DTTP

= Introduction: = The Carroll County Public school system has achieved great levels of success in educating its students in the last decade. The school system has scored above state and national averages in most state and federal assessment tests and as a result Carroll County has set itself apart from many other counties in Maryland (MDrepotoc rtcard.org). As of 2011, nearly 90% of all high school students were taking and passing all the required HSAs in the core curricular areas, which is clearly a tremendous accomplishment (MDreportcard.org). Even though HSAs are being phased out in lieu of new Common Core assessments, in whatever form they may take, if Carroll County is serious about continuing to improve on these forms of assessments, then it must begin to implement a new strategy for training and equipping skilled educators with the kinds of technologies that they will need to prepare the current generation of students for success in this post industrial information age. Carroll County has made great investments in educational technologies over the past few years, but there has not been a coherently articulated plan to the community of teachers, staff, parents, or students as to how these expenditures and technologies are going to be integrated into the classroom.

While Carroll County has made significant investments in technology over the last two decades, the equitable distribution of this equipment throughout the county is lacking. There are schools like Manchester Valley High School that has the most up to date computer technology, with wireless capabilities, and there are schools like Mount Airy Middle which is being rebuilt due to its antiquated infrastructure that simply could not handle the retrofitting necessary to manage a modern information network. Because of these inequities in informational technology across the board, and a lack of publically available information on which school has what technology, it is a necessity that the county begin surveying and collecting this data in order to plan what further investments will be needed.
 * Overview of Technology in the County: **

=** Needs Assessment: **= In the economic reality of 2012, with budget shortfalls reaching into the millions of dollars, it is difficult to make arguments for the Carroll County school system to continue to invest more money on technology. Purchasing more computers and more education technology is not what Carroll County needs to be preoccupied with, instead the county needs to invest in getting teachers to use what technology they have more efficiently and effectively in the classroom. While it would be wonderful to have the financial ability to put a ceiling mounted LCD projector and a Promethean smart board in every classroom, it is not a possibility right now for the county. Carroll County needs to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each school and determine how these schools can optimize the technologies that they already have. The county is not lacking in computers, it is simply lacking in the creativity and the determination to get the most out of the technology already in the classroom. For this reason, the best course of action that Carroll County Public Schools can take is to invest in professional development to inform educators and help them become more familiar with the technology that the county has purchased over the last decade. There are many strategies available to take advantage of free or low cost internet programs using technology currently available in the classroom. Web 2.0 programs like wikis and blogs, have been shown to, “ attract students to school work, meet individual learning needs, develop students’ critical thinking skills, provide an alternative learning environment, expand learning outside schools, and prepare students for lifelong learning.”(Sue Chen 2011). These programs are mostly free and could benefit any teacher at any level, but these educators need to be made aware and trained in the best practices of such technologies. The following District Technology Training Plan was written in order to develop the necessary base of technology knowledge that educators need to get the most out of the technologies currently available.

=** Goals for Tech Training: **=
 * 1) Media specialists and technology leaders within Carroll County will be able to acquire and present technology skills to faculty members in their schools.
 * 2) Carroll County educators and administrators will be able to understand the use and effective application of educational technology hardware and software in their classrooms.
 * 3) Carroll County educators and administrators will be able to improve communication with stakeholders through the use of the Google products.
 * 4) Carroll County educators will be able to successfully create and maintain class websites.

