The Conde School District has invested much time and money into developing a good technology infrastructure within the district. In order to determine if that infrastructure is being utilized to its maximum potential in enhancing student learning, the following technology evaluation plan was created. The plan is developed around several key components. The first portion deals with the purpose of the evaluation and key questions that the plan will address. In order to address the key questions, the next three sections deal with hardware evaluation within the district; software evaluation for purchasing and use purposes and finally website evaluations to determine the credibility and relevance to curriculum.

The purposes of conducting this evaluation are formative in nature. The goals of the evaluation are aligned around providing the Conde School Board, Administration and teaching staff information regarding technology integration within the school and its effectiveness on student learning. Unfortunately, Conde does not have goals or standards in place for student learning outcomes in relation to technology. Therefore, at this point in time, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), standards will be used as a base to evaluate student leaning in relation to technology integration within the classroom. Besides using the ISTE standards, the evaluation device itself will be a vital tool to help the district develop technology goals and standards and update its existing technology plan.

Those people identified who are interested in the outcome of this evaluation are the Conde School Board, Administration and teaching staff. As well as these three sets of people, parents and students will directly benefit from the data gathered.

The Conde School Board and administration will glean much information about the district and the integration of technology into curriculum and the effect that it is having on student learning. This will help them gauge the direction that technology integration within the district is going or where it needs to go in terms of meeting the ISTE standards. The results of the evaluation will also help these key people develop technology goals and standards unique to the Conde school District.

Conde staff members have a direct interest in the evaluation plan, as they are the ones that integrate technology into their curriculums. They will be able to determine what is being done that is beneficial to the student and student learning.

Parents and students obviously have a strong interest in the evaluation and its outcomes. What the students learn and achieve within the school setting is helping to prepare them for the working world. The evaluation outcomes will help identify if the technology being integrated into curriculum is enhancing student learning.

The Conde School District is located in rural South Dakota. The town itself has a population of 250 people. It has the distinction of being the smallest school district in the state with serving 88 students K-12.

Although, it is the smallest district in the state, it is possibly farther ahead in its technology infrastructure than that of some of the larger districts within the state. Thanks to the "Connecting The Schools" project, all classrooms are connected to the Internet. This and the fact that the school board is very aggressive in keeping hardware and software current and up to date makes it very progressive technology wise. It is a mixed platform school, running Macintoshes and PC’s in the computer lab as well as having each classroom equipped with at least one PC. Students begin computer curriculum in their kindergarten year. Each elementary grade receives 40 minutes of technology instruction per week. Seventh and Eighth grade students, as well as sophomores take required technology classes and after that, they may choose to take electives in the technology field.

Teachers are encouraged to attend technology training sessions of all kinds, with the fees for some of them being absorbed by the school district. The school district has begun to send the whole staff to the TIE Conference in the spring.

Although the district has a technology plan in place, it is dated and needs to be brought current. It was written previous to the time when the district was connected to the Internet and does not identify goals and standards for the students.

• Are classroom teachers using a variety of technology tools to enhance student learning, and if no, why?

• Are student competencies in technology use being aligned with state and national standards?

• Are classroom teachers using technology for student assessment, and if so how comfortable are they in using it?

• What resources and teacher training opportunities are available for teachers to aid them in raising their expertise and comfort level in integrating technology into the curriculum?

• How well are students able to transfer technology skills learned at Conde into post secondary education programs or into the working world?

• What impact on standardized tests can be attributed to technology use?

Although, Conde is not in the early stages of technology in the respect that technology has been within the district for the last 12 years, it is in the early stages of managing and integrating technology effectively into the curriculum. Therefore, this evaluation is formative; looking at the processes that impact student learning in relation to the integration of technology into the curriculum at the Conde School District.

There will multiple evaluation methods used to gather data including surveys of both students and teachers; Standardized test scores (Stanford); data from postsecondary schools; teacher created tests for the students; questionnaires; attitude scales given to students; and observation of both students and teaching staff. Student and teacher surveys, as well as attitude scales, are useful data collection tools because they are a good indicator of what the perception is of the participants. Analyzing of test scores will help determine in comparison at what level the student is scoring at relative to the rest of the participants within the school district as well as the state. Observation is going to be a key data collection tool, as it will help determining commonalties among staff and their integration of technology into their curriculum

As with any research project, one has to remember that there are many factors influencing the data collection since a variety of sources are being used. Teachers, parents and students all have preconceived ideas about technology and its impact on student learning. These outside factors have to be taken into consideration, therefore the reason for the multiple evaluation data collection tools.

