Essay on Technology Plan Critique
Executive summary
The technology plan developed for South-Western City Schools aim at the provision of schools with the technology planning tool that helps schools to introduce and implement new technologies by organizations and their effective maintenance. The technology plan is oriented on the wide introduction of information technologies that facilitate the planning process and help to adapt curriculum to needs and the academic development of students and goals educators want to achieve in the course of the education and implementation of the curriculum plan. At the same time, the developed technology plan provides opportunities for the successful implementation of new technologies in South-Western city schools. However, the technology plan still has some weaknesses, such as possible difficulties of the implementation of new information technologies which may need additional training for educators and students, who may lack experience of using those information technologies. In addition the budgeting of the technology plan is uncertain taking into consideration growing economic problems of schools and the shortage of financial resources to fund schools that may raise the risk of the cut of funding, while the cutting of funding of schools may cause the refusal of South-Western city schools from the implementation of the proposed technology plan because it may turn out to be too costly for them.
Infrastructure and facilities
The eTech Ohio’s Technology Planning Tool, strategically addresses technology planning in an educational organization and provides guidance in implementing technology to increase presents the educational organization’s vision and mission statements as well as a plan for the following: ODE Academic Content Standards (ACS) alignment with the ODE Technology ACS, technology integration into the curriculum, technology policy, technology leadership and administration, infrastructure and networking, and budgeting.
The technology plan focuses on South-Western city schools and implies the wide implementation of information technologies in public schools in the target area. The technology plan involves schools located in South-Western city, Ohio. The technology plan admits the use of the existing hardware and equipment that is already installed in public schools in the area. However, the current technology plan implies the introduction of new software and applications along with the development of school networking and new software and applications that can help to enhance the effectiveness of the instruction process and overall improvement of the quality of education.
Procedures and policies
The vision of the technology plan focuses on the technological development of the school. The technology plan envisions a learning community that seamlessly integrates state-of-the-art technology to support and enhance student achievement and staff productivity and learning. The mission of the technology plan is to empower learners and improve student achievement through the integration of technology.
The school technology plan is grounded on the following perception of the technology by the school:
- Technology adds to the excitement and challenge of learning
- Technology allows for learning beyond the classroom
- Technology allows learners to engage in meaningful activities at their ability levels
- Technology must be efficiently managed and supported in order to enhance teaching and learning
- Teacher preparation and staff development must keep up with technology
- The process of teaching and learning should reflect advancements in technology
- Technology creates barrier-free learning opportunities
The technology plan focuses on the introduction of the new policy of the introduction of information technologies in schools of the target area and involves the shift from the introduction of new hardware to the focus on the wide introduction of new software and applications which help educators to increase the effectiveness of teaching and facilitate the learning process for students. New software and applications contribute to the better communication between students and educators and open the way for the more effective learning through the wider access to the learning information and instructions. At the same time, the effective communication between students and educators maintained by the new software and applications allows them to learn successfully as students get better options to learn the target information. On the other hand, educators can deliver instructions effectively and use the personalized approach to each student using the full advantage of new technologies that are proposed to implement steadily in terms of the technology plan.
Budgeting and funding
Sound budgeting is important for the technology plan; not only to project future spending and funding, but also to meet requirements for various private, state and federal funding opportunities. It is recommended that a representative from the treasurer’s office be involved in completing this phase. This is why the school does not uncover the budget of the technology plan. However, it is worth mentioning the fact that the three year budget estimates are based on past expenditures and plans for future technology related growth. The district spends roughly 1% of the general fund budget annually to support technology. This includes spending on technology staff support and district technology initiatives. 2 mils from the 9.7 mil operating levy passed in May, 2005 is being used to fund capital improvements. Taking into consideration the inflation rate, technology costs, and other relevant issues, it is possible to presuppose that the budget and costs of the technology plan will be higher compared to that of 2005 but the aforementioned figures allow making forecast concerning the bottom line of the budget for the technology plan today.
