Technology Improvements for 2010 School Year

As a result of the successful passage of the adjusted revenue purpose statement for the SAVE funds (was Local Option Sales Tax), the school board and superintendent have allocated $75000 to use towards technology advancements in the building. The technology team met on Sunday night to discuss items that could help the district as we look to become a technology rich school. Over the course of the past 2 years this committee has discussed several things that we think would have the greatest impact and have settled on 4 main areas.

1. Infrastructure - as the district looks to expand the number of computers operating on the network we have to consider, is our network capable of handling the numbers we are talking about? Do we need more bandwidth? Are our switches able to handle the load? Are our switches as fast as they need to be? Does our wireless network blanket the district as well as we would like? We have some infrastructure needs, but they really are not to major. Before next year I would like to have a wireless campus. This would mean adding from 8 - 10 wireless access points around the building, mostly in elementary areas. We will be increasing our bandwidth next year again as we went from 2MBS to 10MBS this year, next year we are planning to move to 15MBS.
2. Audio Enhancement - research shows that all students are impacted by a hearing loss at some time during their time at school. Audio enhancement provides an even distribution of sound throughout the classroom, helping all students in the classroom, not just those with a hearing deficit. I've found articles from Promethean, Institute for Enhanced Classroom Hearing, SMART Technologies, Michelle Wilson; P.H.D - and all agree that the impact of this technology is positive in the classroom environment. The tech committee would like to see these installed in classrooms K - 4 at least, by the time we have completed the project.
3. Increase student access - Our current lab situation puts our student computer ratio in the High School, roughly 3 students per 1 computer. The committee is committed to 1 to 1 as an end goal, but the reality of the constraints of the budget do not allow that initiative under our current funding streams. The committee would like to see additional computers available to students through the lease of mobile labs. Best case scenario is 3 - 20 station labs to be leased for the 10-11, 11-12, 12-13, & 13-14 school year. These would be used in conjunction with the current 20 station lab and will add access for classroom projects as we work toward a technology rich curriculum.
4. Get the technology in the teachers hands. With the learners in our classrooms and the emphasis of interactivity in the Iowa Core, LCD projectors and interactive technologies will become more and more common in classrooms. Each of the next 3 years we would like to spend about $7000 installing permanently affixed LCD projectors in classrooms for teacher and student use. Interactive whiteboards are also an option, but we want to make sure the teacher is ready for that, so rather than just telling a teacher they will be installed in their classroom, the teachers will go through an application process to qualify for a board in their classrooms. High School and Middle School teachers will also be provided a MacBook for their use (the same machines that the students will have in the mobile labs).
5. Professional Development - PD is a must for our teachers as we can't just put the technology in the teacher's hands and say, "Go forth and create!"

Be looking for more info on these and other changes as they come up here!