1104_LFI 4_Attachment 2. North Carolina State School Technology Plan

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1 1104_LFI 4_Attachment 2 North Carolina State School Technology Plan Division of Instructional Technology April 2011

2 Table of Contents Vision 3 Summary of Strategic Priorities and Goals 4 Strategic Priorities Overview 5 A Statewide Shared Services Model 7 Universal Access to Personal Teaching and Learning Devices 11 Statewide Access to Digital Teaching and Learning Resources, Including Digital Textbooks 17 A Statewide Model of Technology-Enabled Professional Development st Century Leadership for All Schools and Districts 29 Appendices 34 References 37 2

3 North Carolina Commission on School Technology Membership Member Representative Joe P. Tolson, Chair Vacancy Senator Josh Stein Mr. Reid Parrott John Killebrew Jerry Fralick, CIO Derek L. McCoy Alycia Crews Dr. Saundra Williams James Crowe June St. Clair Atkinson Appointment Speaker of the House Speaker of the House President Pro Tempore NC General Assembly President Pro Tempore-NC General Assembly President Erskine Bowles - UNC State Information Officer (ITS) Governor Perdue Governor Perdue Community College Appointee By Pres. Ralls Supt. June Atkinson NC DPI 2

4 Vision Statement The North Carolina State School Technology Plan Vision Statement As mandated by North Carolina law GS115C-102.6, North Carolina has developed a State School Technology Plan (SSTP), a comprehensive State implementation plan for using funds from the State School Technology Fund and other sources to improve student performance in the public schools through the use of learning and instructional management technologies. The purpose of the plan is to provide a cost-effective foundation of flexible technology, infrastructure and expert staffing to promote substantial gains in student achievement. The NC State Board of Education (NCSBE) proposes the components, goals, and objectives of the SSTP. The Commission on School Technology (NC CST) advises the State Board of Education on the State School Technology Plan and its components. The North Carolina SSTP has been designed to reflect North Carolina's State Board of Education s goal of Future-Ready Schools for the 21 st Century. This is accomplished by aligning the goals and objectives of this plan with the NC SBE goals and objectives, the goals and objectives of Governor Beverly Perdue s Career and College: Ready, Set, Go Race to the Top initiative, and the goals, objectives, and ideals of the National Education Technology Plan. 3

5 Summary of Strategic Priorities and Goals Strategic Priority 1: A Statewide Shared Services Model Strategic Priority 2: Universal Access to Personal Teaching and Learning Devices Strategic Priority 3: Statewide Access to Digital Teaching and Learning Resources, Including Digital Textbooks Strategic Priority 4: A Statewide Model of Technology-Enabled Professional Development Strategic Priority 5: 21st Century Leadership for All Schools and Districts Design, implement and administer the NC Education Cloud Architectural Blueprint. Continue to provide School Connectivity Initiative (SCI) funding. Maximize the use of E-rate at local and state levels to ensure equity of access. Provide a regional support model for LEAs and schools as they begin one-to-one personal teaching and learning device implementations. Leverage existing one-to-one LEA and school implementations to provide best practices and pilot opportunities. Develop a sustainable funding formula and implementation plan for personal teacher and learner devices to assure equity of access for all North Carolina schools. Continue to fund and add resources to NC WiseOwl. Use expertise in North Carolina to design and curate digital teaching and learning resources. As part of ACRE and NC Career and College Ready, Set, GO! Race to the Top initiatives, support and lead a digital reform effort in the schools and classrooms of North Carolina. Revise the standards, job description, and evaluation tools for North Carolina's school media coordinator and instructional technology facilitators. Fund innovative models that promote and further the ideals of technology-enabled and integrated professional development for the instructional K12 workforce in North Carolina's LEAs and Charter Schools. As part of ACRE and NC Career and College Ready, Set, Go! Race to the Top initiatives; provide embedded technology-enabled professional development to the teachers and administrators in the LEAs and schools of North Carolina. Continue successful partnerships with state and local leaders that foster 21st century teaching and learning. Fund innovative models that promote and further the ideals of technology-enabled, 21st century leadership for the administrative and instructional workforce in North Carolina's LEAs and Charter Schools. Revise policies, procedures, and legislation to support 21st century leadership. 4