Nevertheless, at the moment, it is difficult to determine accurately the budget of the technology plan but it is also obvious that the technology plan may face considerable difficulties with the funding because the lack of financial resources can become an unsurpassable barrier on the way to the implementation of the plan and wider introduction of new information technologies. The funding of public schools is extremely limited in the time of the scarce financial resources. In such a situation, the development and implementation of the plan may confront the problem of the lack of financial resources to fund the purchase and implementation of new software and hardware, while the proposed planning tool may become ineffective because the plans created with the help of this tool will not be implemented properly because of the lack of funding of those projects developed with the help of the planning tool.
Curriculum
The technology plan has a considerable impact on the curriculum. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that the introduction of new information technologies influences consistently the methods of teaching and, in a way, the content of instructions. For instance, many researchers (Russell, 2002) point out that the development of new technologies and their introduction in the school environment can cause substantial changes in the model of the instructions delivery and in the student-teacher interaction. In case of the discussed technology plan, the introduction of new technologies elaborated in terms of the plan may lead to the consistent change of the teacher-student interaction because the plan implies the introduction of software and applications that facilitate the communication between teachers and students and open wider opportunities for personalized approach to each student.
In terms of the technology plan, the Curriculum Adoption Committee is revising its schedule to incorporate Ohio Core & National Common Core Standards. As the Ohio Core Curriculum is made available for Science & Social Studies and National Common Core Standards for Math and English/Language Arts, integration of the Ohio Technology Standards as part of the Core will be included. Using the Ohio Technology Academic Content Standards website authored by Eric Curts of North Canton City Schools, teachers will be provided resources that connect the technology standards with the academic content standards. Professional development classes focused on exploring this integration will be offered through our SWCS Academy training programs during this tech plan’s time frame (Educational Technology Plan for South-Western City Schools, 2014).
In such a situation, educators will have to develop the personalized approach to each student in terms of the plan. They will have to conduct the detailed assessment of the potential and current level of the academic development of students; help them to start using new technologies effectively; and to make the learning process more interactive due to the wider communication opportunities for students and educators. Therefore, the implementation of the technology plan can contribute to the change of the curriculum and teaching methods.
On the other hand, the implementation of the technology plan may raise the problem of the successful introduction of new information technologies, new software and applications because educators and students may need additional training to learn how to use new technologies effectively. New software and applications may need the development of new skills, which educators and students lack at the moment. Therefore, the problem of the additional training of educators arises, while educators may train students to use new technologies. However, the training will take time and money. In such a way, the costs of the introduction of the technology plan may confront unexpected difficulties and increase costs of the implementation of the plan in the real world. The change of costs of the plan may raise the problem of the change of the plan to meet the determined financial framework of the plan.
Assessment and evaluation
The assessment of the technology plan reveals the fact that the technology plan is an important part of the education process in the target area. At the same time, it is worth mentioning the fact that the process of education and training was closely intertwined with conventional schools, colleges, Universities and other educational institutions. However, the existing system of education has been criticized and it is unable to provide a life-time education. In such a context, there is an alternative to conventional education, distance education grounded on the use of technology-based training, such as Web-based technology (WBT). The WBT is a relatively new technology, but it becomes more and more popular due to the high effectiveness and availability of training by means of the WBT (Yagelsh, 2006). At the same time, the use of the WBT implies the use of modern telecommunication technologies, computers and Internet by students and educators since it is through Internet the process of communication between students and educators occurs.
In this respect, it is worth mentioning the fact that the main purpose of the WBT is to close the gap between educators and students who do not have access to conventional training programs. Basically, the WBT aims at people who are working and cannot abandon their work place to get training courses. In such a situation, the WBT becomes a perfect solution to these people (Russell, 2002). At this point, it is important to remember about the necessity of the constant improvement of professional knowledge and the development of new skills and abilities to stay competitive on the modern labor market. In addition, many companies need to train their specialists to improve their qualification, but they cannot afford conventional training.
