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TECHNOLOGY PLAN for ASSUMPTION HIGH SCHOOL-Christina Elpers

Description of district/schools technology policies:


At Assumption High School our technology program, procedures and policies were developed by the administrators, faculty, and technology staff. Although Assumption High School is an Archdiocese of Louisville school, the technology program operates independently from the school system. The Assumption technology plan below highlights the integral goals of the program and the benchmarks used to evaluate its success. The Tablet PC Handbook is what is provided to students and parents and outlines the rules and structure of the 1:1 program. It should be noted that there is not a long list of donts when it comes to student use of computers. All use must have the goals of education in the forefront.
Click here to view Assumption High School Technology Plan Click here to view AHS Tablet PC Handbook

Analysis of Classroom: Student Populations and socio-economic status/factors:


Assumption High School is a Catholic high school for girls in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a private school where students must pay tuition of $10, 250. Assumption High School is a medium size, suburban school with 7% minority enrollment and 19% receiving some level of financial aid. The students receiving financial aid could receive partial or complete tuition paid for them. Assumption has 171 students with learning differences out of 912 girls enrolled. The students with 504 plans are eligible for some services within the school. These students have access to Special Education teachers during their study block. The students labeled with Learning Differences also are eligible for extended time on tests, preferential seating, use of specific programs on their computer as assistive technology, and any other specific adaptations listed on their 504. There are 6 English as a second language students at Assumption. They are from Japan, China, Vietnam and Spain. These students all speak English fluently, but do have an administrator assigned to them if any issues were to arise.
Click here to view Assumption Administration, Faculty, and Staff Data

Information included in this document covers education, ethnicity, and type of employment of all Assumption employees.

Click her to view Data from 2012-2013 at Assumption High School

This document contains many different statistics related to the student population last year. It includes ethnicity, languages spoken, religious affiliation, number of students with 504s and awards granted to faculty, school and students.
Assumption High Schools Mission Statement

Rooted in the values of Jesus Christ and the spirit of the Sisters of Mercy, Assumption High School, dedicated to the development of the whole person, educates young women in a Catholic community where faith guides, compassion inspires, integrity matters, and excellence empowers.

Assumption High Schools Vision Statement

Assumption High School will thrive as the college preparatory school of choice for young women by providing a wide range of educational and cocurricular programs that are complemented by spiritual and physical development opportunities. This unique experience will educate the whole person in a caring, Christian environment that is permeated with the charism of Catherine McAuley, foundress of the Sisters of Mercy. Assumption graduates will be socially responsible women, committed to gospel living, lifelong learning, and a life of leadership and service in society. We will cultivate the investment and involvement of the community so that the legacy of this Mercy-sponsored Catholic school lives on for generations.

Pros and cons of technology resources:


Assumption High School has an extensive amount of technology resources. Every classroom has a projector for computer display. All math classrooms have Smartboards and several other non-math classrooms as well. Every faculty member has a tablet laptop with inking capabilities as well as all students in grades 9-11. Every classroom has a docking station compatible with all student and faculty laptops. Document cameras, slates, and microphone systems are available for teacher use. There are classroom sets of desktop computers in most classrooms where seniors are taught. Students may print to printers which are located in three different areas of the school. There is a technology resource center available every school day that is staffed by our IT department and can trouble shoot hardware and software issues. The tablet PCs are imaged every year and the image is created specifically for the use of the computer. Students computers are imaged with a different image than faculty. Math

teachers have specific programs that are loaded on their computers such as TI-84 and Infinite Algebra. This also goes for other departments as well. The pros of all the technology in use at Assumption are endless. The 1:1 program allows for students and faculty to access information, create, and assess in a 21st century classroom. Students are more engaged and their technology skills have improved. The cons of these resources would be that all the teachers at Assumption move from room to room and do not have a set classroom, any immobile technology like sound systems and document cameras cannot be depended on for a particular lesson unless the teacher is in that room.

Adaptive/assistive hardware and software that assist students with special needs:
The programs that most of the students use are on their tablet computers. These include Text Speak (having the computer read back to them what they have written), AUDACITY (the capability to dictate into the tablet and it types what is said), eBooks, and the use of the webcam to videotape lectures. Assumption does not have students with any other assistive devices, because the tablet can record and provide any needed accommodations. Many of the students at Assumption who have Learning Differences have difficulty reading at a fast pace and understanding everything that they read. These students utilize the narrator feature of their Tablet PCs , which will read aloud any text. This aids students in understanding when they can hear it as they are reading along. This assistive tool is vital to their success. Some of those same students benefit from a scribe as a modification in the classroom. These students have indicated that they prefer using a program such as Audacity to record in writing. This program allows students to write through audio dictation.

Technology resources that affirm diversity and address cultural and language differences:
Tuition paid by each students family pays for Assumptions 1:1 program. To affirm diversity payment options and financial support is offered for families who struggle with the cost. Students at Assumption, whose first language is not English, do speak it fluently and therefore no services are offered for this. In addressing cultural differences students are allowed and encouraged to personalize their computers with backgrounds, apps, music etc. If there were students whose diversity, whether it is language or cultural differences, was affecting their educational needs, they would be able to use their school issued tablet PCs as a tool to overcome these challenges. Students could use online translators to translate English to their native language. They could use the Tablet to record video of lectures and presentations, so they could view it multiple times so as not to miss anything. Having a laptop computer

available to all students gives all students the opportunity to learn in a manner that is comfortable to them. This would include accessing videos of content in native languages, and viewing websites that use terms and visuals that are more relative to persons of a specific culture.

School or classroom management strategies:


Assumption has few rules when it comes to technology use. We have a general policy that the computer must be used for educational purposes and students who are found to be using them in an inappropriate way are warned and/or disciplined. Assumption has many rules regarding the care and upkeep of the students tablet pcs. These are all clearly listed in the AHS Tablet PC Handbook above. All students sign a contract stating their understanding of our Tablet PC Policy.
Click here to view Tablet PC Agreement Form

Assumption blocks access to social media, ads, certain games and some blogs during school hours. Teachers use DyKnow as a monitor and file transfer program. DyKnow allows teachers to view what each student has on her screen when she is anywhere in the building. Teachers may in addition to the websites that are blocked during the day block websites or programs form the students she is monitoring using Dyknow. So if a teacher wants the student to use Microsoft Word to write an essay for an assessment, she can block all other programs from use. Assumption also uses Sharepoint as a management tool. Students get daily announcements, lunch menus, schedule information, guidance and media center information using the student view of Sharepoint. Students and faculty use Sharepoint for help desk for computer and facilitys needs. Sharepoint also has links to all website students access daily. The use of SkyDrive allows students OneNote notebooks to be viewed by their teachers. This is extremely useful in monitoring student progress and work.

Wide area networks (WAN) for school districts:


Assumption High School is not part of a WAN. AHS has a LAN because it is a single school running its own technology. AHS does have a main campus and a sports and science campus and between those two campuses there is 100Mbps (megabytes per second) fiber line. AHS uses Sysco switches and Aruba wireless. The school has 60 wireless access points and they are still expanding. The local server can rollover wireless access and uses redundancy in all servers to protect from any failures or hardware problems.

The Assumption IT department consists of a Director, Assistant Director, 3 Technology Specialists (areas of expertise are Sharepoint, Hardware, and assisting students), and 2 PartTime Technology Integration Specialists. The Assistant Technology Director creates the image every year to reimage all computers yearly. He uses HII (hardware independent imaging) to create the image through testing each program individually and then testing that programs interaction with all other programs. AHS utilizes the summer to deploy the new image to all student and faculty computers (1000+). Updates are also pushed out throughout the school year after thorough testing. As far as inventory goes, AHS IT department maintains any software and hardware inventories, but all other inventories are managed by the Media Center. Every item in the school is bar-coded and inventoried, including the pencil sharpeners. These items are tracked by the Media Center and the list is utilized when assigning rooms for events and classes.

Analysis of Needs:
There is not much need at Assumption in the area of technology. The administration and technology departments are very generous and if they can fit it into the budget, they will purchase what teachers want. One issue is that the main campus has some very old buildings and it can be a challenge when it comes to the general accessibility for wiring new technology. This is why all classrooms do not have sound systems. Some of the needs for which AHS is trying to find solutions currently are secure testing and assessment. AHS has been able to reduce its total use of paper significantly, but until it has secure testing, paperless will not be viable. Personally, I would like to see the ability to project wirelessly to the front of the room. I think proximity is an important classroom management tool and even more important when students have screens in front of them. It has been explained to me that due to the use of the Smartboard, and wiring issues we will never have wireless projectors. I use the slate that is compatible with the Smartboard, but it is a bit difficult and does not work for other programs. I also use a wireless mouse and that can give me some mobility in the classroom.

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