=** District Technology Training Plan Session Dates: **= Podcasting and Google Docs || Tech Services Coordinators || Media Specialists, Team Leaders, Tech Supervisors in the schools || Sky Drive and Thinkport || Tech Services Coordinators || Media Specialists, Team Leaders, Tech Supervisors in the schools || * See Appendix 2 for budget.
 * Date-based on approved teacher PD for the [|2012-13] school year || Technology || Facilitators || Trainees ||
 * 8/20 || Session 1: Promethean Boards and Promethean Planet software || Promethean Reps || Media Specialists, Team Leaders, Tech Supervisors in the schools ||
 * 8/21 || Session 2: Blogs/Wikis and other Web 2.0 technologies-Glogster, Voki, etc. || Tech Services Coordinators || Media Specialists, Team Leaders, Tech Supervisors in the schools ||
 * 8/22 || Session 3:
 * 8/23 || Session 4:
 * 8/24 || Session 5 || Media Specialists, Team Leaders and Tech Supervisors || Elementary, middle, and high schools faculty ||
 * 10/8 || Session 6 || Media Specialists, Team Leaders and Tech Supervisors || Elementary, middle, and high schools faculty ||
 * 10/19 || Session 7 || Media Specialists, Team Leaders and Tech Supervisors || Elementary, middle, and high schools faculty ||
 * 2/8 || Session 8 || Media Specialists, Team Leaders and Tech Supervisors || Elementary, middle, and high schools faculty ||

=** Explanation of Program: **= To begin with, Carroll County will need to get a baseline measurement of what skills and technology competencies its educators have in order to determine where it can best use its funds for PD. One such survey that Carroll County could use is through [|Insight] which has a simple user interface and aggregates the data for the user. With this knowledge, Carroll County will be able to get an understanding of what kinds of technological strengths and weaknesses its educators possess. The program outlined above assumes that the majority of Carroll County’s teachers are proficient in basic Microsoft suite technologies and therefore do not need to receive training in this area. From surveying the South Carroll High School staff, and using that as the basis for a benchmark for the rest of the county, it is clear that educators are not nearly as proficient with current web and interactive technologies and are in need of extensive professional development (see Appendix for example survey). Only a handful of the 80 educators in the building currently have a class website and fewer still have made any kind of use of wikis, blogs, podcasts, etc. in their classrooms. When asked why they are not making use of these technologies, they state the difficulty of getting past tech services firewalls, not having enough access to computers, and-most importantly- not having enough training or trained people to turn to for advice on the subject. Using this information, I have created a tech training program that will be the most cost effective for the county and beneficial for the teachers and their students.

With the goal of training an entire county in 2 weeks, the need for knowledgeable technology users is imperative. This in mind, the media specialists and tech specialists for the county will be the first to be contacted about the professional development. Unfortunately, there simply are not enough of these individuals to sufficiently staff a major professional development effort. To deal with this shortfall, Carroll County must find those teachers who have become early adopters of technology in their classrooms. The kind of practical knowledge that these teachers offer on how to use a given technology in the classroom proves to be invaluable in a professional development situation. As Doherty (2011) discusses in his article, professional development needs to be centered on “meaningful learning activities” that can create a “contextual realism” that is “intimately connected with teaching practices.” Educators need to see how others have used these technologies, and they need to know what to expect in terms of problems that could develop while using the product. By having media specialists find such early adapters in the faculty within their buildings, and bring them on board with the DTTP the county would have enough staff to successfully carry out such a major training process.
 * DTTP Step 1: Identify Early Adopters the Previous Spring **

The first week back from summer vacation is earmarked for professional development for all educators throughout Carroll County. During this time, media specialists, team leaders, and those technology specialists that were identified in Step 1 will report to a week’s worth of training sessions on all of the hardware and software that will be presented to educators in professional development sessions throughout the year. Team leaders from the content areas of all the schools will also need to be present on these days in order to be yet another level of expertise in a given technology to assist teachers in their departments who are trying to use these technologies. It will be assumed that the media and tech specialists will be somewhat skilled in the programs and hardware already, but they will still need to be trained in effective methods of teaching these topics to others. Many of the educators that were surveyed in South Carroll mentioned how there have been many wasted technology based professional development opportunities because the individual leading it was simply not prepared to present the information in an effective way to teachers. In these sessions, the trainees will be instructed to allow teachers a significant amount of time to actually work with the program to create a finished project by the end of the session. In this way, teachers will be able to gain first hand experience and construct their own knowledge of how the program works, instead of just sitting back and listening to a power point on the technology. Over the course of four days, media specialists, team leaders, and the tech specialists in the building will receive extensive training on the use of Promethean boards, Promethean Planet, Web 2.0 software, podcasting, Google Docs, Thinkport, and Carroll County’s new Sky Drive. These sessions will be held in three different locations with each location catering towards a different level of education-elementary, middle, high. The sessions dealing with Promethean software and hardware will require the use of several Promethean employees to train CCPS staff in the technology. Due to a pre-existing contract between Promethean and CCPS these trainers will not cost the county any additional fees. Aside from these Promethean reps, the rest of the program can be run by HR and Tech Services as they have in the past, at no extra cost to the county. The only cost that the county will accrue will be the $1000 stipend to all CCPS staff that are trained in Promethean technology and then lead PD. This is a policy of Carroll County schools to provide teachers with an incentive to become leaders of professional development. Depending on what the county can afford, we could have anywhere from 9 to 15 staff receive the training and provide professional development for the county.
 * DTTP Step 2: Educate the Trainers 8/20-23 **

