Vision

Maximize student learning and competitive advantage by integrating ever-evolving information technologies and curriculum.

Mission

Prepare all students to thrive in a 21st century global environment by providing diverse, collaborative educational experiences supported with ever-evolving technologies and services.

Beliefs

1. We provide integrated, evolving tools and resources to support the development of process skills such as flexibility, adaptability, critical and evaluative thinking, problem solving and collaboration which are essential to meet or exceed challenging academic standards in the 21st century.
2. We promote equal access to technology throughout the learning community allowing us to better serve the diverse learning needs of our students.
3. We prepare students to be lifelong learners who are responsible for their own learning, skilled in accessing and processing information, confident in using technological tools, able to solve complex problems alone or collaboratively, capable of being creative and innovative, and able to communicate locally, nationally, and globally.
4. We encourage and model a culture of life-long learning by providing the teaching staff with professional development in technology skill development coupled with research-based teaching and learning strategies.

Goals

Access

To provide equitable resource distribution and access (networks, hardware, software, technical and instructional support, and technology-ready facilities), with continuous monitoring and evaluation of these resources in the district.

• Develop repeatable processes to evaluate, pilot, introduce/implement, maintain, and retire technology. Document processes in each of the areas within three years.
• Evaluate current technology organization and the roles of the support staff to implement and maintain technology goals.
• Define and implement a strategy to increase our network capacity and network topology.
• Evaluate, pilot and implement teacher technology stations (interactive whiteboard, PC, Internet access, DVD, video-streaming capabilities,...).
• Evaluate, pilot, and implement the expansion of technologies for classroom use (laptops, mobile labs, ...).
• Evaluate technology access for the Salisbury community outside of school.

Effective Teaching and Learning

To integrate technology into the planning and delivery of curriculum and instruction to deepen student understanding of complex ideas and skills within and across disciplines.

To use technology to enhance students’ motivation, learning and collaboration within and beyond the classroom.

Professional Development

To implement professional development that is both collaborative and individualized in nature.

• Differentiate to suit the personal and professional goals of each teacher.
• Provide opportunities for developing leadership through coaching.
• Utilize all available internal and external resources, including students.
• Support continuous evaluation measures for on-going improvement.

Information Literacy

To provide students with the skills, standards of use, and knowledge necessary to effectively and productively utilize new technologies in an increasingly digital world.

• Instruct students how to evaluate informational sources throughout the instructional program.
• Implement ethical and safe standards of use to protect users, computers, and applications.
• Implement technology effectively in problem solving processes.
• Provide students with the skills to use emerging technologies.

Assessment and Evaluation

To gather and use data at designated intervals in order to determine the impact of educational technologies on teaching and learning for students in the 21st century as well as the conditions under which they are most effective.