6 State School Technology Plan Strategic Priorities The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. Diogenes Laertius While North Carolina s LEAs and schools still lead the nation in use of technology as instructional and administrative tools, visits across the state reveal wide variances in the amount of technology infused in the work of administrators, teachers, and students, as supported by data in Tables 1-3 in Appendix A which highlight technology support, student-to-computer ratio from the state Annual Media and Technology Report, collected in July of 2010, and budgets extracted from LEA Total Cost of Ownership documents across the state (Appendix A). It is the responsibility of LEA and Charter School leadership to provide the best strategic plans to ensure equity is achieved using State School Technology Funds, other state funds, federal funds, and local funds, the Constitution of the State of North Carolina, in Article VII, mandates that...equal opportunities shall be provided for all students. Equal access to technology and 21st century opportunities are critical to ensuring the success of all North Carolina students. The integration of 21st Century tools will prepare students to be career and college ready. Gordon emphasizes this point in his recent article, Return to Sender, where he summarizes several studies which convey that our schools continue to send graduates to the workforce without necessary technology-based soft skills demanded by employers. Core content mastery is essential but not inclusive when applying knowledge to communicate, collaborate, analyze, create, innovate, and solve problems. North Carolina s students have 24 hour access to technology. However opportunities to implement, integrate and benefit from technology are not supported to capacity. This disconnect between the classroom and the real world leads to uninspired and resistant learners. Research from the IMPACT study shows that students exposure to various technologies seems to have improved their literacy and led to growing confidence in their abilities to use technology in a meaningful way (Overbay et al., 2011). Technology is not equitably distributed across our state. Access to teaching and learning technologies does not necessarily lead to equity for staff and students. These technologies must be accompanied by ample professional development. Likewise, high-quality 21st century school and district leadership must also exist across North Carolina to fulfill the promise that all students graduate career and college ready. The Commission on School Technology recognizes that for all students to be future ready, they must possess equal opportunities for taking full advantage of information and technology resources and tools, and must be taught in a way that maximizes the effective use of these technologies. For this reason, the Commission advises the NCSBE to focus on equitable access to technology in this State School Technology Plan. While many foci are necessary to achieve this goal, the Commission has identified five over-arching priorities: 1) a statewide shared services model for platforms and infrastructure; 2) universal access to individual teaching and learning devices; 3) statewide access to digital teaching and learning resources, including digital textbooks; 4) a statewide model of 21st century professional development; 5) and 21st century leadership for all schools and districts. 5

7 Strategic Priority 1: A Statewide Shared Services Model Essential Questions How do the Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and Charter Schools (Charter Schools) leverage collaborative purchasing to pay substantially less for technology services and platforms? How can a Statewide Shared Services Model assist in shifting primary support from infrastructure to instructional needs? How can a Statewide Shared Services Model enable increased infrastructure and technology efficiency and sustainability? How can a Statewide Shared Services Model provide higher service reliability? How can a Statewide Shared Services Model facilitate more strategic budgeting models for LEAs and Charter Schools? Current Status and Moving Forward Many North Carolina districts are ill-equipped to manage production server infrastructure. Server infrastructure is most often housed in facilities that lack sufficient space, power, and cooling. Further, as district servers are typically located in school buildings that are frequented by thousands of people on a daily basis, security exposure is high. Backup systems for power, cooling, storage, etc. are essentially non-existent. Finally, districts have little leverage to use in recruiting or retaining qualified information technology professionals trained in server administration. Currently, infrastructure in many of our LEAs and Charter Schools includes onsite storage, management tools, and services (Figure 1, Appendix B). Much of the existing infrastructure has been designed and implemented to support non-mobile computing devices and appliances, like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call centers and telephones, printers, premise firewalls and filters, and video and distance learning devices. The majority of campus networking infrastructure is made up of traditional switching devices, with some enterprise-class management and wireless deployment. Campus routers connect campuses with LEA data centers through Wide Area Networks (WANs). Many of the services used in the district firewalls and filters, wireless controllers, file and print servers, administrative applications, and and collaborative reside on servers at the LEA data center. In many cases, these data centers do not have sufficient power structures, back-up facilities, or adequate heating and cooling. Physical security can also be a challenge as many of the LEA data centers are located in district administrative offices which are often open to personnel from across the LEA and sometimes the general public. In this traditional model, the directory structure, if present, resides in the LEA data center. Connecting the LEA center to the Internet and/or the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN) connection is a costly LEA-owned router. Some LEAs have already begun to rely upon hosted cloud services; these services often include a variety of Learning Management Systems (LMS), web hosting, and services, including archiving services (often from Google or Microsoft). Recent advances in virtualization and cloud computing have led to competitive service provider offerings of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Amazon, AT&T, IBM, Microsoft and a number of others have public cloud solutions that provide for both persistent (24x7x365) and on-demand hosted infrastructure services. A comprehensive statewide migration to IaaS would provide equity 6