Also, the information gathered is such that it cannot be done in a short period of time. In order to measure if technology is enhancing student learning at Conde the evaluation will be conducted over a three-year time span. The data collected will be used to analyses the impact technology is having on student learning at Conde and how teachers are integrating it effectively into their curriculums.

The analysis methods that will be used are quantitative review of Stanford test scores, scores from teacher created tests and data on articulation from post secondary schools. Qualitative forms of data collection will done via the surveys, questionnaires, the actual teacher generated tests, attitude scales and observations made within the classrooms. As well as being qualitatively measured, quantitative data will be collected on the surveys, questionnaires and scales to help determine the mean and standard deviations of the questions asked. This data will enable stakeholders to determine statistically where the data collected falls.

There are several different data collection methods that are going to be utilized during this technology evaluation plan. However, even though they are different the reporting technique will be the same for all of them.

It is important for the stakeholders and the participants to always be kept informed of what is taking place, therefore whenever data is collected or a report created they will receive appropriate documentation regarding it. Depending upon the circumstances and what is appropriate, this may be as simple as an email or memo or it might involve a full-length generated report. Besides keeping these key people informed, this will also allow for discrepancies within the evaluation to be caught and revised before publishing.

Upon completion of the evaluation, reports will be given to all of the stakeholders. A final report will be given to school board members, teachers and administration. Students, parents and other people within the community may request copy of the evaluation report in the administration office. After the report has been distributed, there will meeting held to process the information given in order to improve the use of technology in measuring student outcomes. Since this will be three-year evaluation plan, this will help measure the strides that are taken in the use of technology and assessment in the Conde School District. The following chart depicts the methods of data collection and data analysis interpretation.

Since the district, like a number of school districts across the state, does not have technology goals in place, the goals that will be targeted for this evaluation are the ISTE technology standards for students.

To aid school districts in assessing whether their hardware is sufficient to aid their student in obtaining the standards set forth by ISTE, the following technology audit can be used as a guide.

Teacher Workstation – 1 per teacher ________

Student Workstation – 1 per 5 students ________

Television ________

VCR ________

Cabling to connect Television/VCR to computer ________

Printer ________(Color) ______ (Black)

Telephone ________

Computer Lab Components:

Teacher Workstation – 1 per teacher ________

Student Workstation – 1 per 5 students ________

Television ________

VCR ________

Cabling to connect Television/VCR to computer ________

Printer ________(Color) ______ (Black)

Telephone ________

Scanner ________

Digital Camera ________

Video Recorder ________

Operating System ______ Win95 ______ Win 98 _____ MacOS 8.0

RAM ______ 32 MB ______ 64 MB _____ >64 MB

Hard Drive ______ < 10 Gig ______ 10 Gig _____ > 10 Gig

Microphone ______

Video Card ______

Speakers ______

Windows NT ______

LAN connection(printers) ______

T1 connection to WWW ______

Cyberlibrary, Microsoft

Proxy or equivalent for

Caching and filtering ______

Automated Library ______

VTEL Equipment ______

Internet Classes ______

Technology Plan ______

E-Rate Supported ______

Network Administrator ______

Technician ______

In your opinion rank the following hardware components placing a check in the range that you believe it falls for Conde.

Following are the steps that need to be taken for software evaluation and in the end, purchase.

• Determine if software will be used within one curriculum are or district wide.
• Perform a needs analysis if going to be used district wide
• Consider the purpose of purchasing the software.

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• Identify goals or objectives that the software is to meet
• Identify potential software programs.

• Preview potential programs.

• Use following form to evaluate software programs.

• Compile information.
• Present to technology committee.

• Purchase software based on technology committee recommendations.

In the past, students went to the library, newspapers, encyclopedias and books to find information that they needed to complete assignments. This is all changing as more and more students are choosing to use the Internet as a resource. As Internet use becomes a common means of obtaining information within schools, we have a duty to our students to give them the skills to screen this information for accuracy. Since almost anyone can place information on the Internet no one can really be sure of who is creating and placing the information on the Internet. Evaluating what is read on the Internet, therefore becomes a critical skill that must be taught to our students. Before educators can help students do this, they must be able to evaluate web sites themselves. Following is a guideline to help educators evaluate a web site and determine whether or not it meets quality and accuracy standards.

Name of Website:___________________________________________________

URL of Website:___________________________________________________