Practical Advice For Creating A Combined Information

Practical Advice for Creating a Combined Information (Library Media) Technology Plan By Tammy Stephens Introduction The old model for creating a technology plan was for a single leader to do some informal planning and to be in charge of making all of the decisions for technology purchases. Today things are different. Wisconsin advocates that districts do a Combined Information (Library Media) Technology Plan that has wide stakeholder involvement and input in the planning process. The information shared in this article is not rocket science. It’s just practical advice on a lot of little things that that can make a big difference in creating a successful plan.

Part 1: Creating a Realistic Timeline My biggest piece of advice is to give yourself enough time. In my experience an ideal timeline is eighteen months. I think of the planning process as occurring in three major phases: • Phase 1: Planning and Implementing the Needs Assessment • Phase 2: Involving Stakeholders in the Planning Process • Phase 3: Writing and Sharing the Draft of the Plan. In an ideal timeline, each phases takes approximately six months. If you don’t have eighteen months, use backwards planning to make a timeline with the time you do have. Start by finding out when your Information Technology Plan is really due. Due dates are listed on the DPI web-site http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dltcl/imt/tekcert.html . However, it is important to note that because of recent changes in E-Rate you may be required to submit an addendum of your current plan to the state before you file your Form 470. This is especially true of plans that are due in December. Next, figure out when the plan should be submitted to the school board for approval. Every school board is different. Some require that the plan first go to a subcommittee for review before it goes to the full board. Often school boards take two meetings to approve a plan, one meeting to have the plan presented to them and a second meeting to approve it. Next, find out the date by which the plan will need to be added to the school board packet and mailed out to board members (typically one week prior to the meeting). Once you have this date, divide the time you have left into three equal time-periods for each of the phases listed above. There are four policies that are required: an Acceptable Use Policy, Copyright Policy, Interlibrary Loan Policy, and Special Needs Policy. These policies need to be board approved. You should check on the status of these policies immediately. Sometimes school boards require

that policies need go through three readings before they can be approved. In my experience, most districts do not have an Interlibrary Loan Policy. Another new requirement is the Special Needs Policy. Sometime districts add a paragraph to their existing special education policy to meet this requirement. You need to have language indicating that you will provide assistive technology to students who have special needs even if they have not been formally identified for special education programming.

Part Two: Planning and Implementing The Needs Assessment Districts are required to do a needs assessment as part of the plan. A needs assessment should: • Drive data-driven decisions • Track progress over time • Empower the change process • Provide a means of communication • Develops a common language • Assist in setting priorities, allocating funds • Support effective use of resources At the very least a needs assessment on student and educator proficiency needs to be done. Student proficiency should relate to proficiency on the Wisconsin Information Technology Literacy Standards. In addition, you will be required to write an analysis of Educator Proficiency, Effective Teaching & Learning Practices, Access to Information & Technology Resources, and Support Systems & Leadership. Having data available on these topics makes writing these sections much easier. The enGauge assessment has two components: an online profile and on-site interviews http:// www.ncrel.org/engauge . This assessment correlates with the DPI criteria for creating your plan. Districts can also use custom-made assessments, but must include these assessments in the appendix of the plan. Below is a quick reference chart that shows some ready made needs assessments and what they measure:

Tool:

Student Educator Effective Access to Support Proficiency Proficiency Teaching Information Systems & & & Leadership Learning Technology Practices Tools

enGauge

X

X

X

X

Learning with Technology Profile Tool LoTI (Levels of Technology Integration)

X

Mile Guide

X

PETI Profiling Educational Technology Integration

X

STaR Chart

X

X

X

X

TAGLIT(Taking a Good Look at Instructional Technology)

X

X

X

(some)

Note: Some of these tools are free and some are not. While a needs assessm ent of your library media program is not required, it can be helpful in determining needs of the program, setting goals, and writing measurable objectives. A great article on factors to share when planning for a library media assessment is What Gets Measured Gets Done: a School Library Media and Technology Self-Study Workbook by Doug Johnson www.doug-johnson.com, 2001. One assessment that has worked well in our consulting is the School Library Media Program Assessment Rubric for the 21st Centuryfrom A Planning Guide for Information Power Building Partnerships for Learning, American Association for School Librarians (AASL) 1999.

