Wyoming Digital Learning Plan November 2019 Newsletter

Update from the Wyoming Department of Education  |  view online |  website

WYOMING DIGITAL LEARNING PLAN

November 2019

Welcome to the Digital Learning Plan (DLP) monthly newsletter

This newsletter will explore the Wyoming Department of Education’s (WDE) DLP, its goals, and suggested strategies to ensure equitable access to opportunities and success in postsecondary, career, and civic life.


The Five Step Planning Process

Becoming a Future Ready School is a five step planning process. The first step can be read in the September newsletter. The second step can be read in the October newsletter

The Five Step Planning Process is designed to help educators create sound, research-based action plans to implement personalized, student-centered learning. Embarking on this work takes leadership, time, patience, courage, collaboration, trust, and some trial and error to get it right. With that in mind, this planning tool guides district teams through collecting and analyzing data on their readiness across each gear in the Future Ready Framework, identifying specific strategies and next steps for implementation, and producing a comprehensive action plan. 

Congratulations on completing the second step of measuring your district’s readiness. Step three is a district’s opportunity to collect stakeholder feedback to help the team set goals and identify the best strategies to add into the Future Ready Schools (FRS) action plan. 

 

Step 3

 

Gather Input from Stakeholders

This step is optional, but the benefits of completing this step will: 

  • Increase awareness of the districts thoughtful, comprehensive planning.
  • Provide a more comprehensive district snapshot that can be reviewed by role.
  • Provide additional depth of analysis on the district’s readiness.
  • Generate detailed reports on each FRS gear; 
  • Provide an opportunity to compare the perceptions of stakeholder group(s) to the district leadership team with consolidated reports.

 

Task 1: Identify stakeholders to form the district gear-level assessment team (estimated time: 30-60 minutes)

Districts will need to identify stakeholders to form the District’s Gear-Level Assessment team. Individuals chosen for this team will serve as a group of education stakeholders who provide critical feedback on the district’s readiness across each FRS gear. The next FRS district leadership team meeting should focus on identifying educators from whom the team wishes to receive feedback on the seven unique gear assessments. Here are suggestions on types of leaders to include for each gear: 

  • Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Additional district level colleagues, teachers, principals, school librarians, school board members, parents and/or students.
  • Personalized Professional Learning:  Additional district level colleagues, teachers, principals, school librarians, school board members.
  • Budget and Resources: Additional district level colleagues, and/or school board members.
  • Community Partnerships: Additional district level colleagues, school librarians, school board members, community leadership, and/or parents.
  • Data and Privacy: Technology staff, additional district level colleagues, and/or school board members.
  • Use of Space and Time: Additional district level colleagues, school librarians, teachers, principals, school board members, parents and/or students.
  • Robust Infrastructure: Additional district level colleagues, school board members, and community leaders.
  • Collaborative Leadership: Additional district level colleagues, principals, school librarians, and school board members.

This task should yield a list of stakeholder names and emails to request completion of a short gear-level assessment. The team should also agree on a timeline for when assessments should be completed. 

Please note: this gear assessment is specific to leadership capacity and is different than the district-level leadership self-assessment taken in Step 2. 

Task 2: Assemble gear-level assessment team and send surveys (estimated time: 30 minutes per gear)

Invite the team to participate in the gear level assessment. Use a copy of this template to generate an email for each gear survey. As invitations are prepared, send them only to the assessment team assigned to that specific gear. 

It is most powerful to generate feedback on all gear surveys, however, each district leadership team is advised to choose the gear(s) that most align with the district’s planning needs. 

To obtain an anonymous URL for each FRS gear survey, complete the following in the Future Ready Dashboard:

  1. Click "Engage Stakeholders" on the menu.
engage stakeholders menu icon on the future ready dashboard

2. Copy the appropriate gear survey URL for the group from which you are soliciting feedback and paste it into the email. 

Click on the copy link icon on the dashboard

3. Repeat these steps for each gear.

Task 3: Track stakeholder feedback and generate reports (estimated time: 1 to 1.5 hours)

The district’s FRS project manager or any member of the leadership team can track responses from stakeholders by clicking "Engage Stakeholders" on the dashboard menu. The number of completed assessments for each gear will be displayed below the anonymous link.

To review results from each gear assessment, click "View Report" next to each assessment link. You will be prompted to create a consolidated report for each gear assessment, which compares the outcomes of the gear-specific assessment to that of the district leadership self-assessment. Consolidated reports allow the team to analyze the differences between how the stakeholders view readiness in the district compared to the FRS leadership team view. They may also reveal potential areas to address as teams create goals and strategies in Step 4 of the planning process.

for decorative purposes

Professional Development Opportunities

Wyoming Digital Learning Guidelines

Recently, the WDE released the Wyoming Digital Learning Guidelines based on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Students to support education technology use in PK-12 classrooms. The Guidelines are one of the recommendations in the DLP (page 13) under the Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment gear. To support educators in implementing the Guidelines, the WDE is offering a free, online course that includes:

  • Self-paced, interactive modules in the WDE Canvas learning management system which takes approximately 8 hours to complete.
  • One-half (.5) Professional Teaching Standards Board (PTSB) credit available upon completion.
  • Open enrollment, so educators can join and complete the course at their convenience.

Visit the Wyoming Digital Learning Guidelines web page for more information and the online registration form. 

ISTE Certification Training

To further help educators implement education technology and the Wyoming Digital Learning Guidelines in the classroom, the WDE is also sponsoring ISTE Certification Training for up to 100 in-service educators. Teachers interested in the ISTE Certification for Educators training sponsored by the WDE must complete the Wyoming Digital Learning Guidelines course before registration for the certification training will be considered. The ISTE Certification Training in Wyoming will include:

  • In-person workshops in four locations in the state with groups of 25 at each.
  • Additional support and structure during the portfolio process.
  • The option for educators to contact the Professional Teaching Standards Board and add the Instructional Technology endorsement to their teaching license once they obtain the ISTE Certification.

For more information, contact Lori Thilmany at 307-777-7418 or lori.thilmany@wyo.gov.


Stay Tuned

Next month’s Digital Learning Plan Newsletter will focus on Step 4 of the Future Ready Action plan - Create a Future Ready Action Plan. 

For more information on the DLP, or the Future Ready Frameworks, contact Alisa Cook at 307-777-3679 or alisa.cook1@wyo.gov.

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