Section3

Section 3: Steps to Increase Accessibility
The budget does provide funding for all schools, but it is limited. Title I funding is most helpful with high need, high poverty schools because it equalizes efforts across the district for technology integration. Local funds as well as District bond funds are available. The district has a three step approach for implementing technology integration.

Procurement of educational technology can be complicated because of the multiple sets of rules and procedures. The list below is intended in the spirit of clarity, but in no way reflects all of the policies and procedures that must be followed due to district, state and federal guidelines. The hope is that if the general nature of the process becomes widely known, district personnel will better utilize the process to increase accessibility to needed educational technology.

• Needs assessments are performed as a process to determine why, who, how, when and where technology can be used. • Resources are identified to meet specific educational goals and must be compatible with the current infrastructure or provide for the expansion of the infrastructure as approved by the Information Services Director. • Instructional benefits and institutional policies are evaluated for consistency and if necessary, revised by the Instructional Technology Coordinator for approval by the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning and the District Superintendent. • The approval process initiates the implementation of the resources. A bid process is used according to specific rules which requires well documented specifications for the resources desired. • District financial procedures determined by board policy must be followed. • Installation is planned and executed by a combination of district personnel and vendor personnel as described in the bid specifications. • The resource becomes operational when the stakeholders accept delivery of the resource.

Training follows the standard practices outlined below: • Instructional design • Instructional materials development • Initial exposure • Additional resources • Follow up meetings • Classroom mentoring • Monitoring

Post implementation evaluation is used to determine the effectiveness of how, when and where the technology is being used. • Implementation reveiw and evaluation • End user assessments

The planning committee recognizes the fact that not every teacher can be given every piece of new technology. Many technology placement decisions are based on the readiness of the teacher, as a pilot program, or to implement goals and objectives of grant programs. One of the issues the committee wishes to address is the concept of follow-through on the part of those individuals entrusted with technology. The committee believes the teachers entrusted with technology should use that technology for the express purpose of the pilot or program. If the teacher does not utilize the technology for those purposes, the technology should be collected by the district and redistributed to another teacher to be used for the express purposes of the pilot or program. Our goal with this policy is to institutionalize ownership, instead of individualizing ownership with the teacher. The committee suggests a review of School Board Policy J-17. This policy prohibits students from using wireless telecommunication devices while at school. With advancement of mobile and hand-held devices, the committee recognizes that these devices have evolved into a personal computer that students use outside the formal school setting as a learning device. Revising Policy J-17 to allow students to access these devices during the school day would increase general accessibility to information and learning with no additional cost to the district as a "guest" access layer has been enabled on the Mid-Del WiFi network.

Educational Technology funds are utilized in all three phases, but the focus of the funds’ use is in the professional development components. Training is the crucial component to any technology implementation. Without adequate training, access to even the most fundamental technology is limited. The more comfortable a teacher is with using technology, the more likely he or she is to implement the program in his or her classroom. High need schools are a priority and the focus of additional support and resources when necessary. Mid-Del Schools added training staff to assist with improving the implementation of the professional development plan outlined in section 5.