West Hartford (Conn.) Public Schools Plan for Comprehensive Technology Upgrade

West Hartford already has many of the components in place to align the district’s technology goals with the District Development and Performance Plan for Continuous Improvement, however, there are key elements that need to be implemented to fully ready the schools – and the West Hartford community – for 21^st Century learning, according to the "Technology Blueprint" presented Tuesday night to the Board of Education.

Tom Moore, who as assistant superintendent for administration for the West Hartford Public Schools was tasked with developing the district’s new technology blueprint, identified the following key questions to guide the technology development plan:

• How do we effectively integrate technology for 21st Century learning?
• What do students need to know and be able to do to effectively use technology?
• What do teachers need to know and be able to do to guide and instruct students while effectively integrating technology?
• What infrastructure, hardware, and software do we need to actualize our vision for students?

The Center for Educational Leadership and Technology – CELT – was chosen by the district's technology committee from among the five organizations approached to work with the WHPS on the technology blueprint.

The process of developing the blueprint was thorough, as CELT collected data from meetings with stakeholders, parents, principals, teachers and IT staff. Focus groups, site visits, key stakeholder interviews, document review, and planning/review sessions were conducted, according to Dr. John Phillipo from CELT.