DELAWARE CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY · 2017. 1. 9. · Delaware Center for Educational Technology Strategic Plan Draft, Version 2.0 7/27/2004, Page 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Visionary

DRAFT VERSION 2.0

DELAWARE CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL

TECHNOLOGY

STRATEGIC PLAN FY1997 - FY1999

MARCH 10, 1997

STATE OF DELAWARE

Delaware Center for Educational Technology Strategic Plan

7/27/2004, Page 2 Draft, Version 2.0

FOREWORD

Structure of the Plan

This strategic plan for the Delaware Center for Edu-cational Technology (DCET) has been compiled in a format consistent with the Delaware Office of Infor-mation System’s strategic plan in order to facilitate collaborative planning efforts. This plan follows the model depicted below, starting with Level 1.

The Information Technology

System

FutureApplications

StrategicInitiatives

EducationStatistics

DistrictTechnology

Plans

EnvironmentStrategiesand Goals

EnterpriseOrganization

Vision,Mission &Principles

Benefits

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 1 Foundation

Utilizing Technology

Creating the Future

Objectives This is the first comprehensive plan prepared for

DCET. It is designed to be a living, strategic document that will be updated continuously. The objectives are to: • Develop, define and communicate long-term goals

for the use of educational technology. • Provide input to the annual budget process. • Promote cooperation among school districts and

state agencies. • Identify, prioritize and highlight strategic initia-

tives.


Draft, Version 2.0 7/27/2004, Page 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Visionary Leadership Honorable Thomas Carper Governor, State of Delaware

DCET Board Henry Decker + Director of Computer Services, Delaware Technical & Comm. College Donald Dryden Controller General Michael Ferguson + Acting State Superintendent, Department of Public Instruction Charles Fletcher Director, Strategic Planning Susan Foster + Vice President, Information Technology University of Delaware Paul Harjung + Executive Director Sarah Jackson State Secretary of Finance Ward Keever Sr. Vice President of Information Systems, Medical Center of Delaware Russell Knorr Superintendent, Seaford School District Dominick Landi Managing Director, J.P. Morgan & Co., Inc. Dennis Loftus * + Chairperson, DCET & Superintendent New Castle County Vo-Tech Judith Mims + Librarian, Caesar Rodney High School John Nold Executive Director, State Office of Information Systems Susan Roushey + Teacher, William Penn High School Tom Sloan State Librarian Robert Smith Superintendent, Milford School District + Strategic Planning Committee School Chiefs Jeff Adams Superintendent Polytech School District William Bach Superintendent Caesar Rodney School District David Campbell Superintendent Colonial School District Patricia Carlson Superintendent Laurel School District Paul Carlson Delaware Association School Administrators Ann Case Delaware School Board Association Joseph Crossen Superintendent Capital School District Joe DeJohn Superintendent Brandywine School District Mike Ferguson Acting State Superintendent, Department of Public Instruction George Frunzi Superintendent Sussex Tech School District Lois Hobbs Superintendent Indian River School District Russ Knorr Superintendent Seaford School District Dennis Loftus Superintendent NCCVT School District Iris Metts CSO President & Superintendent Christina School District Tony Marchio Superintendent Appoquinimink School District Jack Nichols Department of Public Instruction Bob Simons Superintendent Red Clay School District Mary Scott Superintendent Smyrna School District Suellen Skeen Superintendent Cape Henlopen School District Robert Smith Superintendent Milford School District George Stone Superintendent Delmar School District James VanSciver Superintendent Lake Forest School District Robert Sutton Superintendent Woodbridge School District

Planning Advisors



Nancy Doorey State School Board Peg Bradley Governor’s Education Policy Advisor Pat Sine University of Delaware

Information Retrieval ƒ indicates participated in DCET Strategic Planning focus group Thomas Brennan DCET Susan Cushwa DSLMA Executive Board Member Beth Anderson University of Delaware Kathleen Dahlenburgƒ Technology Coordinator Woodbridge School District Margaret Dillner Governor’s Task Force Member Orval Foraker Professional Standards Council Angela Campbell Goodhart Legislative Assistant, Congressman Michael Castle Carl Hauger Technology Coordinator Smyrna School District Theresa Koughƒ Co-leader Education Associate Library/Media/Technology Sandra Millard University of Delaware Judith Mimsƒ DCET Board Advisor Keith Purdy Bell Atlantic Network Services Thomas Sloanƒ Division of Libraries Henry A. Stenta Co-leader Principal, Howard High School of Technology Sherry Clarkƒ New Castle County Vo-Tech Jonathan Crowtherƒ New Castle County Vo-Tech Kathy Dullisƒ Laurel Michael Eplerƒ Christina Susan Evansƒ Caesar Rodney Joe Saggioneƒ Red Clay Laurel Swindleƒ Capital Patricia Woodsƒ Sussex County Vo-Tech Staff Development & Technology Utilization Robert Boyer MBNA America Jack Collette DuPont Central Research & Development Dennis Crowley * ƒ DSEA Harriett Donofrio Delaware Teacher Center Nancy Doorey State Board of Education Kathleen Hollowell U of D Math & Science Resource Theresa Kough DPI Peg Menear Lewes Middle School Tom Milspaw Indian River Wendy Modzelewski Christina Leslie Morrill Brandywine School District Susan Poland Giancola DE Education R&D Center Dan Rich * University of Delaware Ann Rosatiƒ Lake Forest Sarah Ross Cape Henlopen Pat Roy Delaware State University Pat Sine U of D Instructional Technology Center Gavin Standishƒ Lake Forest Lorayne Titter Sharon Walls Hallƒ Polytech Steve Wolak Cape Henlopen

Don Amesƒ Colonial Linda Braswellƒ Lake Forest Craig Deidrickƒ Red Clay Helen Durbanoƒ New Castle County Vo-Tech Betsy Godfreyƒ Seaford Sherri Hudsonƒ Smyrna Barbara Lesleyƒ Smyrna Jimmy Lettieriƒ Polytech



Loretta Martinƒ Capital Linda Masonƒ Indian River Babs Suttonƒ Indian River Lorayne Titterƒ Red Clay Philip Wilsonƒ Sussex County Vo-Tech Maya Zistlƒ Brandywine Operations Wally Abrams Technology Specialist Seaford School District Walt Adkins DelTech Computing Center Brian Callahan Associate Director OIS Bob Czeizinger Department of Public Instruction Information Resource Manager Henry Decker DCET Board Advisor Rita Hanzlik DelTech Computing Center John Jackson * ƒ Technology Coordinator Milford School District Charlie Postlesƒ School Board Member, Milford School District Steve Topolancik J.P. Morgan Randy Wise IS Manager Dentsply-Caulk (Milford Division) Michael Eplerƒ Christina Arlene Keeblerƒ Colonial Mike Mayhewƒ Data Service Center Jane McKinnonƒ Brandywine Infrastructure Mike Stratton* ƒ Office of Information Systems Brice Reedƒ Indian River Bruce Daceyƒ New Castle County Vo-Tech Technology Coordinator Rick Truittƒ Office of Information Systems Wally Abramsƒ Seaford Technology Coordinator Education Technology Management Wayne Hartschuh* ƒ DCET Linda Braswellƒ Lake Forest Carl Bartellƒ Indian River Mike Conaway Purchasing Blaine Herrick Purchasing Pete LaVenia Office of Telecommunications Management Mike Mayew Data Service Center Carol Schrefflerƒ Sussex County Vo-Tech Mike Shockley New Castle County Vo-Tech Colleen M. Stoneƒ Caesar Rodney Denise Tuckƒ Capital Mike Talleyƒ Brandywine Regina Royerƒ Laurel Maya Zistl Data Service Center



Other Focus Group Participants Alexander Shalkƒ Milford Anne Eitelmanƒ Brandywine Bill Rawlesƒ Christina Dan Farleyƒ Caesar Rodney Dawn LeKitesƒ Indian River Kathleen Overstreetƒ Brandywine Gary Finchƒ Smyrna Jennifer Givensƒ Laurel Judy Warringtonƒ Milford Kae Keisterƒ Milford Kenny Vincentƒ Lake Forest Leroy Fortnerƒ Office of Information Systems Leslie Morrillƒ Brandywine Lew Millerƒ Caesar Rodney Margaret Houchinƒ Smyrna Marilyn Neatƒ Laurel Patrick Dunnƒ Smyrna



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Introduction In an information-age school: • “Learning occurs in

collaboration, not in isolation.

• Students are active architects of their own learning experi-ences.

• Educators’ roles expand: They are fa-cilitators, innovators, collaborators, re-searchers, and elec-tronic publishers.

• Advanced tech-nologies are com-monplace tools for educators and stu-dents

• Interior and exterior walls become ‘trans-parent’; there is greater collaboration among educators and students within a school, and with oth-ers around the coun-try and the world.

• The community ac-

“If we deny our children the basic tools of a knowledge-based economy, we will be less able to attract high-paying, quality jobs to Delaware and less likely to keep those that we have. The simple fact is that students graduating from high school today who do not know how to use technology are immediately disadvantaged whether they enter the world of work or go on to higher education.”

Governor Thomas R. Carper speaking before the Delaware Educational Tech-nology Committee, September 30, 1994

There is a national consensus that public education needs to be reformed systemically. There is a sense of urgency and agreement that there are no quick fixes. However, there is one common denominator among the many ideas being de-bated: technology must play a major role in the movement to improve education. Just as technology has enhanced our na-tion‘s business competitiveness in a global context during the past decade, technology holds the promise of turning our classrooms into world-class learning places of the 21st cen-tury. The State of Delaware is uniquely qualified to use technology to ensure high standards of education and prepare the work-force of the future. Our state’s size is an asset. It facilitates easy access to government officials and successful partner-ships among the public, private and indepenmdent sectors. Delaware offers an ideal environment within which to effect systemic education reform through the use of educational technology. This strategic plan is a framework for the technological trans-

1 “Building Consensus/Building Models: A Networking Strategy for Change”, Federation of American Research Networks, March 1994, p.7.



tively participates in the teaching and learning processes.

• All stakeholders, including practitio-ners and parents, play an active role in management deci-sions regarding in-struction and technology.”1

formation of public education in Delaware and achievement of the vision: “The First State in Education: Every Class-room, Every Teacher, Every Child.” In a very short period of time, Delaware has leaped from be-ing technology poor in education to building a solid founda-tion for growth in educational technology. After one year into a $30 million project, the Delaware Cen-ter for Educational Technology has completed 10 of its 29 foundation goals. The goals and progress to date are summa-rized in detail in DCET’s 1996 Annual Report. Delaware has made a tremendous commitment to make technology an important tool in the classroom. The pro-gress made by “The DCET Partnership” during the first year is noteworthy. Working together, we have put in place the roadbed for connecting Delaware public schools to the information highway. We are very appreciative of the en-couragement and support that we have received to date! The next phase of our project is the most challenging and im-portant for the success of the entire initiative. This phase en-tails acquiring and putting in place the operational resources to achieve and nurture the full potential of the Information Highway in our classrooms.

Background

DCET was formed as a result of recommendations made by the Educational Technology Committee in a report titled “Educational Technology: A Report to the Governor, Leg-islature, and Citizens of Delaware"” dated February 1995. The committee was established in 1994 by House Joint Resolution No. 27. There were 29 specific recommenda-tions which were summarized into seven key strategies:

• Create the Delaware Center for Educational Tech-nology as the operating and support organization for the education network.

• Establish a Delaware Education Network and ensure equal access to and equity in the network.

• Wire every classroom and provide computing re-sources by 1997.

• Train teachers, librarians, and school administrators in the application and use of technology.

• Identify costs, secure funding, and provide appro-



priate technological resources for the schools. • Promote the activities of the Center to the benefit of

the educational community and in support of the economic development objectives of the State.

• Collaborate and partner with public libraries, non-public schools, and the business community.

In the spring of 1995, the Delaware Legislature accepted the recommendation of Governor Thomas R. Carper to establish the Delaware Center for Educational Technology (DCET). The Center is intended to create a modern educational tech-nology infrastructure in Delaware’s public schools for the purpose of enabling students, through the use of educational technology to meet the academic standards set by the State Board of Education and to develop the skills needed by a world-class work force. Establishment of the Board of Directors The Delaware Center for Educational Technology is gov-erned by a ten-member Board consisting of three members who have expertise in the field of computer information, three public school superintendents, two public school teach-ers, the State Superintendent or his designee, and the Execu-tive Director of the Office of Information Systems. The State Librarian, the State Budget Director, Controller General, Sec-retary of Finance or their designees, and one representative designated by each of the Presidents of the three Delaware public institutions of higher education, shall be ex-officio, non-voting members of the Board. In late September 1995, all Board appointments were final-ized by the Governor. The first meeting of the Delaware Center for Educational Technology was September 29, 1995. DCET Operations officially began on February 1, 1996 with the hiring of the Executive Director. DCET’s short-term strategic plan was accepted by the Bond Bill Commit-tee on February 12, 1996.



Vision The vision of the Delaware Center for Educational Tech-nology is to help Delaware become “The First State In Education: Every Classroom, Every Teacher, Every Child.” Our vision reflects our absolute commitment to the princi-ple of equity: ensuring every teacher and child, in each of our public schools and classrooms is provided with an equal opportunity to utilize technology in the educational process. This vision also reflects our fundamental belief that technology in education is critical to the creation of a competitive 21st century workforce and that a competitive workforce is a major contributing factor to strengthening and maintaining Delaware’s economic viability.

Mission

TO HELP EMPOWER CHILDREN,THROUGH THE USE OF INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY,TO ACHIEVE HIGHER STANDARDS IN

EDUCATION.

MISSIONof the Delaware

Center forEducationalTechnology

The mission of the Delaware Center for Educational Tech-nology is to help empower children, through the use of information technology, to achieve higher standards in education. All of our efforts are dedicated to achieving this mission.

• Children are the future. Although DCET will tar-get various programs to support others, the ulti-mate goal is empowerment of our children.

• DCET is focused on the use of information and technology in education as the primary means to achieve this mission. We recognize that other fac-tors may also be involved, but our efforts will re-main centered on the value of technology.

• Our success will be measured by the abilities of Delaware students to achieve higher educational standards. We recognize that assessments are con-troversial and that there are other metrics to be considered, but we believe that if a student is able to accomplish more and learn better, while using technology as an enabler, then we will have ac-complished our mission.



Principles Guidance for expendi-tures from the 21st Cen-tury Fund: • Fund long-term

capital investments. • Utilize existing

funding structures so as not to create additional bureauc-racy.

• Leverage monies to maximize private and public sector leadership and in-vestment.

• Establish clear guidelines for the expenditure of funds and incorpo-rate these into the State’s long range strategic planning.

There are six fundamental principles that will drive our ef-forts: • We will be standards driven. Standards are critical because education will never be able to afford the resources to allow an undetermined number of so-lutions to proliferate throughout the state. We will standard-ize on elements when standardization provides benefits in support, cost and/or maintenance. Where a standard is not a requirement, we will explicitly describe the exception. • Manageability will be considered in all decisions. With few resources available, management of technology needs to occur wherever the expertise can most efficiently be provided. In the State of Delaware Education Network (DEN), we will operate with both a centralized and distrib-uted model. For example, appropriate, simple to use, network management tools will be provided at the school, District, Center for Educational Technology and the State Office of Information Systems levels. We will not create additional bu-reaucracy or manage activities based on “turf.” We will lev-erage expertise wherever it is available. • Everything we do must be easily scalable. Education in Delaware will continue to grow. Recent projec-tions in the State show an average growth rate of 2% per year2, thus guaranteeing additional students and continuing to drive the need for more buildings and teachers. We will oper-ate under a general principal of installing only what is neces-sary to operate with today, but providing for easy, rapid, modular growth. We expect to see significant additions of computers in classrooms as we work to increase the number of networkable computers from today’s ratio of 20 students to 1 computer to the national goal of 6 students per computer. • We will only implement what we can afford. One can easily be fooled into believing that the initial $30,000,000 in funding will cover the cost of educational

2 The News Journal, Thursday Sept 19, 1996, page A14.



Standard Manageable Scalable Affordable Migrateable Equitable

technology. However, the real costs are recognized to be 3 to 4X this initial investment. The most critical cost issues will be operational funding: ongoing maintenance and support. We must be fiscally prudent in our design, implementation and procurement. We will always focus on the most cost-effective solution, balanced with other appropriate criteria.

• We will always plan for migration. In technology, nothing is certain, other than the fact that the technology will change and it will do so rapidly. Given this simple fact, everything we do will be designed for modular replacement and easy migration paths to higher speeds, dif-ferent networking protocols or different vendors.

• We will ensure each school is treated equitably. As with many aspects of our society, there are the technology “haves” and “have-nots”. Access to technology in schools is often dependent on District leadership, taxes, referendums and other factors. DCET is committed to ensuring that equal capability is provided to every school.3

Strategies

To achieve its mission, DCET has adopted the following six strategies: • Ensure voice, data and video connectivity to every public

school classroom within 3 years. We will build a statewide education data network and con-nect each of the state’s 7000 classrooms. We will prepare each classroom for future applications of video and voice technology by providing a basic cabling infrastructure includ-ing coaxial cable and fiber optics. • Coordinate the evaluation and implementation of educa-

tional technology and administrative applications. 3 Definition of equity: adopted by the DCET Board on February 29, 1996.

The Delaware Center for Educational Technology is committed to the principle of equity. At this stage of our efforts, we will focus on providing equity of opportunity to access technology through the wir-ing of all schools. We will provide every public school, every classroom, and every student the opportunity to participate. The intent is to provide a “level playing field” for all schools.

To the extent possible, and within the resources available, we will assist in providing equitable ac-cess to computer resources. Schools will be individually accountable for how well they make technology available and for how well they utilize technology.



Six Strategies • Ensure voice, data

and video connec-tivity to every pub-lic school classroom within 3 years.

• Coordinate the evaluation and im-plementation of educational tech-nology and adminis-trative applications.

• Provide for support of the infrastructure.

• Develop public and private educational technology initia-tives and partner-ships.

• Ensure integration of technology and curriculum.

• Provide for profes-sional development.

We will establish statewide evaluation, purchasing and li-censing procedures to ensure purchased software is suppor-tive of the state’s educational standards and is provided in the most cost-effective manner. We will work with the Depart-ment of Public Instruction and the New Castle County Data Service Center to define business processes within education, simplify these processes and automate processes only when the value can be clearly articulated. • Provide for support of the infrastructure. We will work with schools, Districts, and state agencies such as the Office of Information Systems to clearly define the necessary support requirements for educational technology. We will be customer focused and maintain a sense of urgency and priority in everything we do, recognizing that in technol-ogy there will never be enough time or money to meet every-one’s desires. • Develop public and private educational technology initia-

tives and partnerships. We will leverage the resources and experience of any organi-zation that can contribute to our mission. We will explore and develop creative partnerships to help address the need for hardware, software and technical resources in our schools. • Ensure integration of technology and curriculum. We will foster and encourage the use of technology as an in-tegral part of the school curriculum. Technology is not a panacea and does not stand alone. It is a tool, like many other tools, that is best utilized with a specific purpose in mind. It will be our goal to ensure that teachers have access to and can use the technology tool(s) that is right for the job. • Provide for professional development. We believe that Districts and schools are responsible for the actual delivery of professional development. DCET will provide guidance and help set expectations for the types of technology skills that are necessary; provide access to new technologies for evaluation purposes; assist Districts in planning for and partially funding educational technology



professional development; and ensure that technology pro-fessionals in schools and Districts are appropriately trained. We will utilize a process that ensures clear accountability and specific roles for DCET and the school or District.

Goals What will it look like in three years? What visible, measur-

able goals will we accomplish? We anticipate that as our planning process matures and the sub-committees further define their work, our goals will change, however, as of now we can clearly visualize, that in three years we will have: 1. In each of 7000 classrooms in 186 schools:

- voice, data (UTP), coax & fiber - at least 1 high-quality networked computer - internet access

2. Single state-wide network operating system 3. Email for 10,000 educators and 107,000 students 4. 80% of educators comfortable with & using technology

as part of their curriculum Conclusion Delaware has made a tremendous commitment to turn our

classrooms into learning places of the future. We are off to a good start (see DCET 1996 Annual Report). There is practically no limit to what we can do technologically. We will face many challenges over the next few years. This strategic plan is dedicated to identifying the most important challenges and suggesting strategies to help address them. The plan is necessarily short on identifying funding and resources. We have little to no history to work with and so far the state leadership has not yet demonstrated an under-standing of the operational needs to maintain and manage what we have already put in place. Most importantly, this strategic plan will be used to manage expectations. Much is possible, but little can be accom-plished without identifying and following a plan. We hope this document is a good beginning.


7/27/2004, Page 15

DELAWARE CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY Our vision is to help Delaware become the

First State in Education: Every Classroom, Every Teacher, Every Child. Our mission is to help

empower children, through the use of information technology, to achieve higher standards in education.

As a CENTER, we organize our efforts according to the following concepts: Community - parents, teachers, & students as customers Equity - technology access, regardless of location Networking - collaboration beyond school or district Teachers - facilitate a changing role in the classroom Education - encourage passion & skills to support life-long learning Results - higher standards produce better employees & citizens We will follow these principles, • We will be standards driven. • Manageability will be considered in all deci-

sions. • Everything we do must be easily scalable. • We will only implement what we can afford. • We will always plan for migration. • We will ensure each school is treated equitably. and utilize these strategies, • Ensure voice, data and video connectivity to

every public school classroom. • Coordinate the evaluation and implementation of

educational technology and administrative appli-cations.

• Provide for support of the infrastructure. • Develop public and private educational technol-

ogy initiatives and partnerships. • Ensure integration of technology and curriculum. • Provide for professional development. to accomplish the following goals. • In each of 7000 classrooms in 186 schools:

- voice, data (UTP), coax & fiber - at least 1 high-quality networked computer - internet access

• Single state-wide network operating system • Email for 10,000 educators and 107,000 students • 80% of educators comfortable with & using

technology as part of their curriculum To meet our goals, we will successfully complete these 26 initiatives over the next 3-5 years ➨

Staff Development & Technology Utilization • Identify scope & sequence for K-12 • Integrated building level plans • Access to ongoing professional development • Establish state-wide resource base • Structure & process for staff development • Electronic forum(s) • Identify tools for operational productivity • Collaboratively define & assess needs Information Retrieval • Automate school library collections • Support media specialists • Provide access to education data • Provide access to on-line subscriptions Operations • Develop support infrastructure

• District Technology Managers • Building technical support • District instructional technologists • Help desk

• Clarify role of regional centers (DSC) • High School apprenticeship program Infrastructure • Planning for web services • Alternative WAN technologies/cable • Electronic mail • Distance education/multimedia distribution • Access -- non-public schools & dial-in • Electrical Educational Technology Management • Partners in Education

• Education Foundation & trust fund • Grantsmanship • Internet, copyright & filtering policies • Purchasing policies • Technology survey

Table of Contents


TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD ___________________________________________________________2 Structure of the Plan ________________________________________________________ 2

Objectives _________________________________________________________________ 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ________________________________________________3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY_________________________________________________7 Introduction _______________________________________________________________ 7

Background________________________________________________________________ 8

Vision____________________________________________________________________ 10

Mission __________________________________________________________________ 10

Principles_________________________________________________________________ 11

Strategies_________________________________________________________________ 12

Goals____________________________________________________________________ 14

Conclusion________________________________________________________________ 14

PLANNING PROCESS __________________________________________________21 Collaboration _____________________________________________________________ 21

Foundation_______________________________________________________________ 22

Utilizing Technology _______________________________________________________ 22

Creating the Future ________________________________________________________ 23

Scope ____________________________________________________________________ 23 Staff Development & Technology Utilization __________________________________________ 23 Infrastructure ___________________________________________________________________ 27 Information Retrieval_____________________________________________________________ 27 Operations _____________________________________________________________________ 28 Education Technology Management _________________________________________________ 30

ENTERPRISE ORGANIZATION _________________________________________32 Preface___________________________________________________________________ 32

Organization Guiding Concepts ______________________________________________ 32

Table of Contents


Key Stakeholders __________________________________________________________ 33

Board of Directors _________________________________________________________ 33

Organization______________________________________________________________ 34 Functional Organization __________________________________________________________ 35 Infrastructure Responsibilities ______________________________________________________ 37

Role Descriptions __________________________________________________________ 37 DCET Board ___________________________________________________________________ 38 DCET Executive Director _________________________________________________________ 39 DCET Chief Education Officer _____________________________________________________ 40 DCET WebMaster _______________________________________________________________ 42 Lead Network Engineer___________________________________________________________ 43 District Technology Manager ______________________________________________________ 44 District Instructional Technologist __________________________________________________ 45 School Support Specialist _________________________________________________________ 46 School Library Media Specialist ____________________________________________________ 47

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT______________________________48 Preface___________________________________________________________________ 48

Computing Platforms ______________________________________________________ 49 Mainframe Computing____________________________________________________________ 49 Mid-tier Computer Systems________________________________________________________ 51 Personal Computers ______________________________________________________________ 52

Enterprise Software Services ________________________________________________ 54 Statewide Applications ___________________________________________________________ 54

Database Software ______________________________________________________________ 54

Word Processing ________________________________________________________________ 55

Spreadsheets ___________________________________________________________________ 55

Graphics_______________________________________________________________________ 55

Integrated Desktop Computing Services ______________________________________________ 55 Library Automation Software ______________________________________________________ 55 Integrated Learning Packages ______________________________________________________ 56

IT Networks ______________________________________________________________ 56 Data Communications Network_____________________________________________________ 57 Voice Communications Network____________________________________________________ 59 Distance Learning Network ________________________________________________________ 61 Electronic Mail _________________________________________________________________ 61 Internet and Intranet______________________________________________________________ 62

BENEFITS OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ___________________________64 Delaware Objectives________________________________________________________ 64

21st Century Workforce_____________________________________________________ 65

Examples_________________________________________________________________ 68 Capital/Lightspan Partnership ______________________________________________________ 68 Integrated Learning and Assessment Tool_____________________________________________ 68 Distance Learning _______________________________________________________________ 69

Table of Contents


INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PLANS __________________________________70 Preface___________________________________________________________________ 70

Common Problems_________________________________________________________ 70

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES ______________________________________________71 Preface___________________________________________________________________ 71

Staff Development and Technology Utilization__________________________________ 71 Best Practices___________________________________________________________________ 72 Integrate Technology & Curriculum _________________________________________________ 75 Process for Staff Development _____________________________________________________ 79 Staff Collaboration and Communication ______________________________________________ 80 Collaborative Needs Assessment & Planning __________________________________________ 82

Infrastructure _____________________________________________________________ 83 Web Services ___________________________________________________________________ 84 Cable Modems and Alternative Access _______________________________________________ 84 Distance Education ______________________________________________________________ 85 Electronic Mail _________________________________________________________________ 88 Access for Non-Public Schools, Home, Underprivileged _________________________________ 88 Electrical ______________________________________________________________________ 89

Information Retrieval ______________________________________________________ 90 Best Practices___________________________________________________________________ 90 Building Level Media Specialist ____________________________________________________ 91 Automated Catalog of School Media Collections_______________________________________ 92 Subscription Services_____________________________________________________________ 92 Access to Educational Data ________________________________________________________ 93

Operations________________________________________________________________ 93 Best Practices___________________________________________________________________ 94 Support Infrastructure ____________________________________________________________ 95 High School Apprenticeship Programs _______________________________________________ 99 Regional Centers ________________________________________________________________ 99

Education Technology Management _________________________________________ 100 Best Practices__________________________________________________________________ 100 Partners in Education____________________________________________________________ 101

Public Education Foundation & Trust Fund __________________________________________ 101 Grantsmanship _________________________________________________________________ 102 Internet, Copyright and Filtering Policies____________________________________________ 104 Purchasing Policy ______________________________________________________________ 105 Technology Survey _____________________________________________________________ 105

ENTERPRISE STATISTICS ____________________________________________107 Preface__________________________________________________________________ 107

Business Drivers __________________________________________________________ 109

IS&T Expenditures _______________________________________________________ 113

IS&T Spending by Source__________________________________________________ 115

DCET Budget ____________________________________________________________ 116

Table of Contents


Customer Base ___________________________________________________________ 121

Application Development Interest ___________________________________________ 121

STRATEGIC NEW TECHNOLOGY ______________________________________124 Preface__________________________________________________________________ 124

Wireless_________________________________________________________________ 124

Network Computers_______________________________________________________ 124

WAN Access & Technologies _______________________________________________ 124

Electronic Textbooks ______________________________________________________ 125

Explosive Growth of the Intranet ____________________________________________ 125

References ___________________________________________________________126

Appendix A: APPLICATIONS ___________________________________________128 Electronic Mail ___________________________________________________________ 128

User Interface__________________________________________________________________ 129 Reliability_____________________________________________________________________ 129 Management and Administration___________________________________________________ 129 Security ______________________________________________________________________ 130 Interoperability/ Applications Development __________________________________________ 130 Scalability ____________________________________________________________________ 130 Cost of Ownership ______________________________________________________________ 130 Security ______________________________________________________________________ 130 Interoperability/ Applications Development __________________________________________ 130 Scalability ____________________________________________________________________ 130 Cost of Ownership ______________________________________________________________ 130

School Profiles ___________________________________________________________ 131

DPI State-wide Standardized Pupil Accounting ________________________________ 131

Work Processes / Quality Systems ___________________________________________ 135

Instructional Management Systems __________________________________________ 136

Appendix B ___________________________________________________________139 Delaware Support Ratios___________________________________________________ 139

Appendix C ___________________________________________________________141 How to Create a Technology Plan ___________________________________________ 141

Smart Valley Technical __________________________________________________________ 141 Guidebook, Chapter 4 ___________________________________________________________ 141

Appendix D___________________________________________________________148 Fund-raising Strategy _____________________________________________________ 148

Appendix E ___________________________________________________________151 Strategic Planning Meeting _________________________________________________ 151

Top Priorities __________________________________________________________________ 151 Information Retrieval____________________________________________________________ 152 Staff Development & Technology Utilization ________________________________________ 153

Table of Contents


Education Technology Management ________________________________________________ 154 Operations Infrastructure _________________________________________________________ 154

Appendix F ___________________________________________________________169 Partners in Education - Federal Programs ____________________________________ 169

U.S. Department of Education_____________________________________________________ 169 TITLE I, ESEA ________________________________________________________________ 172 Chapter 2, ESEA _______________________________________________________________ 172 School-to-Work ________________________________________________________________ 172 Goals 2000____________________________________________________________________ 172 Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants____________________________________ 172 Even Start_____________________________________________________________________ 173 The Department of Commerce_____________________________________________________ 173 National Science Foundation (NSF) ________________________________________________ 174 Department of Energy (DOE) _____________________________________________________ 178 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)________________________________ 179 U.S. Department of Defense - _____________________________________________________ 180 Advanced Research Projects Agency _______________________________________________ 180 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ____________________________________________ 180 The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) ___________________________________ 181 Other Funding Guide Sources _____________________________________________________ 183 Final Note ____________________________________________________________________ 183

Planning Process


PLANNING PROCESS

Collaboration

Infrastructure

OperationsProfessionalDevelopment

Applications

• Staff Development

& Technology Utilization

• Information Re-trieval

• Infrastructure • Operations • Educational Tech-

nology Management

DCET is a very small organization with an awesome re-sponsibility. Decisions made by or on behalf of DCET have the potential to impact every student, teacher and adminis-trator in Delaware! That is one reason why DCET’s plan-ning process has been defined to be lengthy, collaborative and will involve hundreds of people representing all of our major constituencies. The DCET Board chartered a subcommittee to be responsi-ble for developing the strategic plan. The subcommittee subsequently defined 5 critical areas that needed to be ad-dressed. In the fall of 1996, influential and informed leaders were solicited to charter and lead these sub-teams. It is our intent that each sub-team (or at least a core group) become a permanent resource for helping to resolve issues and make decisions within their field of responsibility. In mid-December 1996, over 90 people representing every district spent a day reviewing DCET’s vision, mission, strategies and goals. They also brainstormed and prioritized hundreds of ideas to essentially form the backbone of this strategic plan. The complete results of that meeting are listed in Appendix E. In addition to focusing on the 5 key areas described above, this plan has been written to correlate with the OIS Infor-mation Technology System planning triangle including: Foundation, Utilizing Technology and Creating the Future.

