Hi. I'm Sam Bruzzese.

Lester B. Pearson School Board Technology Plan 2013-2018

“We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.”
Marshal McCluhan

The Lester B. Pearson School Board is committed to integrating the new technologies into the curriculum. An overview of our technology plan (including goals and objectives) as well as teacher guides and support materials will be provided on our website for your convenience.  The LBP technology initiatives will be refined over the next several years in conjunction with the new MELS and School Board Strategic Plans. Our professional development plan will incorporate the International Society for Technology in Education Standards (ISTE). The standards will be modified to include Canadian/Quebec content and of course will be adapted to fit the Quebec Education Plan (QEP).

In the fall of 2009, Michael Chechile (Director of Educational Services) created a steering committee with a view of updating the school board’s technology plan. The steering committee’s mandate was to come up with a board wide vision for technology and technology use. The committee consisted of ESD consultants, teachers, and administrators. 

On several occasions both elementary and high school students were present at the meetings and they gave valuable input. Last year several other committees were set up to deal with technology and technology related issues. The internet policy was rewritten to address web 2.0 issues. As well, a Digital Citizenship program was introduced and implemented. The Digital Citizenship program while in its infancy has generated a lot of interest both from parents, other school boards, the media, as well as Pearson Publishers. Numerous workshops were offered to students, teachers, administrators, and parents. This year several laptop initiatives were introduced at the high school level. Next year other schools are starting similar projects.

The research on technology initiatives clearly states that for the plans to be successful and to have a long term impact the MOST important and essential ingredient is teacher professional development. Over the next 4 years we hope that every teacher and administrator will attend, participate and successfully complete 4 technology workshops. Certificates of completion will be issued to each participant. The workshops will cover an essential element of the LBP technology plan. Detailed workshop descriptions and information for registration will be posted on the LBP website.

The focus of the ALL workshops and ALL technology initiatives will be on making sure the students and teachers have an in depth knowledge and understanding of the 4 C’s:

Curate:

• use GAFE account to create digital portfolio (K-Secondary 5)

Collaborate (possible topics):

• students will use various web 2.0 technologies to collaborate and participate in projects with students in the next room or around the world

Create (possible topics):

• Students will use various hardware/software to create wherever possible (i.e. webpages, wikis, movies, blogs, interactive stories, etc.)

Consume

• consume media often without the critical eye needed to understand and interpret the message
• audio, video, text need to be understood as different genres
• critical thinking and search skills at Bloom’s synthesis level 
  
• digital citizenship program strand

The technology changes so fast that it must be noted that the workshops will deal with the 4 C’s, but the tools used will change as the technology progresses.

Here'e the technology implementation mindmap overview. We are also using the SAMR  model by Dr. Puentedura to frame our workshop topics. Here's a nice short video explaining the model.

SAMR Framework Questions and Transitions

Substitution: • What will I gain by replacing the older technology with the new technology?

Augmentation: • Have I added an improvement to the task process that could not be accomplished with the older technology at a fundamental level? • How does this feature contribute to my design?

Modification: • How is the original task being modified? • Does this modification fundamentally depend upon the new technology? • How does this modification contribute to my design?

Redefinition: • What is the new task? • Will any portion of the original task be retained? • How is the new task uniquely made possible by the new technology? • How does it contribute to my design?

Here'a another visual on SAMR model using Alan November model: