T E C H N O L O G Y P L A N

Technology Plan 1

University Prep Science & Math

Who we are...We are building on the success of the University Preparatory Academy (UPA) K-12 system. University Preparatory Science & Math (UPSM) is a general admissions public school district in Detroit that provides predominately local children with the mathematics, science, technology skills, and international exposure that will enable them to attend selective universities and colleges, and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

Our middle school is at full capacity at 486 students. Our High School has been at capacity since the fall of 2012. The High School has 21 teachers, 5 staff

members and 3 paraprofessionals. The Middle School has 20 teachers, 5 staff members and 15 paraprofessionals. We are a Title I school about half of the students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch. Our Middle School will have nine advisories of 18 students each per grade. Our High School has 22 advisories with 23 students per grade.

We recruit fourth and fifth grade, general admissions students from across Detroit who are passionate about math and science. Our goal is to have a strong representation from Detroit’s predominantly African-American population, but also to attract from the large Hispanic and Arab-American communities. In addition, we hope to draw some other families who live or work in the city.

We have substantive partnerships with the University of Michigan (UM) colleges of Education and Engineering. These relationships involve curriculum development, student mentoring, college readiness activities for students and teacher recruitment.

UPSM High School will be capped at 500, with 125 students in each grade. The expectation is that students will migrate from UPSM Middle School to UPSM High School.

University Prep Science & Math5100 John RDetroit, MI 48202313-269-5627 (ph)School District Code: 82701ISD Wayne County RESA

http://www.uprepsm.com/techplan.pdf Technology Plan Contact Person Margaret Trimer-HartleySuperintendent313-806-8817 (c)mtrimer-hartley@uprepsm.com

Who we are...An Introduction to our school and our Mission. Also a broad Vision about what we hope to do with technology and our technology Goals.Page 1

How technology fits into what we do...Our Curriculum and Goals for how technology will be integrated and enhance each CurriculaPage 3

How we are going to keep our teachers up to speed...What we do to ensure that our teachers and staff know how to use our technologyPage 6

What we have and what we need to buy...The current status of our hardware and software, our 3 year budgets and the technology services we plan to providePage 8

How we are going to pay for it...How we plan to pay for our investment and our plan for long-term sustainabilityPage 12

How we are going to keep it running smoothly...How we are going to evaluate our strategy and make sure we are on track to meet our goalsPage 13

This plan is effective June 2012 until July of 2015

Our district tries to ensure that not only will students graduate, but they will graduate with the Science, Math and Engineering

skills to enter the workforce

How we are going to work with our community...How we are going to “sell” our plan to our staff and community. How we are going service others.Page 20

2 Technology Plan

O U R T E C H N O L O G Y V I S I O N

Detroit and Michigan suffer from a lack of highly skilled knowledgeable workers, and that is part of the reason why the region is struggling to attract new businesses.

Knowledge-economy jobs demand sophisticated workers well versed in science and math. These are the future citizens who will function in a high-tech work environment and who can readily adapt to new demands. They must also be culturally competent to survive in a global economy.

Our schools will be a beacon of hope for families across Detroit whose children show interest and aptitude in science and math. The middle school will provide an academic entry point for preparation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers. It will also provide a pipeline for intellectual workers in a city and region desperate for innovators and entrepreneurs.

Our technology must solve an immediate need to deliver capability to our school, but it also must create a sense of empowerment for our students. The computers we use today will be long gone when our students reach the workforce. Hopefully, we can give our students the confidence to use technology as a tool. That way our future innovators will be ready for the challenges in technology, even if the solutions have changed.

M Trimer-Hartley

O U R T E C H N O L O G Y G O A L S

Our district will use technology as a tool to help students visualize and communicate complex ideas in science, math and engineering.