Planning Process


Foundation

In a very short period of time, Delaware has leaped from being technology poor in education to building a foundation for growth. The question is, have we built our house out of straw, or sticks or bricks? An October 1996 report from Gartner Group4 shows that on an annual basis, a networked business PC costs about $13,200 per node including hard-ware, software, support and administrative services. So far, Delaware has committed some excellent leadership and funding to establish a world-class infrastructure (the hard-ware), but we have not yet stepped up to the challenges of support and professional development. The major portion of this strategic plan discusses initiatives to help build a stronger foundation.

Utilizing Technology

When DCET discusses technology initiatives with business managers, the first questions they ask are: “What are you going to use the technology for? What critical information is being provided? What business process has been ana-lyzed and is being simplified?” Sometimes we don’t have an answer. Some Districts have done an excellent job of planning how to utilize technology but that is often the exception rather than the rule. Many of our strategic initiatives are focused on professional development (facilities, tools and training) to help our teachers use information technology effectively in the classroom. Although it is clear and demonstrable that technology in the classroom truly does improve learning, many of our schools need to think about how technology might improve their administrative processes. Classroom tools, student profiles, standard student transcripts, improved and standardized fi-nancial reporting are all possibilities without defined plans.

4 “Total Cost of Ownership: The Impact of System Management Tools”, Networked Systems Management Strategic Analysis Report by D. Cappuccio, B. Keyworth & W. Kirwin, October 29, 1996, p.2.

Planning Process


Creating the Future

Technology tools (hardware and software) are changing at an ever-increasing rate. Product life-cycles for personal computers are now less than three years. Major break-throughs in communications, internet and intranet services are occurring every six to nine months. It would be foolhardy to say that education should stay on the leading edge of technology. We could never afford the resources to do so. Likewise, it is equally foolhardy to say that all we need is paper, chalk and stand-alone personal computers. Our challenge will be in choosing those aspects of technology which we should invest in and those which would be nice to have but which we must choose to forgo. DCET will emphasize improved internet access, intranet services, multimedia distribution and database technology initiatives over the next few years.

STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS & TIMELINE

Scope

The scope for each of the 5 sub-teams is described below:

Staff Development and Technology Utilization

The vision of the Staff Development and Technology Utiliza-tion (SDTU) subcommittee is that every staff member in each school will be able to utilize technology effectively as an es-sential tool to promote student learning and to assist students in meeting the state’s academic content standards.

DCET Board Sub-Committee & OIS Draft Plan

Sept 1996 Oct 1996

5 Sub-teams

Dec 1996

Focus Group

Jan 1997

Draft Strate-gic Plan Cir-culated for Upgrades

Ongoing Upgrades by 5 Subteams

Version 1 of Strate-gic Plan Published

Jan 1997 Jan - Aug 1997

Initial Budget Request Final Budget Request

May 1997

Planning Process


Their scope encompassed examination of: • the instructional impact of technology • curriculum integration and development • education applications/software (development, acquisi-

tions, upgrades) and • staff development The subcommittee’s deliberations were underpinned by a common perception, grounded in experience, that the rapid evolution of technology is changing the way we think, work, and teach. For discussion purposes, technology encompasses current and emerging electronic devices, systems, and re-sources applicable to teaching and learning. The subcommit-tee’s focus was on the issues raised by this rapid evolution for the effective utilization of technology in Delaware’s schools. The subcommittee articulated the concern that the introduc-tion of these new technologies into Delaware’s schools was commonly gauged by the “wiring of buildings” or the acqui-sition of “new machines,” and that the issues of staff devel-opment and educational utilization were often secondary to issues of hardware and software. They considered the oppor-tunities and challenges that these technological changes al-ready pose for teachers, administrators, and other school staff who are responsible for promoting student learning and helping students to meet new state educational standards. One of our their key concerns was how DCET and other in-stitutions might provide support for the continuing staff de-velopment needed to keep pace with technological innovation and to capture the educational benefits of new technology. The subcommittee was equally concerned that teachers, ad-ministrators and other school staff would have the needed technical assistance and support (people as well as machines and software) on-site, at their schools, to make possible the effective integration of technology in the curriculum and to sustain a productive instructional outcome for all of our stu-dents. They recognized these requirements as continuing needs, not one-time investments. In attempting to define the scope of our analysis and our planning recommendations, the subcommittee put forward and debated a wide range of issues that became translated into many dozens of questions. After much deliberation these questions were distilled to a synthesized core set that

Planning Process


captures many of the most important dimensions of strategic planning for staff development and technology utilization. The subcommittee asked the following core questions about the conditions for effective curriculum integration and devel-opment and beneficial instructional impact of technology.

What technology is needed to more effectively imple-ment the new content standards in Delaware’s schools?

How and by whom shall specific applications of that technology be selected, developed, acquired and up-graded to ensure the most beneficial and sustained in-structional impact in Delaware’s classrooms?

How do we--the Delaware school community at all lev-els--ensure that the technology chosen is effectively utilized by teachers, administrators and other educa-tional staff to support the learning objectives set for our students?

How will we--the Delaware school community at all levels--evaluate the utilization and impact of new tech-nology?

How can we plan for the effective--and collaborative--use of technology in the schools of the future?

The subcommittee continually targeted the need for teach-ers to be trained in the skills and concepts of technology, and to be trained and supported in integrating technology into each curricular subject area and across disciplines. They focused on the importance of investing in staff devel-opment and staff support capacity as a concurrent and on-going responsibility that must keep pace with the introduc-tion of new technology. They stressed the importance of institutionalized support at the school level to provide stu-dents, teachers and both administrative and support staff with the capacity to effectively utilize new technology, and emphasized as well the importance of collaboration and reinforcement among educational staff in the adoption and application of technology. The subcommittee asked the following core questions about the requirements for effective staff development to enable and support the introduction of technology to Delaware’s schools.

How shall continuing staff development needs for the ef-

Planning Process


fective use of new technology be systematically assessed on a statewide basis?

What institutional structure and process is needed to ef-fectively manage continuing staff development?

Who--at the state, district, and school levels--should be responsible and accountable for the implementation and success of that structure and process?

What should be the content of curriculum for staff train-ing in technology, and how should that content be deter-mined; what are the appropriate technology skills and what is the appropriate scope and sequence of training in those skills?

Should technology requirements be included in the stan-dards and re-certification processes for teachers and ad-ministrators? Should technology certification and re-certification be required of other building and district staff?

What resources are needed on-site in Delaware’s schools to provide day-to-day advice and continuing professional assistance in support of the use new technology? Who should be responsible and accountable for the provision of this support capacity now and in the future?

All of these questions presume that technology is a poten-tially powerful educational tool but not a panacea for the myriad challenges of education. Moreover, the value of that tool depends upon its effective utilization in the promotion of student learning, not its innate technical features. In this con-text, it is expected that staff development is and will continue to be an on-going requirement for effective use of technology in Delaware schools, and that the support system for staff de-velopment needs to be institutionalized within the general structure of our state educational community in order that a strengthened technological infrastructure for our schools can be used effectively. It is also expected that effective staff development must involve a variety of providers and paths, as well as technical support at the school level and support to enable teachers and other staff to take advantage of staff de-velopment programs on a continuing basis.

Planning Process


Infrastructure The Infrastructure subcommittee’s goal is to ensure a mini-

mal level of uniform and comprehensive technology to create an effective and efficient educational network. Their scope included discussion of: • Communication tools:

• Email • Discussion databases • Groupware

• Networks • Management • Servers • Hubs • Wire & Cable

• Standards • Hardware • Software

Information Retrieval

The vision of Information Retrieval is to expand, evaluate and consolidate the current information services provided by the state and to create a shared information retrieval offering that ensures students, parents, and educators have equitable access to and use of quality information resources independ-ent of location.

The creation of a shared information infrastructure for the school community of Delaware is a new concept and a sig-nificant challenge, but has the potential to have a high pay-back. A shared information retrieval system might include access to: instructional and administrative databases (e.g. school data, student data, administrative forms, etc.), CD-ROMS, subscription services (e.g. Encylopedia Brittanica online, Scholastic etc.), the Internet, interactive professional development (e.g. conferences, Computer Based Training etc.), electronic mail and multimedia applications (e.g. satel-lite programming, public television, VHS tapes, laserdisc, etc.). Some of the issues the subcommittee addressed included: who will have access; when will access be provided; how will the access be provided; and how will the new system be integrated into the information services already provided by

Planning Process


the state. A completed information retrieval system should bring up-to-date information directly to the learning envi-ronment in a variety of electronic formats and educational contexts. The driver for this effort is cost. If each school and each dis-trict attempted to buy these services directly, without coordi-nation, the cost of information, infrastructure and support would escalate rapidly.

Operations Operations dealt primarily with the issues of staffing, plan-

ning/funding and models for centralized vs. distributed sup-port. Issues/ and questions addressed included the following: Staffing: 1. What is the current composition of district staffs? 2. For those districts that currently have operations staffs

2.1. What functions do these staffs perform? 2.2. How are they funded? 2.3. Do they use teacher units for the operations

staff positions? 3. What should be the composition of the operations

staff? 4. How do you determine the ratio of operations staff to

district computing assets? 5. What are the minimum qualifications and experience

for operations staff? 6. What staff certifications are needed

6.1. Network 6.2. Hardware 6.3. Software

7. Can part of the operations functions be performed by students? 7.1. Service 7.2. Support

8. Can a high school technology curriculum be devel-oped to give students credit for operations tasks?

Funding/Planning for Operations: 1. What are districts now spending on operations? 2. What are others states doing to addresses the opera-

tions staffing issue? 3. What planning process should be used to ensure the

life-cycle costs of the operations resources are fully disclosed? 3.1. Capital costs

Planning Process


3.2. Recurring costs 3.3. Operations personnel recruiting and training 3.4. End-user training 3.5. Staff development 3.6. Hardware and software upgrades 3.7. Hardware obsolescence

Roles, Responsibilities and Staffing Models: 1. What should be the functions of the operations staff?

1.1. Workstation maintenance 1.2. Network administration 1.3. Network engineering 1.4. Network hardware maintenance 1.5. Network cable plant 1.6. Software maintenance 1.7. Database maintenance 1.8. E-mail administration 1.9. Intranet WEB site maintenance 1.10. End-user training 1.11. Staff development training 1.12. Help desk

2. Is Intranet WEB site administration an academic staff function or an operations staff function?

3. Should Operations be placed in a formal Information Systems organization? Where should Operations re-port organizationally?

4. How should the operations staff be allocated between the district and the buildings?

5. Should WAN management be centralized or decen-tralized? 5.1. Should districts have a local WAN? 5.2. Can a district wide WAN be maintained with-

out a district operations staff? 6. What operations functions should be out-sourced? 7. Should there be a county wide support/service center?

7.1. What functions would they perform 8. How will AmeriCorps be used? 9. How will venders be used?

Planning Process


Education Technology Management

The subcommittee on Educational Technology Management developed a vision that DCET will become the educational technology focal point for development of statewide policies; management of statewide initiatives; resolution of issues; and large-scale acquisition of technology for school districts. The scope this subcommittee addressed included the areas of:

• purchasing • policy • allocation of resources / fund-raising and • planning

Purchasing: 1. How can we leverage our purchase power? (School dis-

tricts are not required to use state contracts.) 2. How will funding be alocated among hardware, software,

training and support? 3. How will available funds be equitably allocated among

schools? 4. How do we develop and maintain an accurate statewide

technology inventory so we can make informed deci-sions?

5. Is insurance coverage adequate, especially with laptops? Should there be a statewide policy?

6. Why are Districts restricted from using textbook dollars to purchase other instructional media such as software? How do we change this mindset in the Legislature?

7. Should there be Regional Service Centers established to support purchasing, maintenance, repairs and professional development?

8. What is the role of the Data Service Center? Should there be other regional education service centers or should the role of the Data Service Center be changed to support all schools in the state?

Policy: 1. Should there be a statewide Acceptable Use Policy or is

each district responsible for their own? 2. How should the issues of filtering, copyright and ethics

be addressed? 3. What is the process for making additions, changes, or up-

grades to the educational network? 4. Should we form a policy committee to handle grievances

and recommend policy changes? 5. How can we recognize and/or reward private/public part-

Planning Process


nerships? 6. Should we begin to use cable companies for Internet ac-

cess and wide area transport? 7. How should DCET be involved in legislative action to

influence telecommunications rates, such as the Tele-communications Act of 1996?

Allocation of Resources / Fund-raising: 1. To achieve the fund-raising goals, is there a need for an

educational technology non-profit foundation and trust fund?

2. Should the State implement a tax or surcharge on certain products to help pay the cost of educational technology?

3. So we need to develop a needs based or competitive grant process with preference given to the neediest districts?

4. How can we develop collaborative partnerships with our universities and colleges to support professional devel-opment, sponsor research or develop instructional materi-als?

Planning: 1. Should school Districts and individual schools be re-

quired to develop and submit technology plans prior to being wired?

2. How will the community be involved in the planning process and in the development of policies?

Enterprise Organization


ENTERPRISE ORGANIZATION

Preface The Delaware Center for Educational Technology is some-

what unique. Educational technology impacts a wide number of constituencies across the state. To help ensure DCET’s success and provide an opportunity for DCET to move rap-idly, while representing all of the various constituencies, DCET was established as an independent state agency. The primary accountability for DCET rests with the Board of Di-rectors, whose members are appointed by the Governor. The Board was carefully designed to ensure that all major con-stituent groups were represented. DCET is intentionally sparsely staffed. The theory of this de-sign is that DCET should seek first to develop partnerships and leverage existing resources and as a last resort, add staff.

Organization Guiding Concepts

The Delaware Center for Educational Technology (DCET) is designed to facilitate and broker educational technology re-sources while representing a broad number of constituent groups. It is a Center or focal point for educational technology. As a Center, DCET works with these guiding concepts: Community - parents, teachers, & students as customers

Equity - technology access, regardless of location Networking - collaboration beyond school or district Teachers - facilitate a changing role in the classroom Education - encourage passion & skills for life-long learning Results - higher standards yield better employees &

citizens



Key Stakeholders

Service Providers include: • Office of Information Systems • Department of Public Instruction (Data Analysis &

Reporting Team) • NCC Data Service Center • District Technology Coordinators • School Technology Coordinators • University of Delaware • Delaware Technical & Community College • Delaware State University • State Division of Libraries • School Library Media Specialists • Vendors

Customer Groups include:

• School Chiefs (District Superintendents) • Delaware Association of School Administrators

[DASA] (Central Office personnel) • Delaware Educators Association [DESA] (Teachers) • Delaware School Library Media Association

(DSLMA) • Governor’s Task Force on School Libraries • Parent Teacher Organizations [PTA] (Parents) • Students • OIS Advisory Committee

Board of Directors

There are 10 voting members of the Board. The Board is cur-rently chaired by the Superintendent of New Castle County Vocational School District. Voting members include:

• Three Superintendents representing: • New Castle County • Kent County • Sussex County

• State Superintendent of Schools • One Teacher • One School Librarian • Executive Director, State OIS • Sr. VP Information Systems, Delaware Medical

Center



• Managing Director, J. P. Morgan Ex-officio members include:

• State Secretary of Finance • Controller General • Budget Director • Director of Institutional Res. & Strategic Planning,

Delaware State University • VP of Information Technology, U of D • State Librarian

Organization DCET is a small organization which relies heavily on others

to assist in accomplishing its mission. DCET will need to grow in order to be successful. The current organization is:

DCET Organizational Chart

Secretary

Chief Education Officer WebMaster Instructional Advisor LAN Engineer

Executive Director

19 District Technology CoordinatorsNote: TechnologyCoordinatorsreport to Districts,not to DCET.

The needed future organization is described later in Appendix

B.



Functional Organization

Functionally, DCET is accountable for a wide variety of tasks in support of educational technology. Although other indi-viduals and organizations may be responsible to provide the actual services, DCET is accountable for:

Hardware

Software

Standards

Management

Servers

Hubs

Wire & cable

Networks

Email

Distance Learning

Infrastructure

Education Applications

Staff Development

Curriculum Integration

Instructional Impact

Technology Effectiveness

Database Access

Subscription Services

Shared Resources

Internet




Qualifications

DCET

District

School

Availability

Staffing

Help Desk

Local Area Networks

Maintenance

Technical Assistance

Vendors

Operations

Technology Planning

Policy

Communications

Fundraising

Funding Disbursement

Funding




Infrastructure Responsibilities

The state Office of Telecommunications Management (OTM) and the Delaware Center for Educational Technology are jointly responsible for the wide area network. OTM is specifically responsible to:

• design, provision, test and maintain wide area net-work connections

• design, provision, test and maintain wide area net-work routers and access lists

• design, provision, test and maintain statewide internet services

• assign and manage IP addresses • design, implement and maintain the state education

firewall, proxy servers, FTP server, world wide web server, and email server

• design, implement and maintain filtering software • adjust or modify WAN services to meet educational

needs such as Lotus Notes replication servers, access to subscription services etc.

• proactively manage and troubleshoot the wide area network with appropriate network management tools

DCET is responsible specifically for wiring, hubs and servers, to include:

• design, provision, test and maintain internal wiring • design, provision, test and maintain ethernet switches

and hubs (in the backbone) • design, provision, implement and manage critical

wide area network and intranet servers • proactively manage and troubleshoot the wide area

network with appropriate network management tools • train school and District technical support staff • design, provision, implement and manage remote ac-

cess services Role Descriptions

Generic Role Descriptions are provided for the: • DCET Board • DCET Executive Director • DCET WebMaster • DCET Chief Education Officer • DCET Lead Network Engineer



• District Technology Coordinator • District Instructional Technology Coordinator • School Support Specialist • School Library Media Specialist

The specific roles must be filled, however, schools and dis-tricts have great discretion as to how this is accomplished. For example, some Districts have combined the roles of the Tech-nology Coordinator and Instructional Technology Coordinator into a single position. This may work in a small District but is probably not feasible in a large district. Districts and schools should use the following as guidance and develop their own positions as necessary.

DCET Board ♦ The Board of Directors has oversight responsibility for

the Delaware Center for Educational Technology (DCET). Oversight is defined as:

♦ operating as a resource to DCET and the Execu-tive Director

♦ consensus on the DCET strategic plan ♦ consensus on all continued funding requests ♦ consensus on DCET permanent staffing levels and

role descriptions ♦ consensus regarding legislation/policy ♦ development of shared expectations and evalua-

tion of performance of the Executive Director against those expectations

♦ input on major tactical/operational decisions ♦ promulgation of policy ♦ approval of bid contracts which are valued at

greater than $100M ♦ The primary accountability and responsibility for all op-

erational activities of DCET rest with the Executive Di-rector. The Board intends to provide the Executive Director with freedom to manage and administer the Cen-ter.

♦ The Executive Director will seek guidance from the Board when necessary.

♦ The Executive Director is authorized to apply for grants on behalf of DCET and will report such applications to the Board.



DCET Executive Director

The following role description was developed by the DCET Board of Directors on March 19, 1996. Strategic Accomplishments: The executive director will carry out the strategic aims of the Center as adopted by the Board of Directors to include, but not be limited to: 1. Successful completion of the strategic objectives of the

Center as adopted by the Board of Directors; 2. Successful execution (within budget and timeframes) of

projects necessary to accomplish the programs insti-tuted, authorized and/or approved by the board;

3. Successful accomplishment of objectives adopted for the Center including maintaining key relationships with the public education system, appropriate agencies of government, the legislature and relevant private, chari-table, and public entities (such as the federal govern-ment);

4. Maintaining and promoting an appropriate public image and education program for the Center and its efforts with the public, key constituent groups and stake-holders.

Operational Requirements: The executive director in car-rying out the day to day requirements of his/her office will ensure: 1. That a strategic plan is written and presented to the

board for adoption; that a tactical operating plan spe-cific for the upcoming year and to include a proposed operating budget is produced and presented for adop-tion to the Board;

2. All operational aspects of the Center’s activities, to in-clude but not limited to, budget development and man-agement, personnel supervision and evaluation, operations (office and field), deployment of appropriate technical systems, and the promulgation of appropriate procedures governing the operation of the center, will be effectively executed in a timely fashion ensuring both accountability and reliability;

3. That all third party/outsourced work is appropriately supervised and reviewed.

Method of Implementation: The executive director will, on an annual basis, present to the board a listing of objec-



tives and accountabilities along with corresponding and appropriate milestones of accomplishment which he/she believes to be a reasonable measure by which to judge the performance of the executive director for the coming year. The Board (or an appropriate committee so designated) shall adopt those and other measures deemed pertinent for use as a basis for its evaluation of the executive director’s performance.

DCET Chief Education Offi-cer

The Chief Education Officer is primarily responsible to lead development of the methodology and process for Pro-fessional Development of educators in technology. Specifi-cally, the Chief Education Officer will:

1.1. Lead development of strategy for profes-sional development, including but not lim-ited to: 1.1.1. annual budget 1.1.2. implementation metrics 1.1.3. resource allocation 1.1.4. brokering of web-based tools.

1.2. Regularly research, summarize and share in-formation on advances in the field of train-ing and development.

1.3. Develop evaluation processes and proce-dures to assess the impact of professional development.

1.4. Chair the annual Delaware Instructional Technology Conference.

1.5. Frequently publish vignettes highlighting the successful use of technology in the class-room

1.6. Conduct 5 to 10 technology workshops per year for either teachers or students.

1.7. Selectively participate in job-related confer-ence(s) and publicize learnings.

1.8. Selectively participate in at least 1 week of personal development and demonstrate im-proved skills.

1.9. Proactively lead or participate in fund/resource generating activities which could include grant writing.

1.10. Track and report on aspects of telecommu-nications legislation affecting education. Work with state Public Service Commission and Legislators as needed to make telecom-munications access more affordable.



1.11. Work with the State Board of Education to refine standards, graduation requirements and teacher certification/recertification re-quirements.

1.12. Act as a liaison with public and higher edu-cation libraries for the purpose of develop-ing partnerships to leverage technology resources.



DCET WebMas-ter

The WebMaster is responsible for the design, implementa-tion and support of the hardware and software used to pro-duce or access internet or intranet information in support of DCET. Specifically, the WebMaster will:

1. setup and administer DCET’s web server(s) 2. proactively develop and administer web pages

pertaining to DCET and Delaware K-12 educa-tion, while incorporating reasonably current technologies (which are ever changing)

3. design, setup and administer an intranet confer-encing system for teachers

4. develop and implement procedures for security and system backup of DCET web servers

5. assist in the design and development of web pages, forms and databases in order to facilitate communications, surveys and information proc-essing within DCET and Delaware school dis-tricts

6. provide assistance for users accessing DCET in-formation, to include documentation of brows-ers and TCP/IP stacks, answering questions, conducting training and supporting the OTM and DCET help desk. Also includes arranging for or conducting training for users on web page development.

7. update and maintain web based information for various constituencies including but not limited to: teachers, students, administrators, DCET, and related state or federal agencies

8. setup, maintain and administer electronic mail accounts for the Delaware Education Network. Includes account maintenance, development and documentation of proactive security procedures and appropriate network monitoring

9. design, implement, maintain and proactively monitor remote access hardware and software for teachers and students to dial in to the Dela-ware Education Network. Includes budgeting for and managing dial-in services, whether pro-vided internally or outsourced

10. establish and lead a Delaware user’s group to facilitate information sharing and personal de-velopment.



Lead Network Engineer

The Lead Network Engineer is responsible for the evaluation, design and implementation of local area networks and serv-ers for up to 190 schools in Delaware. The majority of work will occur in switched Ethernet environments running a com-bination of Microsoft NT, Novell NetWare and Banyan Vines, with the primary emphasis on migrating to Microsoft NT. Specific roles include: 1. Evaluate, recommend and design state of the art commu-

nication networks and interconnections in consultation with school and district technology coordinators

2. Set and distribute standards and recommendations for se-curity, remote access, servers (hardware and software), network operating systems, and network management

3. Design and manage appropriate pilots to ensure success-ful implementations

4. Prepare and evaluate requests for proposals for vendor services in your areas of responsibility

5. Negotiate with service providers and assist the Executive Director in developing procurement policy for servers and related hardware and software

6. Manage the overall server implementation project. Ac-countable for a capital budget between $4,000,0000 and $5,000,000.

7. Accountable for ensuring customer satisfaction and ven-dor performance of one or more integration vendors.

8. Define and communicate support needs and requirements to manage a centralized and distributed environment. May require participation in the support hierarchy at sen-ior level.

9. Assist in both written and oral communications with school and district technology coordinators.

10. Maintain technical knowledge and hands-on experience by implementing and maintaining some server solutions for the Delaware Center for Educational Technology and selected schools.

11. Demonstrate technical proficiency by attaining and main-taining MCSE accreditation within 12 months of em-ployment. In-depth knowledge and/or prior certification in either Novell Netware, Banyan Vines or Microsoft NT is strongly desired. Individual should be experienced in integrating various Network Operating Systems.



District Tech-nology Manager

The District Technology Manager (sometimes called an Information Resource Manager) is responsible for the plan-ning, implementation and support of technology resources (hardware, software and personnel) used in support of all aspects of curriculum. The Technology Manager needs to have a thorough understanding of curriculum, be familiar with educational decision making, understand budgeting and spending processes, have excellent budgetary and fi-nancial skills, demonstrate good written and oral communi-cations, have good skills for dealing with people and working within teams, and understand technology. The Technology Manager must also be a change agent who is open to new ideas and is able to keep up with the rapid changes in educational technology. Specific roles will vary by district, however, in general, a District Technology Manager:

1. Leads the development, implementation and evaluation of the district technology plan for ad-ministrative and instructional use of computers. Requires collaborative leadership and working with a variety of constituencies, including, but not limited to: principals, administrators, teachers, other staff, students and community during both planning and implementation.

2. Provides budgetary leadership for school level and district level technology plans, including hardware, software and personnel.

3. Identifies, hires and develops technical resources to ensure adequate, customer-focused support. In-cludes establishing the appropriate mix of build-ing, district and vendor resources.

4. Develops, implements and evaluates in-service plans and professional development necessary to support the district’s technology plan.

5. Sets standards, oversees bids and approves hard-ware and software acquisitions.

6. Researches and evaluates software, hardware, and educational courseware, constantly looking for the most effective and efficient tools in support of administration and curriculum.

7. Proactively communicates the status of technol-ogy initiatives throughout the district and com-munity. Includes but is not limited to speaking to community groups and involving community



members in district decision-making. 8. Consults with teachers and media specialists to

provide easy access to technology resources for teachers and students. May involve the design of facilities wiring plans, lab construction, purchase of multimedia products etc.

9. Actively helps the district and individual schools to obtain outside funding and grants for the im-plementation of the Technology Plan. Includes writing and helping others write grants.

10. Supervises assigned personnel. 11. Actively participates in appropriate building, dis-

trict and state technology teams and councils. 12. Negotiates service contracts for network engineer-

ing with vendors, DCET or other state resources. Dependent on expertise, may provide some con-sulting, network management or server manage-ment.

District Instruc-tional Tech-nologist

The District Instructional Technologist is primarily responsi-ble for staff development in utilizing technology resources and the effective integration of technology and curriculum. This individual is always a certified teacher. Sometimes the roles of the District Technology Manger and the Instructional Technologist are combined, however, as computer use grows within a district a combined role may become unrealistic.

1. Coordinates the implementation of the staff de-velopment plan. Includes but is not limited to training the trainers, teaching courses, and coordi-nating sending staff to workshops, training ses-sions, and conferences.

2. Coordinates integrating technology into the cur-riculum. Works directly with Building Technol-ogy Coordinators on curriculum and staff development issues. Includes but is not limited to advising curriculum councils; coordinating com-puter science curriculum; and helping design building level staff development programs.

3. Assists in the dissemination of instructional tech-nological information throughout the district by presentations, paper or electronic media. Serves as a resource person to all staff.

4. Assists in acquiring hardware or software for classrooms or media centers. Works closely with



the District Technology Manager. 5. Provides innovative leadership in coordinating the

research, design and evaluation of pilot programs that use technology to deliver the curriculum.

6. Creates and manages staff development budget, in cooperation with the District Technology Man-ager.

7. Actively participates in appropriate building, dis-trict and state technology teams and councils.

School Support Specialist 80 % of the support needs are best served at the local or building level

At the building level, is primarily responsible to ensure the ongoing operations of workstations, servers and networks. This resource may be shared between several buildings (see Appendix B for staffing ratios).

1. Assists teachers and students in using technol-ogy. Provides instruction to staff and students in one-on-one and small group settings. May in-clude team teaching in classrooms or working with teachers to research and integrate technol-ogy tools in the curriculum.

2. Maintains technology resources. Includes but is not limited to troubleshooting hardware and software, repairing or coordinating repairs of equipment, making changes in operating system configurations, managing vendor relationships and performing preventive maintenance.

3. Provides basic administration of servers to in-clude adding and deleting accounts, manage-ment of print resources and backup of critical information.

4. Establishes and enforces system security proce-dures under the guidance of District policies.

5. Maintains an accurate inventory of hardware and software. Accountable for management of software licenses at the building level. Manages software distribution utility (if one exists).

6. Assists in the dissemination of instructional technological information throughout the school by presentations, paper or electronic media. Serves as a resource person to all staff.

7. Creates and manages building level technology budget, including funds for operations and maintenance, in cooperation with the District Technology Manager and school cost center manager.

8. When appropriate, researches and evaluates



software, hardware, and educational course-ware, constantly looking for the most effective and efficient tools in support of administration and curriculum. Always coordinates research with District Technology Manager and other building level support specialists to ensure ef-forts are not redundant.

9. Actively participates in the building level tech-nology committee and in the District technology team.

10. May administer local mail accounts if a local mail server exists.

11. Installs hardware, software, and courseware. This may include network software.

School Library Media Special-ist

The role of a School Library Media Specialist was defined in an April 1996 report titled “Standards for School Library Media Centers”, page 4. “The school librarian performs four separate but overlap-ping roles to link the information resources and services of the school library to the information needs and interests of the students and faculty. The four roles of a school librarian are:

1. As an information specialist, the librarian develops and manages an organized collection of resources and equipment, and provides access to resources both inside and outside of the school.

2. As an instructional consultant, the librarian works with teachers in development of curriculum, in-structional units, and instructional strategies and ac-tivities.

3. As a teacher, the librarian instructs students and staff in the location, selection, utilization and evaluation of information resources.

4. As a technology manager, the librarian evaluates, acquires, and promotes new instructional technolo-gies, and seeks to utilize the most appropriate tech-nology for learning in all content areas.”

The report goes on to recommend that each school library should have a minimum of one full-time, certified school librarian and some clerical, technical or non-professional support staff to assist.

Enterprise Technical Environment


ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT

Preface An understanding of the current state is essential to any

planning process. The Goals 2000 planning process, Dis-trict Technology Plans and the Educational Technology report all provide some insight. However, because of the dispersed and decentralized nature of Delaware’s 19 school districts, there is much about the current state of educa-tional technology that we do not know. Over time, our knowledge base will improve and this section of our plan will be enhanced. We will address: • computing platforms • software services • and telecommunications.

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT

ComputingPlatforms

SoftwareServices

Telecommunications Networking

MainframeComputing

StatewideApplications

Wide AreaNetworkServers

PersonalComputers

DatabaseSoftwareWord

Processing Electronic

Mail

Spreadsheets

DistanceLearning

DesktopComputing

Internet andIntranet

Graphics

DEEDUCATION

NETWORK

Voice Network

We have taken an “enterprise” approach to the management

and expansion of the Delaware Education Network. Wher-



ever we can find appropriate, cost-effective resources that add value to education, they are incorporated into the over-all enterprise. Rather than recreate services, we attempt to partner with other groups and agencies using a service-level approach to describe customer expectations and agree on costs and accountability. This service level approach helps ensure that resources are applied where the customer has the most value and assists in avoiding duplicative or redundant services.

Computing Platforms

Large, statewide applications are run on the State of Dela-ware mainframe. Education uses some of these mainframe applications, predominantly those that provide financial or human resources information. New Castle County also uses mainframe applications written and supported by the Data Service Center. Most other applications in education are server-based or stand-alone personal computer applications. Personal computers are utilized for client-centered tasks, some work-group services, and office tasks such as word processing, spreadsheets, electronic mail, terminal emula-tion, and small data-management tasks.

Mainframe Com-puting

DCET does not own or manage mainframe computing re-sources. Education uses some mainframe applications man-aged by the Office of Information Systems and others managed by the Data Service Center. The New Castle County Data Service Center (DSC) runs a DEC data center and manages numerous applications for the Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay districts. The DSC is responsible for:

• student and administrative records • some training • some 2000+ programs for batch and custom report

generation Data Service Center applications include: • student applications such as: student accounting, grade

reporting, transportation, attendance, test scores, free lunch/food service, etc.

• administrative applications such as: personnel/payroll, attendance, finance, petty cash, food service and pur-chasing, etc.

• planning and evaluation applications such as: district



reporting, court reports, enrollment projections, annual unit count, etc.

• and central bidding applications such as: vendor lists, vendor awards, user orders, etc.

IBM MainframeIBM 9221/150

IBM 3274Controller

IBM 3278Terminals

BrandywineComm Server

Red Clay Comm Server

Christina Comm Server

Colonial Comm Server

IBM MAU

Concentrator

Token-Ring

Data Service Center

DSC Workstations

SMTP Gateway

DPI CommServer

30

4000Router

SMDS

9600

Datapath56 K

2511Router

SMDS

2511Router

2511Router

2511Router



The Data Service Center provides application support to a large number of schools in New Castle County.

BrandywineComm Server

Red Clay Comm Server

Christina Comm Server

Colonial Comm Server

Data Service Center

2511Router

2511Router

2511Router

2511Router

SMDS

DSC MF

DSC LAN

DSC MFDSC LAN

SMDS

DSC MFDSC LAN

SMDS SMDS

DSC MFDSC LAN

Dover

DSC

Hanby

Concord

Transportation

Springer

Talley

Lombardy

Mt Pleasant Elem

P.S. DuPont

Brandywine

Maple Lane

Claymont

Lancashire

Harlan

Darley Road

Brandywood

Forwood

Bush

A.I Institute

Carrcroft

MT. Pleasant HS

Lewis Wilmington HS

Warner ElemHighlands

H.B. DuPont

A.I. High

A.I. Middle

Skyline

Telegraph Road

Shortlidge

Conrad

Baltz

McKean

Dickinson

Stanton

DSC WAN

Dover

Glasgow HS

Christiana HS

Newark HS

Kirk

PleasantvilleWilm Manor

Leach Gunning Bedford

William PennDelaware City

Macdonough

King

Transportation

George Read

New Castle

Colwyk

Eisenberg

Carrie Downie

Castle Hills

Dover

DSC WAN

McCullough

Mid-tier Com-puter Systems

Statewide standards, policies, and support for mid-tier computer systems are being developed by the Office of In-formation Systems and the IRM Committee. Education has been partially represented (through the Department of Pub-lic Instruction and the Data Service Center) in the devel-opment of these standards. In some cases, education needs will be unique and will re-quire separate standards. Education recognizes that stan-dards are vital for connectivity and reduced maintenance costs and will always endeavor to ensure compatibility be-tween state and education standards. Specifically, all servers must be Network Operating System (NOS) certified. Banyan-Vines is the preferred file server in state agencies. Within the education community, Banyan Vines servers are only used in the Data Service Center and



in the schools that the Data Service Center supports di-rectly. Most of the installed base of servers in education are currently Novell Netware. The general direction for the state and for education is to Microsoft NT. All new servers in education, provided by DCET, will be Microsoft NT. In many cases Novell Net-ware and Banyan Vines must also be run, because many applications have not been ported to the NT platform or are not yet cost-effective to migrate. In limited instances, education may use a Sun or HP plat-form for an enterprise-wide application server. In any in-stance where this occurs, support will be provided by and negotiated with the Office of Information Systems. For ex-ample, the education POP mail server is on a Sun platform at the OIS location in Dover. OTM owns the name server for the State and thus assigns names for the servers that education connects. Finally, the Department of Public Instruction runs a micro-Vax. It is believed that, over time, the functionality of this computer will be replaced by more powerful servers.

Personal Computers

There is an installed base of thousands of personal com-puters statewide. Many of these are older, out-dated ma-chines and most are not network-connected. Until recently, most schools had limited local area networks that did not extend beyond the administrative offices. Generally the State and education standard for PCs is IBM or IBM compatible. If the PC is to be used as a client in a client/server environment, it should be a 386 minimum and a 486-level or higher Pentium is preferred. The cost of up-grading and networking older 386-class machines often outweighs the value. Districts should buy the industry-recognized top manufac-turers’ machines only -- for example, Compaq, Dell, or IBM, configured with at least a Pentium 100 processor, 32 MB RAM, 1 GB hard drive, a Super VGA or above videoboard (800 x 600), a PCI bus, a network card (3COM), a 15-inch flat screen, and a bus mouse. Many Dis-tricts are continuing to bid large PC purchases and are in-stalling off-brand computers which may appear to be



significantly cheaper. Industry experience has proven that the acquisition cost is only a fraction of the total life-cycle cost of the computer. Unless a District can guarantee ongo-ing maintenance, support and upgrades as a part of their purchasing process, they should generally avoid off-brand machines. Education has a large installed base of Apple Macintosh computers. It has been estimated that over 50% of the edu-cation computers in Delaware may be Apple. Historically, Apple was the predominant player in education and had better educational software, particularly for younger chil-dren. Over the last few years, that advantage has rapidly eroded. Today, Apple and PC compatible machines are on an equal footing with regard to educational applications software. In addition, PC compatibles have significantly greater and better business applications available. As a re-sult, the higher the grade level, the more likely the machine of choice will be a PC or compatible. The other advantage of an Apple machine has been the ease of setting up small workgroup networks. With the wiring of every classroom in Delaware, this is no longer an advan-tage. In fact the use of Appletalk in the network can intro-duce significant support complications and is not encouraged. The only remaining advantage of Apple computers is in maintaining a simpler, possibly easier to support environ-ment within a school. If a school system is already primar-ily Apple, it would not be cost-effective to switch “en masse” to an IBM or compatible platform. There are train-ing, software and support costs associated with any migra-tion and these costs outweigh the advantage of switching. A recent Gartner Group study addressed the question of whether support costs in a dual-platform environment were any higher than an homogeneous (single platform) envi-ronment. Their general conclusion was that there is no sup-port cost premium with running both Windows and Macintosh machines. The most important factor in an Apple vs. IBM deciaion will continue to be the ability of the specific platform to run the specified application. Standards drive curriculum and curriculum drives educational applications which then drives the choice of platform. Schools should carefully



scrutinize their purchases and ensure that whatever plat-form they purchase best meets their curriculum and appli-cation needs. PCs will often be linked to client/server applications, and the following recommendations apply to such applications.

OIS Client/Server Constraints

The server operating environment should be Windows NT 4.0. The client operating environment should preferably be MicroSoft. Database access languages: ODBC SQL Client/Server development tools should be object-oriented ones, such as Visual Basic and C++. TCP/IP is the protocol. The Network Operating System should be Microsoft NT. The Desktop Operating System will eventually be NT Client, however, today Micro-soft Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 and Macintosh S 7.1 or higher are acceptable.

Enterprise Software Ser-vices

The State has several examples of enterprise software sys-tems, and the emphasis on enterprise-wide solutions has been demonstrated by the cooperative efforts put forth by OIS and other agencies in the development of the IMS Pro-ject, which will link State agencies into one massive finan-cial/management information network.

Statewide Applications

Several large, statewide applications exist to support educa-tion. These systems provide centralized functions for pur-chasing and personnel on the mainframe.

Database Software

Data sharing and a common data design and dictionary will become increasingly important as education begins to de-velop statewide applications. Guidelines for database soft-ware will be developed in the future as application needs become better defined.



Word Processing

Microsoft Word is the preferred application, and is included in the MS Office suite of office-automation programs, which DCET recommends. Many education users still use and prefer WordPerfect, but when appropriate the direction should be to Word.

Spreadsheets Lotus 1-2-3 and MS Excel are both used in education, but

DCET recommends Excel due to its availability in the MS Office suite and its easy compatibility with MS Windows applications.

Graphics DCET recommends MS Powerpoint, especially as a tool for

making charts and graphs, as well as slide-show presenta-tions. Powerpoint is an excellent tool for in-classroom presentations. Powerpoint is a part of MS Office. Microsoft Office Professional is a suite of products that includes Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access. With the educational discount, this package is the best all-around value for either the Apple or IBM platform.

Integrated Desk-top Computing Services

Some education administrators utilize desktop application software packages that allow individuals to communicate and exchange information and documents with each other. Examples of this are Novell’s Groupwise and Lotus Notes. Standards for desktop computing services and products are being developed, as use of standard products facilitates the exchange of documents, data, and information, and facili-tates the training of employees. There are no specific rec-ommendations at this time.

Library Automa-tion Software

There are many types of library automation software pack-ages in use today. According to a 1993 survey, the two most used automation software packages are those by Fol-lett and Winnebago. The software package chosen is not important if the database follows the Z39 American Na-tional Standards as developed by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) for libraries, information science and publishing. If these guidelines are not followed, schools would be prevented from sharing resources be-tween schools, the State Library system and the University Library.



The Delaware Standards for School Library Media Centers, April 1996, page 7 suggests that “the school library should be automated and linked through an integrated library in-formation system. This system should support: a. a comprehensive listing of school library resources in

Delaware b. public remote access to the catalog c. Z39.50 connection with Delaware’s public and aca-

demic integrated library information systems d. TCP/IP based network communications, and e. gateway access to library and information resources

available via the Internet.” Integrated Learn-ing Packages

There are a variety of integrated learning packages in use including Josten’s, IBM Iclass and others. These packages must be carefully reevaluated as the network is installed. In many cases, upgrades may not be cost effective, as many of the integrated capabilities are now available in other appli-cations.

IT Networks The State of Delaware, Office of Information Systems, Of-

fice of Telecommunications Management provides voice and data communications for the educational institutions throughout the state.

This “enterprise” network is one of Delaware’s greatest in-formation technology strengths, as substantial savings can be realized through the economies of scale of managing a few networks for the entire state. Education, today, participates in three separate networks, which will be discussed in more detail below:

• Data network • Voice network • Distance learning network

As education begins to re-engineer work processes, the ad-vantages of information and data sharing will become clear, thus driving new applications. The enterprise network must be proactive in devising strategies for interfacing heteroge-neous databases. OIS continues to help develop and support upgrades and expansions to handle the increased network traffic, and is developing more specific and useful network policies and standards (in conjunction with the IRM Com-mittee).



Data Communi-cations Net-work

Education users are aggressively supplementing legacy sys-tems and applications with solutions based on personal computers (PCs) and Local Area Networks (LANs). Most school Districts already have some type of LAN, while every school will have a LAN within 3 years. Growth will be explosive as networking reaches every classroom. OTM began to build a statewide TCP/IP mult-protocol digital network in 1992. Each of our 190 schools currently participates in the Delaware Education Network with high speed (T-1) connections to a statewide TCP/IP Wide Area Network (WAN). These connections allow for:

• Network based services such as Internet access, e-mail gateways, security, and Web Services both internally and between internal and exter-nal users;

• Future development of client/server-based ap-plications;

• Integration of network management functions to relieve the tremendous workload associated with administration and troubleshooting.

The WAN uses Bell Atlantic Delaware’s SMDS (Switched Multi-Megabit Service) to obtain transport capacity when required and where required -- without the need for large, up-front investments. SMDS is the equivalent of connec-tionless ATM technology and can be readily migrated to ATM when that technology matures. Furthermore, OTM has negotiated favorable volume discounts for SMDS and related hardware. It costs approximately $13,000 to install a site and approximately $440/month for the high speed T1 access (per location).



IBM Mainframe

SMDS

SMDS

SMDS

SMDS

SMDS

SMDS

Internet

School Router

State Router

State SMDS

DelawareEducational

NetworkFigure 13

The architecture consists of separate State and Education

secure router network (Secure Net), an Insecure Net pro-viding an Internet presence to the public, and two-way ac-cess to the Internet for education via Firewalls. Network services include traditional network functions such as secu-rity, message routing, network management, etc., as well as enterprise-wide applications such as e-mail, File Transfer, and Web sites.



The Office of Information Systems (OIS) and the Data Services Center also operate an IBM Systems Network Architecture (SNA) network for core applications. These SNA networks are important today, however, the router network (WAN) represents the future of State net-working and will eventually replace the SNA networks.

Router

Hub

DNSE-MailUseNetWWW

BBS/Conference

VAX 6000DPI Banyan

Network

Access Server

Modem

Pool

IBM Mainframe

SMDSOne of six clouds

connecting schools bygeographical region

SMDS

CIsco 7000

CIsco 2500

Internet

Apple-Link DNSMail

WWWNewsFTP

SchoolFirewall

TACACSNIS+

DNS Master

NewsFTP

WWWPOPDNS

NetworkMonitor

Banyan MailGateway

Education Net

3172

StateFirewall

DPI

SMDS

CIsco 2500

Typical Proposed SchoolNetwork

LabLibraryAdministration

SwitchingHub

StackableHub

Agency NetState Banyan

Network

OTM

TypicalNetworkOverviewFigure 15

Voice Communi-cations Network

Education requires voice communications access for ap-proximately 3,000 administration employees throughout the state. Many of these are in the Department of Public In-struction in Dover. With telephone lines being installed in each of the State’s classrooms, there is great potential for growth in the education voice network. Most schools participate in the State voice network by pur-chasing Centrex lines at a reduced rate, under the State con-tract. Each school/District is responsible for purchasing its own telephone switching or key equipment. OTM has a voice consulting team that can help with these purchase decisions. Again, there is a statewide contract available, but with 16 vendors on the contract and a plethora of equip-ment choices, it is strongly suggested that schools consult OTM on all voice equipment purchases. A number of schools have already replaced or upgraded



their telephone systems to take advantage of the new DCET wiring. With the standard wiring, the process was inex-pensive and easy. These schools include Appoquinimink District Office, Howard High School and Wilmington Skills Center, Seaford High School and all schools wired in Christina District.

Fig. X-2: Voice SubnetworkWilmington

Newark

Milford

Georgetown

Camden

Seaford

Penny Hill

Centrex [switch] blockLo

cal l

ines

Diamond State Central Office

T1 Mux

44 voice lines

Local users

To other in-state central offices

Hybrid electronic key or PBX

Diamond State Feature Group A

To Area Code 215

Typical Centrex

Node

New Castle

Marshallton

Delaware overflow WATS

Backbone T1 network

AT&T in Dover and Wilmington

Out of state and 215 overflow

Local T1

14 Feature Group A 24 AT&T

6 Fe

atur

e G

roup

A

24 A

T&

T

6 Feature Group A 6 AT&T WATS

MegaCom

16 Del. WATS

20 Del. WATS

Dover

26 Del. WATS

5 Del. WATS

1 AT

&T

WA

TS

LEGEND

Centrex switch State backbone network T1 Local tie lines Long distance services



Distance Learn-ing Network Bell Atlantic Distance Learning Sites: • Caesar Rodney

HS • Christiana HS • DelCastle HS • Glasgow HS • Hodgson HS • Howard HS • Newark HS • Poly Tech • Woodbridge • DelTech-

Georgetown • DelTech-Stanton • DelTech-Tarry • UD Newark Hall • UD Georgetown • UD Lewes • Bell Atlantic

Several public schools participate in a high-speed (OC-3) Distance Learning network, and several Higher Education institutions in Delaware are also part of the network. Educa-tional, 2-way interactive video represents a significant net-working demand. There are currently 16 installations of Bell Atlantic Distance Learning facilities in the State. These are high quality, real-time, fully interactive links allowing up to three locations to participate interactively in a session. Other locations can receive the broadcast, but cannot interact due to system limitations. The Distance Learning services are excellent but expensive. Each facility can cost between $25,000 and $40,000 de-pending on room configuration and options. The fiber optic transport can cost between $1200 and $1500 per month per location.

Prior to implementing this type of Distance Learning, Dis-tricts need to carefully analyze and prepare a business case. Distance learning technology can expand student access to curriculum by enabling students to take classes not typically offered at their own schools. Distance learning can also facilitate use of higher quality or specialized instructors to reach a broader audience. These facilities can be cost-effective, but early experience indicates that utilization in some locations is low and that some installations may have been implemented without a clear plan. It is likely that video will become the largest driver of net-work capacity for education. These systems require huge amounts of bandwidth. There are less bandwidth intensive applications that will be tested and analyzed as the network grows. However, it is anticipated that most schools will eventually participate in some form of Distance Learning. . Because of the bandwidth requirements and the potential cost, any video network implemented statewide will be closely coordinated with OTM.

Electronic Mail Electronic mail (e-mail) is extensively used in State gov-

ernment for exchanging messages, documents, and files. E-mail is a relatively “new” application for most of education. E-mail can bring about significant worker productivity



gains, cost savings, and faster, more efficient service de-livery. No other single application can so quickly and dra-matically impact the way an organization works. The State’s standard “enterprise” e-mail system consists of Banyan “Blue Mail” and “Beyond Mail.” Education today uses either DPI-LINE or DEN. DPI-LINE is a Vax-based email system managed by the Department of Public Instruction. This service is being phased out in favor of DEN (Delaware Education Network) a POP based email system, running on a SUN server located at OIS offices in Dover. Some Districts have implemented their own local mail servers. Education must develop a coherent mail strategy and sup-port infrastructure. Please see Appendix A for a discussion of issues related to email. A copy of the State’s Technology plan for specific Banyan Network Policies, including Elec-tronic Mail, is not attached but is available upon request.

Internet and Intranet

The information superhighway concept was meant to mod-ernize the telecommunications infrastructure in the U.S. so that everyone has access to information and educational materials. The State of Delaware has had a class B Internet license for several years and now has an Internet presence (Home Page). Eventually every student in the State will have the access and knowledge to take advantage of the Internet. Each personal computer on the network must have a unique IP address, similar to a “house number”. In order to support the huge potential number of addresses in education, OIS has implemented a special IP addressing scheme in the Delaware Education Network, Each school has been as-signed a “10-net” address which is an address that can only be recognized within the State intranet. The advantage of this system is that each school essentially has an unlimited number of IP addresses. The alternative, due to the limited number of Class B addresses available, would have been to limit each school to no more than 20 or 30 addresses per school. The disadvantage of the “10-net system” is that these special addresses can not be recognized outside of the state network. This requires a mapping of addresses from



the “inside network” to the “outside network”. This map-ping takes place in a proxy-server, which is managed by the Office of Telecommunications Management. In order to provide security and prevent “hackers” from entering and damaging the state’s networks, OIS runs a “firewall”. This is software and a server that keeps unau-thorized people out of the state network but allows all users in the state to access anything on the internet worldwide. In the education network, we also run filtering software, using a product called WebTrack. This software blocks students and teachers from accessing inappropriate material such as sexually explicit material which provides no educa-tional value. The lists of sites which are blocked are up-dated weekly. Each site is personally reviewed and selected for blocking by the staff of the WebTrack company. OTM and DCET select which lists to block. Occasionally, al-though rarely, this may result in blocking access to a le-gitimate site. To access a site which is blocked, any teacher may request that the site be removed from the list. OTM will generally process such a request within the week re-quested. In addition, the filter is not foolproof. With 1000 new internet sites added across the world, every day, it is entirely possible that a student or teacher will discover a site that should be blocked but isn’t. Likewise, a request to OTM will result in blocking these inappropriate sites. In addition to having access to the internet, each school has access to the intranet (the internal statewide education net-work behind the firewall). The intranet will become the primary means for education to share and access databases and reports. In the near future, many educational reports that were previously provided on paper will be provided electronically on the intranet. Today, any public school in Delaware can post a “home page” on an education server located at OIS. This arrange-ment minimizes cost and provides a supportable environ-ment. In the future, individual schools may have their own intranet servers for sharing information within the network. With the advent of the Java, client/server applications can easily be developed for an internal Web network (intranet).

Benefits of Educational Technology


BENEFITS OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Delaware Ob-jectives

As a public agency, the Delaware Center for Educational Technology is accountable to ensure efficient and effective results. DCET is part of a long range, statewide plan to im-prove Delaware. Governor Thomas Carper has announced five major objec-tives for Delaware; DCET is focused on directly helping to achieve the 2nd and 3rd objectives: Promoting Economic Development and Improving the Education System, while indirectly contributing to the other 3 objectives.

Governor’s Objectives Educational Technology Contribution

1. Increase the Govern-ment’s Efficiency.

Implement standard, efficient statewide IT sys-tems and applications.

2. Promote Economic Development.

Create a technologically literate 21st Century workforce which will help draw and retain high-technology companies in Delaware.

3. Improve the Education System.

Infuse Delaware’s education system with modern telecommunications and better instructional and administrative tools, and help ensure that the schools have Internet access.

4. Help and Strengthen Families.

Involve parents in the educational process by pro-viding parents with better access to information on their schools and their children’s curriculum.

5. Fight Crime. Encourage sharing of information among stu-dents, parents, teachers and the community. Pro-vide students with some alternative entertainment.



In addition to Governor’s Carper’s goals for Delaware, DCET supports President Clinton’s vision for the nation: that every student be technologically literate in the 21st cen-tury. There are four concrete goals that help provide focus for this challenge:

President Clinton’s Objectives Educational Technology Contri-bution

1. All teachers in the nation will have the training and support they need to help students learn using computers and the information superhighway.

Upgrade teacher training.

2. All teachers and students will have modern multimedia computers in their classrooms.

Make computers readily acces-sible.

3. Every classroom will be connected to the information superhighway.

Connections to networks, espe-cially the Internet.

4. Effective software and on-line learning resources will be an integral part of every school’s curriculum.

High quality, engaging software which is directly related to the school’s curriculum and the state’s standards.

21st Century Workforce

Technology in the educational process is a relatively new phenomenon, occurring only within the last five years. Until recently there were few, definitive stud-ies demonstrating the value of educational technol-ogy. In June 1996, the United States Department of Education and Secretary Richard W. Riley published a report titled “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century.” This report removes whatever doubt may have existed. Decision makers involved in education should read this report in it’s en-tirety. Others may be satisfied with the summary be-low: 1. Schools make minimal use of technology in edu-

cation. Only 9 % of classrooms are connected to the Internet. Only 4 % of schools meet the rec-ommended ratio of 1 computer for every 5 stu-



“Technology, in and of itself, is not a magic wand. Technology is not going to fix the problems associated with schooling, but, at the same time, the problems that plague our educational system are not going to be remedied without the presence of technol-ogy.” - Researcher, Northeast

Regional Forum

dents.5 2. Technological literacy (computer skills) is now as

fundamental as the traditional skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. “By the 21st century, 60% of all jobs in the nations will require skills in computer and network use.”6

3. Schools alone cannot shoulder the cost. Nation-wide estimates are between $10 billion and $20 billion a year will be required over 5 years.

4. 80% of Americans feel that teaching computer skills is absolutely essential.7

5. “We now know - based on decades of use in schools, on findings of hundred’s of research studies, and on the everyday experiences of edu-cators, students and their families - that properly used, technology can enhance the achievement of all students……”8 “A U.S. Department of Educa-tion-funded study of nine technology-rich schools, concluded that the use of technology re-sulted in educational gains for all students regard-less of age, race, parental income, or other characteristics.”9

6. There are four key features of successful high technology schools.

6.1 Concentrated, conscious and explicit technology planning among school lead-ers, families and students.

6.2 Standards for student achievement are clearly articulated.

6.3 Willingness to reorganize the school classrooms, rethink use of time and revise curriculum to support use of technology.

6.4 Near universal access to computers - at least one for every five students.10

Why do we need technology in schools? If supporting the President’s goals and the Governor’s goals isn’t reason enough, perhaps these specific benefits will help clarify why we need technology. Expanding the use of technology in schools helps:11

5 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p. 5. 6 Ibid, p. 17. 7 Ibid, p. 10. 8 Ibid, p. 16. 9 Ibid, p. 22. 10 Ibid, p. 23,25. 11 Table extracted from: “Education Commission of the States (Draft)”, March 1996, page 2.



Benefits Rationale

1. Support and improve teaching and learning by increasing access to people and information.

A classroom with access to the latest in technology will allow each student’s indi-vidual learning style and interests to become part of the classroom learning environment, and enable students to become active pro-ducers and users of information, not just passive recipients and observers. Properly applied, technology becomes a tool to sup-port and improve students’ ability to meet the higher academic standards expected.

2. Motivate students. Working with technology and quality soft-ware that assesses, but does not criticize, a student’s work can positively impact student attitudes toward learning, self-confidence, and self-esteem.

3. Equip students with the job skills needed for today and in the future.

In today’s job market, knowledge and ap-plication of technology is a requirement. The jobs of the future will only increase the demand for individuals experienced in using technology.

4. Increase community involvement in schools.

The effective application of technology in schools opens opportunities for parents and community members to become more active partners and participants in the learning process, and expands students’ and teach-ers’ access to community resources and ex-pertise.

5. Expand and improve staff devel-opment opportunities for educa-tors.

Educators prepared to apply available tech-nologies will be the key to successful integra-tion of technology into the classroom. Technology has the potential to break down the traditional isolation of the classroom by providing every educator with access to ef-fective teaching and learning strategies and to the teachers who use them.

6. Break the barriers of time and place.

Equitable access to technology can enable students in any community, no matter how remote or impoverished, to have access to high-quality instruction. With specialized equipment, students with disabilities have access to learning tools previously unavail-able.



Examples Delaware is very early in its use of technology in the class-

room, but initial results look very encouraging. A recent evaluation of the Capital/Lightspan partnership demon-strated significant value from connecting the school with the home. Twenty-six schools designed and implemented some outstanding web pages. As students and teachers learn and begin to use the capabilities of the internet and their intranet, more success stories will be shared.

Capi-tal/Lightspan Partnership

This federal grant is focused on providing outstanding technology based material in support of curriculum, while extending the home to school connection with web based information and by providing computers or set-top devices for some student’s homes. Early results are very encourag-ing: • Increased the Time Spent Learning

• 93% of parents report that students spent 1/2 hour or more per day using Lightspan.

• 44% of students spent more than 1 hour per day on Lightspan.

• Parents report Lightspan replaced time typically spent on television and videogames.

• Increased Family Involvement • 80% of parents report spending 1/2 hour or more

per day with their child using Lightspan. • 67% of parents report total time spent with their

child on schoolwork increased significantly or somewhat with Lightspan in the home.

• Enhanced Knowledge of Schoolwork • 73% of parents report that their knowledge of

what their child is doing in school increased significantly or somewhat due to the Lightspan program.

• Strong Recommendations from Families • 95% of families recommended continued use of

Lightspan in their child’s school. Integrated Learn-ing and Assess-ment Tool

Red Clay School District has begun a process to work to-gether in grade level teams, one content area at a time, to specifically identify and document their district curriculum in support of the state standards. This information is then captured in a relational database which is networked across



their schools and accessible to all of their teachers. It is ex-pected that the open process will enhance teacher effective-ness, standardize on assessments and ultimately improve students’ learning results. The tools being used are pro-vided by Educational Vistas, Inc. and are called “R-BEM” for “Results-Based Education Model” and “R-IMS” for “Results-Based Informational Management System.”

Distance Learning

Caesar Rodney High School has partnered with Wood-bridge High School to teach classes and share resources between districts. Calculus and Spanish 3 are the current offerings. The teachers have stated that they feel this type of technology provides additional class opportunities for smaller and poorer school districts. Students are able to in-teract with other students in different parts of the state and gain exposure to different types of curriculum, without hav-ing a resident teacher. This use of technology has net been without its learning opportunities. Problems have ranged from lack of student preparation (at the distant site); scheduling difficulties; at-tendance; discipline; equipment problems and the need for teachers to receive special training in order to be able to teach effectively.

Information Technology Plans


INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PLANS

Preface Each District has some form of Technology Plan. Most of

these were prepared as part of the Goals 2000 initiative in 1995. Some are excellent while others require more work. Rather than specify the good and the bad here, we will ex-amine some common problems below. Each District will need to maintain and continuously up-date their plan, while ensuring that a technology plan is de-veloped for each of their individual schools. A detailed description and example of a building level technology plan is provided in Appendix C.

Common Problems

Where technology implementation has failed, research has uncovered 5 key factors that these failures often held in common:12 • A lack of vision regarding technology, specifically a

lack of understanding how technology would be used in administration, instruction and personal productivity.

• Short-sighted purchasing decisions leading to in-compatible technology.

• Hardware and software are outdated with poor re-placement planning.

• Severe under-investment in training and technical support.

• Lack of in-house leadership and capacity to develop comprehensive, long-range technology plans.

12 “Building the Foundation, Harnessing Technology for North Carolina Schools and Communities”, May 1994, Public School Forum of North Carolina, p.1.

Strategic Initiatives


STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

Preface The strategic initiatives highlighted below reflect a broad

consensus of the strategic planning subcommittees, focus groups and DCET. Each of the five key areas are ad-dressed with a quick overview of “best practices” (if known), followed by the specific strategic initiatives. “Best practices” are well-documented examples of suc-cessful approaches from other states, districts, schools or industry. They are provided here to help clarify where our strategic initiatives are based on “experience”.

Staff Development and Technology Utilization

The vision of the Staff Development and Technology Utiliza-tion (SDTU) subcommittee is that every staff member in each school will be able to utilize technology effectively as an es-sential tool to promote student learning and to assist students in meeting the state’s academic content standards. Their scope encompassed examination of: • the instructional impact of technology • curriculum integration and development • education applications/software (development, acquisi-

tions, upgrades) and • staff development This vision is consistent with and instrumental towards the fulfillment of the general purpose of DCET to “help em-power children, through the use of information and technol-ogy, to achieve higher standards in education”. The SDTU subcommittee affirms the Center’s “absolute commitment to the principle of equity: ensuring every teacher and child, in each of our public schools and classrooms, is provided with an equal opportunity to participate in technology”. The sub-committee also affirms DCET’s commitment to the integra-



tion of technology and curriculum and to the goal of ensuring that “teachers have access to and can use the technology tool(s) that is right for the job” (DCET State Budget Pro-posal, 1996). Finally, our vision affirms the framework for professional development proposed by DCET: We believe that Districts and individual

schools are responsible for the actual delivery of professional development. DCET will pro-vide guidance and help set expectations for the types of technology skills that are necessary; assist Districts in planning for and partially funding educational technology professional development; and ensure that technology pro-fessionals in schools and Districts are appro-priately trained. We will utilize a process that ensures clear accountability and specific roles for DCET and the school or District (DCET State Budget Proposal, 1996).

To actualize this vision, the subcommittee identified four strategic goals with a number of specific objec-tives and milestones. These goals and objectives fol-low the best practices.

Best Practices

There are numerous examples of best practices from other districts and states documented in university and government research. 1. A number of nationally recognized benchmarks that

are used by the National Center for Education Statis-tics (NCES) to assess progress towards technology literacy. These include:13 1.1. extent to which teachers are adequately

trained to use technology in the classroom 1.2. availability of modern, multimedia computers

in the classroom 1.3. percent of schools connected to the informa-

tion highway 1.4. percent of classrooms connected to the infor-

mation highway 1.5. use of effective software and on-line resources

in school curriculum 2. Delaware requires high school graduates, as of 1999,

13 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p.44.



to demonstrate literacy using technology tools em-bedded in existing curricula standards.

3. Alaska requires students to demonstrate Educational Technology literacy.

4. Student portfolios are maintained on-line, rather than on paper, organized in a presentation program (like Powerpoint). The program is used to playback, in rapid succession, the student’s work to demonstrate and assess growth.

5. Teachers and students create World Wide Web pages for their schools that include examples of students’ work, school information and special projects.

6. The University of Delaware has developed a Curricu-lum Consumer’s Information Service (CCIS) applica-tion and web site. This database follows the state education standards and allows educators to post and retrieve exemplary lesson plans.

7. “Professional development is key to effective tech-nology and to increased student learning. Teachers need access to technology and ongoing support while they learn. They need adequate time to acquire new skills to integrate technology into their schools’ exist-ing programs and activities. And teachers learn best with and from their colleagues.” 14

8. Professional development is an important, long-range issue. Experience demonstrates that it can take up to five years to effectively infuse technology into schools.15

9. “Ongoing staff development for all teachers includes

14 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p.27. 15 U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1995). 16 Blackstock Junior High School, Port Hueneme, California. 17 Blackstock Junior High School, Port Hueneme, California 18 U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1995) 19 Ringstaff et al. (1991) 16-17. 20 East Bakersfield High School, Bakersfield CA. 21 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p. 28. 22 Glennan and Melmed (1996); QED, Inc., Educational Technology Trends, 8th Edition (Denver, CO: 1995) p 20. 23 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p. 47. 24 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p. 67 (see Tennessee). 25 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p.23.



“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” - Chinese proverb (Stephen R. Covey)

four paid days of technology training per year and a considerable amount of information sharing.”16

10. “Staff development efforts for teachers in smart class-rooms [computer labs] have centered on giving indi-vidual instructors large amounts of paid time off to familiarize themselves with technology and to organ-ize a technology-based curriculum.”17

11. When it comes to technology, its okay for students to know more than their teachers! It encourages self-esteem and provides motivation.

12. Distance learning technologies are being used to de-liver staff development courses across 90 school dis-tricts in California.18 These courses are led by experts.

13. Electronic networks of teachers allow them to over-come the isolation they feel in the classroom. By sharing experiences and lesson plans and bouncing ideas off peers, teachers gain enthusiasm, confidence and competence.19 At least 38 states have already es-tablished similar networks for teachers and other edu-cators.

14. Every school should have a teacher computer lab for professional development.20

15. “The State of North Carolina now requires all teach-ers to complete at least three courses in the use of technology in order to be re-certified, and requires that 20 to 30 percent of technology funds be spent on training for teachers.”21

16. Nationally, schools spend an average of 9% of their technology budgets on training and support. Most schools have either a part-time or full-time technol-ogy coordinator. Successful, technology-rich schools spend between 30 to 38% of their technology budget in these areas.22

17. Some school systems are tying pay raises and promo-tions to training in technology and effectively using technology in the classroom.

18. Teachers often learn best from teachers who under-stand the classroom. A trained cadre of technology-trained teachers has been used for teacher training and support.23

19. Teachers participate in interactive statewide computer conferences to share ideas, get advice and improve teaching.

20. Non-teaching state employees are required to substi-tute-teach for five days during the academic year to free up a pool of days that can be used for teacher



training.24 21. It is recommended that:

21.1. training take place as close as possible to the participant

21.2. state-of-the-art staff development facilities should be provided; at a minimum facilities for training should be provided centrally

21.3. district facilities should be a focal point, and 21.4. local school building training coordinators

should be developed. 22. There are several examples of success measures in

technology-rich schools. These include: rising or sharply improved scores on state tests; improved stu-dent attendance; increased student comprehension, motivation, and attitude; strong student, parent and teacher support; improved student retention; and im-proved placement in jobs.25

Staff Development & Technology Utilization Integrate Technology & Curriculum

Goal: Provide for the Effective Integration of Technology Skills and Concepts into the K-12 curriculum

Delaware has formally adopted technology requirements for graduating high school seniors and is considering adopting guidelines for teacher certification. However, the use of tech-nology as a tool must be integrated into all levels of curricu-lum. Properly positioned, technology can facilitate problem solving, research, organization and communication in grades as early as kindergarten. There are several districts across the country who have developed successful models.28 Strategic Initiative: Identify the substance and sequence of technology skills and concepts and augment content stan-dards to include specific technology applications into instruc-tional curriculum. DCET and the State Department of Public Instruction (DPI) should establish a committee comprised of both discipline specialists and technology specialists to evaluate the sub-stance and coordinate the sequencing of technology skills

26 “Community Support: A key to Realizing Technology Visions”, Marilyn McConachie, http://ra.terc.edu/alliance_resources_services/reform/tech_infusion/community/community_intro.html 27 “Building Consensus/Building Models: A Networking Strategy for Change”, Federationof American Research Networks, March 1994, p.5. 28 “A Guideline for Infusing Technology Education into other Curriculum Areas”, Matanuska-Susitna Bor-ough, 1994.



“The technical com-plexity of new informa-tion technologies often overwhelms the capac-ity of schools to plan, manage, and use them effectively. Second, most schools either do not possess or do not allocate human, techni-cal, and financial re-sources in ways sufficient to achieve substantial changes supported by technol-ogy.”26 Technology planning must be combined with instructional and organ-izational planning so that consistent and

and applications for each grade level within the core subject areas. Subsequently, discipline-specific committees should augment their content standards, infusing technology as a tool where appropriate. Content standards should be reviewed on a continuing basis to ensure that they incorporate an appropriate and beneficial level of technology in support of their learning objectives.

Milestones: Within the next year, augmented stan-

dards should be accessible to all Dela-ware educational staff and should be available on the World Wide Web. These standards should be updated pe-riodically.

Strategic Initiative: Develop ongoing building-level plans for the effective utilization of technology to support and en-hance instructional and operational goals. Each school should develop a building-level plan consistent with its district plan to determine its instructional and opera-tional priorities for the improvement of teaching and learn-ing. Each school should determine how technology can help to meet these priorities. A part of this responsibility should be to stipulate the building-level support required for effec-tive utilization and integration of technology to achieve these priorities. This support might include released time (or com-pensation for time) needed for staff participation in profes-sional development; commitment of administrative resources and priority for implementation of technology utilization programs; technical support personnel on-site to support technology systems and applications; and easy direct access to DCET and other providers of advice and assistance. Although there will be numerous ways a District and the State can leverage technology, planning based on applica-tions and needs within a school must start with the school and must involve the community. Committees should be broad-based and include representation from teachers, school-based technical support, parents, local Board of Education mem-bers, local businesses and students. The committee should operate collaboratively. The school library media specialist is often a good choice for leading the planning committee. Committees work best where they are provided responsibility for and held accountable for technology spending within their



achievable objectives are defined.27

school. Clear roles and responsibilities need to be defined between the school, district and state organizations. A successful technology plan will:

• address specific educational problem(s) or goal(s)• include all of the systemic elements associated

with the problem (such as curriculum develop-ment, user support, access and evaluation)

• be curriculum-driven • be extensible, e.g. able to be repeated in other

schools • focus on changing the teaching, learning and

management cultures • promote equity • address funding, support, training and community

involvement • encourage collaboration among all stakeholders

and • develop new, sustainable partnerships.

Milestones: Within the next year, each school

should establish a committee to work with District and State colleagues in the context of shared decision-making to exercise ongoing responsibility for evaluating building needs and per-formance, and for planning continuous improvement. Apple Computer has donated a training process and tem-plate for each Delaware school. Exam-ples of technology plans are also available from DCET.

Strategic Initiative: Provide access to ongoing professional development opportunities for instructional staff in the utili-zation of technology. DCET should conduct a comprehensive inventory of all available Delaware providers of professional development programs that assist teachers and other educational staff to effectively utilize technology. The inventory should include public, private and non-profit providers, be updated continu-ously, be accessible to all educational staff and be published on the World Wide Web. DCET should also identify the training centers available statewide, and establish additional



centers as needed. All training centers should be easily ac-cessible to staff, preferably at the district level. DCET should partner with other institutions, such as the Delaware Teacher Center and institutions of higher education, as well as other nonprofit and private providers. DCET, working with Delaware institutions of higher education, should also establish a statewide referral service to provide teachers and other educational staff with accurate and up-to-date informa-tion on available staff development opportunities and sources of instructional software and other educational materials on technology utilization. To accomplish these responsibilities, DCET should assign a full-time professional staff person to coordinate the staff development program statewide.

Milestones: Within the next year, DCET should complete and publish an initial inven-tory of providers.

Within the next year, all technology-related professional development ac-tivities should be incorporated into the DPI Professional Development Activi-ties Calendar.

Within the next year, DCET should complete an inventory of training cen-ters and establish additional centers as needed.

Within the next year, DCET should have a full-time professional staff per-son to coordinate the staff develop-ment program statewide.

Within three years, a statewide referral service should be in place to provide accurate and up-to-date information on staff development and instructional support programs available to teachers and other educational staff.

Strategic Initiative: Establish and maintain a state-wide re-source base of best practices in staff development and tech-nology utilization. DCET and DPI should partner with local and national institu-tions to create and sustain a comprehensive, easily accessible inventory of best practices. Instructional best practices



should be catalogued and referenced to the content standards and made available to all educators. DCET and DPI, working with the University of Delaware Education Research and De-velopment Center, should develop criteria for identifying and evaluating best practices. In the longer-term, the resource base should become the data base for recording Delaware’s own best practices and the conditions that promote and sup-port such practices. DCET should also make this resource base available on the World Wide Web as well as providing direct referral from DCET staff and statewide providers of professional development services. Over time, DCET should track the various paths towards effective technology utiliza-tion undertaken with success in our state and identify condi-tions for future success. Teachers and other educational staff throughout the state should be able to access this resource base (as they may currently access the University of Dela-ware’s CCIS system, for example) to obtain guidance on how to improve instruction and learning through the appropriate use of technology in the classroom. The teacher-to-teacher cadre should be utilized to support the identification and dis-semination of best practices.

Milestones: Within the next year, a statewide re-source base of best practices should be established by DCET, DPI and others that is easily accessible by teachers and other educational staff.

Annually, an evaluation of progress in the continuing development of this re-source base should be conducted by various methods that include “site- and region-based” assessment so as to de-termine the adequacy and usefulness of statewide access.

Staff Development & Technology Utilization Process for Staff Development

Strategic Initiative: Establish a structure and process to develop, manage, and assess Staff Development for technol-ogy With statewide coordination by DCET, the various levels of the educational community in Delaware need to develop a plan that delineates the scope and sequence for staff devel-opment for technology skills and concepts. The scope and sequence for staff development must ensure successful acqui-



sition of skills needed for meeting the teacher standards and the requirements for certification and recertification. DPI and the Professional Standards Council should determine the specific skills and knowledge required to meet each of the teacher standards for technology. Higher educational institu-tions should incorporate these requirements into their teacher preparation programs. Staff development programs and ser-vices should be targeted to these specific requirements se-quentially, and need to be implemented concurrent with the implementation of new expectations for technology utiliza-tion. In addition, DCET plans should recognize that suc-cessful staff training programs require that teachers and administrators have easy, on-site access to appropriate equipment and materials/software.

Milestones: Within the next year, DCET and DPI should appoint a committee of educa-tional technology users to be responsi-ble for creating, evaluating, and continuously upgrading the scope and sequence of staff development in tech-nology utilization

Within two years, this committee will have created the scope and sequence of staff development in technology utili-zation.

Staff Development & Technology Utilization Staff Collaboration and Communication

Goal: Promote Staff Collaboration and Communication in the Utilization of Technology to Improve Efficiency, Resource Sharing and Professional Growth

Strategic Initiative: Create an electronic forum to promote collaboration among educators on instructional and opera-tional issues and best practices in technology utilization. With state-level coordination through DCET, DPI and coop-erating higher educational institutions, an electronic forum should be created to promote collaboration among educators on instructional and operational issues and best practices. DCET should appoint forum facilitators with appropriate background and experience and should rotate them periodi-cally. These facilitators will promote the diffusion of ideas and collaboration among educators at diverse sites and pro-vide up-to-date referrals and advice concerning the statewide resource base (see 1.4 above). The Forum website should be



maintained and upgraded as necessary by the Webmaster of DEN.

Milestones: Within the next year, establish an elec-tronic forum to promote collaboration among educators on instructional and operational issues and best practices, including the assignment and schedul-ing of forum leaders.

Strategic Initiative: Provide technologies and training to improve operational productivity. In addition to technology applications for curriculum, school districts working with state coordinators should provide staff development training in technologies that may improve pro-fessional and support staff productivity in such areas as class-room management, scheduling/time management, grading, plan books, portfolios, and support services. DCET should facilitate a process to identify , evaluate, and disseminate in-formation about the best technologies and applications to support on-site improvements in operational productivity.

Milestones: Within the next year, create a process to identify, review and disseminate knowledge about technologies and applications to assist professional and support staff in improving operational productivity.

Within two years, a statewide, district-supported program should be in place to use new technology to promote im-proved productivity in educational management and operations at the building level and in classrooms.



Staff Development & Technology Utilization Collaborative Needs Assessment & Planning

Goal: Assure that New Technology and Human Support Re-sources Meet Classroom- Level Instructional Re-quirements

Strategic Initiative: Provide a process for all DCET strate-gic planning subcommittees to commonly define and assess technology and human support resources requirements. With initiative from DCET staff, coordinators of all strategic planning subcommittees should meet at least quarterly to de-velop common frames of reference for planning and imple-mentation and to reconcile any differences in implementation approaches. In addition, periodic distribution and review of planning information is critical for assuring that the various processes required for effective technology utilization pro-ceed in a mutually reinforcing manner. Periodically, imple-mentation plans should be subjected to critical review by panels of providers and users of new educational technology and of staff development programs.

Milestones: Within the next year, a process for continuing coordination among DCET sub-committees and functions should be well established.

Strategic Initiative: Establish a process for identifying on-going technology and human resources needs at the class-room level. An initial step in evaluating technology and resource re-quirements is to conduct needs assessments at the school level to determine administrative and operational practices that may be candidates for improvement; a part of this as-sessment should involve interviews with various levels of staff--teachers, administrators, and supervisors at the build-ing, district and state levels. DCET planning and programs provide an occasion for general review of improvements in school practices that may be obtained through the more effec-tive utilization of technology. Districts and schools should consider direct provision or contracting-out for technology improvements that may enhance productivity in non-instructional areas.

Milestones: Within the next year, a process should



be established for continuing assess-ment of needs and performance in co-ordinating technology and human resource needs at the classroom level.

Within the next year, DCET working with the U.D. Education Research and Development Center should develop instruments which can be used by schools and school districts for con-tinuing self-assessment of technology utilization needs and for evaluation of program effectiveness . This should include the acquisition of appropriate hardware and software and their effec-tive integration into the curriculum. Within two years, schools and school districts will utilize the instruments developed to assess the degree to which classroom level instructional re-quirements are being met. Within two years, DCET working with the Education Research and Develop-ment Center will develop instruments and conduct a statewide evaluation of the overall effectiveness of all staff development and technology utiliza-tion programs contained in this plan and shall make the report public.

Infrastructure Everyone has heard the saying, “If you don’t know where

you’re going, any road will get you there.” That may be true in life, but in networking, if you don’t have a “road” you’re not going anywhere at all. Infrastructure is our road. It pro-vides the basic functionality to allow us to make connections and travel the information highway. Delaware’s basic infrastructure will be world-class. Few states in the nation will be able to compare to Delaware when our basic infrastructure project is complete. However, the voice, data and video we have installed and are planning to install to every classroom is really just the beginning. When we “complete” a school, every classroom has a data connec-



tion to the internet. But without further analysis, planning and cost, their voice and video connection (wire) is not us-able. Does the school plan on placing a telephone in every class-room? Will the school put a television in every classroom? Will they use the coaxial cable for cable TV, satellite downlinks, Channel 1 or as a computer display? Is there a need for a multimedia distribution system to share VHS vid-eos, laserdiscs and CDrom? The questions go on extensively from here. Our initiatives are focused on answering these questions for the areas of infrastructure with the highest perceived pay-back.

Infrastructure Web Services

The World Wide Web is growing exponentially. Thousands of new sites and resources are added each month. Software tools used to publish, access or display information on the web are averaging a product life cycle between 3 and 6 months! The web is and will continue to be the primary use of our Delaware Education Network. DCET needs to con-tinuously explore, demonstrate and use the latest tools and techniques so that our students do not lose opportunities to participate in this information explosion. Strategic Initiative: Significantly enhance the DEN web pages and redesign content based on customer feedback. Util-ize professional resources to help keep us on the leading edge. Analyze and recommend web strategies and web tools for schools and districts. Should intranet or internet web servers be encouraged a the school level?

Infrastructure Cable Modems and Alternative Access

Over 95% of the nation’s TV households and over 99% of Delaware schools have access to cable services.29 There has been a lot of hype and publicity about the pending availabil-ity of cable modems as an alternative means for networking and access to the internet. The reality is that this type of ser-vice will likely play a role in the near future, but for most Delaware schools it is not a viable option today.

29 “Delivering the Future, Cable and Education Partnerships for the Information Age”, Bobb L. Kamil, PH.D., Cable in the Classroom, p.6.



The cable companies must invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in infrastructure improvements including installing fiber optics and repeaters. Delaware is served by a large number of cable companies, meaning that instead of a single wide-area network (WAN) Delaware would need to support and coordinate numerous networks if we used cable. Geo-graphical boundaries of a school district seldom coincide with the boundaries of a cable company franchise. Finally, it is not yet proven that the speed and performance of cable can come anywhere close to high-speed digital telephone lines. State and district policymakers must be careful to recognize the importance of establishing a statewide coordinated tele-communications infrastructure to ensure equal access to communication, information and education services. It is possible and may be less expensive to use a hybrid multiple-technology network such as cable, fiber, satellite and tele-phone. Strategic initiative: Continue to work with cable company providers and other access providers to enhance competition for access and improve service to Delaware schools, while continuing to lower total operational costs.

Infrastructure Distance Educa-tion

Distance education is defined as: “Education conducted via communication media (teleconferences, computers, corre-spondence, radio, television and other technologies) with lit-tle face-to-face contact between students and the teacher of the course.”30 Distance education is a means of extending instruction beyond the boundaries of a single classroom and may include instruction between home and school, between schools in the same or different districts, between secondary and post-secondary institutions, between states and even be-tween countries. DCET believes that there are two distinct, but related aspects of distance education that must be exam-ined. One is the ability to distribute instruction via telecom-munications within a school (inside); the second is the ability to distribute instruction between a school and any other source (outside). Therefore we have defined two strategic initiatives:

• multimedia distribution standards within a school • wide area network distance education alternatives

30 “Distance Education for Elementary/Secondary Schools in Wisconsin”, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, February 1989, p.5.



Infrastructure

Multimedia Distribu-tion Standards

For many schools in Delaware, cable television represents their most advanced access to multimedia programming. Some schools utilize Channel One (the Whittle satellite ser-vice) which provides free televisions for every classroom in return for guaranteeing that their programming is shown daily in a 12 minute mix of news and advertising. With the new wiring infrastructure in place, schools need to decide how to use the coaxial cable installed to every class-room. Do they need to install a multimedia distribution sys-tem to share laser disks, cable and CD-rom materials? Can such a system be implemented in a way that shares material across a District or are we limited to transmission within a school? Who will perform the video engineering services to calculate the loss characteristics and add the proper amplifi-ers on the recently installed coaxial cable? What cable head-end will be used within a school? Strategic Initiative: Develop alternative multimedia distri-bution standards and recommendations for Delaware schools. Develop an understanding of costs and issues and negotiate with appropriate service providers.



Infrastructure

Wide Area Network Distance Education Alternatives

Distance learning can help smaller schools share limited cur-ricula, allow teachers to leverage their expertise and can pro-vide access to advanced programming such as college level courses. Nationwide, some 33% of school Districts utilize some form of distance learning. Bell Atlantic has imple-mented 9 K-12 and 7 higher education distance learning loca-tions in Delaware. Each site costs between $30,000 and $50,000 to construct the room and purchase the appropriate television monitors and control devices. At a cost of $1200-$1500/month per location, access is ex-pensive. This cost is incurred whether or not the service is actually used. Only experience will tell us whether this is a worthwhile investment. In the meantime, some teachers are asking for less expensive technology such as Cu-See-Me which incorporates a small inexpensive video camera and can provide lower quality but real-time interaction between re-mote sites. This is an interesting service but is highly band-width intensive, thus making it inappropriate for use on our current network. Several Districts in Delaware utilize direct broadcast satellite as a means for receiving curriculum based material. These services are expensive but generally high-quality. When using distance education, one must consider a host of management implications, including: scheduling, site super-vision, student support (face-to-face, labs, media resources etc.), teacher training to utilize a distance medium effec-tively, funding, evaluation, equitable access etc. Although Districts will always have freedom to select among a variety of distance education resources, it is clear that some statewide planning, involving a broad cross-section of K-12 and university educators, as well as public broadcasting pro-viders is required. Strategic initiative: Research and define alternatives for linking remote sites interactively and for receiving or trans-mitting curriculum at low cost and reasonable quality. Pre-pare recommendations for Delaware educators.



Infrastructure Electronic Mail

Please see Appendix A for a detailed discussion of electronic mail. Electronic mail is the most critical application for edu-cation today. Strategic Initiative: Research and plan for implementation of a state-wide email system that can handle access and di-rectory services for 108,000 students and 10,000 teachers and administrators. Strategic Initiative: Provide email accounts for 10% of Delaware high school students as a pilot. This will eventually lead to all high school students having their own email ac-count. Middle and elementary classrooms should be given an account for their classroom.

Infrastructure Access for Non-Public Schools, Home, Underprivileged

Experience nationwide has shown us that telecommunica-tions systems that serve education can also benefit the com-munity at large.31 What access should the private and parochial schools have to Delaware’s technology resources? Should Delaware offer high-speed connections to these schools? Is technology access a “right” for all school children or a privilege limited to public schools? Strategic Initiative: Develop recommendations for non-public access to Delaware technology resources. Delaware already provides all public education teachers an electronic mail account and the ability to dial in to the Dela-ware Education Network from home. This includes the capa-bility to access the internet. This is a service that would normally cost between $10 and $20/month. What access should be provided for students from home? Should the state provide each student with an electronic mail account or should this be left to the discretion of a school or district? Should the state provide students access to the inter-net from home? If so, should services such as these (for stu-dents and/or teachers) be provided with state resources or outsourced? Provided at cost or free of charge? Strategic Initiative: Develop recommendations for dial-in

31 “Delivering the Future, Cable and Education Partnerships for the Information Age”, Bobb L. Kamil, PH.D., Cable in the Classroom, p.5.



and/or remote access to Delaware technology resources for both students and teachers. Consider various means of pro-viding these services. Even though the cost of computers continues to decline rap-idly, there are many families that can not afford the invest-ment. A true story has been told of a child in an advanced class who chose to drop out because the only time he had ac-cess to computers was during class, while it was obvious that his peers had computers at home and were far surpassing him. Strategic Initiative: Work in close partnership with the Capital School District and the Lightspan company to maxi-mize the availability of home to school connections. Strategic Initiative: Work with the AmeriCorps volunteers to refurbish and place 2 or more public access computers in each of 12 community centers in low income neighborhoods. Strategic Initiative: Explore extended hours in school li-brary media centers to help expand student access to com-puters.

Infrastructure Electrical

Sufficient space must be provided for a main communica-tions closet and intermediate closets. Within each of these secured locations, enough electrical capacity needs to be in-stalled to run the specified equipment. In many cases, circuits need to be added at an average cost ranging between $800 and $2300, depending on construction and distance. Due to the heavy equipment and heat load, main communica-tions closets should be air conditioned. Most Delaware schools are not air conditioned. We predict that on the hottest days in early summer, some of our school networks will shut down due to excessive heat or equipment will be damaged. Many of Delaware’s schools do not have adequate electrical capacity to run the number of computers that will bring us to a ratio of 1 computer for every 6 students. In many cases, the building requires a complete electrical overhaul to provide this. The cost of a building electrical upgrade for a typical medium-sized school with 600 students could reach



$250,000.32 We recently completed a detailed study of 10 typical Dela-ware schools and priced the electrical upgrades required to operate at a ratio of 6 students to 1 computer in every class-room. Extrapolated over all 180 school buildings, this is a massive capital expense of $8,346,575.

Primary Power Source $6,987.60Secondary Power Source $17,103.40110V Power (Avg) $25,006.50Total Power per school $49,097.50Total Cost for 170 Locations $8,346,575.00

Strategic Initiative: Raise awareness in Districts and with the General Assembly of the need for electrical upgrades of entire buildings so that the state and Districts can plan ac-cordingly.


Connections to local area networks (LANs), wide area net-works (WANs) and the Internet provides access to a myriad of local and global resources that would be otherwise un-available. Nationwide, over 50 % of schools have access to the Internet while only 9% of instructional rooms (class-rooms, labs and media centers) are currently connected. By October, 1998 100% of Delaware’s public classrooms will be connected. What information resources will we need to access? How will we choose those which best support the state standards and curriculum? How will we coordinate loans, licensing, and the roles and responsibilities of differ-ent agencies? How will we ensure equitable access to these resources?

Best Practices

There are a number of examples across the nation of shared resources, but Delaware is on the leading edge in the Uni-versity of Delaware library and other state/public libraries. 1. Digital libraries can provide access to huge databases of

information. Delaware’s public libraries provide Inter-net access to on-line full text periodicals. The Univer-sity of Delaware canceled most of their printed scholarly journals in favor of on-line access.




2. Most textbook and periodical resources are moving rap-idly to a new method of delivering their material through telecommunications and web-based products. Citizens in Delaware’s public libraries can access on-line full-text periodicals and the Internet with an appro-priate licensing agreement (library card).

3. Strongsville, Ohio has a 22-mile coaxial network con-necting every school, hospital, fire department and pub-lic library, allowing the schools to broadcast to any or all buildings on the network, as well as 2 channels on the subscriber network. Video resources are shared from a center that serves the entire network. Any class-room can broadcast to any or another classroom or even out to the community.33

Information Retrieval Building Level Media Specialist

Some states have been able to use the media specialist as their technical support specialist. The Kentucky Education Technology System requires each school to have such a posi-tion.34 There are some advantages to this approach. First, the media specialist is an educator. They should have an overall under-standing of the curriculum and knowledge about how to ac-cess and use information to support the curriculum. Second, the media specialist is often an instructional consult-ant with knowledge of learning strategies and resources. In this role they can help teachers integrate information re-sources into classroom presentations, assignments and activi-ties. Third, the media specialist understands and appreciates the wealth of material available. There is no single source for research. Research may include books, audiovisual material, magazines or the internet. The media specialist knows how to access it all. In Delaware the media specialist is likely to be the most knowledgeable technical person in a school. For this reason, it is highly encouraged that they be asked to lead the school-based technology committee and be responsible for the plan-

33 “Delivering the Future, Cable and Education Partnerships for the Information Age”, Bobb L. Kamil, PH.D., Cable in the Classroom, p.39. 34 “The Library Media Specialist as the School Information Technology Specialist”, Appendix E, Library Media Centers: On-line with KERA, p. 43.



ning process for the entire school. Strategic Initiative: Support the recommendations of the Delaware Task Force on School Libraries that each school building should have a professional media specialist. Provide communications and training to support this role.

Information Retrieval Automated Catalog of School Media Collections

A powerful use of a shared information retrieval system is thesharing of resources. The state of Delaware has an extensive information base. This information base is the resource base available in school libraries, public libraries , and higher education libraries. The Delaware Information Retrieval sys-tem needs to provide access to these resources and enforce standards that will allow all systems to ”talk” to each other. Strategic Initiative: • Survey school library media centers to determine level of

automation and compliance with z39 standards and de-sign a plan for automation of school library media collec-tions in the state. Support and seek funding to automate all library collections in the state and investigate the crea-tion of a school state union catalog.

• Support a statewide automated inter-library loan system. • Broker vendor discounts for catalog automation projects.

Information Retrieval Subscription Services

The information retrieval system being considered has many similarities to the cable and telephone services currently be-ing provided to households. The Delaware Information Re-trieval Service needs to create a basic level of service for all users. The basic system should be provided by the state. However, the educational community represents a diverse group with many needs. In order to meet these diverse infor-mation needs, a series of optional services will need to be created. This would be similar to the cable and telephone industries. These industries have a series of add on service packages that individuals can add to their basic service based on an individual’s needs. Likewise, the Delaware Informa-tion Retrieval System will include a series of add on ser-vices, available to the Delaware educational community on either a contract or a fee for service basis. Strategic Initiative: • Support the Department of Instruction initiative to pro-

vide a shared subscription fee service to Delaware high schools.