8 of access to highly available services. By aggregating demand from across the K12 enterprise and taking advantage of usage-based cloud offerings the state can realize dramatic cost savings in infrastructure support. While this set of circumstances is not unique to North Carolina, as a state we are in a unique position to deploy a statewide education cloud solution. However, in order to successfully deploy infrastructure as a service, each school must enjoy reliable, high-bandwidth, low-latency network connectivity. Fortunately, the $22M annual recurring investment by the state of North Carolina in the School Connectivity Initiative provides exactly that. In August of 2010, North Carolina was awarded the federal Race to the Top (RttT) grant. This grant brings $399,465,768 to the state, LEAs, and Charter Schools, for use over four years. The RttT funding focuses on providing new and innovative approaches to education. The scope of work consists of state and local initiatives in four pillars: great teachers and leaders, quality standards and assessments, turnaround of lowest achieving schools, and data systems to improve instruction. These pillar activities and initiatives will facilitate accomplishment of high graduation rates, strong student achievement, and career- and college-readiness for North Carolina s students. Of the almost $400 million awarded, $165.8 million was awarded directly to LEAs and Charter Schools. On behalf of the LEAs and Charter Schools, $34.2 million has been pooled for planning, administration, and implementation of the NC Education Cloud (NC Ed Cloud). The purposes of the NC Ed Cloud are two-fold: One portion of the funds will be used to support RttT initiatives including $18.1 million to provide digital tools and resources that support all RttT initiatives. These tools include a statewide K12 Learner Management System (LMS), a statewide K12 Learning Object Repository (LOR), statewide collaborative and communication tools, and a statewide identity management solution. A large portion of the remaining funding, $16.1 million, will be used to provide a highly reliable, highly available, server infrastructure supporting the statewide K12 education enterprise. Further efforts will focus on providing policies and procedures to enable statelevel collaborative procurement for often used online resources and tools. At its heart, the NC Ed Cloud provides a migration from LEA-hosted server infrastructure to cloudhosted infrastructure as a service. The primary objective of the NC Ed Cloud is to provide a worldclass IT infrastructure as a foundational component of the NC education enterprise. Moreover, the NC Ed Cloud will provide for: Equity of access to computing and storage resources; Efficient scaling according to aggregate NC K12 usage requirements; Consistently high availability, reliability and performance; A common infrastructure platform to support emerging data systems; Sustainable and predictable operational costs that will be significantly less than current technology infrastructure expenditures 7

9 Strategic Goals: Priority 1 A Statewide Shared Services Model 1.1 Design, implement and administer the NC Education Cloud Architectural Blueprint. Once implemented, the NC Ed Cloud will provide opt-in services hosted by enterprise-class vendors for LEAs and Charter Schools (Appendix B, Figure 2). The NC Ed Cloud Blueprint will be a 21st century model and will: Support mobile devices for today's 21st century teachers and learners; Provide a model for paying for services as needed, thus reducing operating costs; Promote collaborative purchasing to reduce costs currently exacerbated by duplication of services in 115 LEAs and 100 Charter Schools; Provide high-availability, high performance, and reliable platforms and services; Provide equitable access to digital resources. The NC Ed Cloud Blueprint, being developed in the winter and spring of 2011, will be complete and approved by July 1, Once approved, Requests For Proposals (RFPs) will be written and posted. After, enterprise-class vendors are selected, services will begin to be piloted in the winter of 2011/2012, with migration and wide scale implementation taking place during the academic year. 1.2 Continue to provide School Connectivity Initiative (SCI) funding. While the NC Ed Cloud will certainly be a cost-reducing effort for LEAs and Charter Schools, the basis for its operation is the NCREN. SCI funding provides this connection, making the bandwidth and connectivity affordable for LEAs and Charter Schools. SCI funding also provides services for our LEAs and Charter Schools to assist in E-rate filing and audits, and network and technology support through both the NCDPI Connectivity Services and MCNC Client Network Services. 1.3 Maximize the use of E-rate at local and state levels to ensure equity of access. The schools in North Carolina benefit greatly from E-rate. Since its inception in 1998, the E- rate program has provided over $473 million in funding for infrastructure and connectivity to the schools and libraries in the state 1. However, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) continue to modify and update policies and procedures, it is necessary to continuously monitor these changes and adjust the way our LEAs, Charter Schools, and NCDPI file for E-rate reimbursement. Alignment to Other Plans and Initiatives: Strategic Priority 1: A Statewide Shared Services Model ACRE Update the analysis of the technology infrastructure needed to support a 21st century curriculum and assessment system and to move additional testing to appropriate technology formats. This analysis will allow the transition from a paper-based assessment system to one that takes greater advantage of technology. State Board of Education Goals Leverage resources and tools to develop globally competitive lifelong learners. 1 E-rate funding totals calculated using the USAC Schools and Libraries Division, Funding Request Data Retrieval Tool (Open Data Search). 8

