Tuesday, September 1, 2009

District Technology Committee

I am attempting something different with this group this year, partially modeling after a neighboring district. For the last five years, our district has had a District Technology Committee, comprised of teachers, principals, administrators, board member and parents. The group met occasionally to review the district technology plan and help provide guidance on various initiatives, etc.

This year I have doubled the groups membership, we have four district administrators, six teachers, four principals, two parents, one student, two technology staff and one board member. The group is very diverse bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table.

One new task I plan for this group to work on this school year is to review various components of our plan and AUP within sub-groups and submit any recommendations and/or changes back to the entire committee. In years past, I would work independently and bring the recommended changes to the entire committee for their input. This way, they are actually the ones reviewing the documents, having the discussions and bringing the recommendations back to the large group. The large group will discuss the proposed changes and make final recommendations before the plan is presented the board members for official approval. I feel tapping into this group's experience, knowledge and expertise is going to provide a more diverse and well-rounded vision and plan for our district related to the implementation and integration of technology.

The other different approach I am taking with this group is providing them the opportunity to attend both a state and national conference. I believe this group has the ability to attend these events, learn new and exciting ways to implement/integrate and bring it back to their respective peers and share. This group will be invited to attend the KY state technology conference this spring (known as the KySTE Spring Conference - March 10-12, 2010 in Louisville, KY) as well as the BLC10 conference in Boston, MA this summer. (Alan November's Learning Conference) The experience and knowledge gained from these two events will help provide additional recommendations, suggestions and ways to improve all areas of technology deployment, integration, services and implementation across our district.

JDS | CIO

2 comments:

Jeff Nelson said...

Sounds like a good approach.

Are you thinking of utilizing social media to expand the collaboration of your group beyond the periodic meetings?

One possiblity might be using Google Docs (or Microsoft Office Live) for your Tech Plan and AUP projects. You might also consider setting up a Ning site (or similar) for the committee and collaborate in that way.

I truly believe that if CIOs can get their Tech Committee excited about and using social media that can be a spark to spread the excitement through the rest of the faculty and administration.

Just an old CIO's 2 cents [grin]

Jeff

JDS said...

Great minds think alike Jeff. I am going to encourage my group leaders to utilize Skype as well as Google Docs or another sharing platform to collaborate with their peers.