Blog Posting #2 – School or District Technology Plan

The Executive Summary of the Klein ISD Technology Plan states that "Klein ISD's mission is to embrace the future and provide engaging learning experiences and resources in a safe and nurturing environment." To accomplish this all educational stakeholders (educators, students, parents and others in the community) will be encouraged to adopt an attitude that all technology should enhance teaching and learning; and, that learning about technology will take place only as a step in mastering the instructional objectives.

The Klein ISD technology plan includes the following four goals:

• Implement teaching and learning strategies that incorporate 21st century tools, context and content.
• Implement and sustain a high quality, on-going, systemic, job-embedded professional development program for all staff.
• Increase student and staff productivity through the use of technology.
• Provide a stable and secure infrastructure to deliver appropriate content and allow for growth.

Within those 4 goals there are 30 objectives and 83 strategies (77 of which are currently underway or are complete) for accomplishing the goals by the year 2013.

Currently, the district has 38 campuses and a student enrollment of 44746 with just over 1/3 of those students qualifying as economically disadvantaged. 100% of our classrooms already have direct connection to the Internet and, while the goal is to have a student to computers ratio of 1:1, our current student to computer ratio is fairly high at 3:1. The district’s economically disadvantaged factor presents an added issue in meeting our goals in that, as we implement our 1:1 platform district wide, we must also find a way to assure that all students have Internet access at home.

The district is committed to continuing the allocation of at least 30% of the technology budget allotment to technology professional development. However, the focus of professional development will move from using the computer as a tool to produce an end product, such as a PowerPoint, to using it as a way of transforming the teaching and learning process. Of course with the increase in the number of computers and applications being used, the need for more technology support personnel and technology staff development facilitators will increase as well.

A budget of $48,926,722 has been approved for Technology Expenditures. The breakdown by STAR chart summary areas is as follows:

- Teaching and Learning Budget: $12,741,200.00

- Educator Preparation and Development Budget: $4,045,000.00

- Leadership, Administration and Support Budget: $2,174,266.00

- Infrastructure for Technology Budget: $29,966,256.00

That translates to $1,093.43 allocated toward the technology needs of each student.

While we are ahead of most districts in meeting the Texas long range goals, there is still much work to be done.  The Klein ISD Technology plan ascertains that will know that we have fulfilled our responsibilities because “Our students will demonstrate academic achievement, productive citizenship, career development, a healthy lifestyle, and lifelong learning.”