10 Foster and sustain state, national and international partnerships for innovative change. Drive infrastructure standards and improvement which promote equitable delivery of 21st century systems necessary for maximizing student achievement. Provide systems which support achievement standards while supporting accountability, goals and appropriate sanctions. Compel financial planning and budgeting which focus on priorities identified as necessary for student achievement in 21st century classrooms. Career and College Ready, Set, Go! Put more technology into the hands of students and teachers to increase individualized learning options Develop a P-20 longitudinal data system in order to provide comprehensive data and information on all students. Race to the Top Local and State Scopes of Work Objective (A)(2) 1.1: Incorporate the state infrastructure blueprint into technology plans. Objective (A)(2) 2.1: Implement the infrastructure blueprint. Objective (A)(2) 3.1: Provide and support student, teacher, administrator access to a Learner Management System, Learning Object Repository, and web collaboration tools at each school. Objective D(5) 1.1: Provide access to effective, high-quality, job-embedded, data-informed professional development and support for educators with objectives aligned to the Race to the Top Initiatives. National Education Technology Plan 2010 All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and out of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society. Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement. Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that can empower and inspire them to provide more effective teaching for all learners. All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it. Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff. 9

11 Strategic Priority 2: Universal Access to Personal Teaching and Learning Devices Essential Questions What is universal access to personal teaching and learning devices? Why do teachers and students need access to personal teaching and learning devices? How do LEAs and Charter Schools provide ample access to individual teaching and learning devices? What models can be used for implementing universal access to personal teaching and learning devices to ensure sound 21st century educations for the students of North Carolina? Current Status and Moving Forward Universal access to personal teaching and learning devices refers to a computing device assigned to all members of the school, including administrators, teachers, and students. While this has most often been referred to as "a laptop for every child" or a one-to-one laptop implementation, today's mobile technologies mean that a laptop is only one option as a personal learning device. LEAs like Mooresville Graded School District and Lee County Schools have implemented one-to-one initiatives with laptops assigned to their administrators, teachers and students. Other sites like North Rowan High School (Rowan-Salisbury School System) and Grey Culbreth Middle School (Chapel Hill/Carrboro School System) have launched very successful web-enabled portable media player device initiatives. Also notable, through Project K-NECT at Dixon High School (Onslow County School System), Southwest High School (Onslow County School System), Southern School of Engineering (Durham Public Schools), Carver High School (Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools) and Lakewood and Midway High Schools (Sampson County Schools) have launched initiatives to utilize mobile phones in high school mathematics classrooms. All of these device provide access to the Internet along with multiple means of communication and the ability to run a variety of applications for specific purposes. North Carolina currently has over 50 LEAs implementing initiatives to provide universal access to personal teaching and learning devices. Funding for these initiatives has come from local sources, state sources (primarily funds appropriated by the NC General Assembly for pilots in eight Early College high schools and ten traditional high schools), federal sources (primarily IMPACT funds provided through TITLE IID and ARRA) and in-kind, foundation, and additional funds provided by SAS and the Golden Leaf Foundation. Many of these initiatives provide both teachers and students access to these devices both at school and at home, however, some schools choose to only allow access to students while at school. While a digital learning device can be a powerful learning tool when not connected to the school or home network, the true potential is realized when network/internet connectivity is consistently available. While once considered extravagant, access to personal learning devices is commonplace in many developing countries, including Uruguay, Peru, Argentina, Haiti, and Mexico, as well as much of Australia. In the United States, Maine leads the nation with statewide one-to-one rollouts through 10