Training Sessions 5-8 will be days in which teachers from every level of education will report to centralized locations in order to learn about the various kinds of technologies being presented by media and tech specialists. These days will be broken into an AM and a PM period, each consisting of a 3 hour time slot. Each AM period will include 15 to 20 minutes for getting schedules handed out and choosing courses to attend, and each PM period will have 15 minutes for evaluation of the day’s topics (see Appendix 5 for a sample schedule). Since there are too many programs to get through in one day of PD, teachers will be expected to choose the topics that are of the most interest and attend those sessions during the day. Over the course of the four days of training it will be expected that every teacher will have attended as many different training sessions as they can. Also, as the training sessions progress, the county will have higher level offerings for teachers who want to have more experiences with technologies that they are interested in using. To begin with, we will simply introduce teachers to the basics of the programs as to not be overwhelming. Teachers will be asked to practice the skills that they have learned so that the next time they come to PD they will be able to develop their abilities further. The last two days of training will also have time set aside for teachers to work with their departments in order to create content specific applications for the technologies they have learned. The plan will allot for this kind of department training because many of the teachers surveyed at South Carroll suggested that they would like to have time to work with their departments to figure out how best to use a technology. There is not time in a presentation to go over how every possible subject could make the most of a technology, therefore, it is important that teachers be given the chance to work with the technology with their colleagues to see if the product is relevant to the needs of their specific class. To keep teachers interested in this extended PD, it is imperative that they have the ability to choose what topics they find worth while. In the same way that students in a high school can be less involved in classes that they have to take versus those classes that they get to take voluntarily, educators in PD situations need to feel like they are choosing for themselves and not being told by supervisors what they must do. To facilitate this, there will be numerous offerings in the AM and PM sessions for the technologies that the county is presenting. To teach these educators about information technologies, the presenters will adopt a constructivist approach that has been repeatedly demonstrated to be affective in “improve(ing) student learning” on a given topic (Polly 2011). While there will be a period of time towards the beginning of the period to introduce the given technology through the use of power point or some other presentation software, the majority of the time will be budgeted in such a way as to allow teachers to create their own knowledge of the technology. One major problem that prevents teachers from applying what they have learned in a given PD lesson is that they were not given any time to practice it themselves. Technology can be a frightening thing, especially when an entire lesson is riding on it. If a teacher feels comfortable with the technology it is most likely because they have had time to practice it before bringing it into the classroom. These sessions will serve to facilitate practice using the technology in an environment where any questions or problems can be quickly resolved by the tech specialists leading the activity or by other teachers in the session. Other more specific strategies that will be used to further advance understanding of the technologies are as follows:
 * DTTP Step 3: Educating the Educators 8/24, 10/8 and 19, 2/8 **


