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Mission and Vision

The vision of the Tri County Technology Department is to support instruction throughout the district by providing technology equipment, instructional resources, and support services. Our goals is to provide solutions and help resolve problems by providing hardware and software support to teachers, students, administrators and staff, and to provide appropriate software and hardware for instruction and administration of the school. Professional development for our teachers/staff is also a major focus of the department. The main vision is that curriculum, not the technology, must guide the planning and implementation process.

Technology plays a significant role in attaining the district's mission to develop productive and responsible citizens who will live in a global society and who are adaptive and sensitive to both cultural and technological changes. Attaining the instruction and curricular goals of Tri County Schools requires the appropriate use of technology by both students and staff.  Technology literacy provides students with access to an ever-changing world dependent on information.  In order to participate effectively in today's technological age, students must be information navigators, critical thinkers and analyzers, and creators of knowledge and communications using a variety of technologies. Integrating technology throughout the curriculum provides these essential skills.

 

Current Infrastructure and Assets

The Junior-Senior High School and the Elementary School are located in the same, sprawling building which removes the obstacle of travel when trying to support the district's technology. 

The Ethernet network consists of a 1Gb fiber backbone between the wings of the school, with 100Mb copper connecting individual rooms to the backbone.  The network is fully layer 3 switched and uses a Cisco 3825 Integrated Services Router to allow for both internet traffic and full motion video for distance learning.

Seventy-five percent of the building is covered by our 54Mb wireless network which allows students and teachers to use notebook computers wirelessly.

Currently the school maintains 320 computers and laptops, 55 printers, 10 digital still cameras, 7 scanners, 7 DV camcorders, and 5 servers.  99.7% of our district is PC/Windows-based

Phone communication within the district is handled by a Nortel BCM 400 digital & IP converged phone and voicemail system.  Seventy-six phones service all areas of the building.

We are currently running a Windows 2003 Active Directory domain with Exchange 2003 for messaging and collaboration.

We use PowerSchool for our Student Information System.

We use Nebraska Online for our standards and assessment system.

We currently have 8 static (classroom) computer labs throughout the school.

We also have 4 wireless notebook mobile labs.  We have two mobile labs with 24 and 30 notebooks the remaining 2 carts have 7 notebooks per cart for special education use only.

We also have a couple of other learning/working environments for teachers and students that have additional computers – Reading mini-lab and Yearbook mini-lab.

Every classroom has at least one computer or laptop for teacher use.  Every elementary classroom has at least one student-use computer.

We have 35 digital projectors, 30 of which are ceiling-mounted, and 4 are for distance learning.

The school owns 4 mobile distance learning carts which may be connected in any room of the building for instant access to hundreds of other schools, Nebraska colleges and Universities, and Enrichment sites such as the Henry Doorly Zoo and the National Archives.  This service is provided through the SNDLC.

The school website, located at www.tricountyschools.org , is a crucial hub of information. It provides unlimited space for content/data/media for all classroom projects and school events.
Additionally, the PowerSchool website gives parents access to their kids’ grades and attendance.

Future Plans:

Action Plan: Our Plan is to design curriculum around technology in order to go 1-1 within the next year or two. We are currently in the planning stages of this project, we have the wireless infrastructure including but not limited to gigabit switches and wireless N access points. As a technology committee we are selecting the device that we plan on implementing and giving the device to all teachers for a minimum of 9 months. This time will be used to familiarize them and infuse the device into the curriculum. There will also be the purchase of a cart of the same devices so that teachers can implement lesson plans to engage students in learning that is centered around the curriculum not the device. During the first 5 months the staff will participate in staff development and the technology team will monitor the progress of staff implementation. The technology team will also evaluate the students use and access to the cart and trouble shoot any potential future problems. After the 5 months the staff will evaluate the progress and if everything is running to acceptable conditions then three classroom sets will be purchased. If they are not ready they will be purchased after the 9 months, along with the other devices that would be required to go 1-1. All of the devices would be then classroom sets, until all school policies, 70% teacher readiness, and off site filter solutions have been solved.

Software currently used but not limited to: Powerschool, Destiny (Library database), accelerated reader, Moodle, CIPA filter, Online accounting software (data team), Math, Social Studies, and Accounting curriculum online, Kindles, Nooks, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, Microsoft Office, Google Docs, Kidspiration, Inspiration, MAPs Testing, NeSA Testing, ACT Online Prep, Movie Maker, Photo Story, Flip Camera, Indisign, 4 mobile Laptop Carts replacing them with 1-1 project, 4 full classroom labs, 3 half classroom labs. Changes that will occur with 1-1 action plan: cut down to one mobile cart in the elementary with older 1-1 devices. All students 7-12 would have a device, 5th and 6th grades would have a classroom set, and Pre-Kindergarten-4th grade would use the mobile cart. 3 full classroom labs one in C-wing, high school media center, and elementary media center. One half lab will be remain to run AutoCAD. All teachers will have a desktop computer and the 1-1 device. Curriculum, not the technology, will guide the planning and implementation process.

Telecommunications plays in important role in the vision and goal of 1-1. We intend to use the devices to access online text books; currently we have to subject areas that have access with the other two core subjects going within the next two years. We are currently conducting and refining online quizzes and test, with the aid of Moodle, Google docs, and our text book companies offer similar online testing. We also use the network connection on and off campus to access powerschool, school website, accelerated reader, and library data base. With going 1-1 we are looking at upgrading our network connection from 75 Mb/sec fiber connections to 1 GB fiber connection. This is now a reality with the recent buy out of Dark Fiber. Our local ESU is in negotiations to make this a reality before the school year is over. This option will allow us to fully utilize Web 2.0 sites and better integrate technology into a reliable internet connection.

After the technology committee selects a device, all staff members will be given that device with basic software on it. The staff will have winter break to explore possibilities for classroom integration. We plan on having in-services dedicated to staff development on the device in order to increase familiarity with the device. During the in-service time staff will also reevaluate curriculum and incorporate the 1-1 learning. The staff has received training on SmartBoards, network printers, Moodle, and Google Docs. All the training was in effort to increase the staffs technology awareness and confidence.

Network connection: We plan on upgrading to 1 GB connection in the near future, instead of the 100 MB we currently have.  This will aid in future possibilities of going 1-1