Technology+Tools+for+the+Curriculum+Development+Leader

__**Analyzing School Culture (Survey, Evaluate)**__

> Information and Resources >>
 * Tools
 * __**Kristy Fernandez**__: Blogs: Blogs are online discussions or information sites posted on the World Wide Web. Entries can be made by registered users and usually appear in reverse chronological order, so that most recent posts appear first. Discussion blogs can be used to solicit community opinion and ideas about school culture and climate. Some free blog sites include blogspot.com, wordpress.com, and tumblr.comKimberly Stephens: Zoho Writer: Is a blog site that has built-in interactivity capabilities that allow people to add comments and provide feedback on school culture (Schrum, & Levin, 2009).
 * **__ Deborah Fair :__** The Center for Improving School Culture is a source for assessing and improving school culture, instruction, and leadership by providing professional learning and resources such as published articles on current research from several professional journals.
 * **__ Danielle Washington __**: Survey Monkey (surveymonkey.com) is an online tool that schools and districts can use to create free surveys to measure and evaluate school culture as it relates to curriculum development. The site offers many educational survey templates, and also provides the option for school leaders to create their own. These surveys can be administered to teachers, school support staff, parents, community members, and even students to get their thoughts and ideas on school culture.
 * **__ Kristy Fernandez __**: Collaborative environments: “Virtual workplaces where students and teachers can communicate, share information, and work together… users can leave evidence of their thoughts, and reflections on the thoughts of others” (Johnson, Levine, Smith and Smythe, 2009, p.9). Collaborative environments can be used to share ideas and opinions on school culture. One particular site that could be used to analyze and evaluate school culture could be mindmeister.com. This site provides “a web application that makes it easy to attach discussion points around a central issue. The map can be recorded and replayed to review who contributed at each point; since it resides online” it can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection (Johnson, Levine, Smith and Smythe, 2009, p.10).
 * **__ Kimberly Stephens __**: Zoho.com is a free blog website. People can post ideas, opinions, make comments, elaborate on others ideas, and provide feedback on topics.
 * ** Strategies and Ideas **
 * ** Deborah Fair **: National School Climate Center. This website has resources for bullying, professional development, summer institute, and school climate surveys. It also offers strategies and ideas for such topics as bullying and fostering interpersonal relationship. http://www.schoolclimate.org


 * __Data Management (Collect, Organize, Analyze, Share)__**

>> E-portfolios help to communicate with teachers, administrators, school leaders, school district on what students, teachers, and your school are doing. Schools can collect information, reflect on the data, and also use e-portfolios as a communication tool with parents for parent-teacher conferences (Schrum, & Levin, 2009).
 * Tools
 * **__ Danielle Washington __**: There are a variety of data management tools at a school's disposal when considering curriculum development. These tools fall into three categories: student information systems, data warehouses, and instructional management tools. Student information systems are databases that mainly house demographic data collected throughout the school day (Bernhardt, 2005). Data warehouses enable school districts to analyze data across different databases, such as student information systems, databases of test results and school programs, and databases of information about students' and teachers' perceptions (Bernhardt, 2005). Finally, instructional management systems help analyze student performance on ongoing assessments and reveal how closely student learning matches the content a teacher has presented in class. These systems provide standards-based lesson plans and resources, help teachers align classroom curriculum to content standards, and help teachers align curriculum between grades (Bernhardt, 2005).
 * **__ Deborah Fair __**: http://www.cnet.com and http://zdnet.com offer information, posts, blogs, research, and webcasts on technology tools and ways to organize, collect, and share data.
 * __** Kristy Fernandez **__: Cloud Computing: “The rise of large-scale “data farms” — large groups of networked servers — has made processing power and storage capacity available in abundant quantities. Collaborative work, research, social networking, media sharing, virtual computers: all are enabled by applications that live in the cloud” (Johnson, Levine, Smith and Smythe, 2009, p.5). “The //cloud// is the term for networked computers that distribute processing power, applications, and large systems among many machines” (Johnson, Levine, Smith and Smythe, 2009, p.19).They are accessible through a web browser and are usually free. “Applications in the cloud make it easy to share documents, collaboratively edit, and effectively manage versions” (Johnson, Levine, Smith and Smythe, 2009, p.20).
 * **__ Kimberly Stephens __**: E-portfolio: E-portfolio is a digital collection of the work of students, teachers, school leaders, or schools.


