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Comprehensive
Technology Analysis
Heather Hutmacher
ED 605
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School Leaders & Internet Safety
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I. Interviews of four individuals. The following slides will
explain how the Canton City School District / Timken High
School manages and addresses ethical / legal issues relating
to technology.
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II. Management of technology to keep a safe school
environment.
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III. Synthesis among four interviews.
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Interview Results: Administrator
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What are our Internet Safety policies and procedures, also known as acceptable use plan, for our
district/building? Yearly paper/contract for high school students and parent to sign. Staff sign it one time when
hired.
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Do you know if the AUP’s are flexible per building? (Example: elementary, middle, high school) The only
different is that elementary students sign once (once per building) as opposed to yearly for high school. The
reasoning is the testing that is required at the elementary levels. The schools struggled to get the required
100% back to begin testing.
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Are our policies and procedures a reflection of the mandates found in the Children’s Internet Protection Act,
CIPA? Yes, the forms and procedures are in compliance. The forms have been around for awhile. They may
change soon due to the PARCC assessments and mobile devices.
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Do we receive federal funding for our technology use and if so what does that look like? For example: how the
funding is determined, how much and is it per building? At the elementary school level we receive grants for
school that do not score well academically. This created more technology at certain schools in our district.
Federal Funding: EETT(elementary) and ARRA(high school). About three years ago funding started to slow
down. She is hoping some other programs take their place. Other funding includes the Straight A Fund and title
money. She mentioned about 20-25 thousand a year for these funds.
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Filtering within the AUP, who determines? Is it flexible based upon age appropriateness? Filtering is decided
by a combination of the technology department, what is left of the curriculum department, and school
leadership teams. The decisions are based on age appropriate material, times of day, and whether an adult is
using the computer. Baracada is used as a filtering software.
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How is it monitored? Trudy Walker is the actually person that sits and monitors students/teacher use of the
computers. She can see usage and what/when something is viewed.
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Interview Results: Administrator
Continued.
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What is the policy on Bring Your Own Device, BYOD? There is currently no policy for or
against BYOD in our district for safety reasons. Also there is not enough bandwidth to
support more devices on the network. Extra permissions would be required. She said
teachers can get guest access in certain places.
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Do you think it is helpful or a hindrance to academic rigor? She felt a BYOD would be
helpful, but not every students has a smart phone or device with the ability to help in
the classroom. Plus, teachers might need more training to effectively implement BYOD.
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What is our policy and procedure for cyber bullying? We are required to educate
students on digital leadership. This is done at various schools. The laws are changing in
Ohio and our Board of Education has been working towards implementing policy.
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What about the results of students posting inappropriately not on school grounds but in
regards to students and staff? She did not think there was an official policy yet. The
school is not involved with cyber bullying if both sides of the bullying happen outside
of school.
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Board policy states on JFCF, p. 56:Intervention Strategies in regard to cyber
bullying are required.
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Interview Results: Administrator II
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1. What is our policy and procedure for cyber bullying? Is there a policy that
specifically speaks to cyber bullying? I have a copy of the CCDD internet
agreement. It speaks to inappropriate behavior, but doesn't say explicitly
state cyber bullying.
Cyber bullying would be addressed under the student code of conduct for
Behavioral Problems-Bullying. We also have board policies that are followed
for any type of hazing and bullying. A copy is in the faculty handbook.
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2. What is the consequence of students posting inappropriately on the
internet, but off of school grounds? What if this inappropriate posting
involves another student or teacher? Is there a procedure to follow or is it a
case by case situation?
This is a case by case situation. Many times we can discipline the student for
Behavioral Problems - Disruption of school. Also, when needed it is turned over
to the Police.
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Student
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Are you familiar with internet safety policies and procedures at your school? Yes.
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Are you familiar with the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and Acceptable User Policy (AUP)? Yes, I read
and signed these papers in my homeroom class on the first day of school.
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Do you use the internet at home? If so, how much or often do you think they are on it? Yes and every 15-20
minutes if you include social media.
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Is it school related or for personal use? I sometimes use the internet for school work but mostly for personal
use.
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Are you familiar with the filtering/blocking system used at your school? Yes.
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What are your thoughts on filtering/blocking at your school? I sort of believe it is necessary sometimes.
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Do you think students should be permitted to bring their own device and use in school? Yes I think we should
be able to use our own devices but it depends what it is used for.
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If the school provided individual devices for all students, do you think you should be permitted to use the
device outside of school? Yes, because that would allow for students to complete assignments outside of
school.
