always learning

Part of our integration planning has been to make sure we remove as many “barriers to success” as we can. We’ve tried to address all of them on our IT integration planning wiki.

Here’s the list we came up with during our planning – all of these items need to be in place for technology integration to be a success:

• A clearly articulated, documented mandate for teacher expectations.
• Understanding what IT integration is (and isn’t) and how the Facilitator can be utilized to enhance the teaching and learning experience.
• Ability to flexibly utilize technology tools and infrastructure to meet the needs of global 21st Century teaching strategies.
• Transparent curriculum infrastructure (wiki) – clear, easy to access documentation for the entire school curriculum.
• Clearly articulated Year at a Glance maps from teachers and the establishment of static units, building on experiences from past years.
• Understanding that collaboratively planned unites with authentic learning experiences that embed the backward design process result in higher achievement of the Standards & Benchmarks. Flexibility with the classroom dynamic and teaching is an essential component of 21st Century teaching and learning.
• Creating, documenting and sharing common assessment practices.
• Sharing successes with technology, both internally and through external visionaries on site within structure Professional Development as based on a mandate.
• Common planning time with IT Facilitator – grade level teams (framework requires grade level planning time)
• Classroom technology support, particularly for mobile carts (charging, set-up)
• Instructional support – specifically the addition of middle and high lab assistant to support integration (the teacher will not always be proficient)
• Revision of curriculum map format to embed IT integration.
• Equitable access to technology resources.
• Professional Development to increase teacher comfort level with technology (as supported by the roles listed in our framework)
• Purchase of peripherals and software to enhance the teaching and learning experience.

What do you think? What are we missing?