 * Information and Resources
 * **__ Deborah Fair __**: http://www.escholar.com. This website offers news, blogs, and downloads for using data for instructional improvement.
 * **__ KimberlyStephens __**: http://electronicportfolios.org


 * **__ Strategies and Ideas __**
 * __ **Deborah Fair**: __ Educase has resources, wikis, and blogs. It also has an article regarding data management strategies. http://www.educase.edu/library/resources/StrategiesforDataManagementLea/149765
 * __** Deborah Fair :**__ Searchdatamanagement in the Tech Target network has news, topics, tutorials, and expert advice on strategies for data management. http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com


 * __Developing Curriculum (Write, Manage Documents)__**

>> “Common Core is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization formed to promote content-rich liberal arts education in America’s K–12 schools…Common Core creates curriculum tools and also promotes programs, policies, and initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels that provide students with challenging, rigorous instruction in the full range of liberal arts and sciences” (Common Core, Inc. 2011). This organization provides online maps, sample unit and lesson plans that include: >> >> >> (Schrum, & Levin, 2009). >> Kimberly Stephens: Collaborative environment are virtual workplaces where students and teachers can communicate, share information, and work together (Johnson, Smith, and Smythe, 2009).
 * Tools
 * __** Danielle Washington **__: A web-interface (such as a website or wiki site) is a technology tool that can be effectively used to write curriculum and manage important documents. There are many benefits of using this as a tool, such as reaching a wider audience, greater efficiency, and the ability to produce higher-quality materials (Scholl, 2001).
 * __** Kristy Fernandez: **__
 * Common Core State Standards
 * Suggested student objectives
 * Suggested works (i.e. textbooks etc.)
 * Interdisciplinary connections
 * Sample activities and assessments
 * **__ Kimberly Stephens __**:Intranet is a local network website that allows in-house communication among teachers, students, parents, and administrations
 * **__ Kristy Fernandez: __** Cloud Computing: “The rise of large-scale “data farms” — large groups of networked servers — has made processing power and storage capacity available in abundant quantities. Collaborative work, research, social networking, media sharing, virtual computers: all are enabled by applications that live in the cloud” (Johnson, Levine and Smith, 2009, p.5). “The //cloud//is the term for networked computers that distribute processing power, applications, and large systems among many machines” (Johnson, Levine and Smith, 2009, p.19).They are accessible through a web browser and are usually free. “Applications in the cloud make it easy to share documents, collaboratively edit, and effectively manage versions” (Johnson, Levine, Smith and Smythe, 2009, p.20).


 * Information and Resources
 * **__ Danielle Washington __**: Some companies that offer curriculum mapping and development materials include Curriculum Mapper (www.clihome.com), Rubicon Atlas (www.rubiconatlas.com), and TechPaths (www.techpaths.com).
 * **__ Deborah Fair: __** http://www.centeroninstruction.org/. This is a website that is funded by the Department of Education and has many resources on instruction that particularly target learners who need intensive instruction and learners with special and/or diverse needs to improve instruction and raise achievement (Center on Instruction, 2012). It also has an eCatalog with a wealth of resources.


 * Strategies and Ideas
 * **__ Danielle Washington __**: To make the process more manageable, curriculum materials can be divided into modules and then posted onto the website or wiki. This allows for reviewers to locate and review curriculum materials quickly, as well as to make changes or revisions in a timely manner (Scholl, 2001). In addition, the use of a curriculum website also provides an opportunity for teachers to share lesson planning materials and assessment items as they relate to each curriculum module.
 * **__ Kimberly Stephens __** : Collaborative environments are created so that teachers can access lessons, resources, and get ideas from other teachers throughout the district that will aid in planning curriculum and instruction.


