C implementation of a deep program of staff development based on teachers' expressed needs.
C Infusion of appropriate and relevant software and hardware following the identification of instructional needs.

[Insert Figure 1]

When classroom computers fail, teachers contact the central help desk. A technician in the district help desk diagnoses and corrects the problem, in most cases making the fixes over the network, without traveling to the classroom or office to fix the problem. Teachers now concentrate on integrating technology into the instructional program, not on what is wrong with the technology nor what to do while the computer is down. Teaches feel more comfortable with this approach and as one teacher says, "I like not having to worry about what isinside the computer. I'm a teacher, not a computer nerd." Another noted that "computers are supposed to be a tool, not a headache." Centralized management of the network relieves teachers of the need to fix their own computer and software problems and frees them to concentrate on teaching.
The school network uses a combination of 100 MB and Gigibit Ethernet to create eight nodes in each classroom. By providing direct, high-speed connections to each workstation, the district is prepared to deliver still more sophisticated educational resources to classrooms for years to come.
Every computer in the district has direct Internet access to 2 high speed T-1 connections. By providing continuous, high-bandwidth access from every computer, we avoid the slow, error-prone alternative: dial-up access via modem. This fast, direct connectivity along with presentation hardware enables the classroom teacher to use the Internet as a real-time classroom learning tool.
Developing Skilled Users

TITLE: Strategic Planning and Electronic Technologies Create Global Schoolhouses (sub-theme items 5 & 6)

Using the local telephone service provider (NYNEX), we connect our EIght schools论文代写, public library and district office to a potential 7000-node network. With 2000 nodes (computers) active, we have seen no degradation in performance as we bring more computers online.

All school servers reside in the district office. Two full-time staff members successfully manage the district's network, diagnosing and correcting problems as needed without bringing down schools, classrooms, or the network. We also use new software tools, such as Microsoft Systems Management Server, to enable the centralized, remote management of school networks and computers. Such software makes more efficient use of our limited technical staff's time and saves weeks of work that would otherwise be necessary to manage upgrades and maintenance of the network.

To achieve a closer fit between instructional requirements and integration of technology into classrooms, our district developed a new model of technology planning, one based on teachers' perceptions of their own instructional needs. This "Oswego Model" empowers teachers to make decisions about purchase, training, support, and classroom use of technology, thus providing a smoother path to technology integration.
In spring 1995, the district employed a team, led by Dr. Philip Doughty, from Syracuse University's Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation program, to interview instructional staff about their instructional needs. Based on the results of these interviews, the team developed, administered, and interpreted a survey designed to help the district link instructional needs with technological resources. Administered to 95 percent of the 415-member faculty, the survey explored a range of issues, including comfort with technology, technology experience, attitudes toward technology, and areas where teachers sought technology-based solutions to challenging curricular topics.

Cost Effectiveness

[Insert Figure 2]

Achieving the intentions of the vision statement (i.e., to create resource-rich environments for teaching and learning) required a unique network design, one that could deliver any educational resource, regardless of medium, to every classroom and desktop. We chose to assume that education will increasingly rely on access to information maintained on electronic servers and the Internet and that much of this information would include video. Maximizing student access to these resources was considered critical.
The selected network meets current needs and will also accommodate needs of the future by offering the following five characteristics:
C Stability We determined to Ado the right things right the first time@ and create the network once to avoid disruption of teaching and learning.
C Flexibility We identified standards for applications, platforms, protocols, and carrier services that provide for growth.
C Manageability We adhered to industry standards and committed to managing the network from a central location.
C Performance We designed enough capacity for growth and implementation of new technology and applications.
C Cost-effectiveness We built a single network for voice, data, and video.

By 1991, the Oswego City School District had to admit it: Despite well-intentioned expenditures to improve its educational technology, it was difficult to claim that the investment was paying off. Our teachers had little access to computer labs, recEived virtually no training on using technology in the classroom我爱论文网, and reported little or no use of computers for instruction. Our students seconded that opinion, citing a lack of technological relevance. Employers and college admissions officers alike regarded our graduates as suffering from a lack of technology preparation. The Aelectronic doorway,@ if it indeed existed, certainly did not open into our classrooms.
What caused our district, like so many others, to go so wrong? Simply put, we had no strategic plan. Our investments in technology were little more than spontaneous reactions to a fear that our schools and students were Afalling behind.@ No sustained, systematic efforts provided continuity for any technology programs; the district focused more on getting computers into the classrooms than on using them effectively once they were there. In fact, despite annual technology Aimprovement@ expenditures of hundreds of thousands of dollars, we had failed to create resource-rich classrooms.

Building the Infrastructure

The arrival of a new Superintendent of Schools in 1991 initiated a critical review of our technology efforts and pushed for a strategic plan for improving our schools from a technologic perspective. Drawing upon the expertise of Dr. Frank Betts of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the district began a process to forge a dynamic plan that looked at today's instructional needs and anticipated those of the future.
By the start of the 1994-95 school year, we had begun a process equivalent to turning the Queen Mary: a total restructuring of the district=s technology program. The district focused on the full integration of technology into all appropriate facets of our instructional program.
The result? Today, all students in the Oswego City School District learn in one of the most technologically advanced and resource-rich teaching and learning environments in the country. Three initiatives led to the district=s success:
C Charting a new course focused on using technology to improve teaching and learning
C Building a flexible, future-oriented infrastructure
C Developing technological skills among faculty and staff
Charting a new course

Over the course of three months of effort by more than 100 Oswego parents, teachers, students, business people, community leaders and school board members, a vision statement grew. Out of this Vision Statement, three primary objectives were developed for the first three years of the plan:
C construction of a fiber-based wide area network (WAN) infrastructure that would deliver any electronic resource directly into the classroom,

Providing teachers with the best possible infrastructure will do little to improve teaching and learning without effective staff development. The district had to change its staff development initiatives if it was to succeed in moving the electronic doorway into the classroom.

The Oswego Model

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