There is universal agreement that planning committees, when creating learning and technology plan, need to spend time creating a vision that all people involved can support. Mental image of a desirable state of affairs…by setting direction, a vision statement helps set priorities and guides public policy. Vision statement should:
1. Set forth a description of a desirable future that would be better than the present or the past.
2. Be achievable in a reasonable amount of time.
3. Take advantage of opportunities the future will afford.
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The purpose for creating a technology plan, taking the steps to place information technology in the hands of all students and teachers, and providing rich staff development experiences is three-fold.
First, integrating technology into instructional approaches will increase student achievement by improving the quality of curricula and instruction.
Teachers and students will be able to access their work from locations throughout the school and from home. Students will be able to revise multiple versions of writing assignments, perform simulation experiments, use computer data-collection and analysis programs in science, compose and produce music electronically, and use computer-assisted design packages in art and drafting. The list of ways in which computers can improve curricula is endless.
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Computers also are a catalyst and support for group projects and teamwork, allowing students to access global resources and engage in joint projects with their own classmates and those from other schools.
Computers develop higher-order thinking skills by allowing students to work with information in dynamic, non-linear ways. Students actively work to construct their own knowledge as they pose questions, seek, obtain, and analyze information from varied sources, form conclusions, and communicate their findings effectively by creating multimedia presentations.
Computers personalize the learning experience. Computer network systems allow students to access the information that interests them, yielding new experiences that increase motivation and attendance. Using computers, students can learn different skills and information at different depths based on their needs and interests. They can make progress through lessons, rich in interactive content, at their own pace.
Second, information technology allows the school to become a networked organization focused around student achievement.
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Teachers and administrators must be able to access the information they need to do their jobs. Clerical duties and paperwork use time and energy that staff could otherwise spend improving instruction and developing professionally. Computers allow individual schools to maintain their own information systems and customized databases. With proper security, basic student information such as home addresses and phone numbers, class schedules, attendance, extra-curricular participation awards, and special needs, can be available quickly and conveniently.
A variety of databases currently available in schools, each in a separate, single location around the school building, now will be available from every room. A teacher will no longer waste valuable time traversing a building when retrieving a student’s schedule and tracking down room changes made since the schedule was printed, before finally locating the student’s math teacher to discuss the student’s need for enrichment or help. Information will be readily available, full-time, from every location in the building.
This networking enhances not only access to information, but also access to resources. Software packages that provide a variety of services, ranging from career guidance to ACT preparation, are currently present in schools but are isolated in the offices of support staff. School-wide computer networks will make these resources available to everyone from their desktop.
Third, computers provide wide-spread availability to the expertise of other schools and professions, connecting the school to the community and the world-at-large.
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Schools of the near future will be linked with universities, museums, community groups, social service agencies, and homes. This network of organizations and individuals will facilitate each teacher’s transition from the traditional sole-provider-of-education to that of education coach.
Students will correspond with practitioners in fields that interest them. They will participate in academic discussions with students from classrooms across the globe, be able to explore hundreds of art museums around the world, and view news footage of current events from any country that entices them. While empowering principals and teachers in a site-based management system, these networking opportunities simultaneously allow the school to retain the advantages of a large school system.
In order to accomplish the task of linking schools to others around the world, educators and students will need to utilize the capabilities of the Internet. Many schools at the forefront of technology and learning have already generated their own World Wide Web pages and contributed to larger sites, such as the Global Schoolhouse.