Final Word Doc: Technology Evaluation Plan- FRIT 7232.

docx

Task 1: (Post your county’s technology plan below for us to read)

Brianna: Cobb County: three-year-technology-plan.710c3468087.pdf

(windows.net)

Gabriella Jacob: Gwinnett County Gwinnett County 2022 – 2025 IT Strategic Plan

Daryl Burton: Gwinnett County Gwinnett County 2022 – 2025 IT Strategic Plan

Amber Roe: Effingham County Effingham County Tech Plan

Answer these questions within your group:

● How are the plans similar? How are they different?

County Similar Different

Cobb vs. Gwinnett ● Both Cobb and ● There are specific

Gwinnett have the people for each goal.
focus of student and These specific people
staff success within are responsible for
their technology focusing, maintaining
plans. and reaching their
● Both Cobb and goals. (Cobb)
Gwinnett technology ● In Cobb County, there
plan goals are are goals for each key
supported and are area, but they also
aligned with their describe their current
county’s mission status for comparison.
statements. Gwinnett County lists
● Both counties are their goals only.
implementing their ● Cobb County’s
plans within a 3 year Technology Plan has 6
period of time. areas of focus while
● Both counties have a Gwinnett County has
goal that strictly 10.
focuses on student ● Cobb County
safety while using the prioritizes Leadership
internet/devices. & Vision, Managing
● Both counties care Technology &
strongly about Support Resources,
innovation and how and Understanding
they can think about the Educational
how technology can Environment while
affect the future. Gwinnett County
● Both counties have set prioritizes Security,
 goals that are Service Delivery,
achievable within the Innovation, and
3 year timeframe. Communication.
● Cobb County provides
what the future of
these goals looks like
for each section by
providing what is
currently happening
and what will be
coming in the future.
● In Cobb’s plan there
are two specific areas
where teachers and
staff are supported
whereas in Gwinnett
there is one area of
professional
development. There is
also an area to
support parents.
There is no talk about
parent support in
Gwinnett’s plan.

Cobb vs. Effingham ● Both Effingham and ● Effingham County’s

Cobb county ● Cobb County is a
emphasize data much larger school
tracking and utilizing district. Cobb County
data to make has 112 schools that
decisions for the are home to 107,379
district. students, while
● Both Effingham and Effingham County is
Cobb County made up of 15 schools
prioritize technology with 13,325 students.
as a means to promote ● Effingham’s
efficiency. technology goal
● prioritizes the need
for the increase in the
number of student
and faculty
chromebooks.

Gwinnett vs. Effingham ● Both Gwinnett County ● Gwinnett County

and Effingham aim to produces cloud
increase IT use and storing services to
efficiency as produce better storage
population increases for data and
● Both Gwinnett County materials. Goal is to
and Effingham work reduce high
 to increase expenditures of
productivity, and hardware, software,
communication. and IT maintenance.
● Goal of Gwinnett
County is to improve
customer service.
Gwinnett County
implements a
proactive customer
service approach.

● Who was involved in the creation of the plan?

County Creators

Cobb Chief Technology & Operations Officer- Marc

Smith
Field Services- Brad Evans
Information Systems- Ryan Pynes
Infrastructure Services - Jason Wheeler
Instructional Technology- Starla Townsend
Network Services- Herb Ague
Project Management- Catherine Hardy

Gwinnett CIO and Director-Dorothy Parks

ITS Department- Enterprise
Applications and Development, Emerging
Technologies and Digital Transformation,
Infrastructure and Operations, Cybersecurity,
Fiscal and Administration, and Business
Strategic Services.

Superintendent: Dr. Yancy Ford

Effingham Board Members: Lamar Allen, Troy Alford,
Vickie Decker, Lynn Anderson, Ben Johnson
Asst Supt of Curriculum & Technology: Travis
Nesmith

Finally, each member of your group should answer the following question in the Module 3
Task 1 discussion forum by Sunday:

What most surprised you about the technology plans your group examined?
Task 2: (½ a week to complete)

1) Create an annotated list of technology plan resources that you consulted to investigate school
technology plans. Your list must contain the title of the resource, the reference for the resource,
and a paragraph description of the relevance of the resource to your work on this project. You
may choose resources such as published books, scholarly journal articles, existing school
technology plans, information from professional associations/organizations or government
agencies, and published magazine articles. Examples of resources that may not be listed
include: personal blogs, personal podcasts, web pages advertising products or services, Internet
discussion forums. Your list must contain at least 10 resources.