12 the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Much research has been commissioned and completed on the outcomes and effectiveness of one to-one implementations of personal teaching and learning devices. Results show that: Students tend to be more engaged in schools that have implemented one-to-one initiatives (Bebell & Kay). In schools that have implemented one-to-one programs, teacher and student use of technology increases dramatically across the curriculum (Bebell & Kay). Students become better researchers, have access to expanded classroom, and benefit from 'systemic and ubiquitous use of technology, as opposed to idiosyncratic and sporadic use of technology (Bebell & O'Dwyer). Students become better collaborators (Bebell & Kay). Teaching fundamentally shifts, in particular, teaching strategies, curriculum delivery, and classroom management (Bebell & Kay). Student achievement is positively affected, especially in reading and math (Shapely et al). Technology immersion requires a comprehensive approach that transforms the school culture, changes the nature of teaching and learning, and expands the education boundaries of the schools and classrooms. (Shapely et al). Professional development is the keystone to successful implementation (Drayton et al). Clearly, one-to-one personal teaching and learning device implementations can greatly foster the 21st century skills necessary for future-ready learners. Another driving force that supports the critical need for one-to-one personal teaching and learning device implementations in North Carolina is the increased prevalence of online assessments. North Carolina is a governing member of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). In September 2010, the SBAC was awarded a $160 million RttT grant to develop student assessments aligned with the Common Core academic standards. The consortia members are able to work together to develop a common, next-generation assessment system that would simply not be economically feasible to build individually, because the SBAC is a consortium of 31 states (as of December, 2010). These state-of-the art adaptive assessments will be built upon "open source" technology, and will be delivered entirely online. The core components of these summative assessments: Are mandatory comprehensive accountability measures that include computer adaptive assessments and performance tasks and will be administered in the last 12 weeks of the school year in grades 3 8 and high school for English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics; Are designed to provide valid, reliable, and fair measures of students progress toward and attainment of the knowledge and skills required to be college and career ready; Will capitalize on the strengths of computer adaptive testing, i.e., efficient and precise measurement across the full range of achievement and quick turnaround of results; Will produce composite content area scores, based on the computer-adaptive items and performance tasks; Offer varied item types on assessments, including selected-response, constructed response, and technology-enhanced responses. 11

13 As part of the RttT state scope of work, the NCDPI is planning and implementing an Instructional Improvement System (IIS). This IIS will "house" other state End of Course (EOC) and End of Grade (EOG) assessments, as well as formative and benchmark assessments. It will also be a clearinghouse for data used to make decisions in the state's schools and classrooms. Further, it will provide tools for administrators, teachers, and learners to be successful in the 21st century schools and classrooms of North Carolina. In North Carolina, EOC assessments will be 100% online beginning in the academic year, with EOG assessments following. As assessment becomes technology-enabled and moves to online administration, so must teaching and learning activities. It is nonsensical to expect a student to do well on online assessments at the end of a course or grading period if that student has not had ongoing technology-integrated, online learning activities throughout the course of study. Simply stated, students should learn in the way they are assessed, and assessed in the way they have learned. Technology must be an integral element of teaching and learning from start to finish. As the NCDPI and state move forward with the Accountability and Curriculum Reform Effort (ACRE), it is evident that change must take place in the classrooms across the state and that much of this change can only be accomplished through technology-enabled instruction. This statewide digital reform effort is an integral component of ACRE. As a statewide model for change, this effort, mirrored by the findings of the Blue Ribbon Panel (North Carolina, 2008) will provide equitable and ubiquitous access to personal teaching and learning devices affords our schools the following opportunities to: Better facilitate delivery of critical knowledge and skills that students "must have" as a 21st century learner Provide for more real-world applications of what students learn Provide a new model for measuring school success that gives parents and educators more relevant information about how well schools are preparing students for college, work and adulthood. Significantly upgrade infrastructure in preparation for tracking student growth over time, providing seamless instantaneous prescriptive feedback, and supporting more on-line testing. As the state considers statewide adoption of universal access to personal teaching and learning devices, models for funding and implementation must be carefully researched. The state of Maine has led the United States with a statewide one-to-one implementation. Support and funding for this initiative is provided from the state. However, several of North Carolina's full-scale one-to-one implementations including Mooresville Graded School District, Greene County Schools and Lee County Schools have primarily used existing funding and resources to implement their initiatives. Successful implementation begins with establishing a fair and equitable funding route. However, initial funding is the tip of the iceberg. As statewide implementation plans are drafted, they must provide for sustainability, (including professional development, support, and hardware refresh), as well as important details like home and community connectivity, internet safety, ethical use and insurance and liabilities. As this funding and implementation route is being determined, many LEAs and Charter Schools are proceeding with their own innovative funding sources. The most prevalent source of funding in the 12