A key consideration when planning a library media program is determining who will be involved in the assessment process. Will it be only library media specialists evaluating their program or will it include input from other stakeholder groups as well? When choosing a needs assessment for your plan ask yourself- What do you really want to know about information (library media) and technology in your district? Which tool or tools would best help you get this information? A common question clients ask me is, “What is a good sample size for a needs assessment?” This is not an easy question to answer and can vary from district to district. Obviously, the best sample size would be 100%. My recommendation: given your current budget, staffing, and time, try to get the largest representative sample possible. The higher your sample, the more reliable your data. A key to getting a good sample is to get the support of building principals. Building principals have first hand knowledge of their school’s schedules and who within their building can help with the process. Having a meeting with building principals to explain the logistics, such as length of time and set-up needed, is always a good idea. Often principals will have helpful suggestions that can help the process run smoother. In addition, explaining what type of data will be obtained from the needs assessment and how this data can be beneficial to their school can be helpful in gaining administrator support. This support can, in turn, lead to getting a good sample for your needs assessment.

Part Three: Involving Stakeholders Research shows that “when a group’s final decision is compared to the independent points of view that the members held before entering the group, the group’s effort is almost and often it is better than even the best individual contribution” Hall Psychology Today, November 1971, pg. 51. Stakeholders in your district should be involved in reviewing progress made on the current plan, creating the mission and vision for the plan, reviewing current educational research, analyzing data from the needs assessment, and creating action plans. What stakeholders should be involved? When creating a combined library media plan, it is critical that library media specialists be involved in the planning process from the very beginning. In consulting with districts, I have observed an interesting phenomena: Often when I start the planning process, library media specialists say “Great. We need to get all of the library media specialists together so we can meet to plan how we can collaborate with other staff members better.” The more outside stakeholders are allowed to collaborate on the plan the more likely they will take ownership in the plan and the collaborative relationship will continue beyond the planning process. As much as possible, the planning process should be a collaborative endeavor including all stakeholder groups including: librarians, teachers, technology personnel, school board members, administrators,

parents, community members and students. Yup, students. In my experience, having students has really helped planning groups become more motivated and stay focused on student needs. After all, it’s all about the kids! It is not uncommon for many stakeholders to have little background in what makes an effective library media program or know that strong library media programs have been shown to improve student achievement. Early in the process library media specialists should be given the opportunity to be leaders in presenting this information to stakeholders. The American Association of School Libraries publishes a nice brochure that summarizes current research on the impact of school libraries on student achievement entitled Your School Library Media Program and No Child Left Behind, (2004) which can be purchased for a small fee. Another group that is often missing from these meetings, due to late notice or scheduling conflicts, is school board members. Involving school board members, especially those who might be critical, always pays off in the end. The reason is, eventually the plan has to go to the school board for approval. The sooner you can get their issues out on the table, the sooner you can address them. It is better to find out about concerns and issues early in the process rather than later. You can avoid major re-writes late in the process and can have smoother board approval if you work to include this group early in the planning process. The superintendent’s involvement in the planning process is also important. Superintendents are busy people and they may not be able to clear their schedules for all of your meetings. However, their visibility during the planning process can really help. For example, having the superintendent welcome everyone to the first planning session and publicly introduce and thank community and school board members present can help set the tone for the project. Also, having them periodically sit in and listen to discussions or presentations of the group’s work sends a message that their efforts are important to the district and improves motivation. It is also important to talk, and talk again, with your superintendent to update them on the progress made during the planning process. The more you gain their support for the plan, the more likely your action plans will become reality. How often should you meet? The danger of committees is that every time a group starts and stops time is lost getting reacquainted with the material. Also once you get your committee in place, it is important to get commitments from members to come to all of the meetings. Nothing slows momentum like new people who are unfamiliar with the process showing up at every meeting while other critical members are missing. A good antidote to this is to meet for longer periods of time (1/2 day or full days) as opposed to many shorter meetings. It is also a good idea to build in some time between creating initial drafts of action plans and mission/vision statements and reviewing them. This allows the group to read their work again at a later date with renewed energy and fresh eyes.

