NH Statewide Educational Technology Council

April 2, 2001 Meeting Notes

Members of the Tech Council convened on 04-02-01 to discuss future directions for educational technology efforts in New Hampshire. The agenda included a combination of small and whole group activities to take a look at current NH State Tech Plan goals and the new national goals, to discuss a set of national white papers on the future of technology in education, and to begin to set forth recommendations for revising and disseminating the new NH Tech Plan and for active membership on the Council.

The meeting was facilitated by Tondy Higginbotham, Administrator of the Bureau of Professional Development at the NH Department of Education. The following Tech Council members were in attendance: Mike Alberts, Chrys Bouvier, Chuck Gaides, Dorinda Gibney, Kent Hemingway, Cathy Higgins, Leslie Higgins, Mike Hill, Tony Paradis, Jeannie Poterucha, Wendy Siebrands, Frank Windsor

The following timeline for plan revision and dissemination was agreed upon:

Target Date Description of Activities
June 1, 2001 Distribute meeting notes so members can begin speaking with the stakeholders they represent to gather feedback prior to next meeting
  Post documents to Tech Council website
  Post summary info on June issue of NHDOE Key Messages to encourage feedback
  Set up listserv via Plymouth State College
June 11, 2001 Next Tech Council meeting from 9-11 a.m. via GSDLN sites. Focus of this meeting is on the content and format of information to disseminate.
Sept, 2001 Draft Tech Plan ready for public comment
Nov, 2001 Forum at McAuliffe Conference for public discussion about Tech Plan

General Discussion: Vision and Implementation

WHAT IS IT?

  1. Stakeholders – There is a cultural change among stakeholders. In addition to the students, teachers, and school administrators, stakeholders also includes the community and the technology providers. Tech providers can become collaborators in this process.
  2. Transformed teaching -- Technology can transform teaching (how teachers use it) and learning (see Thornberg white paper, doing things with tech that can’t be done without it).
  3. The plan should strongly support community engagement and the role of school in community.
  4. As new ideas develop, the plan should allow for adopting them.
  5. The plan should provide STRONG support for professional development. Without professional development to help educators effectively use technology in the learning process, the plan only addresses the equipment as an end in itself.

HOW WILL WE KNOW WHEN WE GET THERE?

1. Local success includes:

2. Success needs to be statewide, so that all schools across the state have access, professional development, and community engagement. Ensuring statewide success alleviates the potential for a digital divide within New Hampshire.
3. Dissemination of the plan and the technology resources it promotes means making links to other public and private resources (i.e., NH Historical Society for primary sources, the Annenberg Foundation for funding assistance). The creation of digitally-rich environments, such as the creation of Webster by the NH State Library, and identification of primary source documents can help create a "Digital Foxfire" for New Hampshire.

WHAT ROLE DO COUNCIL MEMBERS PLAY?

  1. Technology Council members, acting as representatives of the various stakeholder groups, have an important role to play in the dissemination of the information within the plan.
  2. Council members act as information filters to summarize the essence of the plan, and in so doing, have an affect on how people receive it.
  3. Membership on the Council requires active participation for successful implementation among all stakeholder groups. A current list of council members was reviewed and the following additions were advised: Vocational Technology Center staff, School-To-Career staff, Special Education staff, Tech Colleges, other colleges, UNH System, Chamber of Commerce, other DOE Programs, businesses such as Jefferson Pilot/Cisco/Cabletron, NHEMA, NHSAA, NHCUC, and NHNEA.

Alignment of national goals to New Hampshire goals

What follows below is a summary of the Council’s discussions about the five new national goals and the white papers that were commissioned to inform the development of the new national plan. The entire national plan, e-Learning: Putting a World Class Education at the Fingertips of All Children, may be found at http://www.ed.gov/Technology/elearning/index.html. The state plan may be found at http://www.nheon.org/oet/#NH State Educational Technology Plan.

