Collaborative Technology Planning: The Impact of Technology Plans on Students' and Teachers' Learning

Technology is an integral part of Spring Branch School of Choice, an academic alternative to traditional high schools in Houston, Texas. Since we created our first Campus Improvement Plan, a detailed report identifying goals and activities for the following school year, back in 1995, technology has made a significant impact on our curriculum, teacher instruction and student learning. Our plan is more than a means to implement technology on campus. It is a vital tool for collaboration among teachers, principals and district administrators. It is an investment by the school and the district to enhance teachers' professional development and students' learning. It is also a way to provide alternative paths to success for our students. But like any good plan, a technology plan is a living, breathing document. It provides a clear vision and goals, yet allows room to grow and change as your staff and students do. To successfully plan for and integrate technology into the curriculum, both school administrators and teachers must be willing to look ahead, to let go of the way things have always been done and, most importantly, to learn. An Academic Alternative School of Choice provides curriculum programs to meet the educational needs of students who have not progressed or succeeded in their middle or high schools, and who are at risk of not completing the requirements for a high school diploma. The school is not a behavioral or disciplinary alternative education program; it is an academic alternative education program. It is one of six high schools in the Spring Branch Independent School District (SBISD) that serves a total of 31,599 students across 40 K-12 schools. A Title I school, School of Choice enrolls an average of 230 students in grades 9-12 at any given time and serves approximately 400 students during the year. Currently, the student population is 2.2 percent Asian, 12.7 percent black, 61 percent Hispanic and 34 percent white. Fifty-five percent of our students are female and 45 percent are male, while 20 percent are school-age parents (pregnant or parenting). School of Choice also participates in the Alternative Accountability System, which provides a framework for instruction and accountability. This framework charges alternative schools to scrutinize traditional educational settings and find methodologies that work for students who are not succeeding in traditional schools and classrooms. The school enlists multiple instructional methodologies and tools, including many that involve the use of technology, to provide a full array of alternatives to prevent, intervene and recover dropouts. Technology Committee Teachers have played a central role in technology planning at School of Choice since 1995, the year the SBISD determined that all staff members would adopt a new way of doing business through e-mail. To help implement the district's vision across all schools, each school created a technology committee comprised of teachers, a technology coach and specialist, the school librarian and administrators. Initially, the technology committee's primary role at School of Choice was to create the campus' vision for technology using the district's vision as a framework. Today, the committee makes recommendations about the purchase and implementation of all technology on campus. If a teacher wants an extra computer or a particular software program for the classroom, he or she enlists the help of the committee. The committee provides the expertise needed to make well-informed and research-based decisions regarding the purchase and implementation of software and hardware. The committee is a self-selected group of teachers. About one-third of all the teachers participate throughout the school year. The committee's primary role is to look at where the school is going with curriculum and instruction, and decide how and where technology should be used to enhance that. Each April, the committee begins planning for the next school year. …