• Survey the educational community to determine other information needs; identify the core products to be of-fered in the basic service module and in any optional modules. Negotiate statewide licensing for these infor-mation products.

• Identify the basic hardware/software standard configura-tion needed to access the basic service module.

• Identify the client user base. Develop subscription poli-cies to ensure that equity of access is provided for the disadvantaged.

Information Retrieval Access to Edu-cational Data

Another powerful information resource consists of student data, school data, curriculum material, and administrative forms used throughout the state. The Delaware Information Retrieval System needs to provide access to this information base. Strategic Initiative: • Define and encourage the use of common data standards

throughout the state. • Broker the sharing of information between state agencies

and educational organizations such as the Data Service Center.

Operations Many organizations have made a mistake in believing that

they could fund technology with one-time costs. “Typically, state funding has focused on buying technology, not on insur-ing that…….. people are hired to keep it running.” 35 Experience shows that in any major technology initiative or project, only 15% of the cost is up-front. The rest is recur-ring. The largest component of recurring cost is staff or per-sonnel, followed by training, software and hardware. The Delaware Educational Technology Committee provided guidelines on the make-up of operational staffing. The report called for a tiered organization focused on response to the client. The support tiers included: • Building: Solve simple problems, define more complex

situations • District: Solid operating knowledge of desktops, net-

works, and operating systems




• Central help desk: Solve operational questions • Central engineering: Mobile experts capable of restoring

inoperable networks Most of these positions are not teaching positions and should be in addition to the unit count used for determining faculty positions. In general, Districts will not be successful if they attempt to staff technology positions with part-time media specialists or classroom teachers. A staffing model, used by the Minnesota Consortium, is shown in the table below:

Minnesota ConsortiumSupport

Personnel For Every

1 4,000 Students1 400 Staff1 100 Networked PCs

0.75 100 Stand Alone PCs1 10 Servers

If we assume Delaware has approximately 108,000 students; 7,200 staff; eventually 6 computers per student evenly di-vided between stand alone and networked; and one server per building, this model calls for approximately 220 labor-years annually. These labor-years would be distributed through the organizational structure shown in the figure below. Districts must be prepared to pay salaries beyond normal teaching salaries in order to recruit and retain high quality technical people for the most technical positions. Districts must also commit to the ongoing professional development of these technical specialists. Finally, Districts and schools must learn to develop partnerships and use students, staff and volunteers to supplement their professional staff.

Best Practices

1. Identify and recruit parent volunteers who have technology expertise. They can train teachers, in-stall hardware & software and offer technology-related advice.

2. “….to keep the technology running smoothly, the [high] school has a half-time technology coordina-tor, a full-time repair specialist, and a budget for



hiring network specialists on an as-needed basis.”36 3. Effective schools budget for staff to maintain

equipment and support teachers. 4. As suggested by the Delaware Educational Tech-

nology Committee in their February 1995 report: “Additionally, the provision of technicians (either through in-house staff or through contractual ar-rangement) is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $2 million dollars, perhaps more if contracted, when the system is fully operational.”

Operations Support Infra-structure

An excellent model for support, documented in a number of technology plans from other states, includes:

• State or Regional Technology Centers • District Technology Manager* • Building Level Technology Committees • Building Level Media Specialist • Building Level Technical Support Specialists* • Building or District Level Instructional Technolo-

gists* We believe that Delaware will eventually need 178 people (positions asterisked above) at the building and District level to support the ratio of 1 computer for every 6 students. See Appendix B for specific calculations. Strategic Initiative: Establish formal organizational roles and responsibilities for a variety of support personnel includ-ing building, district and state/DCET. Strategic Initiative: Under the leadership of the State Board of Education, update school personnel policies to provide a rational way for schools to categorize and pay employees in technology-related positions, such as District Technology Managers, Technical Support Specialists and Instructional Technologists. Strategic Initiative: Formalize a network of support person-nel by establishing the Delaware Educational Technology Support Association. This association will include public and private school personnel and will be supported through pri-vate donations and vendor support.

36 East Bakersfield High School, Bakersfield CA.



District Technical Support

District Curriculum Manager(already exists in most cases)

Media Specialist1 per school

Technology Committees1 per building

Technical Support Specialist1 per 200 students

located at Building level(142 people)

Instructional Technologists1 per 200 faculty

located at District level(36 people)

Vendor Contracts

District Technology Manager(19 people)

Delaware Center for Educational Technology Office of Telecommunications Management

Operations

District Technology Manager

It is critical that each District formally establish an adminis-trative District Technology Manager position to plan for and oversee technology within their District. Specific roles within a District will need to be defined by District leadership, in partnership with DCET. Such a role would include:

• responsible for overall effectiveness of systems operations

• works to develop low-cost of ownership systems operations infrastructure

• ensures that organizational needs are being met to ensure customer satisfaction

• defines needed resources including capital outlay items and personnel

• identifies barriers for information systems and business management

• leads migration to new technologies when appro-priate.

Needed knowledge includes personnel management, overall technology expertise in systems and network technologies, communication skills, and leadership. Strategic Initiative: Through the Department of Public In-struction, fund 70% of the salary and benefits for District Technology Managers. At a budgeted salary of $50,000 and benefits of 27%, for 19 people, this breaks down to an annual cost of: 19*$63,500*.7=$844,550



Operations

Building Level Technical Support

The Technical Support Specialist focuses primarily on PC hardware and software support at the building level. A recent Gartner Group study (mid 1995) documented that, on aver-age, one technical support person can care for about 95 Mac-intoshes or 77 Windows systems in tightly managed environments.37 A typical, slightly more conservative, ratio used for planning support requirements is 1 support person per 100 desktops. If we assume an average of 1 computer for every 6 students (Delaware’s 5 year goal), and a base of 108,000 students, then we could eventually need (statewide) 180 technical support people. Coincidentally, this works out to 1 person for each of our 180 schools. Experience again dictates that most full-time technical re-sources should be assigned at the building level. We have developed the following support ratios for Delaware:

• 1 person to support 3 small elementary schools (each less than 200 students) • 1 person to support 1 average middle school or large elementary school (between 200 and 800 students) • 2 people to support a larger high school (>800 students)

Based on the above averages, the state would eventually need approximately 142 technical support specialists. Strategic Initiative: Through a Department of Public In-struction technology block grant, phase in funding for 70% of the salary and benefits for school-based Technical Support Specialists, as DCET wires the schools and as schools ac-quire computer equipment. At a budgeted salary of $30,000 per employee with 27% benefits and the need for 142 people, this breakdowns to an annual cost of: Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 47 new positions 47 new positions 48 new positions 94 total positions 142 total positions 47*$38,100*.7= 94*$38,100*.7= 142*$38,100*.7= $1,253,490 $2,506,980 $3,787,140 ongoing Note: Schools may decide to outsource some of this role. The block grant is suggested to allow schools flexibility.

37 “Technical Support Costs and Dual-Platform Desktops: Managed Diversity”, Gartner Group.



Operations

District Instructional Technologists

In addition to building level technical support, each District needs Instructional Technologists. Some of these people may be media specialists, however, because their primary role is working with teachers in both a training and instructional ap-plication capacity, they will often need additional skills and may not be able to perform the task of media specialist in ad-dition to Instructional Technologist. However, this is neces-sarily a local school system decision. Ultimately, all teachers will be comfortable and knowledge-able of technology. For the next 5 years, while we are ini-tially implementing technology in the classroom, we need dedicated, knowledgeable Instructional Technologists. A proven way to develop the high level of expertise required to become an effective trainer of teachers is to follow the Dela-ware model of a Teacher Cadre. Based on examples from other school technology plans, we believe that we need a minimum of 1 professional Instruc-tional Technologist for 200 teachers. This allows for a high degree of personal interaction and a number of workshops to be conducted throughout the year. Individuals filling these positions must be certified teachers. We suggest that these positions be funded through existing unit counts and a reallo-cation of duties within a district. Strategic Initiative: Support the need for Instructional Technologists at the District level. Provide education and support resources for these designated individuals.



Operations

Help Desk

DCET, the Department of Public Instruction and the Office of Information Systems have lost credibility over the past year with their inability to support the end customer: the teacher and the student. This has not been due to a lack of effort or knowledge. The people involved work long hours, are experienced and are extremely dedicated. However, each organization has been asked to accomplish too much and have not been given the appropriate resources (neither in people nor in funding). We survived this past year, but with-out steady improvement in the next few years we will surely fail. One critical aspect of support, that can save tremendous time and money if done well, is a centralized help desk with ap-propriate network management tools. Strategic Initiative: Develop and staff a centralized help desk to provide reasonable response times to education. In-cludes defining response times, service levels, roles and re-sponsibilities, costs and a conducting a thorough evaluation of alternatives such as utilizing OTM, DCET, the Data Ser-vice Center or outsourcing to a professional agency.

Operations High School Apprenticeship Programs

Strategic Initiative: Support pilot implementations of technical support apprenticeship programs in several high schools. High school students would be used to supplement professional support, similar to the AmeriCorps program.

Operations Regional Centers

Training facilities, access to educational software and access to expensive equipment can be provided at lower cost by lev-eraging these services across all districts in a county. The more we move towards client-server computing and the im-plementation of servers at the school level, rapid response time of technical experts will be required. In the early adop-tion years of technology, much of this assistance will need to be hands-on, face-to-face with building and District support staff. Strategic Initiative: Develop a physical DCET presence in each of the three counties to minimize cost and response time in providing the designated services. Cost of offices will be minimized by partnering with other agencies or schools.



Strategic Initiative: Clarify the role of the Data Service Center in providing application, network, help desk and tele-communications related services to New Castle County schools. Look for economies of scale, improvements in ser-vice and technology innovation.


The subcommittee on Educational Technology Management developed a vision that DCET will become the educational technology focal point for development of statewide policies; management of statewide initiatives; resolution of issues; and large-scale acquisition of technology for school districts. The scope this subcommittee addressed included areas such as:

• purchasing • policy • allocation of resources / fund-raising and • planning

DCET should: • Be an agent for technology issues. Represent schools in

relationships with other state agencies. Clearly identify roles & responsibilities.

• Develop and support funding for educational technology.• fund raising • purchase support • vendor negotiations

• Incorporate, support and promote educational goals and policies of the districts and state. Use Governor’s office, legislative process and public/private partnerships as tools to help achieve goals.

• Establish technology guidelines and policies • Assist districts and schools in planning for technology • Communicate with schools and the public regarding

technology • Facilitate creative and effective applications of technol-

ogy through the allocation of resources and funds. DCET has begun development of a long-range strategic planning process, using individuals from each major stake-holder group, to co-chair critical subcommittees.

Best Practices 1. The State of Ohio Educational Technology Equity

Commission administers grants to schools in a way that holds schools accountable for results.

2. Policy decisions are made by broad-based teams repre-



senting all major constituencies. 3. Filtering software is used, along with acceptable use

policies and supervision to minimize children’s expo-sure to unwanted material on the Internet.

Education Technology Management Partners in Edu-cation

Although the state’s commitment to networking every classroom and providing development for teachers is surely commendable, the level of funding is not sufficient to reach our goals. Technology is changing so fast, and we are so far behind, the schools just can’t keep up with it on their own. We need to develop a means to help motivate businesses to stay directly involved with education over time instead of just from time to time. DCET is tasked with building pri-vate/public partnerships to help close the gap. The stated goal is to raise $20,000,000 over five years both in cash and in-kind contributions. The strategy in Appendix D has been reviewed and adopted by the Governor and will com-mence in 1997. However, being successful with developing these partner-ships has a strong prerequisite. Schools and districts must plan for and document their need for technology. Many do-nations of cash or equipment from businesses to schools have historically gone for “stuff”. Teachers and administra-tors, accustomed to dealing with limited school budgets, have developed a preoccupation for acquiring stuff, much of which may be underutilized. The model DCET will at-tempt to enforce is to develop a clear understanding of the need, and then work with partners to meet that need, and hold educators accountable for their stated goals in using the technology. Strategic Initiative: Seek resources to implement the Part-ners In Education (PIE) program to develop and sustain public/private partnerships.

Education Technology Management Public Educa-tion Foundation & Trust Fund

In several conversations with businesses, technology corpora-tions and the Department of Public Instruction, numerous in-dividuals have expressed the need for a non-profit public education foundation and trust to receive and disburse educa-tional technology funds. This is a prerequisite for attracting large donations. The trust fund would be used to:

• move some funding from one-time to ongoing



• supplement technology spending in low-wealth schools

• provide a competitive basis for innovative tech-nology initiatives which could be models for other schools

• help ensure that technology initiatives fully an-ticipate all costs, including training, technical support, equipment and infrastructure

Funds from the trust would be disbursed to schools based on the creativity and competitiveness of their proposal and would require a 100% match from local or private sources. One-half of the funding would be provided up front with the remainder available upon completion of specific, measurable learner outcomes. “By using a trust fund approach, the State would remove the fear that if a plan were rejected, funds would be lost due to fiscal year budgeting policies.”38 Strategic Initiative: Establish a Public Education Founda-tion as a non-profit 501C3 organization. Staff the organiza-tion with professional fundraisers and manage with a Board of Directors consisting of influential community members and some members of the DCET Board. Develop criteria and processes for disbursing funds.

Education Technology Management Grantsmanship

There are significant sources of Federal and non-state funds that must be monitored and aggressively pursued. Most of the grant processes involve significant lead-time and many hours of preparation. Most grants must also be written at the school or district level. Some sources are: • Technology Literacy Challenge Fund: is a new fund

providing opportunities for training, networks, incen-tive grants, public/private partnership building etc.39 This fund will bring over $1,000,000 to Delaware.

• Eisenhower Professional Development Program • Department of Education’s Challenge Grants for Tech-

nology in Education: provides grants to school districts in partnership with businesses, universities and other institutions.

• Department of Education’s Star Schools: can provide

38 “Building the Foundation, Harnessing Technology for North Carolina Schools and Communities”, May 1994, Public School Forum of North Carolina, p.8. 39 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p. 41.



support for distance learning providers. • Department of Agriculture: provides support for tele-

communications links that provide access to distance learning.

• NASA: supports and develops programs that link stu-dents and educators around the world in sharing obser-vations of the environment via the Internet.

• National Science Foundation: funds programs that demonstrate how networks can improve math and sci-ence teaching and contribute to education reform.

There are numerous sources of funds for technology and training among federal programs such as: • Goals 2000: Educate America Act • School-to-Work Opportunities Act • Head Start • Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)

• Title I • Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education

Act • Job Training Partnership Act • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Delaware has participated actively in many of these pro-grams. There are many ways to help raise awareness and provides in-kind support from the community. Some of these in-clude: • NetDay 96: “an electronic barn raising”. On October

26, 1996 more than 800 volunteers helped wire more than 70 public and private schools in Delaware.

• TechCorps: is a volunteer, national, non-profit organi-zation of private sector technical volunteers dedicated to helping to improve K-12 education at the local level. DCET and the Science Alliance will jointly charter a Delaware Chapter in 1997.

• American Technology Honor Society: is a school-based organization through which students who help their schools use technology can be recognized.

• 21st Century Teachers: is a program and voluntary corps dedicated to signing up 100,000 teachers, each of which will train five of their colleagues during the 1996-97 school year. Teachers can sign up on the World Wide Web.



There are numerous sources of business and foundation dollars targeted for effective use of technology in educa-tion. Some examples are: • AT&T Learning Points Program where schools can

earn credit for software, hardware and teacher support for dollars spent on local toll and long-distance calls

• AT&T Foundation is a source of $50 million in grants over the next five years (www.att.com/foundation)

And finally, there is no shortage of good ideas which need to be followed, researched and adopted. Some sources of these include: • Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)

Clearinghouse • Regional Technology in Education Consortia

(R*TECS) • Technology Related Assistance Program for Individuals

with Disabilities • Eisenhower National Clearinghouse on Math and Sci-

ence Education • Department of Energy’s national laboratories • Department of Education Strategic Initiative: Continue to request a professional grant writer for DCET. Primary roles would include:

• constantly monitor the numerous grant opportu-nities and proactively inform schools and dis-tricts

• conduct grant writing workshops in each district • assist schools and districts in applying for grants

Note: This resource was requested last year and this year and has so far been refused. The fund raising effort will not succeed without this resource.

Education Technology Management Internet, Copy-right and Filter-ing Policies

K-12 education is different from other enterprises in that children are its main constituents. As minors, they require and deserve some special protections. Some of the issues in-clude concerns about violations of copyright, acceptable use of the “internet” and preventing access to information or conversations with adults that could be harmful. Obviously, when you build policies to protect 108,000 students and those same policies apply to 10,000 teachers and administrators, it is expected that some of the adults may not be pleased with having their access restricted. These adults will always have the freedom to seek out private internet providers that do not



restrict access to information. However, our Delaware Educa-tion Network, provided with public funds, will follow rea-sonable standards. Although a statewide acceptable use policy exists, it has not been universally and equitably enforced throughout educa-tion. Some districts have modified the policy; others have accepted it as is; while some other districts do not yet have a policy in place. In addition, DCET and OTM do filter and prevent access to certain resources in the education network. Strategic Initiative: Define a standard statewide acceptable use policy and procedures to ensure that all educators and students agree to this policy. Such a policy must include internet use, ethics, copyright and filtering, at a minimum.

Education Technology Management Purchasing Pol-icy

Each year, Districts waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on the purchase of hardware, software and support services. Schools are not required to use the state contracts. There is no central point to consolidate demand and negotiate volume purchase agreements or site licenses. There is little proactive negotiation of price decreases as technology becomes cheaper. Numerous services are provided by inexperienced or untrained vendors in a manner which may appear to be inex-pensive up-front but neglects longer-term service and quality considerations. In addition, fiscal policies enforce a “spend or lose” mental-ity. Numerous examples exist where money has been spent on technology simply because time has run out. Most tech-nology funding is one-time with abrupt starts and stops. This is the same spending philosophy that got big businesses in financial trouble 10 years ago. Strategic Initiative: Establish a focal point within DCET, working closely with the Division of Administrative Ser-vices, for the preparation of technology related RFPs, vendor negotiations, and site licenses for software. Develop recommendations regarding leasing of hardware and software.

Infrastructure Technology Sur- One of the keys to planning and developing sound strategies



vey

is to understand your current state. We are not very knowl-edgeable of the status of technology within our schools. Al-though a survey was conducted as part of the Goals 2000 preparation, it was spotty and did not reflect data from all schools. Strategic Initiative: Conduct an annual technology survey of every school and determine what exists as a foundation for future planning.

Enterprise Statistics


ENTERPRISE STATISTICS

Preface Hardware - computers; printers; scanners etc. Software - content such as subscription data-bases; distance learning courses; desktop appli-cations Connections within schools - wiring or wireless; asbestos re-moval External connections - Internet; distance learn-ing; telephone circuits Professional develop-ment - teachers; staff Support - help desk; technicians; instruc-

“Schools, like private firms, need to develop an investment mentality for technology based on the understanding that new technologies involve not simply a one-time, up-front cost for equipment but also ongoing, recurrent expenses.”40 “It doesn’t matter how well equipped the …labs are, how technically proficient the network is, how cost-efficient it is over the long run or how effective it is educationally: if there is no money to cover its basic annual operating costs it cannot succeed.”41 Recurring expenses include:

Cost of Technology

Hardware Software

Connections within schoolsExternal

connections (Internet)

Professional development

Technical support

Maintenance & upgrades

Infrastructure improvements

Cost of Technology

Hardware Software

Connections within schoolsExternal

connections (Internet)

Professional development

Support

Maintenance & upgrades

Infrastructure improvements

Nationally, about $3.3 billion was spent on technology in the 1994-95 school year. Annual growth is projected to be 11 to 15 percent per year. Sources of funding include:

40 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p. 32. 41 “Delivering the Future, Cable and Education Partnerships for the Information Age”, Bobb L. Kamil, PH.D., Cable in the Classroom, p.35-36.



tional technology assis-tance Maintenance - mainte-nance and upgrading of hardware Infrastructure im-provements - electrical capacity; cooling sys-tems;

National Technology Spending

Federal - Title I, Eisenhow er

& other25%

Local40%

State20%

Business & other

contributions15%

One metric used to evaluate a state’s level of technology spending is to compare the annualized technology expendi-tures per student. At approximately $8,000,000 per year with 107,000 students, DE was spending right at the na-tional average in 1995. With the investment in DCET and the Delaware Education Network, DE is now spending at a rate almost equal to the lowest amount spent in schools which are successful with implementing technology. Some schools spend as much as $450/yr per student. Annual Technology Spending

Per Student

$70 $75

$168 $180

$450

$0$50

$100$150$200$250$300$350$400$450

Average annualtechnology$/student

DE FY 95$/student

DE FY 96$/student

Successfulschools low$/student

Successfulschools high$/student 42

Additionally, schools need to change their mindset from “spend it or lose it”, capital intensive spending to “spend it only if cost-justified.” A lease vs. buy analysis should be

42 “Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century”, United States Department of Education, June 1996, p. 34.; Delaware Goals 2000 43 “Total Cost of Ownership: The Impact of System Management Tools”, Networked Systems Management Strategic Analysis Report by D. Cappuccio, B. Keyworth & W. Kirwin, October 29, 1996, p.2. 44 “Delivering the Future, Cable and Education Partnerships for the Information Age”, Bobb L. Kamil, PH.D., Cable in the Classroom, p.15.



Capital investment, as used here, includes the cost of the personal computer, the network interface card, a suite of 8 applications and a portion of the server with network operating system license. End-user operations includes all time that a user spends learning how to use a system or applications.

required to be performed for all large acquisitions. Leases are very effective tools for managing the acquisition and replacement of equipment through a complete life-cycle. There are some very flexible leasing programs available that will help schools acquire, and upgrade on a regular ba-sis, high-end computers. In fact, many corporations view “managed leases” as an excellent means to reduce acquisi-tion cost and staffing. One fact that is often overlooked, in the schools and in business, is that the acquisition cost is only a very small portion of the total cost of ownership. In fact, the three-year total cost of ownership ($39,561) is nearly five times greater than the capital investment ($8,192). An October 1996 report from Gartner Group43 shows that on an annual basis, a networked PC costs about $13,200 per node per year including hardware, software, support and administra-tive services.

3 yr. Total Cost of Ownership ($39,561)

Capital ($8,192)

21%

Technical Support

($10,707)27%

Administration ($3,652)

9%

End-User Operations ($17,010)

43%

Finally schools need to be aware of the realities of busi-ness. There isn’t any free lunch. “We [Schools] can’t con-tinue to demand free services. The service we’re getting isn’t always going to be up to the standards that we’d like but it’s pretty easy to see why.”44 For example, it might be nice to connect every classroom with full-motion video ca-pability but it would be prohibitively expensive to do so.

Business Drivers

• “By the beginning of the next century - in less than 4 years - 60% of new jobs will require computer skills possessed by only 20% of Americans entering the labor



market.”45 • “Most high-wage jobs require the use of networked

computers. On average, jobs that require computer use pay about 15% more than those that do not.”46

• “Only 10% of the classrooms in America are prepared to train our young people to be technologically liter-ate.”47

• Christina School District has a goal of four computers in every classroom to support instruction and the man-agement of curriculum goals and objectives. In addition they plan to provide a large screen television monitor and telephone. They believe this could cost the District up to $40,000,000 to implement and up to $8,000,000 per year to maintain.48

• “The ratio of computers to students nationwide is 10.5 to 1. The ratio in high schools is around 8.7 students per computer and in the elementary school it is around 11.8 students per computer.”49

• From a list of five choices for improving the use of technology in classrooms, the public voted for: • 39% want more teacher training • 20% want more computers • 15% want integration of technology and curriculum • buying better instructional software and access to

the internet comprise the bottom third50 This mirrors a survey by the Goals 200 committee in 1995 that recorded the top issues as:

• 85% staff development • 59% equipment • 56% technology aides

• Delaware Public schools already have more than 65 school & District Banyan networks and more than 100 school & District Novell networks.

• “The Internet has doubled in size from 6.6 million hosts in mid-1995 to 12.8 million hosts is mid-1996.”51 The number of users in the United States is somewhere be-tween 15 million and 42 million, depending on which survey you want to believe.

45 “Will Your Child Be Able to Ride the Information Highway to Success”, Reed E. Hundt, Oct 10 1996, p.1. 46 “Will Your Child Be Able to Ride the Information Highway to Success”, Reed E. Hundt, Oct 10 1996, p.1. 47 “Will Your Child Be Able to Ride the Information Highway to Success”, Reed E. Hundt, Oct 10 1996, p.1. 48 Goals 2000, Christina School District 49 QED Statisitcs, February 1996. 50 NSBA Telecommunications Survey, October 1996. 51 “Off the Charts, The Internet 1996”, Andrew Kantor and Michael Neubarth, Internet World, December 1996, p. 46.



And change is all around us! Does this change increase or decrease the need for improved information management? Happening now in Delaware ‘s public schools:52 1. Teacher mentoring - support for new teachers 2. Smithsonian Project - elementary science expansion 3. Delaware Teacher Center - professional development 4. Deregulatory / policy review - state, district and school

processes 5. Charter schools - deregulated public schools 6. Magnet schools - theme schools 7. Public school choice - state-wide open enrollment 8. HB 85 - discipline reporting 9. Parent contracts - parental involvement, school-home

partnerships 10. Attendance (K-5) - time in school 11. Student accountability - driver’s license, job applica-

tions 12. Discipline programs / HB 247 - school, district, and

community projects 13. Early childhood / preschool programs 14. Student academic standards in math, English language

arts, social studies, and science - higher academic ex-pectations

15. Teacher-to-teacher cadre - professional development related to student academic standards

16. District professional development grants - professional development related to student academic standards

Getting started: 17. Student academic standards in foreign language, arts,

agriculture, business - higher academic standards 18. Alternative certification - career changers become

teachers 19. Department of Education, Secretary of Education - re-

organization of DPI 20. Flexibility for shared decision-making - deregulation,

decentralization, community involvement 21. District-level shared decision-making - deregulation,

decentralization, community involvement 22. Building-level shared decision-making - deregulation,

decentralization, community involvement 23. Flexibility for privatization - contracting for services to

districts and schools 24. School profiles - annual “report cards” to community

52 DSEA, Feb 97



25. Analysis of professional development programs and spending - focus on student academic standards

26. Teacher technology training- professional development 27. Student mentoring - support for student success 28. Teacher standards - higher professional expectations 29. Administrator standards - higher professional expecta-

tions 30. Career pathways curriculum - prepare for jobs of the

future 31. Graduation requirements -increased and updated stan-

dards 32. Curriculum / instruction alignment w. core standards -

improved teaching and learning 33. Extra time for students - all students can learn and meet

higher standards 34. Program evaluation - accountability in all areas Being planned and piloted: 35. Special needs students’ assessments - all students can

learn and meet higher standards 36. School libraries as technology centers - access to more,

newer equipment and information 37. Improving instruction through technology - improved

teaching and learning 38. Extracurricular eligibility tied to academic performance

- higher standards for all students 39. Assessment of English language, arts, math, social

studies, and science - measure student progress in meet-ing academic standards

40. Object code expenditure reporting by school - deregula-tion, shared decision-making

41. Education funding reform - deregulation, shared deci-sion-making

42. Teacher recertification - high professional expectations Being Discussed: 43. Tuition reimbursement for teachers tied to education

reform - focus on student academic standards 44. Tuition-free University courses tied to education reform

- focus on student academic standards 45. Teacher and administrator compensation - focus on stu-

dent academic standards 46. Teacher and administrator evaluation - focus on student

academic standards 47. Local School Board reform - deregulation, decentraliza-

tion



48. Finance training for shared decision-making - deregula-tion, community involvement

49. Shift of funds to school buildings - deregulation, decen-tralization

50. Funding formula simplification - deregulation, shared decision-making

51. Student consequences for assessment - based on pro-gress in meeting academic standards

52. Consequences / rewards for schools - based on student progress in meeting academic standards

IS&T Expen-ditures

The Office of Telecommunications Management (OTM) initiated a project in 1995 to provide high-speed (T1) ser-vice to every public school, approximately 180 locations. This project is essentially complete. Implementation Cost per school: One-time: • Cisco router $5,500 • Data Service Unit (CSU/DSU) $3,154 • Installation $2,000 Total $10,654 On-going: • Cisco software maintenance $300 • SMDS circuit ($450/mo) $5,400 Total $5,700 Annual operating costs = $1,026,000 and are part of OTM’s base budget $30,000,000 from the 21st Century Fund has been set aside to implement the education network infrastructure in Dela-ware public schools. The expected breakdown of this fund-ing is for:



Original Project Estimate $30,000,000

Wiring49%

Electronics (hubs)13%

Servers (computers)

32%

Professional Development

6%

We are only one year into at least a three year project. As of the date of this publication, we are on target with the fol-lowing expenditures: Wire & Cable:

21st Century Fund ExpendituresEngineering and Design $400,000.00Base Bid for 48 Buildings $5,067,660.96Wiring of 6 buildings before bid, under state contract $319,567.20Change Orders:

Moves & Changes $17,072.00Cat 3 Tie Cables $55,280.00Electric upgrades for wiring closets $138,000.00Pilot Wireless $33,719.98Electrical Study $10,100.00Total for 55 schools $6,041,400.14

Outside Plant/Portables $421,568.02

Note: Money for outside plant/portable buildings has not been spent but has been set-aside pending discussions with the Bond Bill and Joint Finance Committees. Ethernet Hubs & Switches: Hubs:

Base Bid $1,723,224Additional 24 Port Hubs (224 ea) $213,962.5612 Port hubs for NetDay $16,291.50Pilot Classroom Hubs - Seaford $1,297.52

Total $1,954,776

Servers: No servers have been implemented yet. Servers will be pro-vided over the next few years as building level technology plans are produced. Without a clear definition of need, serv-ers can not be properly designed. Professional Development:



$900,000 was transferred to DPI for Professional Develop-ment in 1996. This was used to train librarians, administra-tors and 138 teachers on basics of the internet, word processing, spreadsheets and presentation tools. Each partici-pant also received a personal computer for their use. An RFP for the next phase of training will be issued early in 1997. Matching Funds: Some progress has been made on acquiring matching funds from non-state sources. Including the Capital School Dis-tict/Lightspan federal grant and anticipating a new federal Technology Literacy Grant with matching funds, slightly over $8,000,000 has been matched. Capital School District/Lightspan $5,500,000 Goals 2000 FY 1997 $838,976 AmeriCorps Grant $425,000 NetDay ’96 $200,000 Web Site Contest $100,000 BANI/3COM Training $35,000 Apple Planning Process $20,000 Technology Literacy Fund $1,000,000 (late ’97) TOTAL $8,118,976

IS&T Spend-ing by Source Total expenditures on technology increased 34% from FY95 to $11,279,000 in FY96.

We do not have a good understanding of how much K-12 education is spending on educational technology. We have reported in the figure below, the total spending for educa-tion, as captured through the state’s purchase order system, however, this is only part of the cost. These figures do not include the cost of staffing nor do they include any hidden costs, e.g. non-technical, non-IS personnel attempting to resolve end user computing or networking problems. These hidden costs have been shown to be as much as 24 percent of the entire IS budget.53 The underlying costs in local area networked environments are very difficult to quantify. We have informally attempted to collect the cost of technical staffing information from school districts but with little

53 “Total Cost of Ownership: The Impact of System Management Tools”, Networked Systems Management Strategic Analysis Report by D. Cappuccio, B. Keyworth & W. Kirwin, October 29, 1996, p.6.



