Page 212 - Technology Plan ICT Review

Evergreening Summary Comments
Currently the district technology mandate has been to develop and maintain technol- ogy services and equipment so that all sites have equal opportunity and access. All schools in the district are within or close to the 5:1 computer to student ratio established by Alberta Learning. Now that systems and equipment are in place the district must plan for maintaining the current infrastructure.
The following points summarize some of the concerns that need to be addressed in the years to come.
•Within the current equipment budget constraints only two school labs and one server per school year could be evergreened. Additional yearly funding is required to support a 5 year evergreening technology plan which maintains current, equitable technology access for all schools across the district.
•Clearly identified ICT/CTS planning at the school level must drive the technol- ogy maintenance for the years to come. This will require a clear administra- tive vision and monitoring at the school level.
•Student workstation replacement will be based on physical maintenance issues, warranty and the degree to which the program of instruction requires the up- grades to occur.
•Staff workstation replacement will be based on the clearly outline school and district usage expectations. If the current equipment can’t meet these expecta- tions then and only then will staff workstations be considered for upgrading.
•The Director of Technology with the assistance of school administration will determine the greatest areas of need throughout the district. This is why it is important for school administration to develop clear workstation expectations for their staff since this will be the determining factor for the upgrade fre- quency for any given school.
•All servers need to be upgraded and/or replaced over a 4 year period.
•All networking switching equipment will be upgraded over the next six years in
order to optimize SuperNet functionality.
•The warranty on all PC workstations will be complete in the next three years. •Creative CTS credit generating programs at the High Schools have to be devel-
oped. The over goal at the high school level should be to develop financially
neutral computer labs that best meet the needs of their student population. •The longer it takes to start the evergreening process the more it is going to cost for any one given budget. The district can’t afford to rely on Computer For Schools, one time grant funding opportunities or large equipment purchases
made every five years. The district needs to guarantee yearly financial sup- port to sustain and maintain technology integration in our schools.
Alberta Learning Commission Report - Page 29
Technology is literally changing the way people live, work and learn. Today, Alberta leads the country with the highest percentage of people with home computers. The introduction of SuperNet will put Alberta at the forefront in access to the Internet and the world wide web and open up a world of opportunities for communities, health authorities,businesses and schools. Looking ahead, the explosion of new technologies and multimedia options is expected to continue. That means children and youth will come to school with different experiences and expectations than in the past. Most will have access to computers in their own homes and will be used to searching the web for information and entertainment. They will be used to seeing information presented through a wide range of different media with a combination of written words, sound and visual images. They will be able to instantly con- verse with their friends, here and around the world, not through the more traditional tele- phone but through chat rooms and Internet conversations. Technology also is dramatically changing business and industry. While some jobs in the past required only minimal skills, today’s workplace is highly demanding and there are very few jobs where young people would not be expected to use at least some technology, and in many cases, the technology is very advanced and complex.
Increasingly, employers will expect the people they hire to be skilled in the use of comput- ers as a basic starting point. Against that backdrop, the traditional approach to teaching and learning involving a single teacher in a classroom, rows of desks, static textbooks and pri- marily written assignments is changing as well. Computers are increasingly being inte- grated into the classroom. New software and e-learning packages are being developed. And teachers are increasingly using the potential of computers and related technology to engage their students and expand their learning.
At the same time, there is a growing need for teachers to guide the exploration and research of their students. The Internet opens the door to a wealth of information - good and bad - and teachers can play a vitally important role, along with parents, in helping students criti- cally analyze sources of information, make positive choices and effectively use the tools technology provides. On top of new technologies, the volume of information is expanding at an exponential rate. We’re faced with a steady stream of new ideas, new information and new discoveries. While it may have once been possible to know everything there
was to know about a given topic, that now is a fleeting dream. Given this reality, the impor- tance of lifelong learning and learning how to learn is even more critical for individual Al- bertans and for our society as a whole.
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