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Are you familiar with cyber bullying and its effects? Yes and it is a form of bullying that may cause students to
have suicidal thoughts. Once a comment is posted is there forever and is for everyone to see. It is worse than
face to face bullying.
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Are you familiar with the school’s policy on this issue? No.
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Teacher
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What are our Internet Safety policies and procedures, also known as acceptable use
plan, for our district/building? Is this the Internet User agreement that adults and
students sign… you can get a copy from the registrar’s office
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Are our policies and procedures a reflection of the mandates found in the Children’s
Internet Protection Act, CIPA? No Idea
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What is the policy on Bring Your Own Device, BYOD? We do not currently offer that in
our district.
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Do you think it is helpful or a hindrance to academic rigor? I think if used appropriately
it can be helpful to academic rigor. ; using tech for an assignment that you could not
have done without the tech. ie: interview someone via face time, gathering pics from
satellites to enhance projects and research vs just using tech to type a report or create a
document
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Cannot end without addressing Cyber bullying. What is our policy and procedure for
this type of bullying? (chris stone)
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What about the results of students posting inappropriately not on school grounds but in
regards to students and staff? (chris stone)
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Parent
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Are you familiar with internet safety policies and procedures at your child’s school? Yes.
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Are you familiar with our Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and Acceptable User Policy (AUP)? Yes, I read
and signed these papers when I enrolled my child at the school.
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Does your child use internet at home? If so, how much or often do you think they are on it? Yes and my child
use the internet 30-45 minutes a day.
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Is it school related or for personal use? The child’s internet usage is for personal use.
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Are you familiar with the filtering/blocking system used at your child’s school? Yes.
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What are your thoughts on filtering/blocking at school? I believe that filtering and blocking is necessary for
students at school.
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Do you think students should be permitted to bring their own device and use in school? No I do not believe
that students should be able to use their own devices at school. I do not believe that schools will be able to
monitor what students are doing on their own devices.
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If the school provided individual devices for students, would you willing to pay an insurance fee in order for
your child to be able to use the device outside of school? Yes, because technology is a necessary tool for
children’s learning.
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Are you familiar with cyber bullying and its effects? Yes I am familiar with cyber bullying and its effects can be
detrimental to students.
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Are you familiar with the school’s policy on this issue? No.
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II. Management of technology to
keep a safe school environment.
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Internet Agreement
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The previous slide shows the only document that regulates
teacher and students internet/computer usage. High school
students sign the agreement at the beginning of the year.
Elementary students sign the agreement only once and
teacher sign it upon hiring.,
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Digital Citizenship
I interviewed Dana Reinhard. In our interview she mentioned
that schools are required to teach digital citizenship. This was
the video played for principals reminding them to implement
this in their school.
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http://www.powtoon.com/show/fAH4gE5FLvE/internetsafety/
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Attitudes & Skills Analysis
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I surveyed a wide variety of teachers at Timken High School.
I based my questions on the Speak Up survey. This was not a
survey that was previously given to the staff.
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Here are the results of the survey:
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50% of the teachers considered themselves advanced in their
technology skills.
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33% considered themselves average with their skills.
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16% considered themselves technology beginners.
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67% of teachers have three or more mobile devices including
smartphones, laptops, and tablets.
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83% of teachers said they use technology for professional tasks
more than seven times a day.
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Survey Results Continued…
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50% of teachers thought implementation of instructional
technology was extremely important, while the other 50% rated it
important.
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30% of teachers claim 4 or less obstacles for utilizing technology
in class, while 70% of teachers claimed 8 or more obstacles.
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The most frequent obstacles were concerns about technology
reliability and lack of technology support.
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70% of teachers found 10 or more benefits of BYOD policies for
our district.
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Only 15% of teachers said they have major concerns with student
BYOD policies.
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Technology Skills Every Teacher
Needs
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Doug Johnson writes about technology skills every teacher
needs know. He divides the skills into four categories:
planning/preparation, the classroom environment,
instruction, and professional responsibilities (2013) I believe
this supports the results of my attitude and skills analysis. As I
reported, 83% of teacher said they utilize technology for
several professional tasks daily.
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The Big Picture: Attitudes and
Strategies
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Allen Medler points out that attitudes are at least as
important as strategies in his book, When Teaching Gets
Tough. As discovered in my survey, 100% of teachers thought
implementation of instructional technology was important.