At the same time, it is obvious that the application of the WBT can potentially fully substitute the conventional training due to the application of new telecommunication technologies which allow the normal interaction and communication between students and educators, regardless of their physical remoteness. In other words, educators and students can maintain normal communication in spite of physical distance between them. This fact is particularly important for companies operating internationally since they need to train their employees worldwide, but the education of the high quality and special training programs are mainly available at developed-countries of the world, such as the USA. In such a situation, the WBT can provide equally effective learning to all people involved in training programs.
Naturally, the implementation of the WBT raises certain managerial problems since the system of delivery of learning material, control and assessment differ from those applied in conventional training programs and conventional education (Hooks, 1994). On the other hand, it should be said that the WBT provides educators with larger opportunities to work individually with each student. In fact, they can develop schedule when they define the time they spent on consultation and work with each student, while in conventional education they do not always have such an opportunity, at least they can hardly define the time which meets interests of both educators and students.
At the same time, the WBT implies that students work more individually but they can have consultations and communication with educators who guide them throughout the course. In addition, the system of control implies certain changes because tests that are applied in conventional training programs should be held online, but they should be developed in such a way that students could not cheat on them. As a rule, non-judgmental testing is used in the WBT.
Furthermore, the audience of the WBT can be not only working students or professionals who need additional training but also people who need professional education but cannot afford conventional training education and training because of its higher costs and necessity to move to the site, where the training program is located. In this regard, the WBT has a number of advantages (Kurtus, 2002). In fact, contemporary technologies allow students and their teachers to develop an effective learning process. It proves beyond a doubt that distance learning is substantially more effective than learning in a conventional institution. It is possible to argue that distance education cannot provide direct, personal communication of an educator and a student, but, it seems to be obvious that to earn a degree, a student does not obligatory need to be physically present in a traditional institution. In contrast, due to contemporary technologies students can maintain contacts with educators at any convenient time regardless physical distance between them.
As a result, the WBT allows students to schedule their own learning process in accordance with their needs and abilities, while they can always contact their educators when some problems arise. In addition, they can develop important skills and abilities to learn independently from educators. The latter is probably the most important ability students should learn (Russell, 2002). It is obvious that educators will not accompany students all their life, but people constantly need to increase their professional level and, therefore, they need to learn and due to distance learning they acquire essential skills to learn independently on their own. In fact, the development of technology plan and its implementation is essential for the maintenance of the effective learning process. The technology plan apparently has its drawbacks and faces threats mentioned above but still it is worth implementing, while difficulties that may arise can be resolved through the introduction of changes to the plan.
Professional development
The technology plan implies the professional development of educators. The introduction of new technologies, the use of new software and application will stimulate educators to learn the wider use of new technologies. Educators may need to develop new skills to use new technologies and software. In such a way, they will need to focus either on self-learning or external training to be able to use new software and applications introduced in schools in terms of the technology plan. Therefore, educators will have to keep progressing professionally to be able to implement the technology plan and use new software, applications and information technologies in the course of their professional performance.
Critique and recommendations
The technology plan for South-Western city schools opens new prospects for the introduction of new technologies to increase the effectiveness of learning. At the same time, the technology plan may raise some problems, such as the lack of funding or the need of training of educators and students. In this regard, it is possible to recommend the elaboration of the accurate but flexible budgeting of the technology plan to make the funding more effective. The involvement of new sources of funding may be helpful for the successful introduction of the plan. In addition, the technology plan should involve the development of training programs for educators and students to make them able to use the full potential of new technologies introduced in terms of the plan.
Conclusion
Thus, the technology plan developed for South-Western city schools is prospective. However, the implementation of the plan may need certain improvements mentioned above. At the same time, the technology plan is essential because technologies comprise an integral part of the contemporary life and schools cannot ignore the technological progress.
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