14 near future is afforded to LEAs and many Charter Schools through Race to the Top. In current local scopes of work, almost $50 million in RttT funds are earmarked for infrastructure upgrades and wireless implementations, while over $25 million is targeted for one-to-one implementations. Research on successful one-to-one implementations, as referenced earlier, shows that success relies heavily on the school or LEA providing "a comprehensive approach that transforms the school culture, changes the nature of teaching and learning, and expands the education boundaries of the schools and classrooms. (Bebell & O'Dwyer) Moreover, as noted in the National Education Technology Plan, The key to this change is ongoing, sustainable professional development that embodies design principles from the learning sciences--including cognitive science, neuroscience, education, and social sciences. While several implementation and professional development models for one-to-one implementations exist, through the evaluation of North Carolina's own implementations, the North Carolina Learning Technology Initiative (NCLTI) has developed a Framework for Implementation. This NCLTI Framework includes structures and tools to facilitate planning, communicating, implementing, providing professional development, and evaluating school- and LEA-based one-toone implementations. Funded through the state pilots, SAS, the Golden Leaf Foundation, and IMPACT, this model is currently "housed" at the NCSU Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. However, as more schools and LEAs begin moving toward full-scale one-to-one implementations, the NCLTI Framework and the processes, personnel, and resources required to support it can be deployed regionally through the NCDPI Statewide System of Support and Roundtable structure. 13

15 Strategic Goals: Priority 2 Universal Access to Personal Teaching and Learning Devices 2.1 Provide a regional support model for LEAs and schools as they begin one-toone personal teaching and learning device implementations. The NCLTI Framework is a comprehensive model for one-to-one planning and implementation that is based upon research and best practices from schools and LEAs in North Carolina. While the framework is currently housed at the NCSU Friday Institute, to be effective on a large scale, it must be pushed out as a regional model. The support, coaching, professional development, and implementation activities that have been primarily provided by the professional development staff at the NCSU Friday Institute should be transitioned to the NCDPI, with agency divisions of Instructional Technology, Educator Recruitment & Development, and District & School Transformation providing key framework roles and support. 2.2 Leverage existing one-to-one LEA and school implementations to provide best practices and pilot opportunities. While research on national and international one-to-one implementations abound, North Carolina has over 100 public schools spread across 40 LEAs that are currently implementing some form of one-to-one initiative. The success and failures of these initiatives will teach us as we move forward with a statewide implementation. While many of these schools are "traditional" one-to-one sites, several are using alternative teacher and student learning devices. These schools and LEAs provide a fertile piloting ground as new instances of digital resources, online assessments, and platforms are tested and implemented. 2.3 Develop a sustainable funding formula and implementation plan for personal teacher and learner devices to assure equity of access for all North Carolina schools. Several state and national factors are driving technology-enabled instruction and assessments. As our state s LEAs and Charter Schools strive to graduate futureready students, throughout every region of the state, ubiquitous access to personal teaching and learning devices is critical. North Carolina, a long-time leader in education and educational technology, must develop equitable funding and implementation plans to ensure all students use technology to access resources and acquire and demonstrate the knowledge and skills they will need as life-long learners. 14

16 Alignment to Other Plans and Initiatives: Strategic Priority 2: Universal Access to Personal Teaching and Learning Devices ACRE Create a comprehensive, customized professional development system to provide teachers and administrators with the skills and understandings needed to use data to inform instructional practice and make formative assessments a daily practice in the classroom. Update the analysis of the technology infrastructure needed to support a 21st century curriculum and assessment system and to move additional testing to appropriate technology formats. This analysis will allow the transition from a paper-based assessment system to one that takes greater advantage of technology. State Board of Education Goals Enable gathering of timely and relevant prescriptive feedback for improved teaching and learning. Provide environment conducive for the development of 21st century skills set as a rigorous and relevant core curriculum is delivered in a 21st century classroom. Leverage resources and tools to develop globally competitive lifelong learners. Empower educators with meaningful data while driving appropriate and differentiated instruction. Furnish educators the means to promote and sustain skills and professional standards needed for 21st century delivery of instruction. Support teachers as they apply 21st century teaching and learning research which promotes high student achievement and engagement. Facilitate comprehensive recognition and use of appropriate and rigorous policies which encourage and nurture student safety, character, and personal responsibility in a global community. Contribute to a diverse culture of equity and flexibility which promotes student's success as lifelong learners. Foster and sustain state, national and international partnerships for innovative change. Compelling environment for shared vision and leadership as the need for change is disseminated. Support leaders as they model and promote equitable and effective use of emerging and innovative resources and tools for meaningful teaching and learning. Drive infrastructure standards and improvement which promote equitable delivery of 21st century systems necessary for maximizing student achievement. Provide systems which support achievement standards while supporting accountability, goals and appropriate sanctions. Compel financial planning and budgeting which focus on priorities identified as necessary for student achievement in 21st century classrooms. Career and College Ready, Set, Go! Implement Diagnostic Assessments using hand held technology that allow teachers to check where each child is with reading, writing and math basics throughout the year so they have a solid foundation for continued learning. Develop more international schools and learning partnerships with other countries for global awarenessespecially with second languages - Students will need to compete, communicate, and collaborate globally. Increase virtual learning opportunities so every child no matter where they live can reach his or her potential. Put more technology into the hands of students and teachers to increase individualized learning options. Increase the use of technology for providing professional development opportunities for teachers. Race to the Top Local and State Scopes of Work Objective (A)(2) 1.1: Incorporate the state infrastructure blueprint into technology plans. Objective (A)(2) 2.1: Implement the infrastructure blueprint. Objective (A)(2) 3.1: Provide and support student, teacher, administrator access to Learner Management System, Learning Object Repository, and web collaboration tools. Objective (C)(3) 1.2: Utilize LEA/Charter and school technology funds to enhance school and LEA/Charter technology infrastructure to facilitate online real-time assessments at each school. Objective D(5) 1.1: Provide access to effective, high-quality, job-embedded, data-informed professional development and support for educators with objectives aligned to the Race to the Top Initiatives. National Education Technology Plan