 * Promethean Board and Planet ** : Allow teachers to play a Trivial Pursuit/Jeopardy game with the Active Vote products in order to break up some of the monotony of the game, have some fun, and see how the product could really get students interested in using the product. Teachers would also be broken into groups to search through the extensive categories of materials provided by Promethean Planet to populate a list of worthwhile products for the teachers present in the session.
 * Blogs ** : Teachers will create their own blog on Blogger.com. Teachers will write about things that are interesting to them and learn how to post comments, create RSS feeds, and brainstorm ways of using this technology in the classroom.
 * Wikis ** : Teachers who already have Wikis for their classes will present what their classes have been able to achieve with the use of this technology. Again, each teacher in the session will be put into a group, and actually create a wiki about a given topic to be presented to the group present in the session.
 * Podcasts ** : Teachers will learn the ways to use Audacity to create podcasts in their classrooms. Teachers who have used podcasts previously will present some of the better examples of what they have received from their students as well as providing a list of helpful hints for how to be successful with the project.
 * Thinkport ** : Carroll county has a license to use Thinkport as its host for teacher websites, yet the majority of teachers in the county still don’t have a website for their class. Teachers will be placed into groups to become experts in the various different services that are provided by Thinkport in order to present how they could use these services in their classrooms.
 * Google Docs ** : Teachers will be taught how to upload and create documents through Google as well as how to embed these documents into various different types of online sites.
 * Sky Drive ** : Teachers will be shown how to use the product using screen casts so that it will be a self paced process that they can then practice with by saving other work that they have created over the course of the training session. The end goal of the session will be to have the teachers confident in their abilities to teach the Sky Drive system to their students.

=** DTTP Step 4: Evaluation of Process 8/24, 10/8 and 19, 2/8 **= At the end of every training session, teachers will have 10-15 minutes to complete an online survey about their training for the day. The training staff will use this information to make any adjustments as necessary before the next training session. The Tech Resources staff will compile the data based on where the session was held to know what level the individual taught and how effective the activities were for that level of educator. There will be several close and open ended questions that the staff will sort through for commonalities. If the majority of teachers are agreeing with the statements provided, then we know that the facilitator has done their job well. If we receive more than 20% negative feedback about the program, then we will need to reevaluate the way we have approached that lesson and make changes to ensure the success of the next PD. When all of the training sessions have been completed there will be a final survey sent to all educators involved in order to evaluate the experience as a whole and to determine which topics were the most beneficial based on how many have begun incorporating the technology into their classrooms. The program itself will be considered a success if as a result of the training sessions 80% of the respondents acknowledge that they have used at least one of the technologies on a regular basis in their classroom. There will always be those teachers who will have no desire to change what they have been doing for 20+ years, and there will be some who are beginning teaching who have everything they can handle just creating a lesson plan every night; therefore 100% acceptance of these technologies will never happen. If there are 80% responding in the affirmative then one can hope that they will continue to develop and use more forms of technology over the succeeding years. By creating this mass distribution of technology we will hopefully have changed the way that Carroll County teachers have used the technology that is available to them in the most effective ways possible.

=** Lesson Plan for a Day- Session 5: **= Prerequisite Knowledge: Know how to search the internet, being proficient with word processing Content: This lesson will be for an introduction to Promethean smart boards and the content available on Promethean Planet. The Promethean board is an interactive white board that allows teachers and students to interact with the information being discussed in the class. Promethean Planet is an online database of educational materials that have been created by other teachers for use in their classrooms. These lesson ideas are free to download and use in class due to Carroll County’s contract with Promethean. Objectives: Teachers will be able to How will the lesson be taught? This activity has an hour and a half time slot because it is such an expansive topic and therefore needs more time for practice. To begin with, the instructor will introduce the product’s features for those that have never used one. Then the teacher will engage the class in a game of Trivial Pursuit using the Active Vote peripherals to get the group engaged in working with the Promethean Board. The instructor will also walk around with an ActivSlate to allow students to interact with the board remotely, and in so doing show another of its capabilities. Once the basics have been discussed, the instructor will have the teachers present get together based on subject areas to brainstorm ideas that could be adapted to work well with the technology. The class will use the interactive board to present these ideas and discuss the pros and cons of each. With the last 30 minutes of class, the instructor will present the Promethean Planet website and have the teachers, again working with their content area, find several good and several poor resources that are available on the website. The groups will have to evaluate the resources and decide for themselves if the lessons are good or poor quality based on how well the lessons utilize the Promethean Board. Each group will present their criteria and one good or poor resource. Additional Materials: A screencast of the step by step process for making a flip book as well as a step by step process for downloading content from promethean planet Promethean Planet Trivial Pursuit Flip book Evaluation Strategies: Instructor will gauge the effectiveness of the lesson on a quiz handed out at the end of the lesson. Teachers will be presented with a resource from Promethean Planet and will need to evaluate its features to determine if is or isn’t a good resource. The responses will be discussed and the educators will be given immediate feedback to see if they were right.
 * Workshop Title: ** Promethean and Promethean Planet in the Classroom **Day # 1**
 * Subject’s of the Day’s Workshop: ** Elementary-High School teachers
 * 1) Evaluate effective uses for a Promethean Smartboard in their classrooms
 * 2) Summarize method of making Promethean flip books
 * 3) Research and find lesson activities that would be relevant for their classes