We expect to see con-tinued growth as more districts take advantage of their new internet access and networking capabilities

success. A more formal assessment, through an annual sur-vey, is one of our suggested strategic initiatives.

DPI LocalSchoolDistricts

Total

$703$1,163

$7,704

$10,116

$8,407

$11,279

$0.00

$2,000.00

$4,000.00

$6,000.00

$8,000.00

$10,000.00

$12,000.00

$14,000.00

DPI LocalSchoolDistricts

Total

FY95

FY96

DCET Budget The Staff Development and Technology Utilization sub-committee recommends the following budget priorities: 1. Annual appropriations for each of the next three fiscal

years to support the development and delivery of new programs of staff development that use and extend the capacities of existing statewide providers.

2. Annual appropriations to the DCET budget to de-

velop internal capacity or to contract with state-wide providers for ongoing needs assessment and evalua-tion for professional staff development in technology utilization; an on-line inventory of professional de-velopment and technology resource opportunities and sources; a comprehensive and easily accessible statewide resource base on best practices in staff de-velopment and technology utilization; and an elec-tronic forum for educators on instructional innovation.

3. Annual appropriation to support the provision of

technical support staff in each district beyond the unit count.

The following budget request reflects one scenario in align-ment with the above recommendations.



MISSION The Delaware Center for Educational

Technology (DCET) is committed to help empower children, through the use of in-formation and technology, to achieve higher standards in education.

Our long-range goal is to create a techno-

logically literate 21st Century citizenry and a workforce which will help attract and retain high-technology companies in Delaware.

Children are our primary customer. Al-

though DCET will administer programs to support other constituencies, such as teachers and administrators, our constant aim is to im-prove the abilities of our children to access, analyze and act on information.

DCET operates in strong partnership with

the State Office of Information Systems, the Department of Public Instruction, the New Castle County Data Service Center and Dis-trict Technology Coordinators to serve each of the state’s 108,000 students, and 10,000 teachers/administrators located in 19 school Districts.

KEY OBJECTIVES

DCET has six key objectives over the

next three years:

1. Ensure voice, data and video connectivity to every public school classroom. We will build a statewide education data network and connect each of the state’s 7000 classrooms. We will prepare each classroom for future applications of video and voice technology by providing a basic cabling in-frastructure including coaxial cable and fiber optics.

2. Coordinate the evaluation and implementa-tion of educational and administrative appli-cations. We will establish statewide evaluation, pur-chasing and licensing procedures to ensure purchased software is supportive of the state’s educational standards and is provided in the most cost-effective manner. We will work with the Department of Public Instruc-tion and the New Castle County Data Service Center to define business processes within education, simplify these processes and automate processes only when the value can be clearly articulated. 3. Provide for support of the infrastructure. We will work with schools, Districts, and state agencies such as the Office of Informa-tion Systems to clearly define the necessary support requirements for educational tech-nology. We will be customer focused and maintain a sense of urgency and priority in everything we do, recognizing that in tech-nology there will never be enough time or money to meet everyone’s desires. 4. Develop public and private educational technology initiatives and partnerships. We will leverage the resources and experi-ence of any organization that can contribute to our mission. We will explore and develop creative partnerships to help address the need for hardware, software and technical re-sources in our schools. 5. Ensure integration of technology and cur-riculum. We will foster and encourage the use of tech-nology as an integral part of the school cur-riculum. Technology is not a panacea and does not stand alone. It is a tool, like many other tools, that is best utilized with a specific purpose in mind. It will be our goal to ensure



that teachers have access to and can use the technology tool(s) that is right for the job. 6. Provide for professional development. We believe that Districts and individual schools are responsible for the actual delivery of professional development. DCET will pro-vide guidance and help set expectations for the types of technology skills that are neces-sary; assist Districts in planning for and par-tially funding educational technology professional development; and ensure that technology professionals in schools and Dis-tricts are appropriately trained. We will util-ize a process that ensures clear accountability and specific roles for DCET and the school or District.

BACKGROUND AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In the spring of 1995, the Delaware Legis-lature accepted the recommendation of Gover-nor Thomas R. Carper to establish the Delaware Center for Educational Technology (DCET). The Center is intended to create a modern educational technology infrastructure in Delaware’s public schools for the purpose of enabling students, through the use of educa-tional technology to meet the academic stan-dards set by the State Board of Education and to develop the skills needed by a world-class work force. The conceptual model for estab-lishing the center is driven by the recommenda-tions presented to Governor Thomas R. Carper and the members of the 138th General Assem-bly in a February 1995 report titled, "Educa-tional Technology". The report was developed by the Delaware Educational Technology Committee which was established in 1994 by House Joint Resolution No. 27.

The Delaware Center for Educational Technology is governed by a ten-member Board consisting of three members who have expertise in the field of computer information,

three public school superintendents, two public school teachers, the State Superintendent or his designee, and the Executive Director of the Of-fice of Information Systems. The State Librar-ian, the State Budget Director, Controller General, Secretary of Finance or their desig-nees, and one representative designated by each of the Presidents of the three Delaware public institutions of higher education, are ex-officio, non-voting members of the Board.

In late September 1995, all Board ap-pointments were finalized by the Governor. The first meeting of the Delaware Center for Educational Technology was September 29, 1995.

DCET Operations officially began on

February 1, 1996 with the hiring of the Ex-ecutive Director. DCET’s short-term strategic plan was accepted by the Bond Bill Commit-tee on February 12, 1996. Engineering efforts for Phase 1 (54 schools) began on March 1, 1996. By December 1, 1996 each of these schools was operational with voice, data, coax, fiber cable to every classroom and ethernet hubs activating at least one data line in every classroom. Additionally over 250 teachers and Librarians and 45 administrators were trained in word processing, spread-sheets, network operations, graphics and technology tools for a variety of curriculum.



ACTIVITIES DCET activities are generally categorized

into the following six stages.

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

PHASE 3

STAGES

All high schools (29), district offices (14) & some elem. schools (11)

All middle schools (29) and some elem. schools (32)

All other schools (75)

Wiring Complete FY’97 FY’98 Hubs Complete FY’97 FY’98 Servers FY’97 FY’97 FY’98 Key applica-tions

FY’98 FY’99 FY’2000

Support FY’98 FY’99 FY’2000 Professional development

FY’98 FY’99 FY’2000

Note: The shaded portion reflects areas funded by the 21st Century Fund. Key activities in FY’98 include: • Continue to provide voice, data, and

video connectivity to every classroom in another 50 to 60 schools. This includes provisioning of hubs and servers.

• Establish and staff a support organization including a centralized help desk and school-based technology resources.

• Negotiate hardware and software bulk purchasing agreements with the top 5 to 7 education vendors.

• Facilitate successful procurement of 5 to 10 major grants.

• Establish key partnerships with busi-nesses, and gain commitments for $2 to 4 million dollars in annual matching funds.

• Develop a train-the-trainer professional development model and outsource the implementation, to begin in Summer 1997.

• Establish an Educational Technology Support Center providing teachers with

an opportunity to test and evaluate cur-riculum-based software.

• Develop a school-based technology plan-ning process with 90% of eligible schools participating in development of a com-prehensive technology plan.

• Facilitate provisioning of at least three major applications including: student electronic mail, school library access to on-line reference material and a state-wide student pupil accounting system.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES

There are several examples of success

measures in technology-rich schools. These include: rising or sharply improved scores on state tests; improved student attendance; in-creased student comprehension, motivation, and attitude; strong student, parent and teacher support; improved student graduation rate; and improved placement in jobs and employer satisfaction. A technology-rich school is defined as a school with a ratio of 5-6 students per computer; a multi-media net-worked computer with display device in every classroom; at least one and probably several networked computer labs; a well-articulated technology plan; and a defined technology budget with between 20 and 30% spent on support and development. Delaware does not yet have a complete technology im-plementation in any school. These perform-ance measures can be tracked at a state level, however, we are too early (in the first year of implementation) to use these measures on a state-wide basis with any validity. We will develop a baseline analysis in FY’97, for specific schools where we have installed the basic technology infrastructure. Other signifi-cant indicators we will track are:



DRAFT PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FY 1996

Estimate FY 1997 Budget

FY 1998 Gov. Rec.

% teachers who feel adequately trained to use personal & professional pro-ductivity tools

5% 15%

% of classrooms with modern, mul-timedia computers

5% 15%

% of public schools connected to the Internet

60% 95%

% of public class-rooms w/ effective use of technology in school curriculum

5% 20%

% of public schools with identified building level tech-nical support

5% 30%

Budget

The success of the Delaware Center for Educa-tional Technology depends heavily on partner-ships with other agencies. Major program initiatives, essential to meeting DCET’s goals, are funded through the Department of Public Instruction. If for any reason, these programs are not able to be provided through the De-partment of Public Instruction, then they should be considered as part of DCET’s request.

Included in DPI budget request FY1996

ACTUAL FY 1997 BUDGET

FY 1998 GOV. REC.

GF 2,102.0 ASF TOTAL 2,102.0

DCET

FY1996 ACTUAL

FY 1997 BUDGET

FY 1998 GOV. REC.

GF 175.0 584.2 2,321.1 ASF TOTAL 175.0 584.2 2,321.1

Positions

DCET FY1996

ACTUALFY 1997 BUDGET

FY 1998 GOV. REC.

GF 2.0 5.5 13 ASF NSF .5 0 TOTAL 2.0 6.0 13



Customer Base

DCET serves approximately 108,000 students in 180 schools. The majority of these schools are between 200 and 800 students with some high schools and middle schools being much larger. This customer base and its demograph-ics are particularly important as we try to determine how to provide support at the building level.

School District & Name# Students

Phase 1# Students Phase 2&3

Total Students (Sept 96

Est)

# Schools with

Students <200

# Schools with

Students >=200 and

<=800

# Schools with

Students >800

Total # Schools

Appoquinimink School District 804 3,070 3,874 0 4 1 5Brandywine School District 2,272 9,128 11,400 1 13 5 19Caesar Rodney School District 2,166 4,447 6,613 4 8 2 14Cape Henlopen School District 945 3,188 4,133 0 6 1 7Capital School District 2,673 3,734 6,407 2 6 3 11Christina School District 5,738 14,492 20,230 3 16 9 28Colonial School District 2,398 7,920 10,318 2 11 3 16Delmar School District 675 38 713 1 1 0 2Indian River School District 1,899 5,301 7,200 1 5 4 10Lake Forrest School District 786 2,942 3,728 1 4 1 6Laurel School District 865 1,235 2,100 1 5 0 6Milford School District 923 2,899 3,822 1 3 2 6New Castle County Vo-Tech 3,958 -498 3,460 0 2 3 5Polytech 949 120 1,069 1 1 2Red Clay School District 4,212 11,188 15,400 2 18 6 26Seaford School District 1,662 2,158 3,820 1 4 2 7Smyrna School District 842 2,423 3,265 0 4 1 5Sussex County Vo-Tech 977 189 1,166 1 1 2Woodbridge School District 659 1,095 1,754 1 1 1 3

TOTAL 35,403 75,069 110,472 23 111 46 180

Application Development Interest

Education faces the same challenges that businesses face, including declining budgets, growing student populations and demands for higher quality student learning. School districts need to thoroughly understand and document their work practices, looking for opportunities to simplify and eliminate tasks and more effectively process information. Ultimately, improved productivity of administrative staff and teachers is the goal. There are a number of well-known axioms that districts should follow. 1. Document practices first! 2. Simplify processes next! 3. Automate only what is needed!



4. Buy, don’t build, core integrated applications such as: 4.1. Financial Administration and Reporting 4.2. Budget Administration 4.3. Fund and Encumbrance Accounting 4.4. Grant Management 4.5. Purchasing and Materials Management 4.6. Warehousing and Central Stores Manage-

ment 4.7. Human Resources Management 4.8. Service and Work Order Management 4.9. Capital Project and Construction Manage-

ment 4.10. Contract Management 4.11. Plant, Equipment and Fleet Maintenance 4.12. Assessment and Property Tax Administra-

tion 5. Implement most, if not all, new applications as cli-

ent/server rather than main-frame. 6. Extend legacy applications by utilizing the intranet

and the statewide wide-area network as a means to develop simplified front-ends for data entry and re-trieval.

7. Standardize on critical data elements and develop a data warehouse, avoiding redundant data.

Over the next three years, Delaware schools are likely to focus their applications in five primary areas: 1. Integrated administrative applications to reduce admin-

istrative overhead. This will most likely involve some type of workflow automation. A critical driver of this type of application is citizens’ demand for better finan-cial reporting and accountability. An example of this type of application is a standardized School Profile. Please see Appendix A for further information.

2. Electronic mail access for teachers and students. 3. Simple web-based information sharing, such as a home

page for the school. 4. Statewide standard pupil accounting to simplify state

reporting requirements and student transcripts. The De-partment of Public Instruction has proposed such a sys-tem and requested funds for FY 98. See Appendix A.

5. District or statewide curriculum tools to realign instruc-tion and lesson plans with the new state standards. Red Clay School District is in the 2nd year of implementa-



tion of such a tool that may appeal to other districts as well.

There are only a few areas where applications are currently being developed that may have an impact on education. One of these is the IMS (Information Management System (under development by a cross-agency team). This applica-tion is expected to provide human resources, accounts pay-able, and other databases that may be used by some administrators in education. The project appears to be be-hind schedule and it is difficult to predict the impact on education today.

Strategic New Technology


STRATEGIC NEW TECHNOLOGY

Preface The whole educational technology marketplace will grow

exponentially over the next 5 years as schools scramble to join the information age and vendors rapidly introduce new products and technologies to meet the demand. There are a number of areas where Delaware will likely be impacted by new technologies. These include:

Wireless Wireless technology is growing but as of now it is too ex-

pensive to be used internally, within a school. There are opportunities to connect schools together and extend the wide area network at a competitive price. This is currently being piloted in Colonial School District.

Network Computers

Network computers are low-cost, diskless workstations that use the internet and intranet servers to provide access to data and applications. They are easier to maintain than PCs and will probably provide a nice alternative for education. They are just now becoming available. One example is the new Apple Emate 300. This is a port-able, rugged, monochrome computer designed for students that will retail around $750. There are still some bugs to be worked out but this and other similar machines should be piloted.

WAN Access & Technolo-gies

Cable companies are entering the marketplace for voice, data and video. Recently the power company announced plans to compete as well. Our current T1 will run out of capacity next year requiring an upgrade. Video will continue to drive the need for higher and higher bandwidth, possibly forcing a move to ATM in the 3 to 5 year timeframe. It will be difficult to predict who will be the winners, but

Strategic New Technology


the competition will definitely produce new offerings and technologies, meaning we should avoid long-term lock-ins with any vendor.

Electronic Textbooks

There are significant textbooks and reference material al-ready available on CDRom and on the internet. These re-sources can be easily updated and as a result are much more accurate than classroom textbooks which may be 3 to 7 years old. Some new computers and reference material will start to ship on ROM chips that will simply plug in to your com-puter, providing full access to the text on-line. Schools should begin to plan for spending “textbook” money on some of these electronic textbooks.

Explosive Growth of the Intranet

The intranet’s capabilities to connect schools, students, teachers and administrators will continue to grow. New publishing tools will be introduced making it extremely easy for anyone to publish a database for use across the network. This will cause some experimentation and ex-pense as schools try new applications but the opportunity to move off of most mainframe applications will provide de-creased cost and improved productivity.

DCET Strategic Plan Appendices


References

There are several outstanding documents that were very help-

ful in preparing this strategic plan and should be a part of every technology coordinator’s library: • Building the Foundation: Harnessing Technology for

North Carolina Schools & Communities, May 1994, Public School Forum of North Carolina

An excellent resource covering high-level recom-mendations similar to Delaware’s needs.

• Technical Guidebook for Schools, Winter 1995 Smart Valley Inc.

Outstanding for planning school infrastructure. Chapter 4 is an excellent guide for creating school technology plans. Includes a useful budget template.

• Educational Technology, A Report to the Governor, Legislature and Citizens of Delaware, Delaware Edu-cational Technology Committee, February 1995.

The catalyst for starting Delaware’s technology initiative. Particularly good analysis and rec-ommendations regarding infrastructure.

Other resources include: • http://www.ot.state.mn.us Minnesota Office of

Technology • Long-range Plan for Technology in Elementary and

Secondary Education in New York State, June 1990. • Educational Technology in New Jersey: A Plan for

Action, New Jersey State Department of Education, April 1993.

Some excellent documents from Delaware helped set the stage for the creation of DCET and were valuable sources of background material: • State and District’s Goals 2000 Plans



• Technology Strategy Highlights, Delaware Depart-ment of Public Instruction, draft

• Brandywine School District Citizens Financial Advi-sory Committee, Data Service Center Study, Final Report, February 1995.

• Standards for School Library Media Centers, Dela-ware Public Schools as proposed by the Governor’s Task Force on School Libraries, April 1996.



Appendix A: APPLICATIONS

Electronic Mail

Electronic mail is the most important application that educa-tion will use. Its current implementation in Delaware is in-adequate for an enterprise network. For example: 1. Most schools do not have a PC dedicated for each

teacher. When using the existing POP mail system, as it iscurrently implemented, mail is downloaded to the per-sonal computer’s hard disk when a user logs on. If two or more teachers were using a “shared” PC, then they would be able to read each other’s mail, because it is stored lo-cally. This is a security and privacy issue.

2. POP mail requires that certain setup information be stored in the user’s personal computer. This setup infor-mation varies from user to user. If using a shared ma-chine, the user must delete their setup information and enter new information every time. This is a time-consuming and difficult task and makes the user interface untenable.

3. Some schools have implemented their own POP mail sys-tems. These systems are inexpensive and easy to install. However, a real problem arises when a school in one District needs to communicate with a school in another District. Because this is a “local” email solution, there is no directory service that connects these disparate mail servers. One would have to know the email address of the person they were trying to communicate with. OTM has implemented a creative solution that is manageable for a small number of systems, e.g. they have put a searchable index on an intranet page so email addresses can be looked up by simply entering the person’s last name. However, this solution will not be manageable for more than a few systems.

The choice of a mail strategy must deal with at least 7 critical issues: user interface, reliability, system management and



administration, security, interoperability/applications devel-opment, scalability and cost of ownership There are multiple means of implementing email in an enter-prise but with the building of the Delaware Education Net-work and the infrastructure we are putting in place, it is imperative that we implement a client-server based solu-tion.

Criteria Host-based File-based Client-Server User interface Low High High Reliability High Low High Management & Administration

Centralized Distributed Either

Security High Low High Interoperability Low High High Scalability High Low High Cost of ownership High Low Medium User Interface Reliability Management and Administration

The user interface must be easy to use, intuitive and able to be replicated at home or in the school. There is no other ap-plication that will be used more frequently than email. In many cases, a graphical internet browser with integrated elec-tronic mail (such as Netscape or Microsoft Explorer) is the best choice. Other solutions such as BeyondMail or Eudora work equally well, although not integrated with an internet browser. The user “front-end” must be able to grow to an en-terprise-wide solution. “Who you gonna call?” Schools generally do not have a high level of technology expertise. When a system breaks, users need a central place they can call for help. Servers, routers and directories must be configured properly. The central sup-port organization must be able to “see” the servers, the net-work and the routing paths. Tracking the routing of “misplaced” messages is an art, requiring special expertise. Email is not free! People are required to add and delete ac-counts, manage the capacity of the message stores, back up mail boxes, ensure security and provide user assistance. Ac-cording to a 1993 InfoCorp study, the cost of ownership for a corporate email installation can range from $90 per year per user to a high of almost $600.54

54 “Delivering E-Mail to the Enterprise”, Banyan, p.5.



Security Interoperability/ Applications De-velopment Scalability Cost of Owner-ship

Users should only need to be added once to get access to file servers, printers and email. Without a directory service, users may need to be added multiple times. In education, every few years student users will graduate and move from one school to another. This could require thousands of accounts to be manually deleted and reentered at the new school. User names and passwords must be managed to achieve a level of security. Passwords need to be changed, by the user, on a regular basis. Users must be prevented from accessing other’s mail. To simplify the user interface, a single log-in should be used to access all network services. An email system in education must be able to support a het-erogeneous environment consisting of DOS, Macintosh, Windows 95 and Windows NT desktops running on Net-Ware, NT, UNIX or Banyan Vines servers. Sometimes this interoperability can be established with 3rd party gateways, however, managing a number of gateways can be difficult and labor intensive. As best as possible, the chosen email so-lution should seamlessly support all of the above desktops and servers. In a client-server based environment, email can serve as a simple tool for applications development. Some email sys-tems allow creation of forms, routing of mail to individuals for specific actions and creation of simple databases. Email can form the basis of workgroup applications and is essential to maximize the cost and labor savings offered by a network.. Today, we are struggling with the potential of providing email to just the teachers and administrators. There are poten-tially over 10,000 of these users! In three years, we would expect to provide email to most students, beyond 4th grade. This could add an additional 60,000 users. Such intense growth must be carefully managed and system resources con-stantly monitored and managed. The email system must be able to scale appropriately. How much does it cost? Software, hardware, and administra-tion costs must be understood and minimized as a whole. Of-ten, decisions on email systems at a local level are made while considering only one criterion (such as the cost of the software), while in reality, the life-cycle cost, or cost of own-ership over time, is the proper criterion.



School Pro-files

A Profile Advisory Committee, appointed by the Department of Public Instruction, has been meeting from late 1996 to early 1997 to help determine the requirements for School Profiles. After reviewing Senate Bill 275, the school profile legislation, and a number of examples from other states, the committee recommended that school profiles follow these principles:

• be targeted to parents and the general community • be standardized • present information in a fair and accurate way • contain sections for schools to explain their mission, goals and programs • have separate formats appropriate for elementary, middle, and high schools • be “reader friendly” by using a balance of graphs, tables, and narrative.

The initial school profiles will be developed from currently available information and may reflect 30 to 50 data elements or distinct pieces of information. The need for school profiles is a clear driver for working on a standardized data warehouse and reporting engine.

DPI State-wide Stan-dardized Pu-pil Accounting For details on this proposal, please contact Bob Czeizinger, Department of Public Instruction.

The Department of Public Instruction is requesting funds to hire a consultant to conduct a study of the feasibility of im-plementing a State-Wide Standardized Pupil Accounting Sys-tem. The consultant will be tasked to • survey all public schools and districts on their particular

Pupil Accounting needs • assist DPI in either the selection of a currently available

Pupil Accounting System or in the creation of a custom-ized system for Delaware

• recommend the technology which would best fit the needs of both the Delaware Schools and DPI

• reconcile the differences between the information con-tained in current Pupil Accounting Systems in use in Delaware Schools, and

• create an implementation plan which specifically outlines



the steps involved and issues which must be resolved be-fore moving to a Standardized Pupil Accounting System.

A Pupil Accounting system can be defined as a comprehen-sive software package and computer hardware used to effi-ciently manage student record administration. In Delaware, a State-wide Pupil Accounting System would help to set and enforce state-wide educational standards by allowing DPI to measure the effectiveness of school educational programs. It would give DPI the ability to track a student through various schools and programs, and measure the effectiveness of the programs by setting state-wide definitions and classifications for courses and grades. In other words, we would finally have the ability to compare oranges to oranges across the school districts. State-of-the-Art Pupil Accounting systems include features which track the educational careers of students as they move through the educational system. Such a system would provide for functions such as registration, scheduling, attendance, grade reporting, student health information, tran-scripts, as well as a host of other important activities. There are currently at least 7 different Pupil Accounting sys-tems in use in Delaware Public Schools. These systems all work differently and highlight the fact that there are no common definitions or common procedures for the follow-ing: • suspension and expulsion codes, • awarding of weighted credits for honors courses, • computation of Grade Point Averages, • definition of absences and how those absences are re-

corded, • what constitutes a valid student transfer, • reasons for dropping out of school. More importantly, high schools do not currently maintain a common course classification system. This means that Alge-bra II in one school could in fact be Algebra I in another. At issue is how to correctly compare data, grades, and courses between schools and districts. It is expected that implementation of a State-wide Standard Pupil Accounting System would have the added benefit of allowing the Department of Public Instruction to continue to keep a centralized database of information on each student



with a minimum amount of work on the part of each school district. This will allow for the following: • Provide for an automated September 30th Unit Count, • allow the electronic transfer of student records including

health records, • produce a Delaware standardized high school transcript, • allow for electronic transfer of transcripts to colleges and

universities, • reduce or eliminate the burden of data collection within

the Delaware Education System, • production of accountability and site based management

information and reports. This project would take advantage of the recent initiative to wire all classrooms in Delaware Public Schools and allow for connection of each classroom to both the Pupil Accounting System and to the State-wide Educational Network. The work plan for this project will encompass every public school in Delaware. There are currently 190+ public schools and special schools in Delaware.

Current Technology The 7 Pupil Accounting Systems in use in Delaware Public Schools are as follows:

Pupil Accounting System Operating System Systems 11 VAX based Data Service Center (in-house) Mainframe OSIRIS PC based (DOS/Windows) Dover HS (in-house) VAX based Applied Education Systems PC based (DOS) Student Scheduling & Tracking PC based (DOS) Modular Management System MAC based The above Pupil Accounting Systems are for the most part

closed systems. Information can not be shared between sys-tems. Data must be manually extracted in order to update the Delaware Student Information System (DELSIS). DELSIS is the master student database used by DPI for creation of stu-dent identification numbers, for tracking of students through Delaware Schools, and for generating reports based on cur-rent and longitudinal student data. Currently many schools must either cross-walk their Pupil Accounting System IDs to



DELSIS, or must manually enter data in both systems. Performance Results The implementation of a State-wide Pupil Accounting Sys-tem would allow the districts to more efficiently manage ad-ministrative school functions, especially as students move from Elementary through Middle and High School. It would free up the time teachers spend on administrative tasks allow-ing for more student instruction. Administrative tasks would take less time and be more accurate by giving teachers the ability to use an electronic gradebook, electronically take student attendance, generate report cards, and look at a stu-dent’s past record. Additionally, the Department of Public Instructions and the School District staff would have the abil-ity to more effectively collect data from each Delaware Pub-lic School. This real-time data would be collected locally at each school where either a summary or detailed student information could be viewed by appropriate staff. This type of system would allow for tracking of state-wide, district-wide, and school en-rollment, attendance, and academic progress. Additionally, a centralized database of student information would be created in order to allow for state-wide tracking and reporting in the following areas:

• Student Registration with unique ID generation • Student Enrollment • Student Performance • Student Demographics • Course Offering and Enrollment • Unit Count • Federal Free Lunch Program • Child Cost Recovery Program • Teacher Utilization • Classroom/Facilities Utilization

Creation of a centralized database of student information would also allow for analysis of student data. This student data would be uniform across all schools and districts which would allow for comparisons of information between classes, schools, and districts. Ad-hoc reports could easily be created as needed. Impact on other Departments



The Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families currently operate 12 specialized schools. Strategi-cally a State-wide Pupil Accounting System would have to have the ability to generate a State-wide student ID, regard-less of the school setting. This would allow for sharing of information between school counselors, teachers, and case workers as children move between various schools and dis-tricts and the DSCYF schools. Budget This request is for consultant services only. It is projected that this project will be a three-year project. Note: The budget portion of this request has been deleted from this document as it was still being refined as this document went to press. For budget details, please contact Bob Czeizinger, Department of Public Instruction.

Work Proc-esses / Qual-ity Systems

Education faces challenges similar in nature to those faced by businesses, including cost reduction and demand for continuously higher quality outputs. School Districts need to thoroughly understand, document and continuously im-prove their work practices. Ultimately, improved produc-tivity of administrative staff and teachers will help move more tax dollars into the classroom. Delaware School Districts are facing unprecedented chal-lenges including:

• political pressures to reform schools • local, state and federal legislation: mandates, fund-

ing • parent’s desire for options: Choice, Charter, etc. • integration of technology with curriculum • Shared Decision Making & site-based management • impact of desegregation rulings (New Castle

County) • “quality of education” concerns from the commu-

nity and businesses • demands for management tools to help achieve ac-

countability A Delaware consulting company is working with a number of Delaware districts to develop an overview of the dis-tricts’ multiple functions, key relationships and standards.



The computer based product is developed in three phases:

1. Define and Document Strategic work processes and document flows are defined and documented, clearly showing the work that a district does and how it does it.

2. Analyze and Optimize The strategic work processes are thoroughly ana-lyzed, compared to a “best practices” model and recommendations for optimization are presented. These recommendations often include some type of automation.

3. Implementation Implementation may include some or all of the fol-lowing:

installation and maintenance of a work flow tool

streamlining of work processes and docu-ment flows

implementation of some targeted automated tools

quality certification, such as ISO9000 or Baldridge criteria

Benefits have been demonstrated to include:

• empowerment of employees for shared decision making

• significant improvements in orientation and training of new employees and cross-training of existing employees

• 20% to 90% reductions in: • employee workload • paperwork • required space • process cycle times

• improved customer satisfaction • enhanced business and community support

Instructional Management Systems

An Instructional Management System is an integrated tool that helps manage critical information at every step of the instructional design process, to include designing, develop-ing, delivering, assessing and evaluating instruction. It al-lows educators at every level to align standards, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and evaluation to achieve superior student outcomes.



Such a system is highly complex, although may be easy to use, and requires a tremendous commitment of time and money to analyze and document the connections between people, resources and information. Smyrna, Red Clay and Christina School Districts have all worked with or are currently exploring such systems. Smyrna has been working with a system since early 1993. In September, 1994, the Smyrna School District was one of three districts statewide to be awarded a $53,000 First Schools in the First State planning grant funded by the fed-eral Goals 2000 initiative. The IMSeries Instructional Infor-mation Management System was proposed as a tool integral to both the planning process covered by this grant and to fu-ture implementation of new standards and curriculum. The following three paragraphs were included in the Goals 2000 proposal: “For the past several years the District has been a Delaware forerunner in the investigation and evaluation of comprehensive computer-based instructional management systems. Activities have included formal staff training and on-site and off-site consultant presentations to staff groups. District representation, believed to be the only such from Delaware, at national instructional management conferences has provided the opportunity to network with an international cadre of school pioneers in the use of this technology. Be-cause instructional management can be utilized for staff de-velopment as well as the regular instruction program, the contacts established through these activities will provide strong support for both the planning and implementation processes. Technological developments have already progressed to the degree that now makes possible the recording and cor-relation of massive amounts of data using relatively inexpen-sive hardware and software platforms. Therefore, the incorporation of a comprehensive instructional management system on a pilot basis is proposed in the planning and staff development processes for several crucial reasons already delineated earlier but repeated here for completeness. The complexity and quantity of information related to student achievement and the demonstration thereof will become greatly magnified throughout the next several decades; an



instructional management system has the ability to gather and maintain these data throughout the educational life of the student. The ability to align local curriculum with state and national standards and then automatically correlate a stu-dent’s progress to all of these standards without creating more paperwork for the teacher is possible. Much of the data necessary to evaluate program effectiveness is available in electronic form. The ability to maintain student portfolios which include written, aural and visual data, and to make the comprehensive portfolio available to teachers, parents and students is in line with contemporary educational thinking. The need for teachers to become familiar with the use and capabilities of instructional management systems is unassail-able given the rapid advances of technology into every fabric of our society.” The District plans to continue to implement the IMSeries In-structional Information Management System in phase with its ramp-up of curriculum revision and alignment activities as funding permits. Plans call for revised curriculum to be loaded into the IMSeries data base as it is developed, along with alignment to the Delaware standards, which are already in the data base.