17 All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and out of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society. Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement. Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that can empower and inspire them to provide more effective teaching for all learners. All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it. Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff. 16

18 Strategic Priority 3: Statewide Access to Digital Teaching and Learning Resources, Including Digital Textbooks Essential Questions What are digital teaching and learning resources? What are digital textbooks? Why do teachers and students need access to digital teaching and learning devices? What are the benefits of digital textbooks? What are open educational resources and how can they be used? How can access to these resources be increased in our schools and LEAs? Current Status and Moving Forward Providing a digital teaching or learning device is only the beginning of the educational journey. While productivity suites, like Microsoft Office, Apple iwork, or open source OpenOffice, are key tools to use for preparing reports, creating presentations, or developing spreadsheets, providing these tools alone limits the power and potential of these devices. The true power of technology in the hands of North Carolina's teachers and learners is unlocked by the adequate access and proper use of digital resources. The digital resources of years past relied upon CD-ROMs or applications and data loaded locally on internal hard drives. Today's digital teaching and learning resources are delivered by the Internet, either via the web or as an educational application on portable media devices, interactive tablets, and smart phones. Digital resources are provided in a variety of online formats: encyclopedias, catalogs of multimedia assets, periodicals, collaborative tools, etc. North Carolina's digital online teaching and learning resource repository, NC WiseOwl, provides free online resources for the public and charter schools in North Carolina. The NC WiseOwl program ensures that all students have access to quality research tools, periodicals, and curriculum support materials regardless of the economic status of their local school districts. All of the reference sources on WiseOwl are available for student and parent use at home, as well as at school. Because the WiseOwl offerings are procured and managed at the state level for the benefit of LEAs and schools, economy of scale drives the price models lower, and saves both the state and LEAs critical funds. In the critical budget situation our nation, state, LEAs and schools are currently enduring, arguments might be made that digital teaching and learning resources are not necessary. However, in the report generated from Project Tomorrow s Speak Up: 2009 survey, year after year, students in the United States indicate "that the lack of sophisticated use of emerging technology tools in school is, in fact, holding back their education and in many ways disengages them from learning." Students responding to this survey report that the use of high-quality, course-aligned resources not only makes their learning experiences more engaging, but more productive. In other words, the proper use of digital resources can maximize valuable instructional time. As mentioned earlier, today's student body is significantly different than that of even one-half generation removed. All students in the schools of North Carolina were born since the beginning of the information age; 17