Objectives: Teachers will be able to How will this lesson be taught? This lesson will take place in a computer lab that will allow each teacher access to their own computer. Teachers will watch a power point presentation on the reasons for including blogs in their classrooms. Teachers will then brainstorm ways in which a blog could be beneficial in their classrooms. Finally teachers will follow the procedures recorded onto a screen cast for the steps of how to create a blog. Additional Materials: Power point slides printed off Screen cast for blog making Evaluation Strategies: The instructor will host a brief discussion at the end of the session to assess the knowledge that the teachers have gained from the lesson. During this discussion, the instructor will elicit responses regarding the effective uses of blogs in the classroom from the educators. If the educators are capable of answering these questions then they have achieved the necessary level of comprehension of the topic.
 * Workshop Title: ** Blogs **Day 1**
 * Subjects of the Lesson: ** Elementary-High School teachers
 * Prerequisite Knowledge: ** Word processing and internet usage
 * Content: ** This lesson will serve as an introductory course for teachers on the mechanics of creating and maintaining a class blog. Teachers will be exposed to several sites that host free educational blogs to see what features would be beneficial for their classes. Teachers will also be advised in how to create an account and post their first blog.
 * 1) evaluate characteristics of a good class blog
 * 2) summarize the process of making a blog
 * 3) create an initial post for their own class blog

Content: In this lesson block, teachers will be learning how to use Wikis in their classes for group assignments. Teachers will be shown videos on the use of wikis for student research projects as well as learn about some of the research that has gone into finding out the ways in which wikis benefit education. Teachers will also be given a chance to work collaboratively to set up a wiki account and to create a wiki for their group based on a topic upon which they have decided. Objectives: Teachers will be able to How will the lesson be taught? Teachers will receive background information on the incorporation of wikis in the classroom through a power point presentation given by the lesson’s proctor. Once the teachers have been given this information, they will be placed in groups to create a wiki of their own on wikispaces.com. The purpose of these wikis will be to create a shared database of ways in which wikis can be used in their classes. Teachers will log in, set up, and begin posting their ideas to the wiki in order to collaboratively come to a conclusion about the product. The teachers will be using a step by step screen shot guide to help them navigate the introductory parts of a wiki. The last segment of the lesson will involve the different groups sharing their top reasons for including wikis as one of their class activities. Additional Materials: Screen shot step by step guide for creating wikis Power point for wikis Evaluation Strategies: At the end of the session the tech specialist who has been presenting the material will evaluate the methods for using wikis that have been created by the faculty. If the educators have brainstormed ideas that are challenging, collaborative, and foster higher level thinking skills based on ISTE standards, then the class was a success. If these wiki ideas are lacking, then these tech specialists will create a new lesson plan for the next session to remediate those educators that seemed to struggle the most with the technology.
 * Workshop Title: ** Wikis **Day 1**
 * Subjects of the Lesson: ** Elementary-High School Teachers
 * Prerequisite Knowledge: ** Word processing, internet usage, collaborative and constructivist learning theories
 * 1) summarize the process for creating a wiki
 * 2) evaluate the use of wikis in a classroom setting
 * 3) create a method of incorporating a wiki into their specific content and age classroom

