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First, I'm not sure that we have a strong school culture around the use or lack thereof, of technology. There are a few "innovators" and "early adopters," who have forged ahead and have pushed to the edge. In fact, one teacher integrating Smartphone use (before they blocked it from kids) in his lessons and was able to get WIFI set up for his classroom. It has slowly trickled to others who see the advantages, simplicity and observable results (think of how innovations are communicated over time...).
It's interesting to note that a team of innovators and non-innovators (laggards...so brash a term) should be constructed, where they would look at these issues of usage, research current policies and other institutions. I vaguely remember hearing about a "tech committee" at our school, but I believe they've focused on simply getting hardware to teachers who don't have LCD projectors, etc. Furthermore, community, teacher and student feedback would be very appropriate and hasn't occurred.
I know that our district has worked to come up with its newest "BYOD" (bring your own device) policy and has allowed students to use phones for educational purposes, only in the last year or two. Prior to that, the dazzling new change was that students could simply bring phones on campus.
I understand that this is a rapidly changing and morphing aspect of education. But, we should have clear guidance in expectations of use and it should be reviewed both at site and district level. And, since the district has emphasized the integration of 21st century skills, it needs to follow suit, too.
First, I'm not sure that we have a strong school culture around the use or lack thereof, of technology. There are a few "innovators" and "early adopters," who have forged ahead and have pushed to the edge. In fact, one teacher integrating Smartphone use (before they blocked it from kids) in his lessons and was able to get WIFI set up for his classroom. It has slowly trickled to others who see the advantages, simplicity and observable results (think of how innovations are communicated over time...).
It's interesting to note that a team of innovators and non-innovators (laggards...so brash a term) should be constructed, where they would look at these issues of usage, research current policies and other institutions. I vaguely remember hearing about a "tech committee" at our school, but I believe they've focused on simply getting hardware to teachers who don't have LCD projectors, etc. Furthermore, community, teacher and student feedback would be very appropriate and hasn't occurred.
I know that our district has worked to come up with its newest "BYOD" (bring your own device) policy and has allowed students to use phones for educational purposes, only in the last year or two. Prior to that, the dazzling new change was that students could simply bring phones on campus.
I understand that this is a rapidly changing and morphing aspect of education. But, we should have clear guidance in expectations of use and it should be reviewed both at site and district level. And, since the district has emphasized the integration of 21st century skills, it needs to follow suit, too.
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