Having this attitude towards technology is an important data
point. Medler mentions two ways teachers can fall out of a
motivated state. First, a lack of support and appreciations
from colleagues, administrators, and parents can often
dwindle a teacher’s motivation (2012). He also points to a
lack of resources to a drop in motivation (Medler, 2012). I
found 70% of teachers claimed these factors as an obstacle
to implementation of technology. The attitudes of the
teachers survey are somewhat conflicted. Many see
obstacles, yet they are still motivated.
+ On Board with BYOD
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The attitudes were favorable towards bring your own device
policies. Seventy percent of teachers found many positives in
BYOD policies. In his article, On Board with BYOD, Johnson
maintains having staff training and clear policies go a long
way to prevent problems with BYOD (2012). In an interview I
completed with Dana Reinhard, she also emphasized staff
training. She claimed that even if teachers own many devices,
this does not mean they can effectively infuse them into
curriculum.
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Working with Tech-Savvy Kids
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While most teachers reported familiarity with technology, a
few teachers still felt like technology beginners. In the
article, Working with Tech-Savvy Kids, Sylvia Martinez and
Dennis Harper state that kids sometimes know more about
technology than the teacher (2008). It is important for the
teachers that are beginners to not give up, rather allow
students to help.
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Presentation to Administration:
Reflection
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I presented the previous percentages to my evaluating
administrator. I also presented the previous professional
references. Here are the following reactions:
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“I am glad to see a high percentage of teachers valuing
technology.”
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“While I think obstacles to technology have improved over
the last few years, we will need to work on getting rid of
more of them.”
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“It is sometimes difficult to proceed with staff development
for technology because every teacher is at a different
starting point.”
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Resource Analysis:
Timken High School
 I. Existing Technologies
 II. Facilities: building
 III. Human
capacity, physical space, etc.
resources: personnel
 IV. Additional
Funding Sources: grants, bond
issues, donors, etc.
 V. Comparison
to Attitudes and Skills Analysis.
 VI. Conclusions
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I. Existing Technologies
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Unfortunately there is not a kept document to record the existing technologies. This was surprising. I
went to each room to count computers and interviewed technology teachers to ask them about their
specific software.
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Timken High School has four computer labs.
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Each computer lab contains between 20 to 30 desktop computers.
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In addition to these labs, there are four other classrooms with 20 to 30 desktop computers. These
classrooms are used by teachers in the computer gaming and engineering fields. There is also an
information technology class.
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THS also has a laptop cart of 25 traveling computers.
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The regular computer labs carry a wide range of software including Microsoft Word and the Adobe
Photoshop Suite.
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Every teacher is assigned a laptop to use for the year. In addition to this, four classrooms also have
five desktop computers.
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The content used on these specialty computers varies widely. (From word processing to gaming
rendering. See next slide)
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II. Facilities
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As stated previously Timken High School has four dedicated computer labs.
These are labs teachers sign out for classroom use.
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There are four other computer rooms with roughly 25 computers each, but
they dedicated classrooms for specific classes. (Engineering and Computer
Gaming)
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There are two presentation projectors and two 3D printers. One is a
Dimension Plus 3D printer from Stratasys corp. The other is a Makerbot 5th
generation 3D printer.
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Here is a list of the specialized software available:
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Autodesk (Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD) Multisim, RobotC, MD Solids, Robo, Pro
EdgeCAM CNC Motion, Flowbotics, Robo Cell, Cell Setup, West Point Bridge
Designer, Corel Draw Microsoft Office, SSA 1000, Adobe Suite 5.5, Unity 4.0,
and Microsoft Visual Studio 2012
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III. Human resources
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There is one individual hired to schedule the computer labs.
She also supervises over one of the computer labs.
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The librarian is also a technology specialist. She is in charge
of the laptop cart and the computer lab in the library.
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There is also a district technology director and four people
work under her to problem solve issues with technology.
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IV. Additional Funding Sources
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Timken High School received some funding through a district
grant last year.
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The money spent on technology comes from the district. The
district then distributes the funds among the various schools
according to need.
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V. Comparison to Attitudes and
Skills Analysis.
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Overall, there seem to be many opportunities for teachers to
utilize technology with reserving a computer lab or through
reserving a laptop cart. They are not currently able to bring
their own devices though. When I compare my findings of
Attitudes and Skills Analysis I found teachers felt they did not
have as many opportunities as they would like to utilize the
technology. The teachers also were unaware of all of the
software available to them. I recommend professional
develop time to explore the software available to teachers. A
list of available technologies does not exist. If there was a
document explaining our resources, teacher may not feel this
disconnect.