Running Effective Meetings Many of my clients hire our firm to facilitate stakeholder meetings for them. This is helpful because the role of the facilitator is to be neutral and help the group work effectively. District leaders often have a lot of insight and personal investment in the plan. Trying to juggle being a neutral servant of the group and wanting to participate in group decision making can be difficult. Hiring an outside facilitator allows district leaders the freedom to act as an active participant in the group. Visioning I am a huge advocate of site visits and reviewing research to help with the visioning process. As Albert Einstein pointed out, “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” In other words, its hard to brainstorm ideas to improve learning in your district without being aware of other models. I also advocate taking school board members along on site visits. Another useful tip is to have the team that makes the site visit bring digital cameras and present their findings to a larger audience to “share the vision” with stakeholders back home. Action Planning Action planning is hard work. If you have too large a group, working conditions can actually become ineffective. A good way to work on action planning is to divide and conquer. Having smaller groups (5-8 people with a facilitator is an ideal group) work on action plans and then bringing it to the large group for feedback allows progress on the plan to move forward on multiple fronts at the same time. Considering the Total Cost of Ownership Really good plans consider the total cost of ownership. Some good resources for this are on the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN) TCO site http://classroomtco.cosn.org/. The Gartner Group has recently released a set of tools that can be used to help you compare the total cost of ownership between two initiatives. These tools are available at http://classroomtco.cosn.org/gartner_intro.html . Say Thank You Many people will have written sub-plans, gotten child care, and taken time off work to be a part of the planning process. Don’t forget a verbal and/or written thank you to stakeholders for their efforts.

Part Four: Creating and Sharing the Draft of The Plan Formatting the Plan In my experience, every district has their own reading culture. What I mean by that is every district has a way of presenting information in documents. It will be helpful to the readers if you

match your plan to this reading style as much as possible. Look at other district documents and try to match the layout, fonts etc. so that the overall look matches what stakeholders are used to seeing. Sharing the Plan The more people you can involve in the planning process, the greater the ownership of the plan and the more likely it is to be implemented. It is important that the plan get shared beyond the planning committee. Technology can help you do this. Posting drafts on the district web-site and soliciting feedback via email, web blogs, or discussion boards are some of the ways I’ve seen this done. However, merely making the plan available electronically does not necessarily mean that people will take the time to read it and reflect on it. A good way to share the plan beyond the committee is to enlist the help of members on the committee to share with other stakeholders. For example, ask members of the planning meeting to do a short presentation on the plan at various stakeholder meetings in the district. Another idea is to ask all of the planning committee members to personally go over some parts of the plan for feedback with at least three other stakeholders who are not part of the planning committee. Tips for School Board Members Often Information Technology Plans are quite long and can seem overwhelming to a school board member. Including an Executive Summary at the beginning of the plan can really help school board members in making sense of the plan. School board members prefer information to be presented in concise charts and graphs as opposed to lengthy narratives. Common questions that school board members often have are: • • • •

How does this plan compare to the last plan? What are the major initiatives? How much does it cost? Is this more than we are currently paying? What funding sources will be used to support the plan?

Including this type of information in an Executive Summary or short presentation can be very helpful to board members. Try to stay away from lots of educational jargon and stick to layman’s terms when presenting. Conclusion: It is my hope that these suggestions will help you in creating a successful Combined Information (Library Media) Technology Plan that gets implemented. Good luck!