Content: Educators will be instructed on the suite of technology represented in Google Docs. Teachers will create a Gmail account if they have not already done so, and will practice creating, uploading, and editing the different forms of media that are available through the program. Teachers will be required to bring their school issued laptops to the class so that they will be able to upload some of their papers, power points, etc. that they have previously created. Teachers will be shown how to share all of these documents over various forms of social media. Teachers will specifically learn about the embedding feature of Google Docs in order to assist them in the creation of content for the blogs and wikis that they have previously created in the training session. Objectives: How will the lesson be taught? Instructors will lead large groups of teachers in media center labs so that the teachers present will be able to log on to the internet and keep pace with the instruction. The teachers in the room will be asked to create a word document that identifies 3 topics that they would like to understand and be capable of implementing by the end of the lesson. Presenters will then use laptops connected to LCD projectors to show teachers how to create a Gmail account and then how to access the Google Docs features of the program. Once teachers are in Google Docs, the instructors will show them how to upload the document that they have just created to Google Docs. Teachers will then be given an assignment to create a power point presentation using the program available through Google. This power point will be based on whatever content the teachers have recently covered in their classes. Teachers will then be shown how to save and edit these products, as well as how to share them. Lastly teachers will be required to embed the power point that they have just created into the wiki page that they created earlier in the day. The final component of the lesson will involve teachers being put into groups in order to create methods of incorporating such a product into their classrooms. There will be two parts to this final component: How can Google Docs assist student learning; and how can Google Docs make communication among faculty and staff easier in your school? Teachers will respond to these prompts by creating a power point through Google Docs and then sharing it on the web for their classmates to read and discuss. Additional Materials: Computer lab Google Doc’s “How to” document Exit survey Evaluation: At the end of the session, each teacher will fill out a brief questionnaire to determine how they will use this technology in their classes. Based on the responses to this survey, the PD staff will work with the tech leaders in each school to devise more ways of incorporating the use of Google docs into faculty meetings and communication among teachers in a building.
 * Workshop Title: Google Docs Day 1 **
 * Subjects of the Lesson: ** Elementary-High School Teachers
 * Prerequisite Knowledge: ** Educators will need to be familiar with email, word processing, power point creation, and internet usage.
 * 1) summarize the process for uploading, creating, and editing media using the program
 * 2) evaluate use of embeddable features for improving web content

Content: Teachers will be shown how to make a basic classroom website in this lesson. They will we working at a computer lab within the building and will follow the presentation by the tech services department on how to set a website up using Thinkport. For those teachers who have already created a Thinkport account, they will be allowed to update and manage their own accounts during this time. Objectives: Teachers will be able to: How will the lesson be taught? This lesson will be held in a computer lab so that all individuals attending can access the internet and work on creating an account. To begin with the tech services staff will have teachers discuss among themselves the reasons for having a class website and then share with the group. These points will then be corroborated by statistics given from research articles on the topic. After that the teachers will follow a step by step process being demonstrated by the tech services staff to set up the website. Teachers will then set up a home page, a daily discussion page for each class they teach, and a page full of helpful links that they would recommend their students using. Additional Materials: Copies of step by step directions for setting up a Thinkport account Evaluation: The tech services staff will circulate and make sure that all of the teachers are able to accomplish the given task in the time allotted. If all of the teachers are able to finish and have an understanding of how to edit their class website, then the lesson will be a success. If teachers are unable to follow the step by step directions and cannot finish the assignments, then the directions will need to be edited and sent back out to the staff to allow them to work on the websites on their own.
 * Workshop Title: Thinkport and You Day 1 **
 * Subjects of the Lesson: ** Elementary-High School Teachers
 * Prerequisite Knowledge: ** Word processing, internet usage
 * 1) create a Thinkport account
 * 2) evaluate research on the effects of having a classroom website

Content: Educators in this workshop will learn about CCPS’ new technology called the Sky Drive. It is similar to Microsoft and Apple’s //cloud// technology and will allow students in the CCPS system to save and access their work from any computer anywhere in the world. The teachers will learn about the benefits of such a system as well as the best use practices for the Sky Drive. Objectives: How will the lesson be taught? Educators will be brought into a classroom that is outfitted with WiFi and told to bring their laptops with them. Each educator will follow the directions of a tech services staff member to create and start saving items to their own Sky drive account. Since all students will be using this technology within the year it will be necessary for all teachers to be familiar with it and be able to troubleshoot it if necessary. The tech services instructor will run through possible issues that students might have with the product and will show the educators how to deal with any such issues. Additional Materials: None Evaluation: Teachers will be called at random at the end of the class to describe how they would go about trouble shooting a given problem to make sure that they have understood the content of the lesson.
 * Workshop Title: Welcome to the Sky Drive Day 1 **
 * Subjects of the Lesson: ** Elementary-High School Teachers
 * Prerequisite Knowledge: ** Internet knowledge, Microsoft Suite technology
 * 1) summarize process for saving material to the sky drive
 * 2) evaluate benefits of sky drive over older system of saving data

=** Concluding Remarks ** : = Carroll County Public Schools is coming to an important time in its history. Education is changing, and our county must change with it by adopting the skills of the technology age in the classroom. If the county sees fit to fund and carry out this professional development plan, then CCPS will be able to go into the future of the tech age with confidence that Carroll County teachers have the skills and knowledge necessary to prepare its students for success in the future. This training program; however, is just the first step towards keeping CCPS staff well trained in the use of technology. The county will need to commit itself to funding similar workshops every year to maintain and then update teacher’s skills in educational technologies. To keep Carroll County educators on par with the rest of the state and country, CCPS will need to make technology based professional development a priority for years to come. The plan outlined here was designed to catch Carroll County up with the rest of the state. If we can implement these strategies, we should be able to surpass the rest of the state with our next round of professional development.

Appendix 1
Explanation: I am gathering data for a grad project in which I am creating a county wide tech training program. To do this, I need to know what technologies teachers are comfortable and uncomfortable with. Please answer the following questions and return them to me when you are finished. Thank you.
 * Teacher Technology Survey **

Section 1: Do you have the following in your classroom: circle Yes or No Laptop Yes or No  Desktop Yes or No  LCD projector Yes or No  Smart Board Yes or No  ActivSlate Yes or No  Computers for students Yes or No

How often have you used the following programs: Indicate by placing a check in the box If there is some program that you use in your classroom that is not on the list, please identify and mark how often you use it ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Technology || Almost Never || Sometimes || Usual basis || Almost Always ||
 * Power point ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Word processor ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Internet research ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Class website through Thinkport ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Class blog ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Class wiki ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Promethean Planet ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Other:

If you use wikis/blogs/class websites/etc. please briefly explain why you use them in class.

If you don’t use wikis/blogs/class websites/etc. please briefly explain why you don’t use them in class.

Respond to the following statement: I am competent in the use of a technology as the result of PD that I received on it. Strongly Agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly Disagree

What is one suggestion you would give for improving future professional development sessions?

Appendix 2:
Budget As a result of preexisting contracts with Promethean and Clinton Learning Solutions, Carroll County Public schools currently does not have to pay to have representatives come out to these professional developments. Also, since these activities are already scheduled for in-service days there will be no expenditure for substitutes or for professional development funding. The only cost that will be accrued will be in training media specialists in Promethean board so that they can teach the software to others during the PD. The county would choose 15 media specialists-5 from each level of ed- and train them in the software. For becoming instructors they would be entitled to a $1000 stipend for the year. Budget Breakdown: $15,000 for trained Promethean instructors $$2000 for all materials being copied and delivered $500 misc expenses, ie refreshments in the morning for participants $400 for per diem of Promethean employees at $100 a day per employee Total: $17,900

Appendix 3:
Each Session Evaluation Survey Complete version can be found at- [], excerpt provided.

