District Technology Plan

Desoto ISD’s technology plan goals are numerous.  One goal is to provide a technology network that will support instruction and student learning.  Another goal is to support educational software by supplying all educators with access.  DeSoto ISD’s goal is to give professional development opportunities for software and equipment.  An additional goal for the district is to provide computer access to all students.  They plan to allocate appropriate funds to obtain equipment and software.  Technology is distributed to each campus based on the need.  Desoto technological advancement goal is to support the technological resources necessary for staff such as the gradebook, parent portal, and eduphoria.  Staff will be trained on district information management systems.  New teachers are trained for t he systems.  Also when new systems are introduced, the staff is trained (Campus Improvement Plan, 2008-2009).  Recently our district adopted a new gradebook system called Tyler SIS.  Before the program began, two teachers from our campus were trained over the summer.  Then the teachers trained us in a staff meeting.  The teachers also communicated any additional questions to be answered to tech support.  The transition has not been problem-free.  However, transition has happened with the understanding that we are all learning.  Together by trial and error the system has become more efficient.   

On our campus we have two Technology Specialists who are educators.  They meet regularly on the Technology District Committee.  They are charged to update the district with our campus-based needs and to train the campus with viable updates.  There was no budget specified for technology on the budget online document.  Also, the only evaluation I am aware of is the STaR report that is evaluated for the district.  It was interesting to look at the information given for the technology plan.   All of the answers to the questions were not attached to the Desoto ISD Campus Improvement Plan (2008-2009). 

Reference

Campus Improvement Plan.  (2008-2009).  In DeSoto ISD online.   Retrieved from

http://www.desotoisd.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=GjLT49MBgyk%3D&tabid=319&mid=982