District Technology Plans:
I have extensive experience in writing yearly District Technology Plans. My role as Chair of the District Technology Advisory Committee brought together the school stakeholders to create and update our yearly three-year plans. Here is an example plan I wrote that was officially approved by the State of Indiana Department of Education. Includes Goals, Strategies & Metrics, Technology Budget, and Building Level Technology Plans.
- In my role as a an independent school technology consultant, I also reviewed and critiqued plans from other school districts. Here is an example of my review of an independent audit of technology that was performed at the Hawkeye School District. In essence, this document contains my comments (another set of eyes) on a somewhat harsh audit.
- Here is a school technology plan that I reviewed, updated with recent activity and made suggestions for future initiatives.
- Here is another school technology plan that I reviewed and and made suggestions for future initiatives. See my “Executive Summary” at the beginning of my review.
Feature Article on the use of iPads at Merrillville Schools
Published in the Northwest Indiana Times, January 24, 2013. Reporter: Carmen McCollum
Excerpt from article, Read more here:
MERRILLVILLE | The Merrillville Community School Corp. has launched a one-to-one computer pilot program studying the effect on learning when students use computers throughout their day.
Of the 6,889 students in kindergarten through 12th grade at Merrillville schools, 2,500 are participating in the pilot program.
“The overall goal of this pilot program is to improve student learning and academic achievement,” said Kelly Murphy, the school corporation’s director of information technology. “We will monitor this goal with the selected classrooms during this school year. The possibility of expanding this program will be based on what kind of learning gains we find and the availability of funds.”
Pirate Country Newsletter
Editor and writer for the publication of ”Pirate Country” that is distributed twice yearly to over 25,000 residents of Ross Township. Every issue includes a technology feature by Murphy.
One to One Initiative
The description of the one to one initiative I initiated at an Indiana school. Includes background, statement of need, goals, research, professional development and evaluation.
ETRD Journal
Accessing Elaborations on Core Information in a Hypermedia Environment
Educational Technology Research and Development, Volume 41, Number 2, 1993, pp 19-34, ISSN 1042-1629.
November 22, 1993
Authors: Thomas M. Welsh, Kelly Murphy, Thomas M. Duffy, David Goodrum
Strategies for managing information in a hypermedia learning environment require the text to carry indicators that describe the presence and type of additional information available from a specific point on a computer text screen. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of link display strategy and link density on ease of use and measures of interaction. Independent variables were link strategy (three levels) and link density (two levels), yielding six treatment groups (n = 108). Within-subjects variables were time interval and type of elaboration accessed. Dependent measures were time spent on elaborations, number of elaborations accessed, and ease of use. Primary findings were that indicating all elaborations by common link indicators in the text reduced readability and led to more extensive and random browsing behavior in users; that indicating elaborations by destination-specific link indicators in the text reduced readability and increased users’ tendency to target specific elaborations; and that locating link indicators in submenus increased ratings on ease of use but drastically reduced the number of elaborations accessed and time spent reading elaborations. These findings lead to the conclusion that hypermedia designers will have to make choices between promoting exploration and reducing screen readability.
