Strategic Planning Essay

Strategic Planning Essay Strategic Planning Essay This is a free sample essay on Strategic Planning: Introduction A Whole School ICT Policy is a crucial document that describes how and why a school is developing ICT. It should be seen as a dynamic document, which is reviewed regularly. The policy is intended as a statement of the beliefs, values and objectives of the school and aims to ensure that staff can work collaboratively within the context of utilising ICT as a functional tool within school. The purpose of the policy is to both review current practice and plan for the future needs of all in the school. As an essential management tool the policy should encompass aspects of why the school is heading in a particular direction, set realistic goals leading toward the ultimate intention and how milestones will be achieved. Scenario This assignment will discuss key issues in the development of a whole school ICT policy for a secondary school consisting of eleven to eighteen year old pupils. The school intake is 180 pupils per year, with an average of 50% entering the sixth form. The number of pupils enrolled is calculated as 1080 with six classes of thirty pupils in each year, from Year 7 to Year 11 and a Lower and Upper Sixth form of 90 pupils each. I have adopted the strategy that pupils in Years 7 to 9 work in Form Groups of 30, with GCSE Groups in Years 10 and 11 being split into groups of ?. Whilst seeking to improve the overall ICT facilities and curriculum within the School, it is intended to honour the commitment to cross-curricular use of ICT, a provision that has been described by the recent OFSTED inspection as patchy. In response to OFSTEDs comment, the school Senior Management Team (SMT) and the Board of Governors have agreed to provide the necessary financial support for an immediate improvement to ICT provision. Furthermore, it has been agreed that additional ICT teaching space will be made available by developing the library into a Learning Resource Centre (LRC). Strategic planning Strategic planning is â€Å"aimed at total concentration of the organisations resources on mutually predetermined measurable outcomes (Cook, W. Jr. 1988). According to this definition, an effective plan encompasses the schools entire resources and purpose. Strategic plans are typically comprehensive and hence should include everything essential to a schools Vision Statement the starting point of any strategic plan. It is crucial for strategic planning that schools periodically establish and monitor aims and objectives around which any school policy must be constructed. Strategic planning enables people to influence the future and change. The very act of planning enables schools to exert influence over their own future amidst the restraining and constraining influences of socioeconomic forces, Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and government. Wise planners pay particular attention to demographic changes, shrinking financial support, strengthening curriculum, and attracting, developing, and retaining effective teachers. They must also plan to fully utilise computers and other new instructional technologies and to prepare students for employment. Research shows that everyone concerned with education should participate in the planning process and that even the most carefully formulated policy will be irrelevant if sufficient time and money are not dedicated to meeting its objectives. Cook asserts that â€Å"the best plans are based more on the collective intuition of the planning team than on so-called hard data. He urges planners to meet regularly while Hart (1988) recommends using several small groups to begin the planning process in order to discuss, prioritise and report back to SMTs so that everyone shares a sense of cohesion, consensus and ownership. This is particularly pertinent if the plan is to evolve into a â€Å"Whole School Policy†. The role of strategic planning in relation to the whole school ICT development is extremely complex as most of the components involved are inter-linked with each other in a complex of environments, inputs and outcomes. It can be equated to a web site with multiple links and alternative pathways. Compared to other curriculum subjects ICT is not only a subject in its own right but also overarches the whole institution. Therefore, ICT demands careful planning in order to effectively control and harvest its full potential and benefit and to avoid misuse and waste of funds, facilities, time and resources which collectively result in purposeless underachievement. Strategic plans should span at least five years. They should be reviewed annually, with a particularly thorough review at the end of the first year. A strategic plan, after all, is not simply a document; it is a schools road map to the future. Evaluation of ICT An ICT strategy is required to enable an overview of school activities to fulfill school curriculum aims and ICT ambitions. Its design should enable change while determining a route for all to follow in order to achieve a shared vision of determination and commitment by all (Freedman, T., 1999 p27). The ICT policy transforms token gestures into specific aims concerning curriculum, staffing and roles, resources and expenditure. In order to facilitate these aims, certain management issues need to be addressed. Ideally, the school would have a Steering Group (SG) in place ideally composed of representatives of the SMT (School Head and Chair) the Board of Governors, the ICT Coordinator, IT teachers and Technician/s and Heads of Departments. These would formulate data protection, licensing, security, finances, ethics, ICT and the NC, monitoring and evaluation, access, timetabling and training. The SG should meet regularly to monitor, evaluate and review planning to resolve implementation of ICT policy, departmental ICT teaching and usage monitoring, responsibility for ICT schemes of work and their monitoring and review (www.becta.org.uk). OFSTED stipulate that the school SMT are responsible for the provision and implementation of a whole school ICT policy. It is common practice for the ICT Co-ordinator, in conjunction with the SG, to write and maintain the ICT policy document. However, the starting point of such a document is to ascertain the current situation by undertaking an audit (ICT activity, staff competence, resources) to frame an action plan. Individual stages of an action plan must undergo evaluation. Hargreaves et al, (1989) suggests that school development planning consists of four cyclical processes: Audit, Construction, Implementation and Evaluation. This is commensurate with Kolbs (1985) model of the Learning Cycle. It refers to the process by which individuals, teams, and organisations attend to and understand experiences, and consequently modify behaviour. The cycle is based on the idea that reflection offers opportunity to modify and refine efforts. The logic of the learning cycle is to make incremental improvements that constitute major improvement over time. The cycle also comprises of four steps: Doing; Reflection; Interpretation and Planning. Coupled with these models, any implementation schedule should be drawn up with clearly defined review dates. However, as Crawford (1997) points out, it is foolhardy to plan the development of detailed ICT resources more than one year in advance as technology and prices constantly change and therefore impact directly on school provision. Thus, the ICT policy is like a car MOT it is only a snapshot of how things stand at a particular time. Consequently, it is essential that the ICT policy is reviewed and updated annually. ______________ is a professional academic writing service which can provide high school, college and university students with 100% original custom written essays, research papers, term papers, dissertations, courseworks, book reviews, book reports, lab reports, projects, presentations and other assignments of top quality. More than 700 professional Ph.D. and Master’s academic writers. 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What is the Job Market for Web Developers

What is the Job Market for Web Developers in the last few years, there has been an explosion of companies offering to train people in web development through bootcamps, online instruction, classes, and nearly anything else to get people coding. the target audience for most of these are people who did not study coding in the past but now want to change career paths. with so much excitement around start-ups and technology, coding know-how is becoming more and more an incredibly valued skill. but what can new web developers expect as they enter the development career marketplace?when it comes to salary, there is some disagreement depending on what source you prefer. the united states department of labor suggests a range from as low as $33k to $105k. this is obviously quite a range and surely covers a wide spectrum of employment situations. other sources put the range from around $75k to $120k for web development positions.in terms of job availability, the timing really could not be better for web developers. there are a plethor a of jobs and not enough people with the right skills for hire. 61% of executives say they face recruitment challenges when it comes to highly skilled and technical positions. as the gap between qualified workers and unfilled jobs continues to grow, it is expected that the gap will grow even greater for those looking for web developers. as any business 101 class will teach you, high demand and low supply can certainly lead to price increases. in this case, price equals web developers’ salaries!so strike while the iron is hot! i have a feeling in 400 years, they will look back at this time period and see anyone who cannot code as practically illiterate. while that might sound crazy, it is basically how we look at the past with regard to reading. perhaps the best part of it all, once you have those skills, you never what brilliant idea might strike you and inspire you to create your own start-up and become your own boss!