 
National Goal 1: All students and teachers will have access to information technology in classrooms, schools, communities and homes. Aligns with NH objectives:
  • NH 1.1 Planning
  • NH 1.2 Hardware ratio
  • NH 1.3 Access
Council members Chrys Bouvier, Mike Alberts, and Frank Windsor reviewed this goal and discussed the following points:
  • This national goal is focused on Internet access, the digital divide, funding for technology, quality networking, and innovation.
  • The state focus relative to this goal needs to be on software, hardware, applications, technical support, and recommended standards.
  • Broadband access needs to be addressed to ensure affordable high bandwidth access across state and within each community.
  • The plan needs to identify policies that will help lead to successful technology integration.
  • Coordination is needed between state agencies and providers to ensure high bandwidth is accessible throughout the state.
  • There is a lack of sufficient local tech support. The plan needs to articulate standards for tech support, such as one tech support staff per every 500 computers.
  • Small school districts need tech support staff to fill roles of both IT and integration. Larger school districts can more easily budget for both IT and technology integration staff.
  • Resources for funding the tech plan will likely require collaboration across agencies and programs such as: Health and human services, Perkins, service learning funding, state funding?, grants, Titles-1,2,3,6; SIP-SIG.

Council members recommended incorporating this goal into our state plan.
 
National Goal 2: All teachers will use technology effectively to help students achieve high academic standards. Aligns with NH objectives:
  • NH1.5 Teacher PD and support
Council members Leslie Higgins, Wendy Siebrands, and Tony Paradis reviewed this goal and discussed the following points:
  • Connections need to be made to ensure use of technology tools and resources that support curriculum. The plan should promote work with teachers, curriculum committees, media specialists, curriculum coordinators, integration specialists.
  • The plan should support professional development for teachers, administrators, IHE faculty (education and content area faculty), preservice teachers, K12 mentor teachers, schools board members and policy makers. Each group requires a different type of professional development focused on how they can acquire knowledge, skills, and awareness of the technology transformation taking place. The statewide PT3 project (Project New TEACHERS II) focuses on providing assistance to several of these groups.
  • Professional development for teachers should be job-embedded (just in time) and grounded in research.
  • The plan should more clearly articulate the efforts being made to enhance teacher preparation programs. With regard to General Education Standards for all educators, reference was made to an effort by the UNH system to upgrade technology requirements within their general education core courses for all students (not just education majors).
  • The state’s present certification system requires extensive upgrades to improve its efficiency. Technology can enable the system to better handle the volume and speed of transactions.
  • The plan should support the creation of more specific, performance based, technology standards for educators. State standards and planning requirements should be clearly articulated (i.e., local tech plan, professional development master plan).
  • New standards should clearly address social, legal, ethical, and human issues. Administrators-under development, incorporate into Admin Certification Standards
  • National for teachers/students and higher education
  • The plan should promote stronger integration of technology through the teacher program approval process and the PT3 project.
  • Teachers need time to explore web and other resources and develop more specific tech skills, learn to use documents/archives, and teach using an inquiry process (transforming teaching). Reference was made to Jona Schank’s Vision for Teaching and Learning, regarding human/social relationships.
  • The plan should support incentives for teachers to use technology. Potential benefits fall into three broad areas:
    • Access – providing bandwidth and resources, such as software (e.g., Inspiration)
    • Opportunity – time within and outside of class, just in time training
    • Collaboration – with other skilled teachers, administration, community and school board support

Council members recommended incorporating this goal into our state plan.
 