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VI. Conclusions
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After presenting the attitudes and skill results along side of
the resource analysis, the lack of documentation and
communication is clear. I presented this information to our
head principal and he agreed that there needed to be a list
of available technologies for teachers. He was actually
surprised one did not exist. In conclusion, I believe there is a
lot of work to be done to bring the district to level with other
districts. While the technology may be available,
communication and transparency does not.
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Technology Plan Analysis
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Through my interviews with three administrators, teachers, and
the head of technology I have determined that there is no
complete technology plan in the district. Canton City Schools
does have a partial plan created in 2007.
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http://ccsdistrict.org/uploads/Technology_Standards_rev_5_5_1
1.pdf
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Because of this, I chose to analyze a plan for a district I found
online. The school I am looking at is Hilliard School District.
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https://hilliardschools.org/departments/pdf/TechPlan10.pdf
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I will evaluate the following components: Mission, Goals,
Implementation/PD Plan, Standards Alignment, Design of
Infrastructure, Budget, and Support.
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Components of a Technology Plan
Mission:
In concert with family and community, the Hilliard City School District will empower all graduates
to thrive in the 21st century.
Vision:
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learn and work more effectively
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demonstrate creativity
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solve challenging problems
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collect and analyze information to make data-driven decisions
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develop critical thinking skills through real world experiences
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collaborate and communicate with others through a global environment
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Components of a Technology Plan
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Professional Development
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The Hilliard City Schools Technology Staff Development Plan is designed to provide multiple
opportunities for all staff to learn to integrate technology into education and their professional
life. In order for these activities to be fully implemented, the staff of the Hilliard City Schools
needs to have a firm understanding of the use of technology as a tool for teaching and
productivity. As a result, the following action plans have been written as a guide for providing
technology staff development throughout the school year. Each year in the spring, the District
Technology Team will review this plan and its process and make revisions to continually
improve staff development in technology for the Hilliard City School District.
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Here is an overview of opportunities for staff development.
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Integration Training
Before/After School Day Classes
Online Courses
August Inservice Day Technology Offerings Induction Week
Summer Technology Institute
Late Start Days
COI Day Teaching and Technology Institute ITSCO
Conferences, Workshops & Online Courses Saturday Academy
Technology Staff Development Evaluation
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Components of a Technology Plan
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The Standards
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Standard 1: Creativity and Innovation
Standard 2: Communication and Collaboration
Standard 3: Research and Information Fluency
Standard 4: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Decision
Making Standard 5: Digital Citizenship
Standard 6: Technology Operations and Concepts
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Components of a Technology Plan
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Support Plan
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Each building tech is responsible for communicating to their building
staff the method(s) for reporting Technology related issues.
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Options for Building Staff to Request Support
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Provide two forms in the office and tell the building staff to complete the
appropriate form and insert in the ‘Repair Tech’ inbox/mailbox. These forms
are Request for Technology Assistance and the Installation Request form.
Send an Email to the building tech, detailing the problem.
Attempt to call or stop by the room of the building tech if it is an urgent
problem.
The building tech should enter a BigWebDesk ticket if they are unable to fix
the problem.
It is our goal to have all building staff directly enter BigWebDesk tickets into
our repair system in the future.
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Tech Plan Conclusion
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Hilliard School has many strengths within its plan, while it is
missing a piece on budget
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The support plan feels dated as it requires filling out a paper
form to fix a computer. I suggest that is done online with
paper only being a backup strategy.
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Hilliard Schools has a detailed plan for personal
development. The plan is also laid out far in advance.
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Synthesis
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I presented my findings to both a teacher and a principal.
Overall, both agreed there needs to be more formality in the
district’s technology plan. It is difficult to critique a
technology plan over seven years old and it not complete.
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I suggested the Hilliard plan as a place for growth. They both
appreciated the professional development piece and agreed
a scheduled PD would benefit teachers.
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There are a several pages in the technology plan that address
standards integration. They are informative and I hope the
district communicates these standards to the teachers.
Otherwise, the standards will go unaddressed.
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References
Johnson, D. (2013) Power up / technology every teacher needs to
know. Educational Leadership, 70(6), 84-85.
Johnson, D. (2012) Power up / on board with byod. Educational
Leadership, 70(2), 84-85.
Medler, Allen. (2012) When teaching gets tough. Alexandria, VA:
ASCD.
Martinez, S. & Harper, D. (2008) Giving students ownership of
learning. Educational Leadership, 66(3), 64-69.
https://hilliardschools.org/departments/pdf/TechPlan10.pdf
http://ccsdistrict.org/uploads/Technology_Standards_rev_5_5_11.
pdf