1. Our students will be able to create High-Level multimedia content to express complex ideas

2. Our students will use technology as a way to communicate their own ideas and share those ideas with others

3. Our students will be able to interact with different cultures to communicate their ideas

4. Our students will be comfortable in an online social setting to communicate ideas

Our district will use technology as a tool to help evaluate student progress

1. We will use technology to identify and improve the performance of students who are at risk for failure

2. We will maintain an environment to periodically test the entire school

3. We will use software to help evaluate each student

Our district will maintain a streamlined and forward thinking infrastructure

1. Our budgets will calculate the Total Cost of Ownership so we can effectively use what we purchase (see page 12)

2. We will ask with every technology purchase “how does this help us reach our goals”

3. We will focus on technology as a means to an end

4. We will ensure that our staff knows how to use everything they have

O U R D I S T R I C T ’ S M I S S I O N University Preparatory Science & Math will provide Detroit area students with the mathematics, science, technology skills, and international exposure that will enable them to attend selective universities and colleges, and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics in the global economy.

Technology Plan 3

ScienceOur formal science curriculum will use the Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology (IQWST), an inquiry and project-based science curriculum developed by the National Science Foundation in partnership with the University of Michigan's Center for Highly Interactive Classrooms, Curricula and Computing in Education (hic3e), Northwestern University, Michigan State University, Columbia University, the University of Illinois, and Project 2061.

With our technology students will have a greater understanding of science by meeting these goals:

Understand and use online resources

Research scientific topics online

Use science-specific software

Participate in hic3e

Communicate with IQWST newsgroups

Use digital meters and probes to collect data in science labs

Use spreadsheets to statistically analyze collected data

Use student response systems during whole class exercises/discussions

MathIn addition to regular mathematics instruction, students will participate in a mathematical thinking course. This class introduces material well beyond the reach of the standard curriculum.

It is designed to build students’ confidence and pride in their work with mathematics, establish the relevance and power of the “basic” curriculum. We need technology to strengthen and extend critical thinking skills, engage students in the “fun” of mathematics.

With our technology students will have a greater understanding of math by meeting these goals:

Use spreadsheets

Manipulate spreadsheets

Use math-specific software

Access Renaissance Learning online programs to bridge competency gaps

TechnologyOur Middle School will integrate technology into all aspects of schooling. The curriculum will be designed to ensure that students become producers and creators of technology, not just consumers. Students will gain useful technology skills through application to core academic content, rather than learning about technology for its own sake.

Students will also regularly access online courses through Michigan Virtual University, the Wayne County RESA and colleges and universities. The experiences will be monitored by our teachers for relevance, rigor and quality.

With our technology students will have a greater understanding of technology by meeting these goals:

Access Michigan Virtual University

Create high-level content such as multimedia presentations

Learn to access a student shared folder

Develop Windows & Web applications

Communicate across the learning community via email

Conduct web research

Use student response systems during whole class exercises/discussions

How technology fits into what we do...

4 Technology Plan

Language ArtsExperience has shown that incoming sixth graders from Detroit Public Schools often are reading and writing at second to fourth grade levels and need significant remediation to perform at grade level.

We will provide teachers with two literacy approaches to increase the reading proficiency of struggling readers and to challenge high-performers.

We will use FAST Reading for students reading below grade level. FAST Reading is comprehensive reading intervention program that is proven to meet the needs of students performing below proficient levels. FAST Reading incorporates adaptive and instructional software with high-interest literature and continual analysis of student performance. We also use MyAccess to improve student writing.

We will also use a balanced literacy approach for all students, combining phonics and whole language to target strengths and weaknesses.

With our technology students will have a greater literacy by meeting these goals:

Use FAST Reading

Improve writing with MyAccess

Access Renaissance Learning online programs to bridge competency gaps

Employ word processing to improve writing skills.

Use student response systems during whole class exercises/discussions

A Disciplined LifeA Disciplined Life © builds a culture of personal and academic success. It addresses each student as a whole person, understanding that personal character growth and academic progress are interdependent in producing responsible members of society who wish to lead meaningful lives.

