Professional Capacity

South Carolina Technology Plan Goal:

The South Carolina Department of Education, school districts and individual schools will provide curriculum development and professional development to increase the competency of all South Carolina educators so that research-proven strategies and the effective integration of instructional technology systems can be used to increase student achievement.

K–12 School Technology Initiative Efforts to Support the Goal:

K–12 School Technology Initiative efforts described in this section support legislative mandates that include the provision of teacher, administrator and counselor training as required by the iAm Laptop Pilot Program, the national STEM effort (Education Week, 2008), the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the Education Economic and Development Act (EEDA), the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee goals and the South Carolina Teacher Technology Proficiency Proviso.

Guided by the Teacher Technology Proficiency Proviso, K–12 School Technology Initiative funding is providing the opportunity for districts statewide to use an ePortfolio system for teacher technology proficiency assessment. The tool allows teachers to place themselves on an identified technology proficiency level and then receive recommendations for professional development that are aligned with the courses offered by the SCDE. These courses are also provided with K–12 Technology Initiative funding. Data provided thus far through the ePortfolio project has demonstrated the positive impact of technology integration in S.C. schools.

South Carolina is one of 40 states whose standards for teachers include technology, and one of only 10 to require technology professional development for teachers.K–12 Technology Initiative funding has helped to enable the creation of high quality technology training for teachers.

The eLearningSC program, formerly known as the South Carolina Online Professional Development Program (SCOPD), has received national accolades for its growth and for making professional development a focus within the state, especially in high-poverty and high-minority schools.The program offers graduate and recertification credit courses for South Carolina educators. K–12 School Technology Initiative funding has completely supported the creation, development and growth of eLearningSC.

In a national survey of online learning policies and practices, South Carolina ranked 17th. The survey, which was conducted by the Center for Digital Education, was designed to examine the overall landscape of online learning in U.S. schools.

South Carolina has enrolled nearly 7,400 students for online learning, with enrollment growth of 350 percent since the beginning of the program. The state earned favorable marks in the survey for allowing all students to have access to online learning opportunities, for making online learning part of school reform strategy and for offering teacher training online.

In order to assist with embedded technology professional development, K–12 School Technology Initiative funding supported the SCDE Technology Coach pilot which placed 28 trained technology coaches in schools with the highest demonstrated need. Increases in teacher technology use in the classroom to enhance learning have been a visible result of the technology coaching project. In order to provide up-to-date training for the coaches, the Office of eLearning provides monthly professional development to coaches. This professional development is provided with
K-12 School Technology Initiative funding.

Another valuable professional development resource funded by the K-12 School Technology Initiative is OnePlaceSC, ETV’s newest K-12 Educational portal which launched in August 2008. Teachers have a single sign-on to the Web site that allows them to search for quality educational content, including Knowitall.org, StreamlineSC, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Teachers and Kids, Annenberg and Teachers Domain.

Another way that ETV uses K-12 School Technology Initiative funding is through the provision, development and management of TeacherLine Southeast. TeacherLine Southeast provides online solutions for teacher professional development in the states of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina through the delivery of PBS TeacherLine courses. These courses, considered the premier research and standards-based professional development resource for pre K-12 teachers, have been increasingly popular and enjoyed tremendous growth in enrollment.

ETV also uses K-12 School Technology Initiative funding to help support educator professional development efforts. These efforts currently center on the Knowitall.org portal. Knowitall.org content is incorporated into several existing sites including ETV’s OnePlaceSC, the PBS Teachers portal, the WGBH TeacherDomain Open Resource Archive and the South Carolina State Library SchoolRooms portal.

The Instructional Television (ITV) team in the SCDE’s Office of eLearning is responsible for the development, acquisition, scheduling and utilization of instructional television resources used in the public schools by students, teachers, administrators and staff. ITV and ETV have a well-established partnership, which ensures that educators are involved in the curriculum content and gives ETV responsibility for the production and delivery of ITV programming. ITV works collaboratively with ETV to provide a number of initiatives including instructional television, supplemental resources, distance learning courses for students, teleconferences for students, staff development for educators and staff and recertification courses for teachers and administrators.

Content specialists at SCDE work with ITV to locally produce and develop professional development programs, teleconferences and recertification courses for the state’s educators with the help of K-12 School Technology Initiative funds. Content ranges from specific training to programming that can be used with the school community. These efforts are then produced by ETV and disseminated free to our schools via satellite or online.

The South Carolina State Library offers technology integration professional development for educators through a variety of means including DISCUS workshops and orientations, presentations to the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science classes, exhibiting at school instructional fairs and technology forums, presentations to the South Carolina Independent Schools Association, the Education Through Technology Summer Institute and more.

K-12 School Technology Initiative funding was used effectively by all partners to make great strides in South Carolina in providing technology professional development and supplying the vehicle to offer all types of online professional development to educators. Through training opportunities and electronic resources, teachers and administrators learned how to implement research-proven strategies to enable the effective integration of technology to support and enhance student achievement.

See what South Carolina educators are saying about StreamlineSC and other Virtual School courses.

Read the 2008 Progress Report of the South Carolina K-12 Technology Initiative. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the report. If you do not have it, click here to download it for free.)

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“Greenwood 52 has used K–12 School Technology Initiative funding to roll out Intel Teach to the Future Training for all district teachers. According to Rhonda McDowell, “Teachers participating in Intel Teach to the Future courses receive extensive instruction and resources to promote effective technology use in the classroom.  Feedback has been extremely positive and we are seeing a higher quality for technology implementation in classrooms versus just word processing or surfing the net.”

RHONDA MCDOWELL, GREENWOOD 52