National Goal 3: All students will have technology and information literacy skills. Aligns with NH objectives:
  • NH 1.4 Software and online resources
Council members Kent Hemingway and Chuck Gaides reviewed this goal and discussed the following points:
  • Although we have made some gains in utilizing the web with students, there are still problems in effective use and measuring effectiveness of web resources on student learning.
  • As in the case of addressing goal 1 above, standards for providing sufficient information technology staff (e.g., 1 staff per 500 students) should be promoted.
  • It is important to include info specialists (librarian) in this process, as they are trained in information literacy.
  • The inclusion of recommended software (e.g., Inspiration) in state and local tech plans would help schools focus their time and monetary resources. Helping districts to create ILS plans by grade, similar to curriculum frameworks, would be helpful.
  • Making stronger connections with a broad based of NH technology companies and with NH Community Technical College System could help create pathways for graduating students. Reference was made to the Cisco Academy effort as one example of a technology company impacting the school curriculum.
  • Raising awareness of the cultural changes in NH (i.e., socio-economic, etc.) and educating kids after school requires additional staff. However, schools are traditionally not open after 3:00 p.m. More after school programs that utilize technology resources are needed.
  • More emphasis should be placed on Information Literacy, since these are the skills students need today. A curriculum document for technology and information literacy standards and benchmarks, developed by SAU19, was referenced as an example of how districts are addressing this.
  • Education in the Internet age should be seen as inclusive of: information management, lifelong learning, and social education.
  • The plan should support the inclusion of virtual schools as an enhancement of our current approaches. The plan should articulate when and in what form they are best used to address needs of NH students. Reference was made to virtual schools as a resource for home schooling. State policy needs to be developed relative to virtual schools (i.e., how schools accept / award credits, etc).
  • The plan should assist schools with policy and practice in the use of student information systems (both local and web based) to provide access to grades, etc.
  • The plan should assist educators and students with the differences and advantages of classroom learning vs. elearning, web portals, content providers, community sites, tutoring, and student information systems.

Council members recommended incorporating this goal into our state plan. Members also recommended exploring ways to focus the change, such as using the NC model of creating a state science/math/technology school.
 
National Goal 4: Research and evaluation will improve the next generation of technology applications for teaching and learning. Aligns with NH objectives:
  • NH 1.4 Effective resources
  • NH 1.5 Teacher PD
Council members Dorinda Gibney and Mike Hill reviewed this goal and discussed the following points:
  • National role is focused on research
  • State role is to focus on impact on evaluation and dissemination.
  • One aspect of the statewide PT3 project (Project New TEACHERS II) focuses on providing assistance to research teams of higher education faculty, K12 mentor teachers, and preservice teachers. This effort has the potential to provide valuable support to the plan.
  • Evaluation should include but also look beyond the question of whether technology integration works in schools. Evaluation must be broad and evaluate all aspects. Reference was made to a model effort in Broward County, Florida (?).
  • Dissemination should occur as a flow of information going both ways – see national plan. Regional services centers can help disseminate best practices and progress to date on various projects, as well as other varied technology information.
  • Other dissemination resources include ETNews, DOE Key Messages, and the various educational organizations in the state.
  • Coordination of people, resources, and responsibility is important for effective dissemination.
  • Technology Council members, acting as representatives of the various stakeholder groups, have an important role to play in the dissemination of the information within the plan. They act as information filters to summarize the essence of the plan, and in so doing, have an affect on how people receive it.

Council members felt that, while this goal has potential to provide critical information to the New Hampshire educational community, there may not be adequate resources to fully implement a research and evaluation agenda. As much as possible, various national research resources should be utilized.
 
National Goal 5: Digital content and networked applications will transform teaching and learning. Aligns with NH objectives:
  • NH 1.4 Effective resources
  • NH 1.5 Teacher PD
Council members Cathy Higgins and Jeannie Poterucha reviewed this goal and discussed the following points:
  • The plan should provide examples and definitions of digital content and networked applications.
  • In order for teaching and learning to be transformed, professional development opportunities need to be expanded to administration and policy makers (e.g., Gates grant for administrators).
  • The plan should promote a statewide effort to digitize rich education materials, such as the creation of a virtual museum with primary sources available through the NH State Library , NH Historical Society, and local sources.
  • The plan should assist in aggregating demand for digital content and networked applications.

Council members recommended (a) combining objectives NH 1.4 and 1.5 so the focus is on teaching and learning for administrators, teachers, and students, and (b) using the state plan to highlight the transformation of education due to technology.