Table of Contents

Executive Summary................................................................................................ 4

Introduction The Role of Technology in Education Reform............................ 5

Background Information

A School/District and Community Demographics............................................... 6

B Overview of the Technology Planning Process................................................ 7

C District Technology Vision and Mission Statements........................................ 8

Current Status

A Students and Staff Assessment of Technology Skills,
Knowledge, and Attitudes.............................................................................. 9

B Inventories ..................................................................................................... 9

C Assessment of Existing Professional Development
Activities and Structures................................................................................ 11

D Assessment of Current Technology Support Staff............................................ 11

Program Goals and Technology Initiatives in Support of Education Reform

A Administrative and Management Goals............................................................ 12

B. Professional Development Goals..................................................................... 12

C Communication and Information Access Goals............................................... 12

D Curricular and Instructional Goals................................................................... 13

Technology Design

A Software Priorities............................................................................................ 14

¨ Administrative and Management

¨ Communications and Information Access

¨ Instructional and Curricular

B Hardware, Facilities, and Network Priorities.................................................... 14

¨ Hardware: Workstations and Peripherals

¨ Facilities: Network Design

¨ Building and Classroom Wiring: Standards

¨ Implementation Issues

C Operations, Maintenance, and Upgrades Priorities........................................... 15

Technology Implementation Action Plan

A General Timeline/Implementation Issues........................................................ 16

B Activities, Timeline.......................................................................................... 17

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Revision of Technology Plan

A Monitoring and Evaluation Process.................................................................. 19

B Process for Reporting to Stakeholders.............................................................. 19

Executive Summary

The Central Berkshire Regional School District has a positive reputation for being proactive about new and exciting trends in education and technology. Over the past couple of years, a new school of thought has put forth the concept that technology should not be separated from the rest of the curriculum, but integrated to such an extent into every subject that it is seamlessly woven into the very fabric of education. In-service offerings, workshops, on-line as well as locally offered college courses have produced direct positive benefits to our students, however, we have a long way to go to realize this ultimate goal. With the help of a very supportive School Committee, we have been working toward this end, however, budget woes continually thwart our efforts.

Challenges that we face as educators continue to grow. Not only do operational costs of the school district continue to rise, but funding has decreased over the years. Budget cuts have been necessary throughout the district. New school building projects have afforded us the opportunity to purchase computers, however updating those computers continues to be a challenge. Grants have been difficult to obtain due to the fact that our district is not underperforming nor does it meet the low income criteria of many grants. We continue to seek outside funding but these measures are temporary. Public support is necessary and the district is working hard forming Ad Hoc committees and working on public relations to educate the community on the increasing demands of education and the need for budgetary support.

The use of technology in our district needs to be an integral part of teaching and learning. Through professional development of teachers, support for students, and updating hardware, software, and the infrastructure of our network we will provide students with the opportunities necessary for them to compete in the 21^st century.

With this plan, the School Committee and the Central Berkshire Regional School District take yet another positive step toward enhancing the educational offerings to our students. Implementation of the plan will not only create a more cohesive and connected learning community, but will bring the global classroom to our very door. The world’s rich repository of information will be made available to all, to be used for problem solving, exploration, and discovery.

The Role of Technology in Education Reform

Educational Reform has meant sweeping changes to the way teachers teach and students learn. The Central Berkshire Regional School District has embraced the initiatives of Educational Reform, and works hard from semester to semester to ensure that its initiatives are made available to all staff and students.

Our efforts at drawing our district students into a more closely connected learning community will mean that our problem solving efforts become district wide initiatives, with a larger pool of skills and resources. Utilizing the technological advances of connectivity, intranetworking, and resource sharing will make our designing, building, and testing solutions more efficient and worthwhile. On a more global scale, the skills learned in local collaboration and problem solving will translate into students that will be able to compete more effectively in a global society - a society drawn together by the same technology that we will implement locally.

Background Information

School and District Demographics

The Central Berkshire Regional School District is located in Western Massachusetts between Northampton and Pittsfield. At 240+ square miles, it is the second largest regional school district - after Mohawk Trail Regional to the north. It is comprised of the seven rural towns of Becket, Cummington, Dalton, Hinsdale, Peru, Washington, and Windsor (circled on the map above).

Currently, the district educates approximately 2,500 students in four elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. A 15 member School Committee, comprised of members from all seven towns, governs the district and employs a Superintendent to manage the schools. The Central Office is located in Dalton, approximately 25 minutes by car from the western-most town of Cummington or the southern-most town of Becket.

Our technology base is very diverse. Each school’s resources not only include an abundance of older computers, but include state of the art multi media systems as well. All of the schools have computer networking available, as does the Central Office administration. Training of teachers has included online courses as well as videoconferencing. Skills in using web-based lessons, Universal Design, and the use of technology in assessment have been a focus of the courses. In-service training in the use of mapping software has enabled teachers to document their curriculum in digital format as well.