Appendix B

Delaware Support Ra-tios

Although we accept the Minnesota Consortium’s guidelines for staffing, calling for 220 person-years to support Delaware’s infrastructure, we believe Delaware can accomplish its goals with 42 fewer people, e.g. we will eventually need 178 full-time people to support the ratio of 1 computer for every 6 students. Delaware has some unique characteristics that allow the required mix of technical support personnel to be reduced slightly. Specifically:

• we are small enough to share technical resources more easily across the state • we have standardized wiring, servers and to some degree applications • we have a cohesive team of District Technology Coordinators already in place.

We are assuming the following support ratios for Delaware:

• 1 person to support 3 small elementary schools (each less than 200 students) • 1 person to support 1 average middle school or large elementary school (between 200 and 800 students) • 2 people to support a larger high school (>800 students)

This does not include the library media specialist which, according to the Information Retrieval subcommittee and the Council on School Libraries, at least 1 per school is a minimum requirement. Calculations/recommendations by District are:



Ratios: 15 3 1 2 200

School District &

Name

Total Students (Sept 95 Count)

Estimated # Faculty

# Schools with

Students <200

# Schools with

Students >=200 and

<=800

# Schools with

Students >800

Total # Schools

Total Technical Support Needed

Total Instructio

nal Support Needed

Subtotal Needed

Appoquinimink 3,551 237 0 4 1 5 4.50 1.18 5.68Brandywine School District 11,191 746 1 13 5 19 15.83 3.73 19.56Caesar Rodne 6,539 436 4 8 2 14 10.33 2.18 12.51Cape Henlope 4,134 276 0 6 1 7 6.50 1.38 7.88Capital School 6,364 424 2 6 3 11 8.17 2.12 10.29Colonial Schoo 9,914 661 2 11 3 16 13.17 3.30 16.47Christina Scho 19,786 1,319 3 16 9 28 21.50 6.60 28.10Indian River S 7,099 473 1 5 4 10 7.33 2.37 9.70Lake Forrest S 3,536 236 1 4 1 6 4.83 1.18 6.01Laurel School 2,115 141 1 5 0 6 5.33 0.71 6.04Milford School 3,807 254 1 3 2 6 4.33 1.27 5.60New Castle Co 3,958 264 0 2 3 5 3.50 1.32 4.82Seaford Schoo 3,856 257 1 4 2 7 5.33 1.29 6.62Red Clay Scho 14,892 993 2 18 6 26 21.67 4.96 26.63Smyrna Schoo 3,201 213 0 4 1 5 4.50 1.07 5.57Delmar Schoo 679 45 1 1 0 2 1.33 0.23 1.56Kent County V 990 66 1 1 2 0.83 0.33 1.16Sussex Count 1,025 68 1 1 2 0.83 0.34 1.18Woodbridge S 1,721 115 1 1 1 3 1.83 0.57 2.41

TOTAL 108,358 7,224 23 111 46 180 141.67 36.12 177.79



Appendix C

How to Create a Technology Plan

School-based technology plans are essential to ensure a clear understanding of needs and establishment of realistic priorities. The Smart Valley Technical Guidebook, Chapter 4 is an excellent, summarized template for creating a school-based technology plan. It is highly recommended. To save space, just the headings and the budget templates have been repeated below. A copy is available from DCET by request. The other recommended process is to utilize the Apple Education Series “Teaching, Learning & Technology - A Planning Guide”. This guide has been offered by Apple Computer, along with a half-day workshop, to all Delaware public schools. It is another excellent process that comes with some superb supporting documentation.

Smart Valley Technical Guidebook, Chapter 4

“Technology plans and networks can be designed in a variety of ways, depending on the goals you wish to achieve and the realities of your budget. It is up to you to decide which level of technology and network capability makes sense, keeping your present and future curriculum goals in mind. Although schools may begin at any level, the key to a successful tech-nology project starts with a good planning process.” ♦ Getting started ♦ The importance of a plan ♦ Assembling your team ♦ Defining your requirements

♦ School vision ♦ Curriculum goals ♦ Technology enablers

♦ Defining your technology needs ♦ Translating requirements — workstations ♦ Workstation requirements for classrooms ♦ Workstation requirements for labs ♦ Translating requirements — LAN design



♦ Physical LAN design ♦ Network migration plan

♦ Pulling wire ♦ Translating requirements — WAN design ♦ Physical WAN design ♦ Translating requirements — servers ♦ Translating requirements — hubs ♦ Taking stock at midpoint of your planning process

♦ Assessing your infrastructure ♦ Electrical equipment ♦ Environmental and safety considerations ♦ Physical safety ♦ Classroom space and furniture requirements

♦ Defining your security plan ♦ Security policy requirements ♦ Security risks and threats ♦ Choosing security measures ♦ Protecting the computer system ♦ Protecting student and administrative records ♦ Ensuring privacy ♦ Preventing software privacy ♦ Security layers

♦ Defining your technical support plan ♦ Proactive measures

♦ Developing your training plans ♦ Teachers ♦ Technical staff ♦ Students

♦ Creating your budgets Examples of both capital and operating budgets are given here. The items and prices listed are only estimates to give you a rough estimate of what you can expect to find.



WIRING MATERIALS BUDGET Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 12 Strand Riser Rated MulitMode Fiber Optic Cable 2 $0 12 strand Riser Rated Single Mode Fiber Cable 3 $0 Cat 5 UTP (1,000 FT. ROLLS) 85 $0 COAX ( 1000 FT. ROLLS) 40 $0 RJ-45 Connectors 0 $0 Patch Panel to Hub Jumpers 2' 3 $0 Patch Panel to Hub Jumpers 3' 3 $0 Wall Connections with Faceplates 7 $0 Workstation Jumpers - 7' 4 $0 Workstation Jumpers - 15' 5 $0 Workstation Jumpers - 25' 6 $0 Splice Boxes 15 $0 Wall Mount Race and Bends 2 $0 Conduit 1 $0 12 Port Patch Panels 125 $0 24 Port Patch Panels 150 $0 19"Modular Floor to Ceiling Racks 150 $0 UTP Connector Tool 20 $

TOTAL WIRING $

ROUTER AND HUB ELECTRONICS BUDGET Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 CSU/DSU ONLY 1,200 $0 County Office Router (or central connection spot) 30,600 $0 Fiber Capable School Routers 6,725 $0 School Routers 5,175 $0 16 Port TP Switched Hub 11,700 $0 16 Port Fiber Switched Hub 17,700 $0 16 Port TP/Fiber Switched Hub 14,700 $0 Hub Documentation 100 $0 12 Port Stackable Hub and SNMP Module 1,400 $0 4-12 Port Stackable Hub and SNMP Module 3,700 $0 Fiber Optic Transceivers (Multi-mode) 335 $0 UTP Transceivers 125 $0 Expansion Cables 60 $0 UPS/Line Conditioner - 4 plug 600 $0 UPS - 4 plug 300 $

TOTAL ROUTER & HUB ELECTRONICS $



SERVERS AND WORKSTATIONS BUDGET Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 County Office or District Office Server 40,000 $0 County Office or District Office Server 16,000 $0 School Administration Server 10,000 $0 School Educational Server 14,000 $0 Multimedia Workstations for Teachers & Students 2,000 $0 CAD Workstation 4,000 $0 Network Interface Cards as needed 150 $0 Workstation & Server Additional Memory as needed 160 $

TOTAL SERVERS AND WORKSTATIONS $

UPGRADES & PERIPHERAL EQUIPMENT BUDGET Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 Ethernet Cards and Transceivers 150 $0 surge Protectors 20 $0 Workstation Additional Memory as needed 160 $0 Active Matrix LCD Projection Panel 2,500 $0 Portable Overhead Projector 450 $0 Digital Camera 650 $0 Flatbed Color Scanner $0 Laserdisk Players 700 $0 VCR 300 $0 Large screen TV Monitor 700 $0 Laser Printers (1 per classroom & lab) $0 Printer Transceivers 285 $

TOTAL UPGRADES & PERIPHERAL EQUIPMENT $

FURNITURE REQUIREMENTS Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 Workstation Desks 150 $0 Workstation Chairs 75 $

TOTAL FURNITURE REQUIREMENTS $

SAFETY/SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 Workstation Physical Securing Kit 25 $0 Deadbolt Locks (Installed) 100 $0 Rack Mount Securing Hardware 25 $

TOTAL SAFETY/SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS $



WORKSTATION SOFTWARE Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 Antivirus/Disk Utilities 50 $0 Wordprocessing, Spreadsheet and Presentation 45 $0 Children's Multimedia Writing Tool 30 $0 Mail and Internet Software 4 $0 Other Instructional Software 150 $

TOTAL WORKSTATION SOFTWARE $

SERVER SOFTWARE Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 Network Management $ $0 Virus Protection $ $0 Security $ $0 Utilities (Disk, File, Backup) $ $0 Print and File Services $ $0 Web Server $ $0 Administation and Grading Software $ $0 Router Netwark Management Software $ $0 Other Software To Be Shared $ $

TOTAL SERVER SOFTWARE $

INSTALLATION COSTS Estimated Total Quantity Description Unit Price Amount

0 Telco/Wan Installations $ $0 Wiring Installation and Testing $ $0 Network Electronics Installation $ $0 Fiber Optics Splicing

TOTAL INSTALLATION COSTS $

TOTAL CAPITAL BUDGET $



TECHNICAL OPERATING BUDGET

QuantityEstimated Unit Cost

Total Amount

Personnel (PT &B)District Network Manager $School Network Technician $

Maintenance ContractsNetwork Hardware:Router-Fiber capable 260 $Router-UTP 200 $Switched Hub-16 port fiber 160 $Switched Hub-8 port TP module 135 $Switched Hub-8 port Fiber module 270 $Switched Hub for County or central connection point 350 $Hub-12 port for each classroom 35 $Servers:County or District hw/sw Contract 960 $County or District hw/sw Contract 1,440 $School Administration Server-$for repair if no good contra 600 $School Education Server-contract for 4hr callback & 3day 575 $Workstations/Printers:decide if needed $

Software License and UpgradesRouters, Network and ServersSchool Router: BoundAry Routing & All, Complete Proto 400 $Network Management for County or District 9,000 $Network Management at School 700 $Network Operating System (NOS) $Utilities $Virus $Security $



QuantityEstimated Unit Cost

Total Amount

Software License and Upgrades - WorkstationsWorkstation System OS - upgrade or school site license/yr $Antivirus - per seat/yr 7 $Disk Utilities - per seat/yr 8 $Word Processing,Spreadsheet & Presentation-upgrade or 20 $Children's Multimedia Writing Tool 20 $Other Instructional Software - per seat per yr 150 $Internet, Mail and TCP/IP - per seat/account 4 $

Equipment ExpenseGeneral Repair/Replacement (per School) 10,000 $Supplies (paper, disks, cartridges, etc. per school) 7,500 $

WAN Service ISDN - 128KB per year (1 for K-5; 2 for 6-8) 770 $Frame Relay - 384 per year 6,750 $T1 (varies by distance) 440/month 5,280 $Phone lines for Modems Remote Access to COE 9,600 $

SubscriptionsOn-line Services, Mail Accounts $Educational Services $Phone Support for Applications (l FTE/school) 2,000 $

ArchivingTapes per school/yr 350 $Tapes for District and County 350 $

TrainingTraining Cost for each Teacher (5 days) $Subs for Teachers (5 days) 400 $Training for Technicial Staff - per person/yr 1,500 $

FacilitiesOffice Space for Personel $Equipment Storage Space $Alarm Service $Temp. Control Costs $

TOTAL OPERATING BUDGET $



Appendix D

Fund-raising Strategy

Issues: • Schools need computer hardware, software, printers and

television monitors. • Delaware’s current availability of networkable computers

is estimated to be 25 students to 1 computer. DCET’s goal is to achieve a 6 to 1 ratio within 5 years.

• Schools need help in training teachers and students how to effectively use technology in the classroom. “Educa-tional experts…..suggest that schools spend at least 25%…..on professional development. Typically, K-12 schools spend 5% of their technology budgets on train-ing.” We estimate that Delaware averages around 3%.

• We are required to raise $20,000,000 in 3 years to match 21st Century Funds.

Goals: • We will: • recruit at least one “information highway advisor” for

each classroom to volunteer 2 to 4 hours a month to help mentor students and educators in technology

• develop and implement a National Vendor Awareness Program to encourage partnership involvement by major computer and software companies

• place one high quality, networkable computer, classroom display device (TV or LCD projector), and printer in each of 7000 public school classrooms (within 3 years)

• develop and fully implement a process to distribute com-puters and technology resources to schools based on a combination of need and creativity

• demonstrate significant improvement and successes by concentrating our initial efforts on schools which have the wiring infrastructure in place.

Approach: • DCET’s Friend/Fund Raising Campaign would focus on

three major areas:



• Large corporations/foundations → donations placed into a DCET statewide fund to be leveraged with local dis-tricts’ efforts based upon need/creativity. ($6,000,000)

• Small and medium sized businesses → Adopt-A-Classroom program designed to place a minimum of one computer and one technology mentor in every Delaware classroom. Campaign would be driven by schools and communities. ($12,000,000)

• Recruitment of multi-national technology firms in becom-ing Delaware’s partners by providing equipment and software donated and/or discounted to leverage expendi-tures that will be made statewide over the next three years. ($3,000,000)

Leadership Roles for Governor Carper: • Within the next two months, charter an Educational

Technology Board to lead the Friend Raising effort. The Board would consist of several CEOs. We suggest xxxxxxx as Chair.

• Send a packet of information and initiate a personal con-tact (telephone/visit) with major international technology CEOs (e.g. Apple, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Compaq, Dell) to highlight the needs within our schools and to get this effort into planning/budget cycles.

• Continue to encourage individuals, businesses and other organizations to volunteer in schools, mentor individual teachers or students, Adopt a Classroom or Adopt a School.

• Participate in several interactions with the Delaware business community (representing the largest 50 employ-ers) to highlight the needs within our schools, to get this effort into planning/budget cycles, and to seek long-term cash commitments. Could include Business Roundtable, Business Public Education Council etc.

• Participate in some interactions with small to medium-sized businesses, where necessary, to help provide a computer and mentor for every classroom.

• Support establishment of an independent 5013C to re-ceive and disburse tax-deductible contributions for educa-tional technology. A Board, consisting of 3 to 6 members of the DCET Board along with 3 to 6 members of the Friend Raising Leadership Board and representing all three Counties, will be responsible for the process of dis-tributing computers and resources to the schools.

• Participate, with the Friend Raising Leadership Board



and others, in appropriate press conferences such as the announcement of the NetDay 96 initiative, the Ameri-corps Grant, first schools “wired” and kick-off of Friend Raising campaign.

• Support legislation making it more attractive for busi-nesses and government to recycle and donate computers to education.

• Participate in NetDay 96 Delaware on October 26 by pulling wire in a school. Sign up on the internet and en-courage others to participate.

Timetable:

Dec 96 Dec 97 Dec 98 Dec 99 Multinationals: $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 Large Corporate contributions: $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,000,000 School match: $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,000,000* Small Business Adopt-A-Classroom: $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,000,000 Technology mentors: $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,000,000 7000 volunteers x 4hrs/mo x $8/hr x 9mos/yr. * not counted as part of $21 000 000



Appendix E

Strategic Planning Meeting

On December 13, 1996 the Delaware Center for Educational Technology held a strategic planning meeting at Delaware State University in Dover. The majority of the meeting was spent in five breakout groups discussing :

• Staff Development and Technology Utilization • Infrastructure • Information Retrieval • Operations • Education Technology Management

Each group went through a brainstorming process and cap-tured hundreds of ideas. The ideas were then prioritized and each group reported back to the whole meeting with their top priorities. After all reports were given, everyone voted on their individual priorities. The process was designed to gen-erate a lot of ideas and bring some quick consensus to the areas that DCET should be concentrating on. The following are the results of the prioritization process. The ideas are summarized first by priority and then listed by breakout group.

Top Priorities STAFFING: Ideas related to:

- defining and creating functional organizations and staff for technology support at the school and district level - funding a minimum of 1 person at each building, outside of the unit count TECHNOLOGY IN-SERVICE TIME: - provide teachers with specific in-service time, built into dis-trict calendars, to develop skills and methods to implement the content standards PROCUREMENT: - coordinate statewide purchasing (or lease) of hardware and software.



TECHNOLOGY CENTERS: - DCET will provide, at a minimum, one technology center per county, and one mobile training van, to provide ongoing training including training of trainers and hardware and soft-ware evaluation opportunities. WAN/LAN PLANNING: - Proactively Solicit requirements and plan WAN and LAN technologies to meet curriculum needs and affordability. Cur-riculum is the Driver! TRAINING: - Train Trainers & Technology Leaders who coordinate and or train teachers and administrators on the capability and po-tential and proper use of the Infrastructure

1. Focus on end users 2. Includes technical training for support people

LIBRARY AUTOMATION: - Provide for automated, on-line, union catalogs in all school libraries compatible with academic library and public library automated catalogs; include public dial-in & full internet ac-cess. - Electronic information resources should be included with the automated library service. They should be full text so the information is immediately available. Licensing should be statewide. The following ideas are the top priorities that were produced by each individual sub-group. There are some redundant ideas which have been left to provide credit to the source(s).


Library Automation 1. Provide for automated, on-line, union catalogs in all

school libraries compatible with academic library and public library automated catalogs; include public dial-in & full internet access.

2. Electronic information resources should be included with the automated library service. They should be full text so the information is immediately available. Licensing should be statewide.



Information Gate-keeper

1. Define the role: information support person instructional consultant media person librarian technician other 2. Identify the information gatekeeper: Team, Individual,

School, District-wide? 3. Provide the training necessary to establish and maintain

that role(s).

Statewide Subscrip-tions

The state (DCET) should negotiate a statewide licensing agreement for a set of basic, or core, services. Districts should then be allowed to choose from a menu of addi-tional/expanded services. 1. Districts will share the cost of the statewide agreement

for basic services. 2. Districts who want additional services will be responsible

for the funding of those services. (tiered format)

Access 1. Any access to administrative databases should be secure.

2. Dialup access should be widely available. 3. Develop guidelines and policies on blocking of informa-

tion.

Administration 1. Distributed (secure) student and staff management sys-

tem. 2. Electronic information management system - curriculum

and information 3. Need for maintenance/management/system “up time” and

related staffing issues and technical support. Staff Development & Technology Utilization

Support Staff DCET will provide state-funded technical support staff in

each district funded beyond the unit count.

Technology In-service Time

Provide teachers with specific inservice time, built into dis-trict calendars, to develop technology skills and methods to implement the content standards.



Technology Center DCET will provide, at a minimum, one technology center per

county, and one mobile training van, to provide ongoing training including training of trainers and hardware and soft-ware evaluation opportunities.

Software Review Develop mechanisms to review and recommend software

which is aligned with state content stands, the criteria for which are developed via a process managed by DCET.

Procurement Coordinate statewide purchasing (or lease) of hardware and

software. Education Technology Management

Legislative Funding Coordinate an annual Legislative funding commitment for

technology.

Other Funding Develop business partnerships to leverage funding, grant

writing, and political support.

Staffing Ratios Provide staffing structure/ratio guidelines for support staff --

technical and curricular.

Funding for Staffing Determine how staffing shall be funded between state and

districts.

Policies Provide statewide policies for technology utilization, specifi-

cally acceptable use and software licenses.

Operations

Functional Organi-zation

Create technical support organizations within each District to include the following five roles: Info Resource Manager Data Base Engineer Network Engineer Instructional Technologist Technician



Building Level Sup-port

1. Individual able to be first line for system support 2. Must be staffed with non-teaching

Funding of LAN Managers

Help Desk 1. Software

2. Network 3. Hardware

Infrastructure

WAN planning Proactively Solicit requirements and plan WAN and LAN

technologies to meet curriculum needs and affordability. Cur-riculum is the Driver!

Training Train Trainers & Technology Leaders who coordinate and or

train teachers and administrators on the capability and poten-tial and proper use of the Infrastructure

1. Focus on end users Includes technical training for support people

Standards Publish standards and documentation about infrastructure

elements such as wire and cable, hubs, project plans, time-lines etc. Include: Policy, Compliance and Mediation proc-ess.

Procurement Establish software standards and procurement/licensing for

those education or administrative applications that we standardize on.

Support Provide (fund) trained technical specialists at the building

level. Must be outside unit counts. The following table lists all of the ideas which were

generated.



SUBGROUPS MAIN TOPIC IDEAS STAFF DEVELOPMENT & TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION

INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT Seek State funding for instructional tech support staff in every district.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT & TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION

EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS/SOFTWARE

DCET to provide minimally one technology training center per county and a mobile technology training cen-ter to provide ongoing teacher training (including master "teacher trainers"), latest software and hardware for evaluation by teachers.



Districts do not have the same books across schools- a list of applications software would have to be broad.



Provide teachers with specific inservice time built into the district calendar to develop technology skills and methods to implement the content standards.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL STATEWIDE SUBSCRIPTIONS

State provide basic service and have sub-scriptions for schools to choose from.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Automate all libraries, including school libraries, learn-ing resource center and school libraries, learning re-source center and school libraries, resource center and Delaware Teachers Center.

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

STAFFING Provide staffing structure/ratio guidelines for support staff - both technical and curricular.


STAFFING Determine how staffing shall be funded between state and districts.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS At building level: min 1 person building level system support not neccesarily Net Engineer. Individual will be able to be a first line of problem solving.


LEGISLATURE Annual legislative funding committment for technology



Provide network for school staff to identify and share lesson plans, (resources 7 assessment activi-ties/instruction strategies) which promote student suc-cess with sttate standards.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ACCESS Confidentiality of records. Information sharing, exam-ple: student grades other personal infor.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Distributed student management capability. Classroom entry of grades & other report card information.



Financially assist districts or schools in site license pur-chase by elementary/middle/secondary.


COMMUNICATIONS Publish Ed. Tech newsletter and regular updated DEN access instructions dial-up & network.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL INFORMATION GATEKEEPER

Role of the information gatekeeper and then the training necessary to establish and maintain that role.

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT State funding for trained technology coordinators at each school.



DCET train one resource teacher/15 teachers/school in e-mail, www create-browse, scanning. To act as a mas-ter teacher in that school. (resources for teachers in the school?


POLICY/GUIDELINES Provide statewide policies for technology utilization: 1) internet use by teachers/students 2)software licenses.


PURCHASING Provide a central location for information soft-ware/hardware purchasing with negotiated statewide pricing.



INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE Statewide license for software or state accessible server.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS State funding for technical positions. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Support at any level is not using a teaching unit. STAFF DEVELOPMENT & TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION

CURRICULUM INTEGRATION

Embed computer skills in software. Work with DPI in design of computer literate graduation requirement.



Arrange state-wide projects where separate pieces are handled at various school sites and coordinated over the State network.



Narrow focus at beginning to identify specific teacher skills necessary to insure teachers feel/are competent users.


COMMUNICATIONS Provide in-house contact point to DCET providing guid-ance


FUNDING Develop relationships with large technology firms and other businesses - use leverage to persuade legis.


PURCHASING Develop a process for statewide purchases of hardware.



Begin having educational technology from schools - go back to new state standards and figure out what tech-nology could be used.



Establish "certification" process which requires training prior to receiving hardware.


FUNDING Provide grant writing information support sources.


MISCELLANEOUS Indicate to districts how best to achieve computer liter-acy credit requirements or at least suggestions.

INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Be proactive in determining future requirements. INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Provision for remote access from homes of staff and

students


INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT Equity special education.


COMMUNICATIONS Foster superintendent buying - make it a priority.


POLICY/GUIDELINES Develop K-12 acceptable use policy for use by districts.

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Policies, procedures for reporting problems with net-work.

INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Migration plans for existing platforms. INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED STANDARDS Published cable, wire, hubs, and server-installations,

set-up.

INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE Provision for software for each teacher for D6P3 admin-istrative purposes to maintain attendance, grades, stu-dent database.

INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Staff development training for all teachers and adminis-trators.

INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Infrastructure-Education = What do we have? Who is doing what?

INFRASTRUCTURE VIDEO CONFERENCE Video across lans. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS LAN/WAN expert with team of technicians for district. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Help Desk support. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Technology trainer w/educational classroom back-

ground.



OPERATIONS OPERATIONS In depth staff development. STAFF DEVELOPMENT & TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION


Provide demonstration videos of successful teacher utilization.


FUNDING Provide an on-going forum for schools to discuss issues and locate resources for solutions.


FUNDING Develop a means to leverage funding.


POLICY/GUIDELINES Implement more-Intergrate current plans- Have a build-ing and district plan


POLICY/GUIDELINES Publish suggested models of K-12 technology deploy-ment at various grade clusters. Provide examples of successful implementations.


PURCHASING Develop a process for statewide purchases of educa-tional software


PURCHASING Provide aquistion through lease packages.

INFRASTRUCTURE E - MAIL Workable e-mail throughout the state. INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Capacity Planning or deadline with available bandwidth.INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Infrastructure to allow for additional computers as fund-

ing available.

INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED STANDARDS Standards hard & software can they be enforced? INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Outside building connectivity. INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Ability to provide access to possible training remote

sights for adult ed.

INFRASTRUCTURE STANDARD OPERATING SYSTEM

A standard for network operating systems will facilitate support and maintenance state-wide.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Classifications of personnel so that districts don't have to fit these people into teach, para, etc.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Support for teacher's home opertional use at dis-trict/state equipment.



Provide training that demonstrates how to use software that is integrated into the curriculum - enhances the delivery of instruction.



DCET will provide classroom computers to teachers who have mastered basic training to provide continued growth and motivate other students.


INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT That DPI-DCET include higher education in training -- UD, DSU, WC, DTCC and others.


INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT Assure impact by training teachers in research-based applications.


COMMUNICATIONS Provide public relations with public expenditures vs. upcoming viable work force.


COMMUNICATIONS Establish a clearing house for resloving isssues.


COMMUNICATIONS Establish some form of communication to keep parents & public informed of progress and plans.


COMMUNICATIONS Establish ways to ge standards commitments for each of the 19 school districts.


FUNDING Be a channel for pooling resources to make the best use of limited funding.




MISCELLANEOUS Encourage districts to share resources/information


POLICY/GUIDELINES Develop a plan with districts that will allow teachers to be released to visit other districts outside DE for best practice.

INFRASTRUCTURE E - MAIL E-mail for students is necessary for curriculum to meet standards.

INFRASTRUCTURE E - MAIL E-mail-use industry standards backend (server) and frontend (client).

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK MANAGEMENT Implement proactive network management to the desk-top.

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK MANAGEMENT Establish global naming conventions for serv-ers/resources.

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK MANAGEMENT Single ID for: Mail, Remote Access, Applications, File and Print.

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK MANAGEMENT Network - Fire Walls INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Support, quality and locate quanity will be critical issue. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Network is user friendly. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Fully trained technology cooridinator in every district. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Trouble shooting "help desk" format for networks. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Building level support of infrastructure. INFRASTRUCTURE OUTSOURCING Outsourcing of infrastructure. INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Expand T1-AT OTM service to internet. INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Plan growth of main internet pipe. INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Help design network that takes max advantage of infra-

structure.

INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED C78STANDARDS

INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Access to state side services from Education. INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE State license for groupware and software. INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE Network virus protection. INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE State provided ftp software. INFRASTRUCTURE STANDARD OPERATING

SYSTEM Servers- Standards? What should they be?

INFRASTRUCTURE TELEPHONES Required "phone" access for all school areas. INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Training on network management. INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Training for teachers to use network and programs. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Full time technology support person in each building for

operations.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS 20 - 24 hour a day help via telephone and tap-in for operations support for building or district operations support personnel.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Help dest for: software, network and hardware STAFF DEVELOPMENT & TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION


Develop K-12 library skills standards.



Use technology to analyze building and district level data: Test scores, SES, Other (attendance).



DPI and DCET to establish staff development training schedule.



Provide staff development in 3 areas: 1) How to use hardware and basic software applications. 2) How to integrate technology into class instructions. 3) Using specific software.



Give teachers hands-on training with computers.




INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT Do yearly surveys on pupil and parent satisfaction. Look for areas impacted by use of technology.


INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT Measure implementing the students learning.


BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY PARTNERS

Teachers placed in business and industry setting.



Provide a standards practices policy to be used when approaching business and industry for funding support.



Act as a clearinghouse for information regarding part-nership opportunities.


COMMNICATIONS Same format for district technology plans.


COMMUNICATIONS Manage closer communication between DCET, BANI, VENDORS, DISTRICTS & SCHOOLS. Develop proc-ess.


COMMUNICATIONS Provide leadership in informing public on technology issues.


COMMUNICATIONS DCET provide a format for all districts.


COMMUNICATIONS Develop "road show" for presentation to local school boards on technology funding issues.


FUNDING Prepare common guidelines for district/school grants for financial support (private & public)


FUNDING Research & develop a list of possible canidates to ap-proach for funding.


LEGISLATURE Be advocate/lobbyist for school technology with legistla-ture and governor's office.


LEGISLATURE Separate technology budget.


LEGISLATURE Develop communications with the legislature to change mind set.


LEGISLATURE Liaison person from DCET assigned to districts.


LEGISLATURE Provide a resource for grant information for schools.


LEGISLATURE Develop staffing guidelines for tech. support and lobby for state funding of same.


LEGISLATURE Provide dedicated technology coordinators in all dis-tricts, not currently provided (Delmar, Laurel)


LEGISLATURE Provide for staffing support in all districts.


LEGISLATURE Provide support to district hiring technology specialists. (job descriptions)


LEGISLATURE Provide a staff position for preventive maintenance. (For district, county or state)


LEGISLATURE Have each district provide a teched. techie person and a teched curr. person for implementation of plan.




LEGISLATURE Establish and implement computer to support person ratio


LEGISLATURE Create guidelines for establishing and funding technical support staff positions in each district.


LEGISLATURE Utilize Goals 2000 technology teams and materials (already in districts) to develop school based technology plans.


LEGISLATURE Define instructional materials as more than textbooks


MISCELLANEOUS Detail a process allowing business the opportunity to customize student curriculum in networking principles to mirror current real world applications in trade for hard-ware, software & visiting fellows support, teach etc.


MISCELLANEOUS Provide curriculum which practically applies networking principles. Allowing students to support & assist with network management at the district & school level. Possibly tie with tech. prep. Apprenticeship? Tuition?