Appendix 4:
End of PD Evaluation Survey for teachers- []

Appendix 5:
Training Schedule for Session 5-8 Session 5 8/24 Introduction and objectives || ** 8-8:45 ** || ** 8:50-9:35 ** || ** 9:40-10:25 ** || ** 10:30-11:15 ** ||  || Session 6: 10/8 Introduction and objectives || ** 8-8:45 ** || ** 8:50-9:35 ** || ** 9:40-10:25 ** || ** 10:30-11:15 ** ||  || Students || Thinkport Personalization || Glogs and Vokis oh my! || Evaluation || Personalization || Glogs and Vokis oh my! |||| Google Docs for Students ||^  ||
 * ** 7:35-7:55 **
 * AM |||| PROMETHEAN || Blogs || Wikis ||  ||
 * || Blogs || Wikis |||| PROMETHEAN ||  ||
 * || ** 12:30-1:15 ** || ** 1:20-2:05 ** || ** 2:10-2:55 ** || ** 3:00-3:45 ** || ** 3:45-4:00 ** ||
 * PM |||| Google Docs || Thinkport || Sky drive || Evaluation ||
 * || Thinkport || Sky drive |||| Google Docs ||^  ||
 * ** 7:35-7:55 **
 * AM |||| PROMETHEAN 2.0 || Blogs for Reading || Wikis Collab Learning ||  ||
 * || Blogs for Reading || Wikis Collab Learning |||| PROMETHEAN 2.0 ||  ||
 * || ** 12:30-1:15 ** || ** 1:20-2:05 ** || ** 2:10-2:55 ** || ** 3:00-3:45 ** || ** 3:45-4:00 ** ||
 * PM |||| Google Docs for
 * || Thinkport

Session 7: 10/19 Introduction and objectives || ** 8-8:45 ** || ** 8:50-9:35 ** || ** 9:40-10:25 ** || ** 10:30-11:15 ** ||  || Team || Constructive Learning Web 2.0 || Podcasting and CORE ||  || Team ||  || Team || Web 2.0 for Advanced || Wikis across content || Evaluation ||
 * ** 7:35-7:55 **
 * AM |||| Elementary Time by
 * || Constructive Learning Web 2.0 || Podcasting and CORE |||| Elementary Time by
 * || ** 12:30-1:15 ** || ** 1:20-2:05 ** || ** 2:10-2:55 ** || ** 3:00-3:45 ** || ** 3:45-4:00 ** ||
 * PM |||| Middle School by
 * || Web 2.0 for Advanced || Wikis across content |||| Middle School by   Team  ||^   ||

Session 8: 2/8 Introduction and objectives || ** 8-8:45 ** || ** 8:50-9:35 ** || ** 9:40-10:25 ** || ** 10:30-11:15 ** ||  || Team || Web 2.0 Assessments || Inquiry Based Lessons and Social Media ||  || Team ||  ||
 * ** 7:35-7:55 **
 * AM |||| High School by
 * || Web 2.0 Assessments || Inquiry Based Lessons and Social Media |||| High School by
 * || ** 12:30-1:15 ** || ** 1:20-2:05 ** || ** 2:10-2:55 ** || ** 3:00-3:45 ** || ** 3:45-4:00 ** ||
 * PM |||||||| Vertical Teaming by Content   Area  || Evaluation ||

References: Doherty, I. (2011). Evaluating the Impact of Professional Development on Teaching Practice: Research Findings and Future Research Directions. //Online Submission// Polly, D. J. (2011). Examining How Learner-Centered Professional Development Influences Teachers' Espoused and Enacted Practices. //Journal Of Educational Research//, //104//(2), 120-130. Shu Chien PanFranklin, T. (2011). In-Service Teachers' Self-Efficacy, Professional Development, and Web 2.0 Tools for Integration. //New Horizons In Education//, //59//(3), 28-40.