A major challenge in the years ahead will be to balance the expenditures of our operational budget with the important initiatives of advancing our technological offerings. Innovative and alternative means of funding will have to be examined, and strong partnerships of local constituents will have to be formed if our goals are to be realized.

Overview of the Technology Planning Process

In September of 2005, a new, full time position of District Technology Coordinator was created in the Central Berkshire Regional School District. In addition to hardware and software support and training, much of the Coordinator’s efforts are devoted to the planning and implementation stages of creating a comprehensive District Technology Plan. Collaboration with the district administration, teachers, and building technology integrators was an integral part of the development of the technology planning process. This team will continue to revisit the technology plan and make revisions as necessary throughout the school year. Major revisions are done each fall as necessary.

District Technology Vision and Mission Statements

The Central Berkshire Regional School District’s vision is to integrate technology seamlessly and productively into all of our classrooms. The students would be the prime beneficiaries of this vision. Our vision consists of 4 parts. The first is to seamlessly integrate technology into teaching and administration. Progress has been made toward this end with the use of district wide email, grading programs at the middle and high school, and the use of Atlas Mapping software for the purpose of curriculum mapping. Teachers are now using technology to perform some administrative tasks, to communicate with each other, and to collaborate on curriculum. A second vision is to increase the comfort level of teachers and students in the use of technology so that it eventually becomes second nature. This requires professional development for teachers as well as increased availability of the technology tools. In FY2005 the district implemented online courses for teachers. These courses had high enrollment. Not only did the course content address technology, but participants used the technology to access the content. A third vision is to use these tools to create personalized instruction plans. Professional development of teachers also needs to be done in this area. Course on using web-based lessons have been offered and content specific courses dealing with integrating technology into lesson planning are also being planned for the upcoming years. All activities would lead up to our final goal – To use the technology in the most efficient way to help students reach their full potential.

To integrate technology into education, we must ensure that:

: Access to technology is available to all students;

: The Central Berkshire Regional School District can make the necessary capital improvements to accommodate critical technology;

: Students can expand their knowledge base, improve their critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills; access, analyze, evaluate and communicate information in expedient and efficient formats; and work ethically, independently, and collaboratively with a diverse and changing population;

: Educators have professional development and instructional materials that support technology based teaching;

: Educators and administrators have time to work with technology and develop its educational potential;

: Administrators can provide immediate access to, and manipulation of, equipment and data sources for instructional and administrative decision making;

: Funding and resources are available to address these changes.

CBRSD invites you to consider this vision with us, to look toward a time when all students, teachers, parents, and entire communities are linked together in a global learning environment that offers compelling new opportunities for education and learning for a lifetime. The challenges to implementing our vision are great, but the potential rewards to everyone are so significant and far reaching that we must work together to realize the opportunity this exciting vision holds.

Current Status

Students and Staff Assessment of Technology Skills, Knowledge, and Attitudes

One attribute of the Central Berkshire Regional School District is its diversity. The district is cohesive in many key areas of education, but the vast geography of the district can make for some stark differences in the socio-economic makeup of its student body. As a result, many students come to school with strong skills developed from years of at-home computer exposure. On the other hand, many others do not - and probably never will have - such technology in the home. The divergent nature of their backgrounds presents our district with a challenge.

Our staff, too, is marked with such diversity. Many have chosen to incorporate computers into their teaching repertoires however some have strong convictions that computers have a minor role at best to play in what can be perceived to be a person to person profession. Again, such divergent attitudes present challenges to our technology goals.

Inventories

Computers have been an important learning tool for many years in the Central Berkshire Regional School District. Until the early 1990’s, the majority of computers in use were older Apple models. Their primary use (especially at the primary level) was for creative writing, skills building games, and occasional simulation games. At the high school, these same models were also used for word processing and other business functions.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, The Apple GS arrived in large numbers. The Craneville School installed a state of the art (at the time) computer lab based on these computers, offering class wide instruction on a weekly basis. Other schools also purchased a number of these models. They were again, due to their limited storage and multi-media capabilities, used primarily for skills reinforcement and word processing.

In 1992, the Crane Paper Company made a major contribution of IBM (compatible) hardware and software to Wahconah Regional High School. The donated equipment, along with many hours of free technical support, resulted in the creation of a 16 station computer lab with dual shared laser printing capability. Daily instruction in word processing, database and spreadsheet applications was offered as soon as the lab was ready.

During this same time period, our district began moving away from the older Apple platform in a more rapid fashion. Upgrades that arrived in the next two years were typically IBM (compatible) models, 386 or 486 processors, with 4 megabytes of RAM and 210 megabyte hard drives. Modems, if installed, were 2400 or 9600 baud. The age of telecomputing and multi-media had not yet arrived. During this time period, one elementary school invested in Mac’s, preferring that platform for its students.

Central Office administration was a major purchaser of more powerful IBM business machines. Many of the business functions were transferred to computers. In 1994, a Novell network was installed to allow more efficient resource sharing among Central Office personnel. A new state of the art network is due to go on line this fall in one of the elementary schools.