● National Center for Education Statistics:

- Part 1: Planning Your Technology Initiatives, Forum Unified Education Technology Suite
- This resource talks about strategies, policies, and components that are used and
expressed in a district’s technology plan. This resource talks about the major
components of a well thought out technology plan specifically each component in great
depth. Finally this resource also speaks about how one can figure out if a plan is being
implemented and evaluated by providing certain indicators of evidence to look at.
● Thirteen Ed Media Impact by PBS
- Thirteen Ed Online - Creating a Technology Plan
- This resource can be used as a reference when reviewing or creating a technology plan.
In this resource it breaks down the different components of a technology plan. In the
breakdown of the different components of the technology plan it provides the user some
guiding questions and key points of each section to look for/ask.
● Department of Education: National Education Technology Plan
- National Education Technology Plan - Office of Educational Technology
- This resource is provided by the Department of Education which works directly with
school districts. This is a resource that shows how the Department of Education works
with the new technology developments in school while sharing their visions of
implementing these ideas across districts throughout the U.S. This plan speaks on the
visions of equity, use, and leadership while also aligning specifically with the Effective
Use of Technology (Title IV A) of Every Student Succeeds Act as authorized by Congress
in December 2015.
● ASCD (Assessment and Curriculum Development)
- A Technology Plan that Works
- This is a resource provided by the ASCD. This article explains a few things that are
essential in creating a technology plan for a school. The ASCD states that it is important
to prioritize relationships and build enthusiasm for technology and its initiatives. It also
talks about how the technology plan needs to fit the school and be collaborative. The
 ASCD does a great job in expressing the needs of the people using the technoogy, making
this a useful resource for building a plan.

● Head Start ECLKC (Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center)

- What’s Involved in Technology Planning
- This resource contains an article from Head Start ECLKC. This article explains the
importance of involvement from whoever uses the technology plan. Head Start also
explains why every school building a plan needs a lead person, management support,
and resources. While creating the plan the team also should define the needs, and
explore solutions to the conflicts that come with technology. I would strongly
recommend this resource while creating a technology plan for schools.
● Educational Technology Plans: Keys for Successful Implementation and
Accountability
- Educational Technology Plans: Keys for Successful Implementation …
- This resource is older, dating back to 2000, however it gives insight and information
about the planning process and evaluation of technology. It discusses how planning for
educational technology has to begin with a mission or goals to work towards achieving.
The goals are assessed and the outcome of these goals determines the effectiveness of the
plan. The evaluation of the plan helps to determine if the use of technology in the
classroom based on the plan is helpful to the students or not.
● District Information Technology Plans and Planning: Monitoring
Implementation and Assessing Impact
- https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED431031.pdf
- This resource explains that IT evaluation is a very important part of a technology plan. It
states that ongoing data needs to be collected so that the effectiveness of the plan can be
evaluated and information can be sent back to the district to better serve the
community. Something they pointed out was that you seldom see very many resources
going to monitoring and evaluation, but that it is important to pay attention to various
indicators such as outcome, output, input, productivity, and demand to keep things
running smoothly despite it all.
● Enhancing District Educational Technology Plans: Assessing A Suburban
School System's Needs
- https://www.proquest.com/docview/2191226788
- This article discusses the important point of administrators collaborating with teachers
to come up with an effective plan. It also states that it is important to receive feedback
from teachers in the district so that their specific students are better served by the plan.
According to this article, they have seen better results and use of technology when they
take the real world into consideration rather than keeping it strictly to the law for
funding, etc. What is interesting about this article is that they also think about
technology for behavior purposes, so it makes you wonder if other districts also might
take that into consideration.
● British Journal of Educational Technology
- Technology planning in schools: An integrated research-based model_1
 - This resource describes the purposes for each of the stakeholders involved in technology
planning. This document describes the difference between “technology planning” and a
“technology plan.” Technology plan is the document and outcome of a multi-step process
of technology planning. There are 5 steps towards building a technology plan. It is also
important to note that this resource is British and can give an additional perspective on
technology planning.
● Little Tech on the Prairie: Understanding Teachers’ Adoption of and
Resistance to Technology in the Rural Classroom
- Little Tech on the Prairie
- This document discusses how technology may benefit rural districts, maybe more than it
may benefit urban districts and how rural school districts may face many more
challenges to implement technology and create a technology plan in their schools.
Physical access to technology and funding may make it difficult for districts to
implement and even create a technology plan. Research has also shown that some rural
districts are not as willing to create technology plans. Many rural districts are lacking the
infrastructure needed to carry out technology plans in the 21st century. The need for
technology in schools may actually be higher being that in a smaller school or district, a
teacher may find themselves teaching multiple subjects or grade levels and increased
uses of technology would create a more efficient learning environment for both teachers
and students.

