Technology+Tools+for+Curriculum+Development

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 * __Analyzing School Culture (Survey, Evaluate) __**
 * **Tools **
 * Online survey sites
 * **Information and Resources **
 * Christopher Wagner (2006) provides a survey that could be useful when assessing a school’s culture. In his article entitled “The School Leader’s Tool for Assessing and Improving School Culture,” which may be retrieved from [], Wagner discusses the important role that a school’s culture plays in the change process. Furthermore, he shares tips about how to implement the survey.(Susan)
 * T he Character Education Partnership group has a collection of student, teacher, and parent surveys and other information that focuses on character education. The mission of the CEP is to help schools develop a character education program that will help build a community of caring and compassionate students. @http://www.character.org/more-resources/assessment-tools/school/ (Margaret)


 * **Strategies and Ideas**
 * Student and parent surveys can be used at the beginning of the school year to discover interests and evaluate the school climate.(Margaret)
 *  Utilize lessons provided by the Character Education Partnership website on setting goals and fostering school/ community spirit.(Margaret)

__** Data Management (Collect, Organize, Analyze, Share) **__
 * **Tools **
 * Wikis
 * Digital Portfolios
 * Web 2.0 tools
 * Various Google tools such as Google docs
 * Electronicportfolios.org
 * Power School

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 * **Information and Resources **
 * Pearson Education provides a web-based resource for schools and teachers. This program provides an area to collect attdance, current and historical grade data, demographics and other pertinent information. The program can create dynamic forms for teachers. Students and parents can also be provided an access password so they can keep track of student grades as the teacher documents them. [] (Margaret)
 * **Strategies and Ideas **
 * Use online data collection site to keep accurate student assessment records. Allow parents access to the data collection site so they can instantly see how their child is doing in school.

__**Developing Curriculum (Write, Manage Documents) **__
 * **Tools **
 * Google Docs


 * **Information and Resources **
 * Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Ann W. Johnson (2009) co-author a text, The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates, Tools, and Resources for Effective Professional Development, available on the ASCD Web site to members for only $22.95. This text seems like an ideal starting point for the novice in curriculum design. Addressing curriculum construction in incremental steps, Jacobs and Johnson reveal strategies that would be ideal to use during professional development sessions.(Susan)


 * **Strategies and Ideas **
 * Lemke and Coughlin (2009) propose designing curriculum in keeping with "The Change Agents." In their article of the same name which may be found in Educational Leadership 67(1), they assert that an effective curriculum must consider the following elements: digital content, participatory learning, authentic learning, and multimodal learning. They recommend structuring curriculum so that it is more self-directed and inquiry-based, and they suggest incorporating as much technology as possible.(Susan)
 * Teachers can use the Google Docs software to create a curruculum document that can be edited by more than one person. This can be used by a school district to begin managing the creation of a new curriculum document that includes input from every school without needing to work around so many  different   schedules. Google Docs allows several different users to work on a document from several different locations.


 * __ Professional Development (Implement Curriculum, Train Educators) __**
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Tools **
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Podcasts that may be downloaded onto an Ipod, cellphone, or laptop for convenience (Schrum & Levin, 2009)
 * Moodle

>>>> //<span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The focus of the Moodle project is always on giving educators the best tools to manage and promote learning, but there are many ways to use Moodle: //
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Information and Resources **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Moodle is an virtual learning environment that can provide an online learning <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">environment <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> for students or teaching professionals. (Margaret)
 * //<span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Moodle has features that allow it to scale to very large deployments and hundreds of thousands of students, yet it can also be used for a primary school or an education hobbyist. //
 * //<span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Many institutions use it as their platform to conduct fully online courses, while some use it simply to augment face-to-face courses (known as blended learning). //
 * //<span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Many of our users love to use the activity modules (such as forums, databases and wikis) to build richly collaborative communities of learning around their subject matter (in the social constructionist tradition), while others prefer to use Moodle as a way to deliver content to students (such as standard SCORM packages) and assess learning using assignments or quizzes. // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">Retrieved <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> from <span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[]
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Strategies and Ideas **
 * <span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Use Moodle to conduct book studies or school wide collaboration. This could eliminate the need for weekly face to face meetings. (Margaret)

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Professional Learning Communities (Communicate, Collaborate) **__
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Tools **
 * Web 2.0
 * Wikis
 * School Leader Blogs
 * Podcasts
 * School and District Web Sites
 * Electronic/ Digital Portfolios


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Information and Resources **
 * Discovery Education provides an informative Web site for beginners that will take users through the collaboration opportunities offered by Web 2.0. The information may be retrieved from the following URL: [] (Susan)
 * In order to create a 21st century school, Schrum and Levin (2009) confirm the importance of involving all stakeholders “so that all significant groups involved will understand, support, and promote the goals” (p. 121) of such an endeavor. Certainly, school leaders cannot expect to complete the mission alone. Fortunately for all parties involved, many tools are available to share ideas and to give everyone a voice. (Susan)
 * <span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The All Things PLC website "//provides research, articles, data, and tools to educators who seek information about the Professional Learning Communities at Work™ process. This information is provided so schools and districts have relevant, practical knowledge and tools as they create and sustain their professional learning communities//". Retrieved from <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[] <span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">(Margaret)


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Strategies and Ideas **
 * <span style="color: #963eea; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Use the PLC Tools and Resources page on the All Things PLC website to access documents, videos, and reproducibles to help with guiding PLC implementation.

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Blue text = Susan Purple text=Margaret