Telecomputing began to arrive in 1993 with numerous district teachers signing on to the free Internet services offered by the University of Massachusetts. Although no formal or coordinated in-service approach was taken at the time, many teachers embraced the new and exciting technology, and soon had their students using e-mail and search engines.

The Central Berkshire Regional School District has been committed to distance learning since 1993. We have been an active member of the Mass LearnPike since that time, and benefit as well from numerous Internet accounts provided by MEOL. As of June, 1996, we had three active MCET satellite dishes installed and operating. Many students benefit on a weekly basis throughout the year from the rich curricular offerings offered by MCET.

In 1994, multi-media systems began to surface in larger numbers district wide. The arrival of faster and less expensive CD-Rom technology took students to another level of excitement and usability. Student projects and assignments started to take on a more global view, with more reports reflecting world wide research.

Effective networking remained elusive at this stage, and was a major early goal of our technology plan in the late 1990’s. No formal wide area network existed at that time as e-mail was the collaborative tool of choice.

Currently there is an effective network in place at all schools. Videoconferencing equipment has replaced the previous methods of distance learning and is used for both professional development and student learning.

A district wide system inventory follows in summary form

*CBRSD Computer Inventory Summary As Of: June, 2005*
Total	Location	Type A	Type B	Type C
50	Becket	39	7	4
40	Berkshire Trail	14	19	7
11	Central Office	9	2	0
92	Craneville	4	42	46
48	Kittredge	4	39	5
227	Nessacus	49	122	56
15	SPED	11	4	0
206	Wahconah	111	77	18
689	District Totals & Percentages	35%	45%	20%

We are in the process of negotiating a lease to update many of our existing older systems. We intend to replace about 75% of our computer system over the next 3 years if budget levels remain constant.

Assessment of Existing Professional Development Activities and Structures

A professional development facilitator in the district has enabled us to move forward in the accessibility of professional development in our district. Four online courses were offered in the 2004-2005 school year and four are scheduled for the 2005-2006 school year. Videoconferencing has enabled us to provided trainings through the National D-Day Museum, Hampshire Educational Collaborative, and Heidi Hayes Jacobs workshops. We continue to look for quality professional development that uses videoconferencing to expose our teachers to offerings that they would not otherwise be exposed to. We currently have 4 full day in-service days and 3 half day in-service days that have primarily been devoted to curriculum mapping. Throughout this process, teachers are using a software application that enables them to map their curriculum online. Teachers are having to create documents and upload them to the site. They are also beginning to use digital images and sound to upload as well. Workshops in using the blackboard online software are also being offered and teachers are beginning to create courses for students and teachers using the online format.

Assessment of Current Technology Support Staff

As of September, 2005 we now have a full time technology coordinator in place in the district to oversee all aspects of the network. The current technology coordinator is A+ certified and is a Microsoft Certified Network Engineer. Each building also has a building technology integrator that assists the technology coordinator in repairs and assisting teachers in the use of technology.

LAST YEARS Program Goals and Technology Initiatives in Support of Education Reform (2005-2006)

Administration and Management Goals

: Increase the speed and reliability of the wide area network links in order to allow for a centralized access point for data and applications across the district. This goal has been accomplished by increasing our 384k frame relay links to full 1.544MB T1s in every elementary school and by replacing the outdated 11MB link between the high school and middle school with a 108MB wireless link.

:To train administration and teachers in the use of time management software such as Microsoft Exchange to increase their efficiency. This goal has been started with the education of the Central Office staff and will be continued with school administration and teaching staff this year.

: Continue curriculum mapping using Rubicon Atlas software to create a more cohesive curriculum across the district. This goal is almost complete. The elementary schools are the last and they are 90% complete. We will continue this initiative this year as well.

: Create a maintenance budget, including funds for repairs and support staff, for these networks. We have increased our maintenance budget a great deal this year and we have asked the towns to approve an additional capitol budget for maintenance on top of that in order to try and recover much of the maintenance momentum lost in the recent past.

Professional Development Goals

: A brief pamphlet will be published and distributed to all staff describing professional development opportunities offered in the district.

:Train teaching staff in the use of technology including

¨ How to create a lesson plan which includes use of the Internet for research, use real time data, and electronic field trips. This course is in progress at this time.

¨ How to use blackboard software to design online courses. This was given last year as a 45 hour course.

¨ The effective use of online courses and the “virtual classroom”. This was given last year as an online course.

¨ How to analyze data using software such as Standards Master and TestWiz. This was given last year as a 45 hour course.

: Continue offering online courses for teachers and staff through Blackboard courses and the use of the Para-Educator Network. This is currently in progress.

:Earmark some specific curriculum development money for projects which integrate technology into ongoing instructional programs which are part of the current curriculum frameworks effort. We intend to move forward with this in the coming year.

: Identify classrooms demonstrating the effective use of technology both in the district and outside of the district. Provide release time for teachers to visit these classrooms to see how technology can be integrated into instruction. We intend to move forward with this in the coming year.