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The School Technology Needs Assessment (STNA, say "Stenna") was originally developed by SEIR*TEC at SERVE in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Educational Technology Division, as part of the LANCET project (Looking at North Carolina Educational Technology). The STNA was created to help building-level planners collect and analyze needs data related to implementation of the NC IMPACT technology integration model, as well as other contemporary frameworks for examining technology use in teaching and learning. The STNA is typically accessed through a web address unique to each school, using a free online surveying system provided by SERVE. After a the survey has been completed by all staff members, it is closed and the address of a web-based report is provided to the individual responsible for coordinating the needs assessment. For schools preferring other options, a paper-and-pencil copy of the STNA may also be downloaded and freely reproduced for use, or items may be adapted to any other surveying method (e.g., telephone, email, or other web-based system).

Preparing, implementing and proving the value of L&D programs require a bit of research to perfect. Whether it is identifying the skill gaps or marketing the programs effectively, L&D professionals need to consider the various stakeholders and decision-makers to decide bottomlines of learning programs.

For Steven L. Paine, state superintendent of schools for West Virginia, 21st century learning is not an option; it's a necessity for students who must go out and compete on a global level. "Students deserve it. The world demands it," he told an audience at the FETC Virtual Conference & Expo, held Thursday. And to make it happen, he said, changes need to be made in the way we assess students and in the way we develop teachers.

The future is now at Boston's Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School. In last week's most-clicked ASCD SmartBrief story, we learned about this school with no textbooks, one laptop per student, parent-teacher IM conferences, and online drop boxes for homework assignments. Leveled software is used to differentiate learning experiences, and built-in automatic assessments help teachers pinpoint students' instructional needs. Advances in technology have also expanded the role of online courses in shaping schools-digital curriculum is going global and, some say, decreasing the number of teachers needed in a classroom. Replacing outdated textbooks with laptops, increasing student engagement, and more focused one-on-one instructional time-is there a downside to increasingly automated learning?

During the past decade, 21st Century Skills have been described, debated, and, unfortunately, downplayed when one considers their overall impact on instruction and assessment practices in our public schools. Organizations such as the Partnership of the 21st Century and the former North Central Regional Laboratory have successfully articulated a set of well-defined skill sets targeting needed student outcomes for the 21st Century workplace; yet, a careful scrutiny of district curriculum manuals, pacing guides, and scope & sequence charts reveals little evidence of their existence.  

ProfilerPRO allows for the evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and skill based on simple surveys implemented via the World Wide Web. Group members can share knowledge and promote collaboration based on responses to skills-based survey items. Use ProfilerPRO to strengthen your school's, district's, or other educational group's ability to share expertise and grow as an organization.

This profile tool will help you to compare your current instructional practices with a set of indicators for engaged learning and high-performance technology. For each category, there is a description of the indicators and examples that fall along a continuum. There are three examples for each indicator. Select the example that best describes your current practice, even though it may not represent your instructional goals. You may select only one example for each indicator.

Profiling Educational Technology Integration, or PETI, includes a framework aligned to No Child Left Behind, Title II D (NCLB IID), as well as a suite of tools designed to assist states, districts, schools, and researchers in profiling their progress with technology over time, documenting both readiness and effective use. Why are the profiling tools important? The tools were developed to assist states in making sound, data-driven decisions about educational technology. Metiri Group, which developed these resources under the advisement of the SETDA Common Data Elements committee, has worked over the last year with five states to pilot and revise the instruments and protocols based on data analysis to ensure reliability and validity. Used as outlined here, PETI offers valid, reliable data collection instruments and methodologies that answer the questions in the SETDA framework. Used over time, these tools can provide valuable baseline and trend data for accountability purposes.