 * __Professional Development (Implement Curriculum, Train Educators)__**

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 * Tools:
 * **__ Danielle Washington __**: The use of technology has allowed teachers greater accessibility in regards to professional development and graduate education (Courville, 2011). There are many technology tools available to aid in the use professional development as it pertains to curriculum development. First is the prevalence of distance learning and teacher education. Online classes and educational opportunities have become so prevalent that there are universities which consist of only online classes, allowing a teacher to complete an entire course of study through distance learning (Dempsey & Van Eck, 2007). Also, the use of distance learning is not limited to the university setting, but also found on the school, district, and state levels of professional development for teachers, with the emergence of web-based conferences and seminars (Courville, 2011).
 * **__ Deborah Fair __**: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/ This website offers grade level help, links for teachers and parents for PreK-12, additional websites which provide new content on a daily or weekly basis, and professional development opportunities for assessment, analyzing data, and technology. They also offer technology tutorials on the website.
 * **__ Deborah Fair __**: EDUCAUSE Learning Institute is committed to the advance of learning through innovative technology application. It has information on blogs, wikis, twitter, and a social media directory. http://www.educause.edu/eli
 * **__ Kimberly Stephens __**: Podcasts: Podcasting is the ability to create or listen to audio or video content either live or downloaded for later use and streamed online to a computer or mobile device.http://podcasting-in-education.wikispaces.com/
 * **__ Kimberly Stephens __**: Podcasts: Podcasting is the ability to create or listen to audio or video content either live or downloaded for later use and streamed online to a computer or mobile device.http://podcasting-in-education.wikispaces.com/
 * Information and Resources
 * **__ Kristy Fernandez __**: State Professional Development guidelines- Several states’ Department of Education offices outline requirements of and how to develop teacher training and professional development. Some even provide training for specific groups of teachers or that address specific objectives. For example, many states are providing online workshops and webinars to address the adoption of the Common Core State Standards. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education of the District of Columbia (OSSE) provides a description of elements that should be included in any teacher training programs or initiatives. OSSE provides printable maps that describe standards for teacher training for each subject area to be completed by schools with evidence of how they have met each one. These maps are accessible online at the OSSE’s website.
 * **__ Deborah Fair: __** The U.S. Department of Education offers information and resources on professional development and seminars, classroom resources, news on policy, funding,education and the economy, P-12 reform, resources for teachers, college completion, and research. http://www.ed.gov/teaching
 * **__ Deborah Fair __**: The EDUCAUSE Learning Institute provides resources, programs, information on professional development, conferences, events, initiatives, research and publications, and news on technology and its implementation in teaching and learning. http://www.educause.edu/eli


 * Strategies and Ideas
 * **__ Danielle Washington: __** One emerging database technology that can positively impact professional development is known as the electronic performance support system (EPSS). An EPSS provides professional development and job related assistance whenever a teacher may need such information (McKay & Wagner, 2007). For example, if a teacher has a question on how to write lesson plans in accordance with school district requirements, they could go to an EPSS provided by the district and find instructions and information on how to perform their task (Courville, 2011).
 * **__ Kristy Fernandez: __** E-portfolios are a digital collection of evidence of a user’s abilities and achievements. They can be established using standards that teachers should meet. They provide electronic records of whether teachers have met the standards and can facilitate reflections of learning.
 * **__ Kristy Fernandez __**: Professional Organizations: Many national professional organizations provide the foundations for local standards and host interactive webinars, e-seminars and e-workshops to inform and educate teachers on developments in their particular field.
 * **__ Deborah Fair __**: http://www.exchange.smarttech.com/curriculum/curriculum This website has lesson plans for the SMART board including standards-correlated lessons. It also has a training site.
 * __** Deborah Fair **__: the daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence In The Elementary Grades is a book that provides a management system and framework to meet the individual needs of students while having students internalize expectations and share experiences to engage in independent, yet meaningful, reading practice while the teacher conferences with individual students or works in small groups (Boushey & Moser, 2006). It can also reinforce teaching literacy while considering the common core standards.
 * Kimberly Stephens: Administrators and teachers can subscribe to various podcast related to professional development for the different subjects in order to provide extra resources to your teachers (Schrum, & Levin, 2009).


 * __Professional Learning Communities (Communicate, Collaborate)__**

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 * Tools
 * **__ Danielle Washington __**: Wikis are a tool that can be used to in the effective development and implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs). Wikis allow a group of people to contribute and share information, efficiently add or update information on the wiki, and share it publicly or restrict its availability to those invited to contribute (Schrum & Levin, 2009). In terms of design, online learning communities such as wikis allow for a multitude of discussions and socialization that adhere to a constructivist learning principle, in which people effectively learn information when experiencing and defining knowledge through social contexts (Dempsey & Van Eck, 2007).
 * **__ Kristy Fernandez __**: Collaborative environments: “Virtual workplaces where students and teachers can communicate, share information, and work together… users can leave evidence of their thoughts, and reflections on the thoughts of others…The common features that unite collaborative environments are that multiple people can work within them at once; that users can leave evidence of their thoughts, and reflections on the thoughts of others; and that they can support users in any location at any time.” (Johnson, Levine, Smith and Smythe, 2009, p.9). Collaborative environments remove geographic and time constraints, which usually impede the progress of PLCs within schools or districts.
 * **__ Deborah Fair __**: International Society for Technology in Edcuation has a connect link for professional learning communities to network and exchange ideas and blog. There are also digital resources and information about conferences as well as a professional development link. http://www.iste.org
 * **__ Kimberly Stephens __**: E-portfolio: E-portfolio is a digital collection of the work of students, teachers, school leaders, or schools.


