Susan+Miller





Notes Archived  [|Link to JTL spreadsheet] [|Link to Script] Link to Evaluation

Donegal School District mission statement: ** “Developing each learner as a productive citizen who thoughtfully meets personal. Community and global challenges” **

Description of the organization: · **k-12 public school district** · **1 kindergarten center, 3 elementaries, 1 middle school and 1 high school** · **rural setting** · **Northwestern part of Lancaster County**

Statement of Need Revised
 * Donegal SD needs to promote its programs, enlist support from stakeholders (especially parents) and develop a culture of shared responsibility and collaboration among parents, teachers and students.
 * Teachers in the district need to learn to use Schoolwires Web building software to support this district mission.

=Section 1 - Need Analysis Report=

Executive Summary
 Donegal School District is a small, rural learning community in the Northwestern part of Lancaster County. The District consists of a kindergarden center, three elelmentary schools, one middle school and one high school. Approximately 300 professional educators and administrators serve 2,840 students in grades k through 12. The district's stated mission is to "develop each learner as a productive citizen who thoughtfully meets personal, community and global challenges." To this end, the district's strategic plan targets several avenues, including technology integration, through which it can increase student achievement,student attendance and student graduation rate. In spite of providing technological resources that can help teachers achieve the district's goals, and citing the use of technology integration as a means to increasing student engagement, attendance and achievement, Donegal has done little to ensure that teachers are proficient in using the resources, and has no plan in place for accountability. Over the past several years, technology training has been available to a little over 50% of the professional staff, during one or two professional development days per year. This is due to other educational initiatives such as the FOSS science program, reading and math remediation, and Learning Focused Schools. Elementary core-classroom teachers in particular have been excluded from technology training opportunities.

Business Need
As stated in the district strategic plan, Donegal teachers need to utilize technology in order to meet the needs of students. Also stated in the plan is the need for administration to provide training in selected technologies. The proposed project will address these needs by focusing on training in the use of the Schoolwires Web building system: the one resource that (1) is available to every member of the professional staff (2) has the potential for affecting student engagement, attendance and achievement and (3) has the potential for building a learning community and culture of collaboration among all district stakeholders, including administration, teachers, students, parents and other community members. The potential can only be met if there is district-wide commitment to learning and using this resource.

Currently, Schoolwires is used by a large percentage of teachers, to a widely varied degree. At the very least, each teacher has a page with his or her name as a heading. Some pages have not had any information added to this "Welcome," or have not been updated in the last twelve months. At the other end of the spectrum are the teacher pages that inform and engage, provide resources and materials for both students and parents, contain frequent updates regarding projects and homework, and an provide for open dialogue with stakeholders. Predictably, 75% of teachers' pages fall in between these two extremes. No data has been collected regarding the number of parents, students and community members who have accessed the site. The goal of the project is to have teachers maintain up-to-date, curriculum-related resources and information for both students and parents, and to become involved in promoting the use of the Schoolwires pages by other district stakeholders; particularly students and parents.  In summary, this plan will meet the need for training Donegal teachers to create a useful page for the district Website.

Learning Opportunity
Teachers will learn all of the basic tasks involved in creating Web pages with Schoolwires, and apply several of them to complete their pages. Teachers will make a connection between the district's technology goals and the information, activities and resources they add to their pages. In completing this task, teachers will become familiar with common text and graphic editing tools found in Online resources, as well tools such as an Online calendar.

Expected Benefits
Benefits to the district include a stronger, more positive connection among stakeholders, particularly students, teachers and parents; a culture of collaboration and communication among stakeholders; and a faculty that models effective use of technology. An increase in student achievement can be expected as class materials and resources are made accessible anytime, anywhere there is Internet access. An increase in student engagement can be expected as teachers utilize Schoolwires, or other, linked Online tools, for communication and interaction.

Audience Analysis
The target audience is K - 12 teachers, ranging in experience from no years to 30 plus years, and in age from early 20s to early 60s. Due to teacher retirement in recent years, the majority of the group is in the mid 20 to mid 30s range. Experience with computers also varies, with approximately half of high school teachers being very proficient in computer usage, and approximately two thirds maintaining current, academic information available to students and/or parents Online, via Schoolwires or the high school Moodle. A lesser percentage of middle school and elementary teachers maintain academic information Online. One third to one half of elementary teachers have received no instruction in the use of Schoolwires. To obtain more specific data and select appropriate training solutions for individual teachers, interviews and/or surveys must be utilized.

Project Design
As teachers' levels of competence vary greatly, the training solution will also be varied. The first step in the training for all teachers will link the use of the program to district goals, especially student achievement. This can be delivered in video form, at a time convenient to building administrators. Teachers who are inexperienced with Schoolwires will attend a half day, instructor-led session to cover basic operations such as entering and editing text, uploading files, inserting pictures, creating and organizing pages. Teachers who are familiar with the basics will choose an option or options that best suit their needs. These may include the company-produced user guides, help cards, videos and workbooks; locally-produced video tutorials; and on-demand, face-to-face instruction and support.

Project Success Measures
The formative assessment of the project will be based on teachers' meeting administration-determined criteria by the end of the training program. Over time, success will be measured via teachers' progress in the development of their classroom or personal Web pages, as well as their ongoing maintenance of these pages. Data will be collected from stakeholders regarding their use of Schoolwires pages for classroom and district information.

Out of Scope
The training plan will not cover basic computer operation beyond saving and accessing the resources/files needed to create the Schoolwires pages. Strategies for engaging the secondary audience (students, parents, community members) will be addressed, but training will not be provided to them through this project.

Estimated Project Costs
Analysis - conducted by technology coach @ no additional direct cost Design - conducted by technology coach @ no additional direct cost Development - conducted by technology coach @ no additional direct cost Implementation - additional cost will be incurred to pay for 1/2 day substitutes for an estimated 30 elementary teachers in order for them to receive training. total = $1500. Evaluation - conducted by technology coach @ no additional direct cost

Indirect costs will be time spent by the technology coach, as well as some time from the Director of Curriculum the Technology Director, and the technology department staff member who serves as the Schoolwires Web master. The project, including initial evaluation, will be completed by August 30, 2010.

=Section 2 - Performance Analysis=

=Section 3 - Design Document Template=



**Scope of Project**
The goal of the course is to teach a group of teachers, who have never used Schoolwires, to create a basic Webpage. Also included in the audience will be teachers who have previously edited their background pages, but who need a refresher course. The delivery strategy will include several approaches during the five modules of the course. The first phase will be done asynchronously with interactive media, the next two through face-to-face classroom delivery; both in the form of direct instruction. The third instructional phase will be done asynchronously via interactive media, and the final phase will be indirect instruction using a classroom setting but as an independent work session with support and feedback provided as needed. The five modules will vary in length (see syllabus), with a total instructional time of three hours and 20 minutes. The pilot will utilize interactive media to deliver the first module of the course: accessing Schoolwires site and teacher page. Participants will be volunteers with little or no familiarity with the program.

Course Objectives

 * Access the Schoolwires website through the URL and the pathway on the Start menu; sign in to the site and locate the appropriate section.
 * Independently, 100% of the time
 * Remediation through repetition of (sections of) the interactive media


 * Recognize and use text editing tools to change alignment, size color and style; save work and preview work.
 * Independently, 100% of the time; adjust alignment, font size and font color
 * Remediation through video tutorial

Locate and select an image from the network or local drive; insert the image into Schoolwires page
 * independently, 100% of the time
 * remediation during last (independent work) module

Recognize and use image editing tools to change the size and alignment of an image.
 * Independently, 100% of the time
 * remediation during last (independent work) module

Recognize and use the insert link tool to create a link to an external Online resource.
 * Independently, 100% of the time
 * remediation during last (independent work) module

Recognize and select the Flex page and 2-column design style.
 * Independently, 100% of the time
 * remediation during last (independent work) module

Add an event to the calendar; including date, time, location.
 * Independently, 100% of the time; access the calendar and add an event with a date, times, and location
 * Remediation through repeat of the video tutorial

Access Online support material
 * Independently, 100% of the time ||

Costs/Time frames
Course Development - Due 1 month from date of project approval, Cost $1200.00 Pilot Development - Due 1 month from the completion of Course Development, Cost $500.00 Revisions - Due 1 month after the completion of the pilot, Cost $850.00 Implementation - Due 3 months from the project approval date, Cost $450.00 Summative Evaluation - Due 4 months from the project approval date, Cost $400.00

Delivery/Outline of Course
The course will consist of five modules and ten topics, with a total instructional time of three hours.

A. Access Schoolwires site, access and edit profile information 15 min. (Module 1: 15 min. total)
 * 1) URL
 * 2) Link from Start menu
 * 3) Logging in
 * 4) Accessing/changing profile

B. Edit existing page/text 20 min. (Module 2: 60 min. total)
 * 1) Select text
 * 2) Edit text
 * 3) Save and preview page
 * 4) Repeat

C.. Add a block of text and a link to an existing page, and edit 15 min.
 * 1) Locate and open text
 * 2) Insert text
 * 3) Edit text's color, font, size and alignment
 * 4) Locate and use add link tool
 * 5) Insert link to external site
 * 6) Save and preview page

D. Add an image 10 min.
 * 1) Locate and use insert image tool
 * 2) Locate image file
 * 3) Format image and insert

E. Edit an image 15 min.
 * 1) Locate and use edit image tool
 * 2) Edit image size, alignment and border

F. Add and edit a new page 25 min. (Module 3: 45 min. total)
 * 1) Locate and use add new page tab
 * 2) Choose flex page, and 2-column design
 * 3) Activate page
 * 4) Edit page title
 * 5) Add/edit page text
 * 6) Add/edit image(s) and or link(s)

G. Access Online support materials 20 min.
 * 1) Locate district support page
 * 2) Locate user guides, workbooks, tutorial videos, and help cards
 * 3) Choose and open resources of interest

H. Edit the calendar 15 min. (Module 4: 15 min. total)
 * 1) Locate and select calendar
 * 2) Locate and select the date of an event
 * 3) Locate and select Quick Event tool
 * 4) Add/edit event title, time, date and location
 * 5) Locate and select New Event tool
 * 6) Add event title, time, date and location

I. Review activities and support materials 10 min. (Module 5; 45 min. total)
 * 1) Review processes A through H

J. Independent work 35 min.

Learning Components/Materials
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__Module ¦ Learning Objective ¦ Subordinate Objective ¦ K ¦ S ¦ A ¦ Learning Activity ¦ Assessment__ learning activity (can BE the instruction) should correspond with the learning objectives

Administration and Evaluation
This course will be administered and evaluated by the course creator, with results reported to the district Directors of Curriculum and Instruction.