PAMELA LLOYD

The mission of the Instructional Technology Department is to give assistance to Anchorage School District schools by providing staff development, instructional support, resources, and opportunities that empower teachers and students to use technology as a tool for learning. As the Coordinator for the Instructional Technology Department, I support the technology teacher experts in our department as well as the building coordinators/contacts in each of our schools.

Current Instructional Technology Projects:

iBook Project - In the Fall of 2002, five hundred seventy-nine iBook laptop computers were distributed to elementary teachers to facilitate their ability to enter reading assessment data into the ASD Reading Database. The computers were purchased because of the Learning Opportunity Grant. Teacher’s were required to attend an initial three hour training to familiarize themselves with the iBook and the OS X operating system. Beginning in December of 2003, and hopefully finishing up in February 2004, these iBooks have gone through a re-imaging process to bring the operating system and applications up to date. The updated image benefits are numerous and include:  updated iApps, Safari, Easy Grade Pro for OS X, as well as many other improvements.

RADMIND Project - Schools are currently identifying machines which will be used as distributed servers in their buildings. Once those servers are setup I.T. will be able to administer updates and modifications to both managed iBooks as well as the managed principal laptops.

Anchorage School District Teacher Academy (ASDTA) - Currently there are 16 classes being offered by the Instructional Technology Department during the Anchorage School District Teacher Academy (ASDTA) to be held in June 2004. These classes range in topics from beginning level computer basics to advanced level video production.

Standard Server Configuration - Concluding a process begun in 2003, the Information Technology and Instructional Technology departments have jointly crafted a standard server configuration to expedite the process of deploying new servers coming into schools in the district.  Another benefit to a standardized server configuration will be enhanced support of the servers by Information Technology.

Building Technology Contact Monthly Trainings - The Instructional Technology Department has led meetings for Building Technology Contacts in September, October, November and December. Included in these trainings have been a variety of topics such as MyLearningPlan.com, resource collaboration databases, spreadsheets, websites, Apple's iApplications (iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie) as well as providing an opportunity to disseminate valuable information. January and February meeting dates were dedicated to allowing the Building Tech Contacts to attend the Alaska Society for Technology in Education (ASTE) conference.

Elementary School Projects

Scenic Park has completed their transition to Mac OS X on their classroom and lab computers.  These updated computers integrate well with their existing servers which have been upgraded to Mac OS X Server.  The school has also put their second iBook mobile lab or iCart, into production this year for teachers to check out and take to use with their students in their class.  Scenic Park has been very fortunate to have a proactive and supportive PTA who acknowledges the importance of up-to-date technology for teaching and learning, and supports the staff in learning to use the new technology.    

Campbell Elementary is in the process of upgrading their lab to OS X. The PTA purchased 31 eMacs for the Computer Lab. The existing AppleShare server is being upgraded to OS X. The teachers at Campbell are part of the iBook Project so both staff and students will be using OS X together.

Secondary Projects
The focus of district level and site based instructional technology staff at ASD middle schools and high schools has been focused in two primary areas for the past several school years.
 
With the introduction of NCLB and the HSGQE, there has been a tremendous focus at the high school level on student remediation.  To a large extent, this has been in the form of web based curricula, examples of which are NovaNet, Plato, Fast Forword, Class.com, and Larson Math. implementation and integration of these programs into very diverse sites, with regard to technology resources, continues to take a large commitment of time and
energy on the part of the building technology coordinators, trainers, and district instructional technology staff.
 
The second primary area of focus has been in the development of, and migration toward, a standardized district technology implementation.  The need to integrate a growing number of electronic curricular programs, coupled with the increase in student and staff use of internet resources, has significantly increased the need for computer management and centralized resources. To that end, secondary technology staff have been very involved in the standardization of student and staff computers, developing standard configurations of instructionally supported servers, and the creation of images and tools that support those goals.

Principal Laptop Project:
Elementary and middle school principals are involved in a 3-year program designed to increase skill and vision in using technology to communicate. Principals are participating in training designed to increase their skill level in using technology while at the same time learning about what effective technology use in the classroom looks like, how to drive instruction based on data, and how to share the results of data with others. Federal grant funds that must be used for staff development in the area of technology are used to support a person to provide training and support to the principals.

Technology Teacher Leader Project:
The Technology Teacher Leader (TTL) Pilot Project for the 2003-04 school year is designed to provide teachers at Fairview and Denali Elementary Schools with knowledge and resources to increase student understanding of content by focusing on the wise integration of technology into classroom activities. Six teachers from each of these schools were selected because both schools had recently used school-level building funds to purchase technology for all teachers. Additional funds for the staff development portion of this project is funded by Title IID funds that must be spent on professional development and tools (hardware/software) necessary for effective technology integration.

The TTL model will expand in the 2004-05 school year to include 25-30 teachers throughout the district. The TTL model is designed to empower change at the classroom level, and is based on a systemic design approach to be implemented at a district level over the next four years. This model has been successfully implemented in several districts in Texas and Washington.