What are the main parts of a technology plan?
· Mission
The Mission statement provides an overall view of what the district or organization is trying to provide on a daily basis
· Vision
The Vision is what the district or organization is trying to accomplish
· Shared Values
Shared Values are the values and objectives that are ‘shared’ between the mission of the organization and the vision of what it is trying to accomplish
· Needs Assessment
A critical assessment of the what the district or organization is currently doing, utilizing survey instruments to determine professional development opportunities and need
Teacher’s and administrator’s needs are also identified through survey responses to better coordinate the uses of resources and personnel for the betterment of the district
· Goals & Strategies
Goals identify the target objective that the district will be attempting to accomplish, while the strategies are specific activities and steps to be taken toward the realization of each goal
I think the purpose of a technology plan is to identify the current situation of your district or organization, as well as the direction of where you are going in the future. The technology plan will also assure that your strategic goals and strategies align those of your district or organization. From personal experience, the mission/vision/goals of our particular office MUST align with the mission and vision of our university. We have to provide narrative documentation that the direction of our office is aligned with the direction of the university in general. One way to identify and track this progress is through a technology plan.
A viable technology plan, developed and revised in alignment with the Mission and Vision of your organization, assures that you are using technology and resources to benefit and promote the goals of your parent organization. Purchasing and utilizing technology resources, in conjunction with the direction of where your district is currently and would like to be going in the future, helps to keep you and your constituents moving in the same direction. It seems like we have to make the most of limited resources available, and stretch our budgets to the extreme, while still providing the immediate support and updated technology that is demanded by our colleagues. It is more important than ever to have a technology plan that can be proven to support the direction of your district and their administrators.
One of the best, and most intrinsic advantages of having a technology plan would be to create and administer a technology replacement schedule that would help promote the needs of your colleagues and administrators. A replacement schedule can assist with budgetary constraints by building into line items the costs involved with keeping technology current and up-to-date, and also help to reduce costs for service and repairs to outdated equipment.
The information contained in a technology plan can benefit a district by providing guidelines and direction toward achieving the goals the district sees as part of its mission and vision. It can also help the teachers in the district use the available resources to better promote the success of their students. The assessment results identified in a technology plan are an important part of how successful the district is in promoting the needs of their students. They are a good measure of the current state of the district, and can also be a good indicator of where the district should be going in the future. Without a functioning technology plan, the district may make the wrong decisions when making technology purchases, or move in directions that may be contrary to where they have identified they would like to be going.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Blog Assignment #4 - Network Operations
Our educational system does offer a shared storage are for faculty. It is housed on a shared drive that is accessable through our web portal, based on your defined role as either a student/facutly/staff/mixed/etc. The documents we can store and share on this network are limited, along with the access individual members have to those files.
The idea of the shared files/folders would be beneficial if we could have better and easier access to the drives, which apparently can't be accessed by many of the users connected to the system.
In it's current state, I don't find the drives beneficial, and in fact find them cumbersome and wasteful when we are 'encouraged' to use them to share our information.
I am certain I had to sign an AUP when I agreed to teach for LCCC, but I'm also certain that I didn't pay much attention to it at the time. I suppose I glanced over it and agreed to the terms without thinking about the conditions too much. As far as enforcement, I have never heard of situations where email accounts or internet acceess have been restricted or repealed, but I assume the college has the right to do so in cases of violations of the policy.
As far as the college email account, I have to admit I never check it. What we have done is joined a Yahoo group, and we communicate via the group discussion posts and boards. We have found this to be a much more effective and versatile form of communication than the email package the college has adopted. I think I have actually gotten notices about my account being full and not checking my inbox, but my supervisor has also been sending my emails to either the Yahoo group or my email account at my full-time job at Wilkes University.
The most important thing I have learned from reading this chapter is to be able to understand and appreciate the perspective of the IT professional. I used to think it was ridiculous to have to have regulations about email and internet usage, thinking it was just common sense that everyone would inherently know how to use these systems responsibly. The problems occur when individuals misuse their access or priviledges, and what the educational system would have to go through to keep them from doing this. I supposed everyone does not have either the integrity or professionalism to know what they should not be using their email or internet for, and clearly these types of policies are designed to spell out what may happen if you misuse these systems.
What I would be interested in hearing are how these policies are reinforced by your various school districts, and exactly what consequences are enacted for those who are found in violation of their Accepted Use Policies. At my previous job, one of our faculty members was 'caught' downloading pornagraphic materials, using his university email system and address, to his university computer. He actually downloaded a screensaver to his pc that displayed images of naked individuals, and was showing them to his co-workers, which is one of the reasons why he was 'caught.' Not to mention that his monitor could be seen by several members of his department, including the chair, if they simply walked by his office door. Needless to say, he was fired from the university, and I understand he wasn't sure of the reason(s) why!
As I said earlier, I suppose not everyone knows the difference between what you should and shouldn't be doing with your email and your internet access.
The idea of the shared files/folders would be beneficial if we could have better and easier access to the drives, which apparently can't be accessed by many of the users connected to the system.
In it's current state, I don't find the drives beneficial, and in fact find them cumbersome and wasteful when we are 'encouraged' to use them to share our information.
I am certain I had to sign an AUP when I agreed to teach for LCCC, but I'm also certain that I didn't pay much attention to it at the time. I suppose I glanced over it and agreed to the terms without thinking about the conditions too much. As far as enforcement, I have never heard of situations where email accounts or internet acceess have been restricted or repealed, but I assume the college has the right to do so in cases of violations of the policy.
As far as the college email account, I have to admit I never check it. What we have done is joined a Yahoo group, and we communicate via the group discussion posts and boards. We have found this to be a much more effective and versatile form of communication than the email package the college has adopted. I think I have actually gotten notices about my account being full and not checking my inbox, but my supervisor has also been sending my emails to either the Yahoo group or my email account at my full-time job at Wilkes University.
The most important thing I have learned from reading this chapter is to be able to understand and appreciate the perspective of the IT professional. I used to think it was ridiculous to have to have regulations about email and internet usage, thinking it was just common sense that everyone would inherently know how to use these systems responsibly. The problems occur when individuals misuse their access or priviledges, and what the educational system would have to go through to keep them from doing this. I supposed everyone does not have either the integrity or professionalism to know what they should not be using their email or internet for, and clearly these types of policies are designed to spell out what may happen if you misuse these systems.
What I would be interested in hearing are how these policies are reinforced by your various school districts, and exactly what consequences are enacted for those who are found in violation of their Accepted Use Policies. At my previous job, one of our faculty members was 'caught' downloading pornagraphic materials, using his university email system and address, to his university computer. He actually downloaded a screensaver to his pc that displayed images of naked individuals, and was showing them to his co-workers, which is one of the reasons why he was 'caught.' Not to mention that his monitor could be seen by several members of his department, including the chair, if they simply walked by his office door. Needless to say, he was fired from the university, and I understand he wasn't sure of the reason(s) why!
As I said earlier, I suppose not everyone knows the difference between what you should and shouldn't be doing with your email and your internet access.
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