A Disciplined Life nurtures intellectual individuals prepared to thrive in a rigorous academic environment, and engage members of their community in spirited debate and dialogue. It gives our students the tools to foster a genuine community of young adults who understand, appreciate and respect the differences of their peers.

Key components of the curriculum are:

Self Perception

Communication

Productivity

With our technology students will have a greater discipline by meeting these goals:

Communicate with community members about the school

Learn how to appropriately address others in a social network (“deMySpacing”)

Learn how to use a computer to meet timelines

Use organization software

Foreign Language/International CultureOur Middle School students will begin foreign language studies in the sixth grade with a Foreign Language Exploratory Course (FLEX) in which they will be exposed to the Mandarin and Spanish language.

Exposure will include lessons in the language and also field trips to culturally significant sites, restaurants, museum exhibits and community resources. Speakers from the different cultures will visit students regularly and pen pal relationships will be established online and in person with peers around the world.

After students are exposed to the FLEX they will choose to pursue either Mandarin or Spanish beginning in eighth grade. We are working with the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University to teach Mandarin Chinese and engage in online and in-person student and teacher exchange experiences.

With our technology students will have a greater understanding of the world by meeting these goals:

Visit international websites in a different language

Write a document in another language

Use Edison learning to study World Languages

Establish pen-pail relationships with students around the world via email.

Technology Plan 5

What we would like to see our students generally accomplish with technology

We will closely follow the Michigan’s Educational Technology Standards & Expectation for the 6th through 8th grades. These standards and expectations closely match the International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). Our district will use this as the baseline for our technology literacy. Since UPrep Science & Math is a district that focuses on the math & sciences we will also add to these statewide standards with a few technology literacy expectations of our own:

By June of 2015 our students will:

need to master basic technology communication skills (establish email accounts, use them, access information on the Web, including school info such as classroom newsletters, homework assignments, etc.)

learn to build basic websites using templates

master the basics of Microsoft PowerPoint

assemble various multimedia elements for use in websites and/or Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, including photos, video clips, etc...

experience basic Computer Aided Design (CAD) through Project Lead the Way

have basic exposure to Adobe Creative Suite 5

The HS will implement the plan for one-to-one Netbook program

 

By June of 2016 our students will:

become more proficient is all areas outlined above and develop more capacity to create original content and manipulate it

go deeper into learning Adobe CS5 and using it for Web development

seventh graders should be able to deepen their capacity and use all the available tools, including CAD program, with greater proficiency and creativity

Use technology to develop Windows and Web applications.

 

By June of 2017 our students will:

be proficient in using CS5 to create original content, not necessary expert, but they should know well how to use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc., to manipulate and create content

use technology to further their work product and not learn the technology as a tool

use technology to create work to display ideas such as CAD designs and graphical representation of complex math or science phenomenon

S E Q U O I A C L U B

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How we may use interactive video in our curriculum

Our teachers have toured schools in Hong Kong in an effort to learn new teaching techniques. While in Hong Kong some of our teachers inquired if it were possible to create an online collaborative course between University preparatory Academy Science and Math and an equivalent school in Hong Kong. Our hope is that in the future we may be able to have a collaborative enrichment class from high school. There are many language, technical and time zone challenges. But we feel that the benefits to our students would justify the effort.

By June of 2015 our students will:

have an evening collaborate internship with an international student

 

By June of 2016 our students will:

have the technology in place to collaborate with an international class during the school day

 

By June of 2017 our students will:

have a fully integrated class with an international class where students can collaborate and share assignments

use technology as part of our Mandarin language program to collaborate with an international class

Technology Plan 7

How we “sell” our technology plan to our community

We need to communicate the technology plan to two groups. The first group is our internal group. These are the teachers, staff and students that make up our community. There is also an external group. This group includes parents, local businesses, donors and our neighbors.

