Chittenden Central Supervisory Union

Technology Plan: 2007-2009   

Executive Summary

Vision and Mission

“Enhancing education through the integration of technology”

It is our belief that technology has the greatest potential to leverage student achievement when it is fully integrated into curricular areas in such a clear way that outcomes are measurable.  Further, it is our belief that successful integration can only occur when there is vision, leadership, professional development and support, and on-going assessment of our effectiveness.

Toward that end, the vision of Chittenden Central Supervisory Union is to increase student achievement by integrating educational technology into the curriculum to enable learners to effectively access and interact in an information-driven, technologically literate society. CCSU will promote a positive learning environment in which teachers and students have equitable access and opportunity to use technology and information literacy skills in all learning environments as tools to enhance problem solving, communication, and productivity.

The primary mission of educational technology integration is to improve student learning and academic achievement through the utilization of 21st century technological tools by ensuring all students reach a degree of proficiency as technologically literate students as a result of the work of technologically literate teachers.

Leadership in Educational Technology will provide resources designed to help teachers use technology to enhance student learning in focal curricular areas. Educational support may include, but is not limited: to library media services; web-based learning; curricular integration mapping; classroom-based instructional support; and educational technology training on an individual, small group, school-wide, or system-wide basis.   Areas of educational support include:

During the two-year implementation of the CCSU Educational Technology Plan, we have made tremendous progress in achieving our goals, especially in our K-8 schools – the target of the majority of our improvement needs.  Largely due to the design of an SU plan, we have been able to move each school forward in measurable, equitable progress. The practice of independent, school-by-school initiatives can often promote the inefficient use of resources, rather than maximizing the resources available to the entire SU.  We have been able to create a stable leadership team, The CCSU Educational Technology Team, and form a solid partnership with the IT department to move forward processes that have brought the schools uses of technology into the 21st century, and enhanced teaching and learning beyond what we anticipated in a two year plan. As a result, all K-8 schools have been able to structure learning environments that provide greater access to technology both in classrooms and in upgraded labs, with Westford making the most progress, having experienced the greatest needs.

At the SU level, we have been able to model the use of peripheral technology to enhance all of our communications and presentations. LCD projections and interactive, engaging SMART Board presentations have replaced much of the paper-driven, overhead projector models of delivery previously utilized before the intentional implementation of our SU Technology Plan.  The CCSU Educational Technology Team teacher leaders participated in SMART Board training and quickly brought the use of this technology into their schools and classrooms, providing workshops for teachers at their home schools and inviting colleagues to team in the use of the technology. IT followed suit by ensuring all schools had access to the available technology and that it was in good working order. This led to increased use of DVD’s, PowerPoint’s, interactive spreadsheet designs, and Photostory presentations, for the enhancement of both teaching and learning in our schools. We moved the use of Wikispaces forward as our standard blog feature to facilitate communication about the effective, efficient, innovative, and safe use of blogs in teaching, and created a design template for teachers to use in planning the use of blogs in instruction. Finally, working in collaboration with Burlington and Global Classroom, we are beginning the process of using MOODLE at CTE to frame additional courses. We hope to move this practice forward within the next two years.

Additionally at the SU level, we have continued to upgrade the available capacity of our student data management system, SASI, to collect electronic student data and organize it so it is more useful to schools for analysis purposes. Parents have access to school lunch billing and food service information through technology that did not previously exist in our system. Also, we have redesigned our web management, web-page design, and methods of electronic messaging to improve communications for all facets of the organization and the community. That redesign will be actualized during our 07-09 plan implementation period.

Perhaps the greatest steps forward in the continued achievement of goals were made by hiring educational technology integration specialists (ETIS) personnel for our PreK-12 system, who will begin their jobs at the start of the 2007-2008 school year. We will begin the implementation of our 2007-2008 approved plan with three Technology Integration Specialists to serve our schools. The SU will employ one full-time ETIS to serve the Essex Junction and Westford School districts. This position will be funded by a combination of local and IID grant funds. Albert D. Lawton School will reallocate some of the FTE of its Technology Education teacher to serve as an ETIS for grades 6-8 and work in partnership with the CCSU ETIS. Essex High School has restructured the Library Media Department in conjunction with IT to provide equitable, accessible digital media support and provide the full-time services an ETIS to all departments.

The CCSU Educational Technology Team drafted a technology curricular framework and identified Power Standards and Power Indicators for each grade level fully aligned with Vermont’s Grade Expectations. Those power indicators will drive the local assessment plan for implementation in 2008.

Because our initiatives have all been organizationally driven, we have not experienced significant challenges to meeting our goals.  Our goals were needs-based, focused, and crafted to strengthen rather than overwhelm our supervisory union. The goals were also designed to be achieved collaboratively, which enabled us to maximize and distribute leadership throughout the system. The partnership between and among administration, classroom teacher leaders, IT, and most importantly, our boards helped to fulfill some very complex technology needs. The initiatives of our previous plan were truly transformative. The challenges that lie ahead with our 2007-2009 plan rest in the uncertainty created by larger issues such as state and federal policies, legislation that may negatively impact budgets, and our continually dwindling to non-existent state and federal funding for technology since we don’t meet the high poverty criteria required to access such funding.

We are proud of the vision for technology that we have created in CCSU. We believe our 2007-2009 Technology Plan supports that vision, along with the most responsible, realistic paths to achieving it.  We are fortunate to have an established IT department that works in full partnership to support the educational initiatives of the district by making the needs of teachers and students an established priority. Sufficient technical support and integration staff must also remain a priority if we are to continue to address our goals.

Our 2007-2009 goals for the new CCSU Educational Technology Plan will continue to focus on using technology to improve teaching and learning and developing tools to measure teacher and student progress toward those outcomes. As with our previous plan, our goals will be realistic, attainable, and designed to achieve the greatest results in the areas of achievement, equity, and technology-enhanced working and learning environments. They will also include everything else that must be in place in order for this to happen.  CCSU-distributed technology leadership, professional development, educational technology integration expertise, and IT support will be our most valuable tools in achieving our goals.  We’re fully aligned and ready to move forward.

CCSU Technology Plan Standards of Practice for Technology Integration 2007-2009

CCSU 2007-2009 Action Steps Summary  

Review of the current Technology Plan (2005-2007) and Successor and Goals for the new Technology Plan (2007-2009)

Goals 2007-2009 (See Executive Summary for Vision and Mission)

CHITTENDEN CENTRAL SUPERVISORY UNION

Click here to download PDF version of this webpage