19 none of the students remember a time that the Internet wasn't prevalent. Most of our students have never heard music played through a tape cassette player; many haven't ever bought or listened to music on a CD. For this generation, music and movies are delivered to their MP3 player, their computer, or their game console through 100% online providers like NetFlix or Apple itunes Store. This generation of students, argues Don Tapscott in grownup digital, actually have brains wired in a way that is completely different from anyone born prior to Using traditional resources and models of instruction is increasingly more difficult and inherently less relevant for the learners in North Carolina's schools. It is critical that our schools shift from traditional print and "technologydisabled" resources to digital and technology-enabled teaching and learning resources. Traditional books and textbooks are examples of resources that can be delivered via digital mediums. Benefits of this model include access to current information, the ability to easily customize the curriculum, and the ability to offer quality materials at a much lower cost. For example, consider the publishing cycle of a textbook is typically three years. While three years may seem like a short amount of time, imagine a World History textbook that is three years old by the time it reaches the hands of our students in North Carolina. In today's classroom, this now dated textbook would not include the election of the first minority president in the United States, the collapse and crumble of the world economy, the civil unrest leading to new forms of government in Middle Eastern nations, or the untold devastation of generations due to natural disasters in Haiti, New Zealand, and Japan. Digital resources, delivered over the Internet, can be updated continuously, and information being used by North Carolina's learners can include the most recent, up-to-date content. Similarly, the traditional textbook model is fixed with little or no room for differentiation. As students excel and need more challenging content, using a traditional textbook affords little flexibility. Similarly, for struggling readers, a textbook might present challenges in decoding and comprehension. Differentiation to meet the needs of individual learners using a traditional textbook, is problematic. Conversely, appropriately selected and deployed digital resources make differentiation a reality. Digital resources can be made modular so that level-specific content can be used in one publication. Another benefit of the modular approach to online, digital resources is the ease with which they can be used in cross-curricular instructional approaches. Today, many high school teachers might struggle with teaching cross-curricular units simply because they (and their students) may not have adequate access to the textbooks utilized in other classes and subjects. When textbooks are moved online, this limitation is lifted. Simply stated, digital textbooks and resources allow both teachers and learners to "re-mix" content in ways that provide differentiation for all students and promote a cross-curricular approach to instruction and learning. Finally, digital resources of the past have not been within the financial reach of K12 institutions. However, this is no longer the case. One of the driving forces behind making digital textbooks affordable is the Open Education Resources movement. A technology-enabled initiative, the OER movement is an effort to create and share teaching and learning content that is free and open on a global level. Online resources, like OERs, provide a real service for traditional textbook alternatives, and while it is free, this content still needs to be aligned with the Common Core and North Carolina's Essential Standards to be useful as instructional tools. One such aligned resource is the LEARN NC digital history textbook model, which is free for use in North Carolina classrooms. This initial offering from LEARN NC utilizes "primary sources, multimedia, readings, and lesson plans to tell the many stories of North Carolina's past". The model 18

20 is not a static textbook converted to text; as the description implies, the LEARN NC North Carolina history digital textbook includes interactivity in the form of sound clips, video samples, online maps, and historical news articles. The framework on which this content is delivered can now be used for other subjects and grade levels. It can include resources to which our schools have access at the state level (like WiseOwl), as well as OER content. Because this model is developed and managed in North Carolina, it is possible to align offerings to state Essential Standards and Common Core, unlike traditional textbook adoptions, which are often aligned to the standards of other states. Another factor that makes digital content both more affordable and accessible is the advent of lessexpensive, very-capable technologies. As described in strategic priority 2, universal access to a personal learning device is critical. Luckily, the devices available today are more affordable to schools and LEAs than ever. The advent and popularity of touch-enabled internet-ready devices like MP3 players and tablets has made hand-held access truly affordable. Due to advances in the creation of miniaturized and more affordable internal technology, small (yet full-featured) inexpensive laptops, often referred to as netbooks, have become authentic options in our schools. A study of the state funding in recent years indicates that on average, $ was spent on textbooks for each high school student between 2005 and An examination of current consumer pricing for teaching and learning devices finds low-end personal digital learning devices are available for $300 per student; mid-range personal digital learning devices can be procured for around $500 per student. These prices can be driven down by large purchasing efforts at the state level that leverage economy of scale. Another option for driving down the cost of digital resources is using the NC Education Cloud model to leverage collaborative procurement. For example: in 2009, according to Discovery Education, over 60% of the state's schools subscribed to Discovery's curricular resources like Discovery Education streaming Plus and Discovery Education Science Curriculum. In aggregate, the amount spent to provide these services in 60% of our schools would certainly pay for a statewide license for Discovery Education streaming, with options to increase the level of resources given to LEAs and school. Discovery Education streaming is only one option; it is reasonable to presume that any digital resource can be more affordably procured when bargaining strength is aggregated at the state level. As the NC Education Cloud is deployed, it will include a platform to enhance access to digital resources and content, commonly referred to as a Learning Object Repository (LOR) which is simply an online repository for learning objects or "a collection of content items, practice items, and assessment items that are combined based on a single learning objective". The structure of the LOR allows objects to be tagged and catalogued by users, and easily shared across groups of users. For example, a teacher in Hyde County could create a science lesson on shoreline habitats which includes videos she has taken using her Smart Phone, digital photographs students have taken and submitted, online articles found on WiseOwl, and formative assessments residing in the NC Instructional Improvement System. Once these items are tagged by this teacher, she can share them statewide using the LOR. When a science teacher in Alleghany County is teaching his unit on coastal biomes, a quick search of the NC LOR allows him to reuse this content. The flexibility and modularity of the digital content allows others to teach in the same manner as the teacher in Hyde County who created this content. 19