Technology, (often unduly) can illicit a lot of passion from both internal and external groups. If either group feels alienated by the process, then a technically sound plan could be recycled or outright rejected. Our district will make great efforts to ensure that all voices are heard when making relevant technology decisions.

Our staff meets on Tuesdays to discuss all school issues. All of our teachers and staff have copies of our latest technology plan and these issues are often about technology. The staff members try to use these meetings to discuss what we call big “T” technology issues. We try to steer the discussion to broad questions such as “is our technology helping us meet our goals.” We try diligently to exclude support issues or ubiquitous micro-issues such as “fill the printer with paper.” Admittedly, we are not always successful, but as time goes on each meeting becomes more big “T” and our technology plan helps guide these discussions.

The external groups have a voice when we meet with groups of parents. We also try to keep friends of our community up-to-date with our listserv mailing lists and website. We have a link on our website that distributes electronic copies of our plan. We will also distribute paper copies to parents upon request.

We find that technology communicates a message about the school that is broader then their uses such as email and word processing. A row of shiny desktops communicates to parents and visitors that we value our students’ work. This message rarely escapes our visitors and we work hard to keep our computers clean and functional. We assume that broken or non-functional computers could just as easily communicate the opposite message.

How we are going to work with our community...

Internal Groups

Teachers

Staff Members

Students

External Groups

Parents

Local Businesses

Donors

Neighbors

8 Technology Plan

How we are planning to teach our community

Our commitment is to teach the current generation of students. That being said, we do have computer labs and resources which could benefit the adult students of our community. Initially, we will offer our facilities to parents of our enrolled students. If we are able to make our parents more educated, the students will have a better “24 hour” learning environment. This plan was written for 2012-2015, these years are the first three years of our district. So most of our focus on our students these first years. After year 3, we plan to offer a pilot program for our parents.

Since we focus on both literacy and science, there is a broad range of subjects we could offer parents. Our initial discussions have centered on technology training. After year 3, we may experiment with take-home netbooks for our students. These low cost laptops have an initial investment of around $300 per student. If that cost goes to $100 per student after year 3, it may be possible to try a pilot take-home program. If that pilot program is approved by our community, then having technically savvy parents could benefit the household.

After this pilot program, we have started only the most rudimentary discussions about improving parent literacy and perhaps GED assistance. Since a vast majority of our parents have day jobs, we are biased towards the “teach to fish instead of giving a fish” approach. We would like to show parents how to study with our students on the take home netbooks. There is a large selection of GED software available and we are biased toward training parents how to use these resources with their take home netbooks. Of course, we will have policies and safeguards to ensure that our students get full use of their netbooks. We are certainly not going to offer resources to our parents at the expense of our students.

Netbook Pilot

Parent Technology Training

Parent Literacy Training

24 Hour Learning

Technology Plan 9

Our district will use the baseline performance indicators created by the International Society for Technology in Education. They outline their approach in The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers.

We are going to expand on the ISTE standards that: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity, Model Digital-Age Work and Learning and Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility.

We created a Technology Skill Pyramid to build on the ISTE standard to Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. This pyramid is a clear guide to our teachers about what they are expected to learn. They will need to show continuing and growing technology fluency.

Our staff is hired with the base skill levels of the pyramid. We provide resources to our staff to ensure that their technical skills increase over time. Some of our staff have different interests, so we focus on individualized professional development similar to our overall student learning approach.

We work with an outside provider for our technical support and staff Professional Development. The provider sends out questionnaires about what skills the staff would like to have or enhance. Then our service provider creates our training sessions to coincide with our usual professional development days.

Our service provider either trains the staff in these sessions, or hires an outside trainer. For specific High Level Content creation, the training often includes specific software training such as the Adobe Creative Suite.

As part of our technology goal we are constantly pushing our teachers further up the skill pyramid. Every staff member or teacher, no matter how advanced, can increase their skills with technology. With training sessions we try to push up teachers en masse. We use community learning and individual training to try and help each individual teacher advance to their next level.

How we are going to keep our teachers up to speed...

Our Teacher Technology Skill Pyramid

10 Technology Plan

Our timetable for Professional Development

By June of 2015

Staff will be adequately trained in the use of the new technology (both hardware and software)

We will continue to dedicate at least one in-service day to the integration of technology into the curriculum

Teachers and instructional staff members will continue to attend conferences and workshops organized by our service provider

Teachers will receive training in the use of the district’s electronic grading and attendance software (Powerschool)

We will continue to identify and train additional mentors who can provide informal training

By June of 2016:

Our service provider will develop application-specific training sessions

Teachers teachers will receive in-depth training in the use of the district’s electronic grading and attendance software

Our service provider will work in conjunction to develop technology-specific training

We will publish a monthly electronic newsletter providing helpful news and information relating to the use of technology within the school system

By June of 2017:

We will dedicate at least one in-service day to the integration of technology into the curriculum

We will identify and train mentors who can provide training in a more informal environment

Our service provider will develop and provide on-line technical support documents available on our district web site

Technology Plan 11

Our timetable to integrate this plan with our technology

By June of 2012

Update the Technology Plan to reflect any changes or unmet goals

Continue the improvement of our vision as new technology emerges

Ensure that all purchases for the new building are consistent with the plan

Present an update of the Technology Plan to the teachers for review

Investigate and seek federal and state funding opportunities and Technology grants

Ensure that the issues raised in this plan are acknowledged when formulating future budgets

Arrange for teacher training in the use of technology

Purchase outside technical services for the new building

Update our technology inventory

By June of 2013:

Create a Technology Committee to refine the project evaluation process and foster better communication between teachers, support services and the community

Have the Technology Committee create an “Evaluation Checklist”

Update the Technology Plan to reflect any changes or unmet goals

Ensure that our local and wide area networks are fully operational and work with an outside provider to audit our network

Continue to upgrade and replace existing technologies, as necessary

Create a plan for remote access to the network

Create a plan to evaluate our one-to-one netbook program

By June of 2014:

Have the Technology Committee present a “next steps” meeting with teachers and staff about the updated technology plan

Have a small group of teachers remotely access the network from home

Continue to upgrade and replace existing technologies, as necessary

12 Technology Plan

Over the last three years the school is made a substantial investment in access to computing. At the middle school, students have access to MacBook carts and the high school experimented with a 1-to-1 netbook program. So the district does not feel it has any shortage and access to computer resources.

The new challenge of the next three years is increasing the students access to information. The district needs to invest in the infrastructure to support the growing list of computer clients installed on its network. The district has already made inroads this last year in purchasing increased bandwidth at the high school. The next few years will demand greater to attention to infrastructure, networking equipment and support.

Of equal importance, the district also needs to ensure that our teachers are not falling behind in the presentation and feedback tools they have available. The next three years the district is going to try and invest in interactive whiteboards. These interactive whiteboards will help students visualize complex problems and concepts.

Our teachers have expressed a strong desire for their students to create increasingly sophisticated content. This content would include movies, CAD/CAM designs, multimedia presentations and 3D illustration. So in year 2/3 we will create a computer lab with the ability to create higher level content.

We also have a need for a computer “testing” lab which requires lower end equipment. We intend to purchase a mobile computer lab with “netbooks” to have the greatest number of students test at once. We also closely follow the Michigan’s Educational Technology Standards & Expectation for the 6th through 8th grades, so our equipment will allow us to meet these guidelines.

Here are our projected budgets for this year and as we continue in our new facility:

What we have and what we need to buy...

Budget for School Year 2012-13

Technology Plan 13

Budget for School Year 2013-14

14 Technology Plan

Budget for School Year 2014-15

Technology Plan 15

We are committed to raising $150 per student through local fundraising efforts, such as Box Tops for Education and traditional school fundraising activities.

