School-Based+Tech

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Dolphin Park High School is a charter school affiliated with Community Education Partners (CEP). CEP is new to South Florida and currently has three schools in Broward County. A CEP school illustrates and utilizes a computerized educational system. The system is self pace and students compete against themselves. Mission: CEP works in partnership with public schools and the community to get low performing and disruptive students back on track in their learning and behavior so they can return to their home schools prepared to be successful. I. ** Technology Systems: ** Technology systems refer to both the physical part- hardware and the programs running on the physical part- software. The technology systems of a school could be classified into two main categories: technology for administrative purposes and technology for instructional purposes. The computer operating systems used at Dolphin Park High School is Microsoft Windows XP. Administrators use many different types of technology to ensure our school is operating smoothly. STARS v1.0 found at [], is where teachers and administrators locate reports for the school. Administrators assign courses, enter grades, monitor attendance, and make sure the goals of our school are being met. The system administration and employee data/ badges are also found in STARS. Broward County Public Schools use terms for their grading system and our grading system is STARS. CEP schools are nation wide and administrators have conference calls and video conferences. Video conferences are held across any city or state a CEP school resides, and administrators must enter their school’s location number. The equipment for a video conference includes a 40” inch television and a high definition camera. TABE, is a software used by administrators to determine a student’s skill level in reading and math. Students are entered in TABE via TABE registrar and began testing using TABE 32 (entrance test). Instructors at Dolphin Park High School use STARS v1.0 to locate a student. STARS provide instructors with an educational and demographic background. Instructors also record phone calls made in STARS and print the class attendance roster. Instructional software used in the classroom is Instruction Targeted for TABE Success (ITTS) by McGraw Hill, version 2.0, 2007, Apex, Jamestown Reading Navigator, and Dashboard. ITTS includes skill improvement lessons in reading, language, and math. Apex is where all educational courses are located and the teacher’s grade book. Instructors use Apex to set students’ deadlines and monitor students’ progress in a class. Jamestown Reading Navigator is a new reading program being implemented to help students improve their reading scores on the FCAT. My Success Dashboard located at [], allows instructors to check on students’ progress, assign awards, edit student career paths, administer awards prizes, and set up the “What’s Happening” messages. III. ** Technology Services: ** Technology services provide technology support/ services to all school and district departments to maintain continued school operation, management, and to facilitate student learning. The technology services offered at Dolphin Park High School includes a director of curriculum and technology, a computer technician / IT, and Ticket. The director of curriculum and technology is located in Orlando, Florida, and the computer technician is local, and Ticket is located through STARS v1.0. If the school is having problems with Apex Learning Solutions, the teacher notifies the assistant principal or principal, who then notifies the director of curriculum and technology, and finally the director notifies Apex personally. There are times the previous information is vice versa and Apex are aware of the problem and let the director of curriculum and technology aware of a problem who the feeds the information via email to the schools. If instructors are experiencing a problem logging in or if there is a computer down, instructors must submit a ticket. To submit a ticket, instructors must log into STARS and click IT request, and fill out the chart. The computer technician/ IT receives the Ticket through a system called track it, which displays the full detail of the instructors/ staff complaint/ problem. The information at Dolphin Park High School is very secure and websites are only accessible if inside of a school and passwords are needed to login. I believe the education system at Dolphin Park is phenomenal and gives students a chance to get back on track. More information on Dolphin Park High School:
 * II. **** Technology Resources: ** Technology resources refer to the equipments, materials, information, and personnel available in a school/ district to support education and facilitate student learning. Dolphin Park offers different types of technology resources. The major resources used by administrators, staff, and students, are computers per student with web access, printers, telephones, projectors, fire sign, and staff development trainings on technology. The resources are located throughout the school building. Inside of each classroom there is one computer per student, printer, and a telephone. The multipurpose room is for majority of the school functions/ big events. The room is fully equipped with Wi-Fi for different student testing and laptop use. A flat screen television is available for presentation and the projector. On the computers all staff and students have access to Apex Learning Solutions. Apex offers all high school courses, even physical education! Students log into the computers, click my success dash board icon; which displays the students subjects they are currently working on, attendance calendars, credits earned and needed, and projected graduation year. Instructors click on Apex, using his or her personnel laptop, and the screen displays all courses offered. The fire sign, includes web fed information, it has something new every day for students. The fire sign would display word of day, information about Dolphin Park’s staff, such as hobbies, Alma Mata, etc., and snapshots of students’ activities, for example graduation.