DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

Vision Statement:
All three plans share similar visions and goals. Obviously, Lapeer Community Schools district plan is much more depth. The vision statement for Woodside School was simple and to the point. It is “Improve the use of technology for classroom instruction, student learning, and communication with parents” which is very similar to my school (Hillandale).

Needs Assessment:
Unfortunately, the only needs assessment information I could find was for Lapeer Community Schools. If you open up the pdf link listed above and search for needs assessment you we see the various needs assessments that were performed. I found the staff needs assessments very useful because many stakeholders had input. Durham Public Schools or DPS also asked tech facilitators from the district to provide input about the tech plan. They even created a website blog where people from the district could provide expertise into the technology plan. Click here for a link to this blog. The school level plans did not have a formal needs assessment. However at my particular school we did an informal needs assessment by allowing teachers to give input the their Media Technology Advisory Committee team member to bring forward at MTAC monthly meetings.

Funding Sources:
Funding sources varied between all three plans. It is difficult to know exactly how much funding will be available from year to year. At Hillandale the main sources are PTA, Title 1, and grants. Since DPS is a fairly large district we receive state monies for hardware and software. The district focuses on the WAN and the local schools purchase hardware and software based on the individual school needs.

Technology Team Members:
Hillandale and Oak Grove each have a Media Technology Advisory Committee, which has representation from all areas of the school community. Woodside School has a similar technology team. DPS and LCS have representation from various district employees.

Staff Development:
At the core of any technology plan should be staff development. It is not enough to just have technology present, training must be provided. At Hillandale and Oak Grove we provide staff development at staff meetings. DPS and LCS both offer district staff development for employees. It is crucial to train teachers how to use the available technologies to improve student achievement and to create successful learning environments.

Evaluation:
All technology plans should be constantly evolving documents. In the world of technology things move very quickly and it is important to amend the plan as needs change. I feel all the plans discussed in this assignment have a process for evaluating and changing the document to reflect desired outcomes.