In addition, We are considering establishing a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation for the purpose of fundraising through such activities as golf outings, auctions, dinners and tax-deductible donations. Detroit area business leaders have been supportive of our community from the beginning.

Grant writing and fundraising will also be part of every teacher’s job. Teachers will be expected to apply for at least one grant or seek funding or in-kind support for one program or classroom need every year.

The district has a capital budget of $50,000. The initial focus for technology expenditures will be on purchasing, then maintenance and repair - as opposed to replacement. We fully realize that budgeting for new hardware will have to be addressed before the end of this three year plan and we are now investigating alternatives that will be added into the plan as they are developed.

Coordination of Resources

A variety of funding sources will be utilized to implement our technology plan:

USF/E-rate funding will be used for telephone services and Internet access fees.

Public and private grants will be sought to assist in funding professional development, software licenses and equipment purchases.

Sources of funding for replacement cost of equipment and technical support staffing will be explored.

Internally a coordination of technology department funds, curriculum support and building level expenditures will provide consistent funding for all areas of technological need.

How we are going to pay for it...

T O TA L C O S T O F O W N E R S H I PIn the auto industry this is sometimes called the “total cost of operation.” It is the real cost of owning and using computer equipment. We will use this cost when buying or receiving computer equipment. Too often organizations focus just on the purchase price of equipment. They don’t take into account software costs, support costs, upgrade costs, repair costs or even power costs. What happens is that these organizations will overbuy on hardware and not have the budget to use the hardware they buy. So they end up in broken heaps or worse they have computers that are left in boxes. We will effectively use any funding or donated equipment. Sometimes this means we have more budgeting work, but it ensures that we utilize what we have to its fullest.

16 Technology Plan

The district works with Everymind, which is a nonprofit technology provider. We prefer to work with an outside provider to try and keep our support costs low and keep the district out of the business of supporting computers. Everymind is fully integrated into our district. They provide enrichment training and mentor a few of our students.

We work closely with Everymind to ensure that all of our technology purchases are made through state contracts. This not only lowers our purchasing cost, it also limits the amount of time we spend competitively bidding contracts and working with technology vendors. We want the maximum amount of our technology dollars directly affecting her students and curriculum. Working with Everymind allows us to staff up in the summer or when we have new technology and then to scale back during the school year we only need to support and maintain our technology. This gives us flexibility in budgeting and make sure that we do not have more staff than we need to support the computers that we have.

Our support services allow us to:

Focus on how to use technology in education and not on how to support technology

Ensure that were always buying equipment off of state contracts without having to worry about vendor support agreements

Have flexibility in staffing and budgeting

Who we have to help us support our technology

Technology Plan 17

How we make sure our students have access to technology

As a district what we found is that some of our poorer students who leave in urban Detroit are not denied access to technology hardware, they are denied access to technology know-how. So what we try to do is not give them more “stuff,” we try to train them on how to use technology to further their career. So we give our students access to the type of technology and instruction that they might find it a higher learning design school. We have a 3D engineering class and we have our mentorships to teach students on how to support hardware and software. The students are too young to be learning how to use the tools that they will use when they get a job. We do not assume that Microsoft Office knowledge will be the most important skill a student will have ten years. So we try to teach our students how to think of technology in a sophisticated way and how to think of technology in the context of problem-solving.

For us, access to technology means:

students have access to teachers who know more than they do about technology

students understand the technology changes and that you need to understand patterns and not programs

students see technology as a tool to solve problems

18 Technology Plan

As part of Our timetable to integrate this plan with our technology (page 11), by June of 2013 we will have in place a Technology Committee. This committee will meet twice a month and constantly (re)evaluate our existing Technology Plan. The committee will periodically survey all of our users and ensure that our plan is being followed and that our plan is appropriate and consistent with the district's current needs.

The committee will work with our service provider to create the survey questions and the evaluation strategy/process. The evaluation process must be directly related to our goals. The survey driven evaluation process will provide the committee with valuable information regarding our current utilization of technology. The district will be better able to prioritize technology funds and better determine our hardware and software needs.