MISCELLANEOUS Network Profitability research DEN as a self supporting profit generating tool. Students as leaseable support, Students as installation techs.


MISCELLANEOUS Co-ordinate staff development efforts - countywide.


POLICY/GUIDELINES Inform schools and or districts of state/national policies in content areas that relate to technology


POLICY/GUIDELINES Construct a common district school need assessment to be included in school/district technology plan.


POLICY/GUIDELINES Provide a process training for school leadership to de-velop school-based technology plans.


POLICY/GUIDELINES Map state standards to educational software and or web activities.


POLICY/GUIDELINES Establish lanes. Focal point with responsibility in an area.


POLICY/GUIDELINES Clearly indentify technology management structure and responsibilities at each level or management


POLICY/GUIDELINES Guidelines for Hardware compatability.


PURCHASING Provide policies for equipment & software upgrades toremain current.


PURCHASING Provide policies for equipment maintenance & or re-placement.


PURCHASING negotiate economy of scale deals on hardware and software with vendors.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ACCESS Ability to access college and university catalogs espe-cially in Dover, but students must have priviledges at these institutions.



INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ACCESS Should dial-up access be available from home? Will Districts be responsible for acceptable use policies or will there be one for the state. Need to push for automa-tion of all school libraries for purposes of ill.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ACCESS Who would be responsible for legal issues such as copyright infrigement? Will media center budgets in-crease to cover fees for licensing, or will this be handled separately?

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ACCESS All libraries fully automated and on line to facilitate ill. INFORMATION RETRIEVAL INFORMATION

GATEKEEPER Training on line-how to use applications-how to use technology to integrate with the classroom. How to search for staff and for students. Other professional development without driving long distance.


We need training on how to use and maintain what comes on the box.


Role librarian may be more mobile to help info search strategies at access points.


Technology teams committees in districts.


Training on usage and what is available on each sys-tem.


Training for parents - how to help your kids - searching - skills for self improvement.


Staffing for Parental training and access. Technical trainer in each district. District level commitment.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION On-line & share information, including "interlibrary loan" & connect schools with higher ed and public libraries.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Automated catalogs in all libraries & development of district wide & state wide union catalogs.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Automation & networking of "Major" school libraries via a single school library integrated system which provides public dial-in and full Internet connections with DE pub-lic & academic lib. systems.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Information should be Full Text so it is truly available & immediately available.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Full text resources that create a "core" collection of reference and research materials in each school. These resources are provided statewide through a single li-cense.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Would really like to share magazine & newspaper data-bases, especially would love more full text than we cur-rently have.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Limited studenta data available across school/district/state. Administration servers in each scchool/district. Electronic transcripts & implications for standardized student information system. Issue of standardization of student date formats.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Reliability/Management of System Must build in staffing & maintenance as you build the system. when a system is down it is very frustrating to students and staff & the education process.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Electronic instructional management--state standards, school curriculemn, assessment modules, and student portfolios established maintained and available ectroni-cally-consideration of standardization or compatable instructional information mgnt system.



INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Administrative databases. We need confidentiality and control over access.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Access to Administrative---send grades to Guidsend absences to Guid---access curriculm data base.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION How will we manage our hardware at the school level? Including maintenance?

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION What do you do when the system is busy or down? Back up plans?

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Connect entire schools within school & within districts to databases/information.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Access/Security if student data/information INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Organizing and categorizing information. INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION Efficient systems for attendance, report cards, disapli-

nary reports - most are currently written then entered by a secretary rather than entered on the spot.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LIBRARY AUTOMATION This would require a computer in every homeroom & for every administrator or secretary. For special education a good database would allow for research on progress, remedial programs effectiveness etc.


We need the economy of state licensing, possibly ex-panding on what is already available through U of D & public libraries. Menu for individual schools to shop from, to allow schools/districts to control costs.


Statewide licensing, funding, and management of "core knowledge gases such as SIRS.


Total electronic retrieval system in all libraries in the state @ HS & MS level. MS level because they should be taught research skills at an earlier age.


DCET should use a distributed approach to DIST/BLDG level Cirrocumuli support on file servers.


Impact of new technology services on existing library programs, especially when there are deficiencies in existing systems (facilities staffing, iencies in existing systems (facilities staffing, scheduling and training.


Statewide access to databases.

INFRASTRUCTURE E - MAIL Explore possibility of common e-mail system among all state agencies.

INFRASTRUCTURE E - MAIL Provide e-mail communications for all teachers/staff and all students from 4th grade up.

INFRASTRUCTURE E - MAIL E-mail access for students through teachers at the ele-mentary level

INFRASTRUCTURE E - MAIL E-mail for all students? Really necessary? INFRASTRUCTURE E - MAIL Staff and develop e-mail system for students and staff.

Have standard software.

INFRASTRUCTURE INTRANET SERVERS Connectivity between school classrooms and between schools.

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK MANAGEMENT Manage use of system. How can we know when some-one is using something like CU-Cme.

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK MANAGEMENT Establish guidelines for video on the network. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK MANAGEMENT Insure network is not over-managed. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK MANAGEMENT Management; Who? What? INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Some Form of a help desk for infrastructure questions. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Provision for maintenance and troubleshooting in timely

manner.

INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Network Management What level? Who? Lan.



INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Policies, procedures for reporting defective data jacks. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Ensure speedy repair of problems with the network. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Downtime needs a min/max stand for Ed. purpose. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Provide for interim replacement of down equipment. INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK SUPPORT Provide for maintenance that keeps downtime to a

minimum.

INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Local building level assessment of needs. INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Plan, install administration netword for each building. INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Assist buildings with plans to integrate present instruc-

tion network with future network.

INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Reliable data transmission. INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Hardware that will accept a higher than anticipated

growth.

INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Evaluation of new technology - software-audio-video-hardware.

INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Impact of: WEB-TV, Cable-modems, play-station and web.

INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED STANDARDS Published mim. hardware and software standards. INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED STANDARDS State guidelines (DCET) purchasing. Approved ven-

dors? Bid List etc.

INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED STANDARDS Provide list of vendors for repair, add, delete of wiring inetwork.

INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED STANDARDS Vendor relationships. INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED STANDARDS Method of reporting network performance. INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLISHED STANDARDS Communication among groups need a centralized point

- one highway, one entrance.

INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Remote access from home is required for equity issue, resources; collabarations

INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Remote access issues: who gets it? Do we become internet provider

INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Survey: Teachers, Administrations, Students on a regu-lar basis.

INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Provide internet access for students from home. INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Connectivity to local businesses? Contractors? INFRASTRUCTURE REMOTE ACCESS Internal communications-bldg to bldg, district to district. INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE Develop minimal software network accross state Educa-

tional system. Shared resources.

INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE Provide low cost software for: Mail, Groupware, WAU, FTP.


Backup redundant systems! When net goes down.


Provide standards for network operating systems.


Standardize all systems/network.


Security to tight - no flex. To loose - abuse.


Ease of upgradability.

INFRASTRUCTURE TELEPHONES Provide telephones to activate voice components in each classroom.

INFRASTRUCTURE TELEPHONES Statewide phone system to the classroom. INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Network training for site administrators. INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Provide district training on administration of networks INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Teach administrators how to use technology.



INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Training for end users. INFRASTRUCTURE TRAINING Ensure the proper training is accomplished. INFRASTRUCTURE VIDEO CONFERENCE Video conference from desk is now desired and will be

required for curriculum enhancement and requirements.

INFRASTRUCTURE VIDEO CONFERENCE 2 way interactive conference required and professional development and curriculum delivery.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Maintain district consistancy across buildings.A secre-tary for technology services is needed at district.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Coordinator supervising all district operation and sup-port personnel.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Define functional organization and staff. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS For networks, each building or community of buildings,

needs a C N A.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS 1 person per building to provide basic tech support, routine system maintenance, triage and minor repairs and instructional staff development.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Liason from building to district and / or DCET. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Technician level person to perform general operations

support installation, set up, testing, district or consortion level.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Each building or community needs hardware technician to troubleshoot and repair minor hardware problems.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Technology position assigned per bldg. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Min 1 person per school building immediately ready to

support building level needs.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS All operations to Delaware schools should be performed under contract by ventor.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Maintainance of systems - LANs servers, desktop class-room systems.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS District level hardware repair & upgrade. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Operations needs to be understood as a service bureau

delivering connections.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Building Level Technical Manager to run/trouble shoot LAN installation funded by the state.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS District mobile lan tech - 1 per 15 OPERATIONS OPERATIONS District WAN tech 1 per 40 lan's OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Operations: 1-Maintain SVC 7X24 --2-restore SVC

when broke -- 3-help desk

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Network Administrator for every 1500 users. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS District level or district consortium network operations

engineer to provide crisis response as operations well as day to day operations support.

OPERATIONS OPERATIONS Network Technicians 1 for every 5 buildings. STAFF DEVELOPMENT & TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION


Provide network for sharing/communicating district cur-riculum (replacing printed "curriculum guides").



Provide training to teachers which empowers them to make good software selections.



Standards Committee to relate the standards to tech-nology - lesson plans.



Once teachers are familiar with basic reference soft-waree, they may branch out into other software and make recommendations to review committee.



Provide guidelines for curriculum on instruc5tional tech-nology (studen performance standards).



Provide recommended software reviews that address standards at various levels.





Software that works.



Develop a review process which recommends software aligned to State Content Standard. Publish it.



Provide standards for applications used in curriculum.



Collections of software made available for preview - applicable to various standards.



Choose software to fit curriculum - not curriculum to fit software.



Pull in DPI to truly research/design.recommend pro-gram/system that reinforces each content standard area.



Classroom teachers need to pilot software not just view it.



Software should be network driven.



Lesson plans on DEN for all subject areas. Lessons include labs and hands-on activities. Similar to Access Excellence.



Provide lesson plans linked to standards accessible through DEN. (Also Assessments)



Technology-inclusive lessons need to be shared ac-cross the State. (We all have the same standards.)



Curricular Integration Models.



Have consistent pieces of software designated per grade level that all teachers/students use.



Provide all elementary schools with same starter basic reference materials that coordinate with standards. A review committee is needed.



Outline basic track to follow for staff development: Net-working, Operating system and word processing.



To measure instructional success, help school staff identify technology which records student assessment data. (on-going, authentic assessment, standardized assessment)



DCET to increase expectations regarding staff devel-opment no 20% in 3 years.



Provide training to all staff during the school-year, on Saturdays, and during the summer



Training on operating systems, word processing, gen-eral computer knowledge, internet, e-mail, presentation packages and integrated packages.



Provided "hands-on" use of software so that teachers can make intelligent choices.



Support the development of county or regional training centers.



Provide vendors in individual schools districts.



Other DCET - Set up on going training (including a facil-ity to "train the building trainers".



Provide county centralized training center for staff de-velopment. Latest technology and software.



Train teachers at same grade level together on an activ-ity that is instructionally appropriate.





Require technological proficiency for teacher certifica-tion, re-certification.



Give teachers release time or incentive to learn.



Provide congruent library technology training modules for students and teachers.



DCET should provide regular presentations of technol-ogy progress of how others are using technology to motiveate and encourage teacher training.



Staff development time to do it with a qualified persons.



Use trainers with buildings to do staff development. These trainers can be the building technologists.



Provide time during the school day for teacher training.



Set aside in-service days for staff training.



Provide time during the school day for teacher training.



Staff development Solution with no cost. State sanc-tioned 1/2 day early dismissal each month for ongoing staff development.



Curriculum software sharing inservices: State - District -Building /// Building - District - State.



Network Administrations.



When working with novice teachers in technology be very careful not to talk "techie" too early or too fast.


INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT Provide legis/fund for technical support of instruction, including assessment.


INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT DCET to assure that all districts have coordinator, full or part time.


INSTRUCTIONAL IMPACT Train teachers to understand the meaning of tech-nolog;y as a tool so their mindset moves from "textbood" only. Promote "appropriate use" mindset for technology utilization.


OTHER Provide chat rooms and moderated forums on curricu-lum and instruction issues.


OTHER DCET provide better means of disseminating to schools what is being done currently.


OTHER Financially assist school districts for release day subs for teacher training.


OTHER Quarterly newsletter on progress.


OTHER Link school libraries to allow for inter-library loans.


OTHER Provide professional planning periods for all librarians.


OTHER Re-establish curriculum conferences on DEN line for sharing/staff development.


OTHER On line information for teachers - teachers can discuss products they like and how they use them.


OTHER Provide each district technical coordinator with Net Cer-tified Engineer Training.


OTHER Assess to computers - every classroom needs com-puters and printers.




OTHER Provide every librarian with an aide to facilitate library tech service duties.


OTHER On-site support with terrific turn around time.


OTHER Provide fund/process for all teachers to have home access technology.


OTHER Provide minimum of one educational technology person per building to be used for staff development and cur-riculum integration person.


OTHER Help train a group of subs to be used when one is needed that can function in a technology classroom.


OTHER DCET get DPI to share lesson plans through summer training or Hyper Studio presentations that have been turned into DPI>



Appendix F

Partners in Education - Federal Pro-grams 55

More than 30 programs (in 8 federal agencies) are described in the 1997 "Resource Guide to Federal Funding for Tech-nology in Education" that has just been added to the Online Library at: http://www.ed.gov/Technology/funding.html

U.S. Department of Education

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund

Supports efforts to meet the four national technology goals for schools:

• modern computers • high quality educational software • trained teachers, and • affordable connections to the Internet.

Fund used to encourage and leverage efforts by states, com-munities, and the private sector to work in partnership with schools. States apply for this grant, which will be awarded according to the ESEA Title I formula. $200 million has been appropriated for FY97. Contact Tom Fagan, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Ave., Suite 4900, Washington, DC 20202-6100, (202) 401-0039, www.ed.gov/Technology.

55 1997 "Resource Guide to Federal Funding for Technology in Education" that has just been added to the Online Library at: http://www.ed.gov/Technology/funding.html



National Challenge Grants for Technol-ogy in Education

Awards grants to consortia which must include at least one local educational agency with a high percentage of children living below the poverty line and which may include other local educational agencies, State educational agencies, insti-tutions of higher learning, businesses, academic content ex-perts, software designers, museums, libraries, or other appropriate entities. Promotes the integration of technology into curriculum to help the local educational agency enhance teaching, training, and student achievement; promotes ongo-ing, sustained professional development for teachers, admin-istrators, and school library media personnel served by the local educational agency to further the use of technology in the classroom or library media center; and ensures the suc-cessful, effective, and sustainable use of technologies ac-quired. $57 million has been appropriated to fund approximately 14 new grants in FY97; the next round of competitions will be in the Spring of 1997. Contact Tom Carroll, Office of Edu-cational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20208, (202) 208-3882, www.ed.gov/Technology.

Star Schools Pro-gram

Supports telecommunications partnerships to provide tele-communications equipment and programming to underserved students including those living in rural and urban areas. Through support from the Star Schools Program, more than 50,000 teachers along with a host of administrators, parents, and policy makers have participated in staff development and community awareness activities produced via satellite, com-pressed video technology, fiber optics, videodisc, and micro-computer-based networks. The Star Schools program helps to improve instruction in underserved areas through fostering the use of distance learning projects. The next round of competitions for Star Schools grants is in the spring of 1997. Approximately $30 million has been allo-cated for FY97. Contact Cheryl Garnette, Star Schools, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washing-ton, DC 20208, (202) 219-2267, www.ed.gov/Technology.



Public Library Con-struction and Tech-nology Enhancement (State Program)

Provides grants to States for facilities and technology en-hancements to improve the provision of public library ser-vices. States may approve local projects for construction, remodeling, or alteration of existing buildings. Funds may also be used for technology enhancement purposes apart from any construction project. States have combined funds provided for the Public Library Services Program and the Interlibrary Cooperation and Resource Sharing Program to support the purchase of equipment and network connections for libraries. Contact Donald Fork, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 555 New Jersey Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20208. (State library adminis-trative agencies may apply by contacting the State Programs Division at 202-2l9-l303.)

Technology, Educa-tional Media, and Materials for Indi-viduals with Dis-abilities

Funds projects and centers for advancing the use of new technology, assistive technology, media, and materials in the education of children and youth who are disabled and the provision of related services and early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities. State and local edu-cation agencies, institutions of higher education, and profit and nonprofit public and private agencies and organizations may apply. Contact Carol Cohen, Team Leader, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, 330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20202, (202) 205-5666.



Small Business In-novation Research Program (SBIR)

Seeks to help meet federal R&D needs and to stimulate tech-nological innovation in small businesses, while requiring pri-vate sector commercialization of developed products. The Department of Education's SBIR program has focused on the development of products which use computers and other high tech equipment for teaching and learning basic skills, science and foreign languages such as software programs; and pro-viding the physically disabled opportunities to function more easily in society. The funding level for FY97 is projected to be $4.6 million. Contact Lee Eiden, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20208, (202) 219-2004.

TITLE I, ESEA Funds almost one-third of all software and hardware used

primarily for basic skills instruction by schools. $7 billion was appropriated for FY97.

Chapter 2, ESEA In FY94 approximately $125 million of Chapter 2 funds were

spent on software and hardware purchases. A total of $347 million was appropriated for FY95 and $550 million for FY96; $620 million was appropriated for FY97.

School-to-Work Provides grants to states and communities for the implemen-

tation of School-to-Work programs integrating academic and vocational learning with work-based learning. Software and related technology-based applications can be supported through these programs. Department of Education's funding set at $200 million for FY97.

Goals 2000 Provided a planning grant to each state to integrate technol-

ogy into overall state education improvement plans. $350 million was appropriated in FY96 to help implement the overall state improvement plans, and $491 million was allo-cated for FY97.

Eisenhower Pro-fessional Devel-opment State Grants

Most of the current Eisenhower program funds are used for teacher training, including the use and integration of differenttechnologies into math and science curricula. Only in schools with enrollment of 50% or more from low-income families can the school use all Eisenhower funds for hard-ware and software purchases. $310 million was appropriated



for FY97. Even Start Provided pre-K-1 schools with $102 million in FY97. FY98

funding also set at $102 million. The Department of Commerce

The Telecommuni-cations and Infor-mation Infrastructure Ap-plication Program (TIIAP)

Awards matching grants to state and local governments and nonprofit organizations for the planning and construction of telecommunications networks for the provision of educa-tional, cultural, health care, public information, public safety and other social services. Approximately $21.5 million is available for the program in FY 97. Contact National Tele-communications and Information Administration, U.S. De-partment of Commerce, Room 4096, 14th and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20230, (202) 482-2048, www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/otiahome.html.

The Public Tele-communications Facilities Program (PTFP)

Awards matching grants to non-commercial entities to pur-chase telecommunications equipment with the stipulation that the equipment be used for educational or cultural purposes. PTFP also provides smaller grants to assist these entities in planning for the purchase and use of telecommunications equipment. In FY97 approximately $13.4 million is avail-able for both types of grants. Contact Dennis Connor, Direc-tor, Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 4625, 14th and Constitu-tion Ave NW, Washington, DC 20230, (202) 482-5802, www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/otiahome.html.



National Science Foundation (NSF)

Below is a selected list of NSF grants. For a complete list you can obtain a copy of the Grant Proposal Guide, the Grant Policy Manual, the NSF Guide to Programs, and other NSF publications at no cost from: Forms and Publications Unit, Room P15, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22230, (703) 306-1130, Fax: (703) 644-4278, [email protected].

Teacher Enhance-ment Program (TE)

Seeks to improve, broaden, and deepen the interdisciplinary and pedagogical knowledge of teachers, administrators, and others who play significant roles in providing quality mathe-matics, science, and technology education for students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. To this end, TE promotes systemic change, in-service teacher development, dissemina-tion, and other activities. Contact Teacher Enhancement Program, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Ar-lington, VA 22230, (703) 306-1613.

Comprehensive Partnerships for Mathematics and Science Achieve-ment (CPMSA)

Supports school systems with significant minority popula-tions in creating partnerships to improve the access of minor-ity students in grades K-12 in science and mathematics education. School systems are encouraged to create partner-ships with institutions of higher education, businesses, pro-fessional organizations, community-based organizations, and other educational organizations. City/county school systems, which are the units of change, are expected to work with these partners in the design and implementation of in-school student enrichment and teacher enhancement activities and informal education efforts. Contact Alexandra King, Com-prehensive Partnerships for Mathematics and Science Achievement Program, Division of Human Resources Devel-opment, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230, (703) 306-1633.



Instructional Mate-rials Development (IMD)

Projects promote students' positive attitudes toward science, mathematics, and technology, as well as positive perceptionsof themselves as learners. By incorporating investigative, hands-on science and mathematics, they should facilitate changes in the basic delivery of classroom instruction. Any organization with a scientific or educational mission may submit a proposal. Contact Instructional Materials Develop-ment Program, Directorate for Education and Human Re-sources, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22230, (703) 306-1614.

Course and Curricu-lum Development (CCD) Program, NSF Division of Un-dergraduate Educa-tion

Seeks to encourage the development of courses and curricula that will help meet the Nation's need for high-quality scien-tists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians; to encour-age both dedicated and able teachers at the precollege and college levels; to encourage scientifically and technically lit-erate citizens; and to inspire faculty to devote creative energy to educational activities. Grants provided for the planning, implementation, assessment, and dissemination of projects that are designed to improve curricula and the learning envi-ronment and to develop new courses, materials, software, and technologies. Contact Course and Curriculum Development Program, Division of Undergraduate Education, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 835, Arling-ton, VA 22230, (703) 306-1666.



Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching Program

Provides national recognition to outstanding elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers. Each year, two mathematics teachers (one elementary school and one mid-dle/junior/senior high school) and two science teachers (one elementary school and one middle/junior/senior high school) from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Department of Defense Dependent Schools, and the U.S. Territories are selected for this honor. The program seeks to enhance the status and visibility of the teaching pro-fession by identifying and rewarding exemplary teachers. Awardees are brought to Washington, DC, for a week of ac-tivities and professional interaction. Contact Emma Walton, Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Sci-ence Teaching, Directorate for Education and Human Re-sources, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230, (703) 306-0422.



Research on Educa-tion, Policy, and Practice (REPP) Program

Research activities in the Division of Research, Evaluation and Communication (REC), will be consolidated into a new research program, Research on Education, Policy, and Prac-tice (REPP). REPP supports cultivation of a research base for implementing innovative K-16, i.e., elementary, secon-dary, and undergraduate reform strategies, as well as ways of improving graduate, professional, and informal and lifelong learning. Technology funding interests include: ♦ How tools that link individuals and institutions dispersed

in space and across cultures can be used to teach and learn the changing content of science and mathematics

♦ how the evolving capacity of computers and other tech-nologies enables teachers to individualize instruction and students to engage in the processes of experimentation, of understanding, of skills acquisition and of applying con-tent knowledge;

♦ and how high performance computing and communica-tions empower the effectiveness of educational adminis-trators, policymakers, and researchers.

Target dates for preliminary proposals (required) are March 15 and September 15 each year; Full Proposal deadlines are June 1 and December 1. Contact Research on Education, Policy, and Practice Program (REPP/REC/EHR), Room 855, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230, (703) 306-1651; to request publications, (703) 306-1130.

Recognition Awards for the Integration of Research and Education

The program will make awards that recognize up to ten re-search-intensive universities that have shown leadership, in-novation, and achievement in their efforts to integrate research and education (specifically college freshmen through Ph.D.) throughout their organizations. Awards will be for $500,000 with a duration of three years. Contact Of-fice of Science and Technology Infrastructure, Room 1270, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230, (703) 306-1040.



Statewide Systemic Initiatives

Encourages improvements in science, mathematics, and technology education through comprehensive systemic changes in the education systems of the states. No new competition is scheduled. (Currently 22 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are active awardees.) Contact Statewide Sys-temic Initiatives, Directorate for Education and Human Re-sources, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia 22230, (703) 306-1682.

Urban Systemic Ini-tiatives

Established to challenge the Nation's commitment to effect sustained school reform in its urban centers. Through this initiative, the Foundation invites a limited number of large cities to launch systemic programs to foster experimentation, accelerate the rate of change, and implement system-wide improvement in student learning for grades K-12 in mathe-matics, science, and technology. The following cities are eligible for the USI Program: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston,Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, El Paso, Fresno, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Ange-les, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York-City, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Ponce, San Antonio, San Diego,San Juan, and St. Louis. Contact USI Program, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22230, (703) 306-1682.

Rural Systemic Ini-tiatives (RSI) Pro-gram

Seeks to stimulate systemic educational reform and im-provement of science, mathematics, and technology educa-tion in rural, economically disadvantaged regions, not limited by state or geographic boundaries. Sustainability of educa-tional improvements is assured through encouraging commu-nity development activities in conjunction with instructional and policy reform. Contact Jody Chase or Jerry Gipp, Rural Systemic Initiatives Program, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wil-son Blvd, Arlington, Virginia 22230, (703) 306-1690.

Department of Energy (DOE)

The Department of Energy's 10 national laboratories and 30 specialized technology centers and research facilities provide educational experiences for students, training, and curriculummaterials for pre-service and inservice teachers, and literacy



programs for the general public. DOE also supports state-wide systemic initiatives to reform math, science and tech-nology education in 13 states. DOE serves hundreds of thousands of teachers and students each year through science and technology education programs. DOE's technology of-ferings range broadly from equipment loan and donation pro-grams to long-term research studies on the overall effectiveness of specific educational technologies for class-room instruction.

Small Business Inno-vation Research Pro-gram (SBIR)

Seeks to increase private sector commercialization of tech-nology developed through DOE supported R&D in any sci-entific or engineering activity which is a systemic, intensive study directed toward greater knowledge or understanding of the subject; a systemic study directed specifically toward ap-plying new knowledge to meet a recognized need; and/or a systemic application of knowledge toward the production of useful materials, devices, and systems or methods, including design, development, and improvement of prototypes and new processes to meet specific requirements. Awards ap-proximately 200 grants to small businesses at $75,000 per grant. Contact the SBIR Program Manager, ER-33, U.S. De-partment of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290, (301) 903-5867.

National Aero-nautics and Space Admini-stration (NASA)

Small Business In-novation Program (SBIR)

This program seeks to develop innovative technologies by providing competitive research contracts to U.S.-owned small businesses to develop leading-edge technologies. Pro-vides Phase I grants of up to $70,000 to establish feasibility and merit of proposed innovation, and Phase II grants of up to $600,000 based on Phase I results. Contact, SBIR Pro-gram Manager, Code XC, NASA, Washington, DC 20546-0001, (301) 918-8150.



U.S. Department of Defense - Advanced Re-search Projects Agency

Defense Technol-ogy Conversion, Re-investment, and Transition Assis-tance

The Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP) TRP is a six agency technology investment effort that includes the De-partments of Defense, Commerce, Energy, and Transporta-tion, the NSF, and NASA. The program requires participation in partnerships and focuses on cost sharing be-tween the partnerships, assisting small businesses and de-fense-dependent businesses. TRP seeks to develop dual-use technologies, to deploy manufacturing and technology assis-tance to small firms, and to establish education and training programs that enhance U.S. manufacturing skills and target displaced defense industry workers. Contact 1-800-DUAL-USE, or email [email protected].

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

The Agricultural Telecommunica-tions Program

The Agricultural Telecommunications Program is a competi-tive grants program, authorized by the 1990 Farm Bill to en-courage the development of an agricultural communications network to facilitate and strengthen agricultural extension, resident instruction, research, and domestic and international marketing of United States Agricultural commodities and products through partnerships between eligible institutions and the Department of Agriculture. This program represents partnership efforts among USDA and both land-grant and other university communities emphasizing communication networks and distance education. Contact Cathy Bridwell, Agricultural Communications Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20250, (202) 720-6084, www.reeusda.gov.



The Rural Utilities Service Telecom-munications Loan Program

RUS financing is used by rural telecommunications providers to build new and modernize existing telecommunications networks, connect new subscribers in unserved areas, and provide the transmission and switching facilities necessary for economic development, distance learning and telemedi-cine applications, and Internet access. As of September 1995, 218 borrowers provided access to the Internet, result-ing in 2.7 million users. Contact Rural Utility Service, 1400 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20250-1538, (202) 720-1255, www.usda.gov/rus/.

The Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning Grant Pro-gram

Since 1993 this program has provided 119 grants totaling $35million to rural schools, hospitals and medical clinics in 39 states and one territory. The RUS Distance Learning grant program provides grants directly to rural schools, libraries, and other educational institutions for the development of ad-vanced telecommunications systems. Contact Rural Utility Service, 1400 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20250-1538, (202) 720-1255, www.usda.gov/rus/.

The National En-dowment for the Humanities (NEH)

For more information on the NEH programs listed here, con-tact the Division of Research ad Education at (202) 606-8380, [email protected], [email protected], http://www.neh.fed.us, or write to Division of Research and Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20506.

Humanities Focus Grants

These grants are small awards, up to $25,000, which go to specific projects in the humanities, including the use of tech-nology. Deadline for application is April 18, 1997.

Teaching with Technology

This program funds three types of projects: materials devel-opment, field testing and classroom applications, and teacher preparation for integrating technology into the classroom. Deadline for application is October 1, 1997.



National Summer Institutes and Seminars

Seminars are small groups of teachers who want to receive teacher training from a scholar in their field of interest. Insti-tutes are groups of 25 teachers who study work with a faculty of scholars to explore in depth materials related to the sub-jects they teach. For more information call (202) 606-8463 and ask to speak with a program officer. Deadlines are March 1, 1997 and March 1, 1998 for the following sum-mers.

Challenge Grants The challenge grant program helps academic institutions and

cultural organizations to secure long term support for and improvements in their programs, activities and resources re-lated to the humanities, including the use and applications of technology. The matching requirement challenges institu-tions to raise non-federal funds to match and/or exceed the federal award. In recent years, the federal portions of the grants have ranged from $25,000 to $1 million. Application deadline is May 1, 1997. For more information call (202) 606-8309, or email [email protected].



Other Funding Guide Sources

The USDLA Funding Source Book for Distance Learning and Educational Technology The USDLA Funding Source Book is a 400+ page publication complete with electronic and print references of funding sources for technology. It is available for $42.50 plus $4.00 shipping. To order contact Kendall Publishing at 1-800-228-0810. To obtain informa-tion electronically, visit http://www.technogrants.com.

Directory of Build-ing and Equipment Grants

This directory lists funding sources for equipment, buildin and renovation and innovative procedures to secure funding for computers and free computer software. The cost is $57.50 + $6.00 shipping and handling. For information call (407) 795 -6129, and to order fax a mailing label or order form to (407) 795-7794.

Federal Register This daily publication contains notices of new grants from

federal agencies, grant application guidelines, and regula-tions and requirements for federal grant programs. To order contact: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, PO Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. For phone orders and general publication inquiries, call (202) 512-1800. In addition, check with your State Department of Education or contact John Cradler at the Council of the Chief State School Officers to obtain the name of your state's technology coordinator, (202) 336-7003

Final Note It is important to point out that this guide is by no means

complete. It is intended to provide some of the resources available throughout the Federal government for educational technology. Hopefully this list, in conjunction with re-sources in your area, will provide the assistance necessary for locating funding sources in the area of educational technol-ogy.