2) Create a rubric for evaluating school system technology plans. Your rubric must at a
minimum include the following 6 elements:

○ Goals
○ Professional development
○ An assessment of telecommunication services, hardware, software, and other
services needed
○ Accessibility of technology resources (Americans with Disabilities Act)
○ Budget
○ Ongoing evaluation
○ Outline of the rubric is below :)

Rubric for Evaluating School System Technology Plans

Element Does Not Meet (0) Progressing (2) Meets (3)

Goals No goals are Goals are listed, however they There are specific goals
provided by the are not expanded on or targeted by the school
school district. described in great detail. district in order to keep
the technology plan
growing.

Professional No Professional Some professional development There is professional

Development Development is is suggested, but it is not development stated by
provided in order to required that staff participate the school district in
support teachers and they briefly support the their plan in order to
and staff. district’s goals. support teachers and
staff. This professional
development supports
the district's goals.

Assessment of No assessment of There is mention of There is a plan in place

Telecommunication telecommunications telecommunication usage and if telecommunication
is provided by the how it could impact student and fails and how the county
school district. staff computers. will handle fixing the
system quickly.

Budget No budget is There is no budget discussed in There is a budget that is

provided by the the plan, but there is
school district. information about technology
costs to support district goals.
listed in the plan. In the
budget there is a set
amount for the areas
that will help the
continuation of growth.
The budget is also used
for items/programs to
support district goals.

Ongoing Evaluation No ongoing or Some evaluation has occurred, There are current and
current evaluations but is not frequent. Data is ongoing yearly
are provided by the outdated and growth is evaluations that are
school district. stagnant. provided by the district
to show growth towards
the stated goals.

Total score: ____________/15

Task 3: (½ a week to complete. Submission in Dropbox due September 11)

Your group will select a school district technology plan to evaluate with the rubric you created in
Task 2. Choose a plan that you have not used for the other parts of this unit. Within your group,
collaboratively score the selected technology plan. After scoring the plan, write
recommendations for revisions that would improve your plan according to where your rubric
noted deficiencies.

How to submit your work:

Each member of your group submits the assignment to the dropbox. It seems
redundant, but that way you know it was submitted. Assemble the following into one,
well-organized MS Word document with the following sections in order as listed:

1) Cover page that includes the names of each member of your group

2) Your annotated list of resources created in Task 2

3) The rubric you completed in Task 2

4) The completed rubric showing how you scored the technology plan in Task 3. Be sure to
clearly identify the plan you chose to evaluate (e.g. give a url for it)

5) Recommendations for the plan based on your evaluation

Important! Follow the instructions for this task carefully. If your work does not follow the
format specified it may be rejected with a score of zero, or be returned to you for revisions. Work
returned for revision will be considered late and is subject to penalties as specified in the course
syllabus.

Scoring Rubric:

Element Standard( Unacceptable Acceptable Target

s)
(1) (2) (3)

Part I: Technology Plan Evaluation

Technology Ga PSC An insufficient The correct The correct
Plan Resources 1.01 number of number of number of
resources is appropriate appropriate
Ga PSC listed and/or resources is resources is
1.02 the provided; provided;
appropriatenes Relevance of Relevance of
InTASC 9
s or relevance the resources the resources
InTASC 10 of the for the for the
resources for purposes of the purposes of the
SLO #2e the purposes of assignment are assignment are
the assignment clear clear;
C.1 are not clear resources are
current
C.4

Technology Ga PSC No rubric is The rubric The rubric

Plan Rubric 1.01 provided; or includes all includes all
the rubric does required required
Ga PSC not include all elements; elements;
1.02 required element levels element levels
elements are described clearly indicate
InTASC 9
meaningfully meaningful
InTASC 10 progression of
quality
C.1

C.2

C.3

Technology Ga PSC Evaluation Evaluation Evaluation

Plan Evaluation 1.01 rubric is not rubric rubric
completed for a completed for a completed for a
Ga PSC specific specific specific
1.02 technology plan technology plan technology
plan; an
InTASC 9
explanation of
 InTASC 10 each rating is
provided
SLO #3a

SLO #4a,b

C.1

Recommendati Ga PSC Recommendati Recommendati Recommendati

ons 1.01 ons needed, ons needed; ons include
but not descriptions meaningful
Ga PSC included are details beyond
1.02 restatements of what is
rubric levels provided in the
InTASC 9
rubric levels
InTASC 10

SLO #1e

SLO #3a

SLO #4a,b

SLO #5b

C.1
 Technology Plan 1

Technology Plan Assignment and Rubric

Brianna Rinaldi
Gabriella Jacob
Daryl Burton
Amberlynn Roe

FRIT 7232
Dr. Hodges
September 11, 2022
 Technology Plan 2

Resources

● National Center for Education Statistics:

- Part 1: Planning Your Technology Initiatives, Forum Unified Education Technology Suite
- This resource talks about strategies, policies, and components that are used and
expressed in a district’s technology plan. This resource talks about the major
components of a well thought out technology plan specifically each component in great
depth. Finally this resource also speaks about how one can figure out if a plan is being
implemented and evaluated by providing certain indicators of evidence to look at.
● Thirteen Ed Media Impact by PBS
- Thirteen Ed Online - Creating a Technology Plan
- This resource can be used as a reference when reviewing or creating a technology plan.
In this resource it breaks down the different components of a technology plan. In the
breakdown of the different components of the technology plan it provides the user some
guiding questions and key points of each section to look for/ask.
● Department of Education: National Education Technology Plan
- National Education Technology Plan - Office of Educational Technology
- This resource is provided by the Department of Education which works directly with
school districts. This is a resource that shows how the Department of Education works
with the new technology developments in school while sharing their visions of
implementing these ideas across districts throughout the U.S. This plan speaks on the
visions of equity, use, and leadership while also aligning specifically with the Effective
Use of Technology (Title IV A) of Every Student Succeeds Act as authorized by Congress
in December 2015.
● ASCD (Assessment and Curriculum Development)
- A Technology Plan that Works
- This is a resource provided by the ASCD. This article explains a few things that are
essential in creating a technology plan for a school. The ASCD states that it is important
to prioritize relationships and build enthusiasm for technology and its initiatives. It also
talks about how the technology plan needs to fit the school and be collaborative. The
ASCD does a great job in expressing the needs of the people using the technoogy, making
this a useful resource for building a plan.
● Head Start ECLKC (Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center)
- What’s Involved in Technology Planning
- This resource contains an article from Head Start ECLKC. This article explains the
importance of involvement from whoever uses the technology plan. Head Start also
explains why every school building a plan needs a lead person, management support,
and resources. While creating the plan the team also should define the needs, and
explore solutions to the conflicts that come with technology. I would strongly
recommend this resource while creating a technology plan for schools.
 Technology Plan 3
● Educational Technology Plans: Keys for Successful Implementation and
Accountability
- Educational Technology Plans: Keys for Successful Implementation …
- This resource is older, dating back to 2000, however it gives insight and information
about the planning process and evaluation of technology. It discusses how planning for
educational technology has to begin with a mission or goals to work towards achieving.
The goals are assessed and the outcome of these goals determines the effectiveness of the
plan. The evaluation of the plan helps to determine if the use of technology in the
classroom based on the plan is helpful to the students or not.
● District Information Technology Plans and Planning: Monitoring
Implementation and Assessing Impact
- https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED431031.pdf
- This resource explains that IT evaluation is a very important part of a technology plan. It
states that ongoing data needs to be collected so that the effectiveness of the plan can be
evaluated and information can be sent back to the district to better serve the
community. Something they pointed out was that you seldom see very many resources
going to monitoring and evaluation, but that it is important to pay attention to various
indicators such as outcome, output, input, productivity, and demand to keep things
running smoothly despite it all.
● Enhancing District Educational Technology Plans: Assessing A Suburban
School System's Needs
- https://www.proquest.com/docview/2191226788
- This article discusses the important point of administrators collaborating with teachers
to come up with an effective plan. It also states that it is important to receive feedback
from teachers in the district so that their specific students are better served by the plan.
According to this article, they have seen better results and use of technology when they
take the real world into consideration rather than keeping it strictly to the law for
funding, etc. What is interesting about this article is that they also think about
technology for behavior purposes, so it makes you wonder if other districts also might
take that into consideration.
● British Journal of Educational Technology
- Technology planning in schools: An integrated research-based model_1
- This resource describes the purposes for each of the stakeholders involved in technology
planning. This document describes the difference between “technology planning” and a
“technology plan.” Technology plan is the document and outcome of a multi-step process
of technology planning. There are 5 steps towards building a technology plan. It is also
important to note that this resource is British and can give an additional perspective on
technology planning.
 Technology Plan 4
● Little Tech on the Prairie: Understanding Teachers’ Adoption of and
Resistance to Technology in the Rural Classroom
- Little Tech on the Prairie
- This document discusses how technology may benefit rural districts, maybe more than it
may benefit urban districts and how rural school districts may face many more
challenges to implement technology and create a technology plan in their schools.
Physical access to technology and funding may make it difficult for districts to
implement and even create a technology plan. Research has also shown that some rural
districts are not as willing to create technology plans. Many rural districts are lacking the
infrastructure needed to carry out technology plans in the 21st century. The need for
technology in schools may actually be higher being that in a smaller school or district, a
teacher may find themselves teaching multiple subjects or grade levels and increased
uses of technology would create a more efficient learning environment for both teachers
and students.
 Technology Plan 5

Rubric for Evaluating School System Technology Plans

Element Does Not Meet (0) Progressing (2) Meets (3)

Goals No goals are Goals are listed, however they There are specific goals
provided by the are not expanded on or targeted by the school
school district. described in great detail. district in order to keep
the technology plan
growing.

Professional No Professional Some professional development There is professional

Development Development is is suggested, but it is not development stated by
provided in order to required that staff participate the school district in
support teachers and they briefly support the their plan in order to
and staff. district’s goals. support teachers and
staff. This professional
development supports
the district's goals.

Assessment of No assessment of There is mention of There is a plan in place

Telecommunication telecommunications telecommunication usage and if telecommunication
is provided by the how it could impact student and fails and how the county
school district. staff computers. will handle fixing the
system quickly.

Budget No budget is There is no budget discussed in There is a budget that is

provided by the the plan, but there is
school district. information about technology
costs to support district goals.
listed in the plan. In the
budget there is a set
amount for the areas
that will help the
continuation of growth.
The budget is also used
for items/programs to
support district goals.

Ongoing Evaluation No ongoing or Some evaluation has occurred, There are current and
current evaluations but is not frequent. Data is ongoing yearly
are provided by the outdated and growth is evaluations that are
school district. stagnant. provided by the district
to show growth towards
the stated goals.

Total score: ____________/15

 Technology Plan 6

Rubric for Evaluating School System Technology Plans

Effingham County Technology Plan:

https://www.effinghamschools.com//cms/lib/GA01000314/Centricity/Dom
ain/60/Technology%20Plan.pdf

Element Does Not Meet (0) Progressing (2) Meets (3)

Goals No goals are Goals are listed, however they There are specific goals
provided by the are not expanded on or targeted by the school
school district. described in great detail. district in order to keep
the technology plan
growing.

Professional No Professional Some professional development There is professional

Development Development is is suggested or required. The development stated by
provided in order to training briefly supports the the school district in
support teachers district’s goals. their plan in order to
and staff. support teachers and
staff. This professional
development supports
the district's goals.

Assessment of No assessment of There is mention of There is a plan in place

Telecommunication telecommunications telecommunication usage and if telecommunication
is provided by the how it could impact student and fails and how the county
school district. staff computers. will handle fixing the
system quickly.

Budget No budget is There is no budget discussed in There is a budget that is

provided by the the plan, but there is
school district. information about technology
costs to support district goals.
listed in the plan. In the
budget there is a set
amount for the areas
that will help the
continuation of growth.
The budget is also used
for items/programs to
support district goals.

Ongoing Evaluation No ongoing or Some evaluation has occurred, There are current and
current evaluations but is not frequent. Data is ongoing yearly
are provided by the outdated and growth is evaluations that are
school district. stagnant. provided by the district
to show growth towards
the stated goals.

Total score: 8/15

 Technology Plan 7

Explanation for Scoring

We scored Effingham County as Progressing in the Goals element. We felt that Effingham
County’s technology plan clearly stated the technology goals of the district. However, in the
document provided on the district website, the goals were not expanded upon. From the
technology plan, we know that Effingham County wants to have faster and more consistent
internet speeds to support the growing need for internet and technology in the classroom. A large
part of the goals for this county includes a movement towards 1:1 devices for the entire district.
Effingham County also plans to promote technology in the classroom to support students'
learning. We did not feel as though the information provided in the Effingham County
technology plan was enough to be used successfully by a team. We would recommend that
Effingham improves its technology plan by specifying the steps in which the district would
accomplish the goals that have been set. For this district to achieve its goal of the inventory of
school-owned devices becoming 1:1 then a plan for distributing Chromebooks can be established
within the plan.

We scored Effingham County as Progressing in the Professional Development element. We felt

that it was unacceptable that Effingham failed to mention any form of training or team creation
in their plan. In our research of resources, we discovered multiple talks of professional
development and team training to form an understanding of the technology at hand. We believe
Effingham County would benefit from stating how their staff would train for the use of
technology in their plan. We would recommend that Effingham County implement training
during pre-planning and digital days. This would give the staff multiple opportunities throughout
the year to learn and build on their understanding of the technology being used in the school. In
an article by the ASCD they mention how other districts are training, “the district scheduled a
week of summer training sessions for teachers from all three schools” (Lesson 3). The
recommendation of how to train, and stating it in the technology plan would better the
technology user experience for students and staff.

We scored Effingham County as Progressing in the Assessment of Telecommunication

element. We felt that staff should know how their systems are keeping up. This includes updates
and patch reports for the technology systems that are being used daily. We would recommend
that Effingham County’s technology plan talk about how the user’s voices will be heard, and the
multiple ways to report concerns. We also recommend that Effingham County’s technology plan
should mention how staff will receive these reports. Technology management should be aware of
bugs and what the users would like to see in their programs used daily. We also believe it should
be communicated to the staff how inventory is being taken. Head Start believes that “one part of
the assessment is taking a basic inventory of the computers and software in your organization
(part 2). We believe their technology plan would be of more fidelity if they stated how
assessments of telecommunications would occur.

We scored Effingham County as Does not Meet in the Budget element. We felt that Effingham
County’s technology plan does not mention the potential budget for the technology department.
We would recommend that aside from the intended technology goals of the district, Effingham
County should also include an overall budget that will be utilized to accomplish the technology
goals that have been set. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, “the plan
should provide for a sufficient budget and schedule to acquire, maintain, and secure the
hardware, software, and related issues (e.g., training) that will be needed to implement the
strategy (part 1). With a set budget, we believe the plan becomes more tangible for funding.

We scored Effingham County as Progressing in the Ongoing Evaluation element. We felt that
little to no mention of yearly evaluations made this plan less effective. We would recommend
that the plan include a statement on how the yearly evaluation would occur and how data from
evaluations would be used. Some counties are adamant about using yearly evaluations as a way
to improve their technology. This plan lacks that and should be stated clearly to gain the staff’s
faith and trust in those managing the technology. The importance of evaluations was explained in
the District Information Technology Plans and Planning: Monitoring Implementation and
Assessing Impact meeting document, “Any evaluation system must be able to provide a diversity
of performance information that each audience will accept and respect” (pg. 5). Effingham and
all other counties should prioritize evaluations to ensure improvements to their technology
systems. All parties would benefit, most importantly the students.

Technology Plan 8
Recommendations for Effingham County