Once the results are gathered and reviewed, the committee will create a summary of goals met (accomplishments), goals “unmet” (short-comings) and will recommend options that would transform our “unmet” goals into accomplishments. The Technology Committee will recommended changes to our superintendent. The committee will always send email requests for input and provide internal discussion forums for teachers and staff.

Once the Technology Committee is in place, they will work with our service provider and superintendent to create an “Evaluation Checklist.” This simple model will force the committee to constantly evaluate our plan. Each time the committee meets, they will start out with the checklist. They will focus the list on the question of whether the technology is “meeting our needs” and helping the district “reach its goals” outlined in this plan. As a guideline for the checklist they will use the STaR Chart Self-Diagnostic Tool created by the CEO Forum on Technology and Education (http://ceoforum.org).

The STaR Chart can help us determine if we are using technology effectively to ensure the best possible teaching and learning? What is our “education technology profile?” Finally, What areas should we focus on to improve technology integration?

We expect to have these “accomplishments” after the evaluation

Our plan lead to a stable technical environment for teaching and learning.

Our plan allows us to efficiently manage available resources

Our technology decisions lead to gains in student achievement.

How we are going to keep it running smoothly...

Technology Plan 19

University Prep Science & Math Middle/High SchoolAcceptable Use Policy

Acceptable Use Policy Philosophy:

Technology is an integrated component in the lives and education of the students and staff. It is also in a state of constant change. Applications and hardware are continually developing. It is the District’s responsibility to give access to technology, teach students how to use technology and information access responsibly, protect students from inappropriate content, and assure students use technology responsibly.

As an educational system, we will prepare our students to effectively and responsibly use the technology that they use (or will use) in their daily lives.

To that end, we must balance the need to understand and use technology while protecting our students from inappropriate content. We will allow the use of the technology, but review the content. We must provide access to the technology tools –such as e-mail, social networking sites, video archives, music sites, animations, and ensure that the students understand how to use them in an acceptable, safe manner.

The use of technology in the district is a service extended to students, staff, and community members to enhance learning and educational information exchange. For the purpose of this policy, technology includes, but not limited to TV/VCRs, DVD players, video equipment, the telephone system, district software and equipment. Each user of technology shall read this document and sign the User’s Responsibility Declaration form. The intent of this policy is to recognize and comply with existing federal requirements for privacy and Internet Safety, The Children’s Internet Protection Act, and to ensure a safe and responsible use of district technology within the school.

USER PRIVILEGES:

Users have the privilege to:

use all authorized hardware and software for which they have received trainingaccess the Internet and outside resources to retrieve informationuse approved personal equipment in school to facilitate learning and enhance educational information exchange.

20 Technology Plan

USER RESPONSIBILITIES AND RESTRICTIONS:

Most students are aware of material and applications of technology that are not appropriate for school. Students choosing to access that material and those applications may lose access to district technology.

Users are prohibited:

from the malicious use of the technology to disrupt the use of technology by othersfrom using technology to harass or discriminate against others (aka cyber-bullying)from using technology to infiltrate unauthorized computer systemsfrom using technology to engage in any illegal activityfrom using technology to publish any material that could be considered immoral or subversive by community standardsfrom using technology for personal or private business, for product advertisement or political lobbyingfrom making financial commitments on the Internet. This includes bidding for large purchases, starting online auctions or placing classified ads

The following technology equipment and activities are allowed when they are used to facilitate learning with permission of the classroom teacher: computers, personal digital assistants, e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, music/video, cell communication, cameras, and media players.

Personal technology being used during school functions or on school property will fall under the same rules as though the equipment is provided by the District.

