Cloud-based learning through bring your own device implementation

¶ … Planning Process

Explain in detail how you will address each of the needs identified in part 2 include changes necessary for environment, engagement, application, and tools. Make sure to include a list of technology resources currently available and those that must be purchased.

State Goals and Objectives with Local Strategies and Measures

Environment The changes necessary for the environment involve going from one based on the physical environment to one that is predicated on a cloud-based environment. In this regard, the change is mostly one of architecture. Virtually all applications and requisite software the students and instructors will use will be accessed through the cloud.

Engagement The means of engagement will be the Bring Your Own Device phenomenon, in which students utilize their own mobile devices for the purpose of working in the classroom. Those without such devices will be provided the most accessible ones (a smart phone) via the school, district, and state funding. Most of these devices (both those that belong to students and those that the district can access) are available.

Q: Is there anything else we can do?

A: In general, I would highly recommend you utilize the cloud for software purposes, application building, and accessing of applications. Even something as basic as Microsoft Word can be obtained through the cloud. The benefits are a reduced physical infrastructure, less technological savvy, and an attractive pricing system in which users only pay for the length of time they are using the service.

TIP 4: Implementation

Budget and Timetable for Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Measures

Budgetary concerns include the procurement of NaviSite's solution -- which the vendor has decided to donate for free to assist this public school system. The school already has a finite amount of mobile devices that it can employ for those students who do not already have their own devices to bring. Moreover, the school district is already employing its own information technology team which will be responsible for facilitating the onboarding process with NaviSite and learning, and subsequently training school representatives in the monitoring process. Thus, the school must budget the provisioning of cloud-based resources for students and teachers. The school should budget approximately $5,000 for this purpose, and engage in fundraising activities to help offset those costs.

The school will need a month's time to determine what sort of applications and software (via the cloud) are necessary to achieve curriculum objectives. This process will involve meeting with its IT department to understand logistical requirements, and meetings between teachers and administrators.

The onboarding process facilitated by the district IT should take approximately one month. A large part of that process will involve school officials meeting with NaviSite to determine what sort of requirements are necessary for students to only utilize class-based applications on their devices during school hours. Following that process, the district's IT team is required for an additional week to train administrators and teachers in the use of this solution. Teachers and administrators will conduct ongoing training sessions at regular intervals from that point on.

Professional Development Plan

The professional development plan will primarily involve the educators and administrators at this school that are attempting to utilize this Technology Implementation Plan. As previously indicated, most of the educators at this particular location are fairly technologically savvy and have come from education programs that utilized modern technology. Additionally, most of them are also involved in continuing education programs. Thus, they will require some training -- but not a substantial amount -- in utilizing cloud-based resources and both designing and facilitating curriculum to fit the content specific needs of particular end point devices. However, they will need training about the utilization of NaviSite's Enterprise Mobility Management System. This sort of training should be conducted on an ongoing basis. Additionally, it should involve various administrators. When this system is initially implemented, the district's IT department will be responsible for monitoring the content of the devices to ensure they meet the restrictions ordained by the school. The most pivotal aspect of this professional development plan is to train the teachers to monitor the content of their students using NaviSite's platform. This training should ideally require a teacher workday session, and be updated on an ongoing basis to ensure that there is compliance and to address any further issues with students. Initially, that training should involve It and administrators. After that, administrators can train teachers.

Lesson Plan 1 This lesson plan will directly address cultural and economic diversity while providing students with instruction in the language arts. It will begin with a relatively brief lecture in which the instructor educates students about the values of diversity. One of the principle values that the instructor will emphasize is the fact that people from different cultures and different socio-economic backgrounds are able to foster different skills and values because of them. When those skills, values, and experiences are synthesized in a professional setting (or even in a classroom learning environment) they can enhance the profession and educational experiences, respectively, of all parties involved. Students will then be randomly assigned reading content that is indicative of different cultures and socio-economic experiences. One of these will be about Native Americans, displaced from their native lands and left on reservations with few economic opportunities. Another one will be about snobbish European-Americans contently enjoying Christmas in a comfortable, affluent, suburban environment (such as Ebenezer Scrooge). The final one will be about middle class Asian immigrants attempting to earn funds for their American born daughter to go to college. After reading these materials, the students will then compose expository essays about the advantages and disadvantages of each of the situations that they read about. Then, they will share these documents with one another via NaviSite and correct them for grammar and punctuation issues. Lastly, the period will end with a discussion of the students explaining how the various viewpoints of the situations they read can be useful in real life situations. For instance, the teacher will posit the notion that each one of the characters from each story was stranded in a forest at midnight, and the students could discuss which skills those characters could use -- and support them with examples from the text -- to help themselves in such a scenario.

Lesson Plan 2 The focus of the second lesson plan is special needs. This lesson will begin with the instructor issuing a brief lesson to the students about the fact that not all people are equipped with the same physical, emotional, and cognitive capabilities of one another. As such, it is vital that this lesson is preceded by the foregoing one. The teacher will even draw the parallel that much like the same way that people have different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds, they also have different capabilities pertaining to cognition, emotions, and their physical bodies. The students will then research -- on the internet -- examples of different people with special needs who were able to achieve extraordinary things. Different groups of students will research individuals such as Beethoven, Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, etc. to understand that oftentimes, when one of these senses is not working, people can become acute at the others. Finally, the class will write narrative essays about individuals who had some form of special needs (such as those they researched) and show how they were able to account for those special needs by excelling in some other part of life.

Lesson Plan 3

TIP 5: Executive Summary

Crosswalk of Goals

A goal comparison of the National Educational Technology Plan, the Educational Technology Plan for your state, and the Imaginary County Public Schools' Strategic Plan.

National Educational Technology Plan / ISTE - NETS

Educational Technology Plan for (your state)

Imaginary County Public Schools' Strategic Plan

Learning: Learning is to be based on student's ability to internalize and foster skills for critical thinking.

Students should seek to learn by cooperating with one another and with their teachers, ultimately learning independent skills.

The strategy is that the deployment of mobile technology that is largely facilitated by the cloud can enhance student learning and the means of teaching students.

Assessment: In general, these standards promote an environment in which the successful and competent completions of projects are desirable.

Students should be given a combination of project-based assessments and conventional summative assessments.

Conventional summative and formative assessments will be readily deployed to chart the efficacy of these strategies and the technological implementation plan in general.

Teaching: The usage of technology affects the teaching process so that it is based on the individual and collective nature of students, and helps prepare them for contributing to the global economy.

Instructors should teach less based on conventional authority figure status, and more as guides for an interactive learning process with students.

Teachers will be able to provide feedback to one another about what aspect of a lesson planned worked and what didn't, and do so in close to real time to influence additional teaching and instruction given in similar subjects or with similar resources and strategies. They can do this by sharing this feedback on NaviSite, and even sharing eminent examples from students.

Infrastructure: The infrastructure is based on technological resources, and relies less on conventional infrastructure such as whiteboards and erasers and more on digital devices.

The infrastructure should reflect a growing preoccupation with technological resources and virtualization strategies.

The strategic plan for this school district is to utilize a cloud-based infrastructure, which greatly reduces the reliance, maintenance, and costs, associated with conventional physical infrastructure requirements.

Productivity: The sort of productivity supported by these standards is that of an active one. As opposed to merely absorbing information through lectures, students should collaborate with one another and focus on problem solving.

Both teachers and students should remain highly productive during the duration of the classroom experience, which should seek to engage and enlighten.

The plan is for students to be able to leverage technology and the instant access it gives them to various points of research to increase the amount of learning they are able to do in a classroom period.