 * Information and Resources
 * **__ Danielle Washington __**: There are a number of available options for school leaders and educators looking to establish wikis to aid in the development of PLC. These include sites such as wikispaces.com and docs.google.com.
 * **__ Deborah Fair: __** The professional learning community that seeks to learn is one that is committed to developing understanding and deepen their knowledge base by learning new strategies, skills, and processes, as well as testing their assumptions to improve teaching and learning (Martin-Kneip, 2008). //JSD// is a bimonthly journal by the National Staff Development Council that addresses such issues as how to find time for professional learning communities, the roles of principals with professional learning communities, and teacher quality. http://www.learningforward.org/news/jsd/index.cfm


 * Strategies and Ideas
 * **__ Danielle Washington __**: Wikis are an excellent tool for establishing district-wide PLCs. A district could establish a PLC on a given topic, and teachers could conduct research and post their findings on the topic. Teachers could then set a time frame for applying their findings in the classroom, and record their results and observations on the wiki. Other members could comment and provide feedback. This would allow a PLC comprised of teachers from various schools to interact more frequently without always having to physically meet. The use of a wiki could also allow the PLC to keep an active record of their work that all group members can access.
 * **__ Deborah Fair __**: www.negotiations.com/articles/ This website offers featured and contributed articles as well as resources, support, in-house training and coaching, and public courses on how to negotiate fairly and effectively to produce a win-win situation.Kimberly Stephens: E-portfolios help to communicate with teachers, administrators, school leaders, school district on what students, teachers, and your school are doing. Schools can collect information, reflect on the data, and also use e-portfolios as a communication tool with parents for parent-teacher conferences (Schrum, & Levin, 2009).
 * **__ Kristy Fernandez: __** Podcasts: A Podcast is a type of digital media consisting of audio files that are streamed to a computer or mobile device. Collaborative podcasts allow members of the PLC to contribute to the podcast in many different ways.
 * **__ Kristy Fernandez __**: Videoconferencing, also called visual collaboration, erodes geographic limitations by bringing two or more people together and transmits video and audio simultaneously through a broadband connection. Videoconferencing also allows for collaboration without loss of time due to travel; which is essential for collaboration in large districts or schools with multiple campuses.
 * **__ Kimberly Stephens __**: E-portfolios can be use to record day-to-day and month-to-month progress of teaching and learning of students that will allow for easy teacher-teacher or teacher-administration conferences on target students as well as student support meetings on students who are on tier 2 and tier 3.


 * __References__**

Bernhardt, V. L. (2005). Data Tools for School Improvement. Educational Leadership, 62(5), 66 Courville, K. (2011). Technology and Its Use in Education: Present Roles and Future Prospects. Online Submission, Dempsey, J.V. & Van Eck, R.N. (2007). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology Reiser, R.A. & Dempsey, J.V. (Eds.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. McKay, J. & Wager, W.W. (2007). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology Reiser, R.A. & Dempsey, J.V. (Eds.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson iScholl, J. F. (2001). Using Technology to Improve Curriculum Development. Retrieved from http://technologysource.org/article/using_technology_to_improve_curriculum_development/
 * __Danielle Washington:__

//Kristy Fernandez References// Common Core, Inc. (2011). Common Core Curriculum Maps. Retrieved from http://commoncore.org/maps/faqs Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Smythe, T. (2009). //The 2009 Horizon report: K-12 edition// (pp. 9–29)//.// Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf Office of the State Superintendent of Education of the District of Columbia. (2012). Guidelines for Preparing Subject Area Program Proposals. Retrieved from http://osse.dc.gov/service/guidance-preparing-subject-area-program-proposals
 * Deborah Fair:
 * Martin-Kneip, G. O. (2008). //Communities that learn, lead, and last: Building and sustaining educational expertise.// San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
 * Center on Instruction (2012). //Welcome to the Center on Instruction (COI). Retrieved at http://www.centeroninstruction.org///
 * Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2006). //the daily 5: Fostering literacy independence in the elementary grades.// Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
 * KimberlyStephens:

Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Smythe, T. (2009). The 2009 Horizon report: K-12 edition

(pp. 9–29). Retrieved from [|http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf&#8232]

http://podcasting-in-education.wikispaces.com/

Schrum, L., & Levin, B. B. (2009). Leading 21st century schools: Harnessing technology for engagement and achievement (pp. 119–140). Thousand Oak, CA: Corwin Press.