Users are responsible:

for properly using and caring for hardware and software which they have received training refraining from using technology for which they have not received trainingfor obtaining permission from the District Technology Coordinator or support before bringing in personal software and/or hardware for use on school equipmentto keep computer systems virus free and are responsible for reporting any suspected virus to the District Technology Coordinator or supportfor keeping hardware and software from being removed from school premises, or modified without permission from the principal or the District Technology Coordinator or supportfor using the printer resources appropriatelyfor maintaining the privacy of passwords and are prohibited from publishing or discussing passwords for all material received via the Internet under his/her user account and accepts responsibility for keeping all pornographic material, inappropriate files, or files dangerous to the integrity of the school’s network, equipment, or software from entering the school via the Internetfor maintaining the integrity of the electronic mail (e-mail) system, reporting any violations of privacy, and making only those e-mail contacts that facilitate learning and enhance educational information exchangefor adhering to the copyright laws in the use of software and in the transmission or copying of text or files from Internet or other resources

Technology Plan 21

EDUCATIONAL STAFF RESPONSIBILITIES:

Staff will monitor students while they are using computers and other technologyStaff will ensure that the students are using technology with an educational purposeStaff will guide researchStaff will notify students of the regulations within the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

22 Technology Plan

CORRECTIVE ACTION:

Users violating the Acceptable Use Policy will be subject to corrective action described below. They may also be required to make full financial restitution for any unauthorized expenses incurred or any damages caused.

Corrective Action for Minor Violations:

Minor Violations are those violations considered disrespectful or bothersome. They may include, but are not limited to the following:

accessing game, video, photo, social networking, and animation websites without permissionaccessing other sites for non-educational useusing the technology without permissionmisusing equipmentdisconnecting hardwaredownloading applicationsnon-educational use of communicationmaking disruptive settings changes (background images, sounds)

Minor violations will be enforced by the teacher. In addition, an AUP Violation slip will be completed by the teacher and given to the principal. The form will be kept as part of the student’s disciplinary record. The principal will review the incident and determine the need for further action.

Corrective Action for Flagrant Violations of AUP:

Flagrant Violations are activities that are dangerous, destructive, immoral, or disruptive to classroom activities and instruction. They may include, but are not limited to the following:

accessing inappropriate websitesposting inappropriate materialmodifying hardware or softwaredamaging hardware or softwareharassing others or cyber-bullying

Flagrant violations will result in the student being sent to the principal’s office and technology privileges suspended until a parent meeting takes place. Technology privileges may be suspended for a period of time as determined by the principal.

Technology Plan 23

Parents,

Please keep a copy of the University Prep Science & Math District’s Acceptable Use Policy for Technology for your reference, and return the signed declaration of understanding to the school.

DECLARATION OF UNDERSTANDING

I, the parent or guardian of _________________________________________ (student’s name), and the student who has signed along with me, have read and understand this acceptable use policy. We understand that my son or daughter must adhere to the terms of the University Prep Science & Math District’s Acceptable Use Policy for Technology. I understand that access to district technology resources is for educational purposes only.

_______________ ________________________________________ ____________________________Date Parent or Guardian Name (Please Print) Parent or Guardian Signature

________________________________________ ____________________________ Student Name (Please Print) Student Signature

24 Technology Plan

University Prep Science & MathAcceptable Use Violation

This form is filled out by a staff member/representative of district when he/she witnesses a violation of the AUP. It is to be filled out and turned over to the principal at the time of the violation.

Student Name: ____________________________

Reporting Teacher/Staff: ____________________________

Date of violation: ________________

This is considered a (circle one): MINOR offense MAJOR offense

Description of AUP violation:

Administrative Notes:

University Prep Science & MathAcceptable Use Violation

This form is filled out by a staff member/representative of district when he/she witnesses a violation of the AUP. It is to be filled out and turned over to the principal at the time of the violation.

Student Name: ____________________________

Reporting Teacher/Staff: ____________________________

Date of violation: ________________

This is considered a (circle one): MINOR offense MAJOR offense

Description of AUP violation:

Administrative Notes: