement should entail; the statement must be consistent with the vision statement in
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the library's overall plan and reflect how the library views the integration of technology for
improving library services (Vision statement, para. 1). This aspect of the Farmington Public
School Districts technology plan document is present but seems relatively generic in nature. It
states Farmington Public Schools is dedicated to using technology to enhance learning, which
engages and empowers all learners in a global society in order to foster a productive, innovative,
and ethical citizenry (Farmington Public Schools, 2012, p. 7). Overall, this statement simply
explains that technology is important to the district and that they want to utilize it to improve
student learning, engagement, and ultimately citizenship. This vision statement serves to provide
focus for the rest of the technology plan by providing an overarching, big picture idea of what
the district is trying to accomplish by implementing this technology plan.
The second criterion that the Farmington Public School Districts technology plan must
be evaluated against is that the plan must have goals, as well as a reasonable way to implement
or use the technology to enhance student learning (WebJunction Connecticut, 2012). In the
districts plan, the goals for technology are made very apparent. In fact, the document
specifically states them as Technology Goals (Farmington Public Schools, 2012, p. 7). The
goals for this school district include: mobile student center computing, interactive multimedia
capable peripherals, professional development, electronic resources, bring your own
technology (BYOT), curriculum integration, online learning, and innovation (Farmington
Public Schools, 2012, pp. 8-17). While these goals are important, this particular document
seems to incorporate into its goals section other aspects of the technology plan that were
discussed as individual sections by both Knox (2011) and WebJunction Connecticut (2012). For
example, professional development is listed in the goals section of the document; however, the
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technology plan does later go on to discuss professional development more in depth in its own
separate section.
Each goal is expanded upon to explain what it is and why it is an important aspect of the
technology plan. For example, the first goal listed in the document is Mobile Student Centered
Computing (Farmington Public Schools, 2012, p. 8). The document states that this goal is for
students to be able to have access to technology from anywhere and at any time of the day or
night by providing a one-to-one computing environment (Farmington Public Schools, 2012, p.
8). Also, after stating the meaning of the goal, the document expounds on it with a description of
the purpose. In this case, the document explains how this situation fosters ingenuity and
improvement.
Also included in each goal is a section on what it will mean for both teachers and
students alike by listing observable behaviors for each individual group. The goal clearly states
the actions necessary to make this goal a reality, as well as a timeframe for implementation of the
devices, which are then listed as a separate section called resources. The document also gives an
idea of what a positive example of implementation should look like. Finally, the goal is
concluded by an evaluation section, which in this case solicits feedback from students, parents,
and teachers/staff members. While it is out of the scope of this review to explain each goal, it is
simply important to note that there are eight goals that all have the same structure within them
and are each explained in depth. In general, these goals seem quite focused and are relatively
realistic. There seems to be more than what would be expected, but it is important to keep in
mind that this plan was meant to be executed over the course of three years.
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According to both Knox (2011) and WebJunction Connecticut (2012), another criterion
to evaluate the plan against is that there needs to be a professional development aspect written
into the technology plan. In the case of the Farmington Public School District, there is definitely
a professional development aspect to the document. It is part of the eight technology goals that
are in the goals section of the document, but the document also has another section titled
professional development (Farmington Public Schools, 2012, p. 23). This section explains that
professional development must be ongoing and happening in all content areas and grade levels.
It even specifies that the staff will be responsible for the professional development practices.
The document then goes on to list the various positions within the staff that will be affected by
and participating in the professional development activities, and it lays out the strategies that will
be implemented in order to help the staff to learn and grow with the various technologies
(Farmington Public Schools, 2012).
Another criterion that the technology plan needs to meet is to include an assessment of
the various necessities of implementing the technology (WebJunction Connecticut, 2012). The
document explains what the district is doing in order to be able to meet their technology goals as
outlined in the document. For example, it says we will increase our support of 1000 Virtual
Desktops and 6 virtualized servers to support the increased number of virtual desktops
(Farmington Public Schools, 2012, p. 31). Overall, the Farmington Public School Districts
technology plan included a detailed account of what the schools in the district currently have and
what the school district is planning to upgrade, replace, fix, etc.
Additionally, the technology plan must state the necessary financial responsibility that
will be incurred as a result of the technology plan (WebJunction Connecticut, 2012). The
Farmington Public School Districts technology plan displays a funding and budget section with
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the financial aspects clearly explained and detailed indicating the costs of the technology plan. It
breaks down the technology plan budget by staff salary, as well as the maintenance and
operational expenses of the technology itself, both detailed across individual years (Farmington
Public Schools, 2012).
Lastly, the technology plan must include an evaluation process so that the school district
can measure their progress in implementing and meeting the technology goals that were detailed
earlier in this review (WebJunction Connecticut, 2012). The Farmington Public School District
has done just that. The district will utilize an external evaluation provider to conduct a
summative evaluation of the technology plan implementation (Farmington Public Schools,
2012, p. 35). Additionally, the technology plan indicates that updates will be generated each
year in order to show administration, community, and staff where the school district is at in
implementing their technology plan. The technology plan even goes so far as to detail the
specific metrics that will need to be measured. These include:
utilization of the wireless networks by staff, students, and guest; inventory of devices
available for student use; inventory of peripheral devices in classrooms for
teacher/student use; staff aptitude with the integration of technology; number of staff
participating in technology training offered by the district; district time allocated to the
participation of staff in technology training; number of district curriculum maps that
specify technology integration as part of core learning; the number and enrollment within
blended and online coursework; [and] community and student satisfaction on technology
use/integration. (Farmington Public Schools, 2012, p. 35)
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These factors, which are the data that will be monitored, match up quite well with the objectives
that were stated in the technology goals section of the plan.
The technology plan for the Farmington Public School District seems to have all the
elements of a well thought out technology plan. It covers and elaborates in depth on each of the
aspects discussed in the introduction. With that said, it will be relatively simple for the district to
evaluate how the various schools are progressing with the technology plan. Following the Knox
(2011) and WebJunction Connecticut (2012) best practices, this districts technology plan meets
if not exceeds the standards set forth and appears to leave little, if anything, out.

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References
Farmington Public Schools (2012). 2012-2015 district technology plan. Retrieved from
http://www.farmington.k12.mi.us/district/instructionaltech/district-tech-plan.pdf
Knox, K. C. (2011). Implementing technology solutions in libraries: Techniques, tools, and tips
from the trenches. Medford, New Jersey: Information Today, Inc.
WebJunction Connecticut. (2012, March 21). Connecticut state library checklist for technology
plans. Retrieved from
http://www.webjunction.org/documents/webjunction/Connecticut_State_Library_Checkli
st_for_Technology_Plans.html