Annual Public Technology Presentation April 18th

It has been a year since my last posting and I can report that the items my department planned to implement have been, or will be, implemented according to plan.

One of the more visible indications of technology and public relations progress has to be the introduction of a totally revamped district website. Borrowing design elements from some of the most heavily visited technology websites on the Internet, we achieved our goal of a less cluttered appearance, and that translates into making the information you are looking for easier to find.

Since 2007, our vision has been to improve access to technology, integrate technology across the curriculum, and to assist teachers and engage students with classroom projection and sound field systems.

This year will deliver mobility and high speed 802.11n wireless Internet access to Holmdel faculty and students at all three campuses. Anyone with a Holmdel network account will be able to bring in their personally owned devices and gain filtered access to Internet. W.R. Satz and the High School are currently up and running and Indian Hill and Village will be completed later this summer in time for the 2012-2013 school year.

In partnership with my department, the administration and the staff will evaluate future touch interface aware operating systems and applications and the use of tablet devices in order to lower technology costs, and to improve access, as well as outcomes.

The creation of a catalog of internally developed technology related courses for our staff was developed over the last year and the offerings continue to grow. These courses are delivered throughout the year with advanced workshops occurring before and after school or during the summer.

For the students, we a have added a part-time technology coach, who is shared between Village and Indian Hill Schools and we also added three weeks of PC-related technology curriculum and assessment in 7th and 8th grades as part of a cycle course. We are also using Study Island as a formative assessment tool in grades 3-8 as a replacement for Learnia.

Something I will be focused on, and you will be hearing more about, is the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which is the next-generation of assessment in Math and Language Arts/Literacy. It is scheduled to take effect during the 2014-2015 school year. One unique aspect to this assessment is that at least part of it will be conducted online. This could greatly impact technology planning and funding requirements.

Annual Public Technology Presentation April 28th

Here is an advanced peek at the presentation outline.

District Technology Goal
2010-2013 Technology Plan completed
A success story from each school
Village parent/student website, Google Docs, Guest Wireless Network,
World Language Lab, student response systems, etc.
Advances in Assistive Technology (sound field systems to touch screens)
PowerSchool Parent Portal, eAlert, AlertNow and the district website
Position on Social Networking & Web 2.0
Student to computer ratio
2011 hardware/software deployment plans
- 150 desktop and 26 notebook computers district wide
- 114 thin client devices at Satz and Indian Hill
New Satz computer lab project driven by changing curriculum and access needs
Tech-related Professional Development model and activities
Cost savings and energy savings
Forward looking challenges and some possible solutions
Conclusion-Q&A
Every two years the district participates in a capital lease-purchase program in order to finance capital items such as computers.

The tentative purchasing breakdown contingent upon budget approval for 2011/2012 is as follows:

136 Desktop Computers, 114 thin client computers, 26 Notebook computers, 3 Tablet PCs, 22 LCD Projectors, 5 servers, WiFi controller and wireless access points, a new core data switch and several PoE edge switches, Internet, virus and mail filtering hardware, expanded security access control as well as camera surveillance and finally 11-26 classroom sound field systems.

The 114 new thin client computers replace painfully slow computers that were purchased in 2003. The new thin client computers consume only 5 watts of power compared with 200+ watts and are 50% less expensive to purchase.

This summer we will create two new computer labs. The first lab will be a new 27 station graphic arts lab at the high school loaded with the latest Adobe Creative Design Suite software,

The TV production studio will also replace two aged video editing workstations and receive a software update as well.

The second computer lab is a new 30 station lab at William R. Satz School constructed to satisfy an increasing number computer access requests and the needs of a new technology education curriculum.

Many new online resources have been made available over the last several years including subscriptions to BrainPop, First in Math, Study Island and Discovery Education's United Streaming. Some teachers have leveraged the power of web-based applications to take their classes virtually paperless and have their student collaborate electronically in real-time.

Learnia is an online resource and a formative assessment tool that was implemented several years ago as part of a 50-district pilot program and is used in grades 3-8. Learnia results can provide early guidance to teachers and administration on areas that deserve added attention and holds the potential for improved NJ ASK results.

Projectors, Sound Field Systems & Wireless!

Not quite as catchy as "Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" but these are the sort of priority items and words that are most uttered in the form of technology requests here at Holmdel. At this point, a good portion of Village, Indian Hill and Satz Schools have Wi-Fi coverage and classroom sound field systems. The goal is to have complete coverage in the next 3-5 years, or as funding allows. While there is a great amount of momentum building for ceiling mounted LCD projectors, there is much fundraising and work to be done before the majority of the classrooms can have this sort of student-engaging presentation capability.
Thanks to our own maintenance department adding this installation burden to their already busy schedules, we expect to be able to afford and deploy over twenty-five LCD projectors or 37" LCD TVs before we break for summer recess.
I am really encouraged that teachers and administrators are asking for Tablet PCs and LCD projectors and I hear great things are happening with podcasting technology in the World Languages Department. Well, I guess this blog posting will serve as my holiday season technology wish list.

Summer 2009 Tech Expansion

Every two years the district participates in the Monmouth County Improvement Authority capital pooled lease-purchase program in order to finance capital items at the lowest possible rates.

The district purchasing breakdown from this year's MCIA and ARRA funding is as follows:

232 Desktop Computers, 43 Notebook computers, 20 Tablet PCs, 20 or more LCD Projectors, 5 servers, 10 or more WiFi hot-spots, a new core switch and several PoE edge switches, expanded security access control as well as camera surveillance and finally 21 classroom sound field systems.

With increasing access requirements and the expansion of the 4-5 computer classroom to improve differentiated learning and the delivery of technology infused curriculum, our inventory this year approaches 1,300 workstations. This poses a challenge moving forward as we continue to try to reach a goal of replacing computers as they complete their 6th year of service or roughly 430 computers every other year.

This summer we renovated the High School's room 142 computer lab and created an additional computer lab at William R. Satz School in room 207. Both labs have 30 student stations and ceiling mounted LCD projectors.

Many new online resources have been made available over the last couple of years including subscriptions to BrainPop, SkillsTutor, Study Island and Discovery Education's United Streaming. Some teachers have leveraged the power of web-based applications to take their classes virtually paperless and have their student collaborate electronically in real-time.

Learnia is another online resource and a formative assessment tool that was implemented last year as part of a 50-district pilot program. Learnia results can provide early guidance to teachers and administration on areas that deserve added attention and holds the potential for improved NJ ASK results.

Google Sites

Google Sites becomes recommended classroom website development platform for teachers looking to create their first site at Holmdel. See mine at http://sites.google.com/site/holmdeltech

More NJTAP-IN Information

Here is a video the State shared with me on what the 21st Century Learner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

NJ Tech Literacy (NJTAP-IN)

I recently attended a State sponsored seminar on the New Jersey Technological Assessment for Proficiency and Integration (NJTAP-IN) and it is evident that there are increasing requirements and expectations for levels of teacher and student tech literacy.
For more detail see http://www.state.nj.us/education/techno/techlit/tapin/
What I came away with is that we need to report in October based upon the NJTAP-In General Rubric and for QSAC we have to have documentation to support our claims of assessing student tech literacy. E-portfolios would be one good example of supporting documentation and would be another resource to aid teachers in signing off on student tech proficiency rubrics.