The North Vancouver School District Information & Communication Technology Plan is the fifth in a series of technology plans developed by the School District. Examination of previous plans reveals a shift in emphasis from the acquisition of equipment to the integration and application of information technology throughout the curriculum.

The six goals below describe critical aspects of technological use that form the framework for the School District’s curricular goals and directions for Information & Communication Technology (ICT).

All learners will make active use of ICT tools:

• in a socially aware, responsible and safe manner
• to access, evaluate and process information
• to design and create works that communicate feelings,
• images and ideas using a variety of media
• to analyze data and synthesize meaning
• to promote critical thinking and problem solving using higher order thinking skills
• to collaborate effectively

The development of school based ICT plans will continue to be encouraged by including the application of technology within School Plans. Accountability measures have been taken through survey documents and objective assessments to establish baselines and to determine progress in relation to ICT goals.


PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Ongoing professional development and classroom support will continue to be provided to assist teachers with the integration of technology throughout the curriculum, in collaboration with the School District Program Services and School Services teams. District and in-school workshops, mentor programs, student technology assistants and a variety of other approaches have been implemented.

Using existing resources, a School District Web Portal is being designed to meet both curricular and administrative needs. This complex project will require research and consultation while proceeding with the parallel development of Web Portal Content areas and the Web Portal Infrastructure.

Distributed Learning Tools: A variety of eLearning collaboration ‘tools’ have been implemented to support instructional practices and learning activities for teachers and students. These tools support teachers along the continuum from the ‘traditional classroom’ where there is limited exposure to online tools to the ‘virtual classroom’ where online tools are pervasive.

ICT Services will continue to work in concert with the PLNet support team to ensure that wide-area network services and access to online resources are delivered in a timely manner while seeking new ways to improve the level of (PLNet) connectivity for every school. ICT Services will work to develop the means for users to access files from within the school or across the Internet in a secure fashion.

Service Delivery: Key goals that relate to service delivery improvements and sustainability have been identified for ongoing development, as permitted by time and resources. These include: preventive maintenance, a District-wide Disaster Recovery Plan, improved turnaround time for client requests, inventory control/ asset tagging.

Data as a Strategic Asset: The School District plans to develop an enterprise data model depicting the data collected and shared within the public education system. Data from disparate systems will be combined in a repository (data warehouse) and standards will be established for data collection and end-user reporting.

District Standards: The School District will continue to support both an Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows PC environment. For administrative tasks within the School District, the Microsoft Windows PC environment will continue to be the supported desktop platform. Network and printing hardware standards will be continuously monitored to ensure that they meet all functional requirements and cost considerations.

Software applications and operating system standards will be continuously reviewed to ensure the curricular and administrative demands of the School District are met while ensuring a robust and secure environment.