District CIO

On a particular morning at Westlake High School, students are greeted not by their teacher but by a history book author on Skype, who was invited to talk to them about America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This type of teaching is a novel approach, but expensive, leaving people to ask whether the billions being spent on educational technology is worth the cost.

At the 2007 EG Conference for youth and young adults, Kevin Kelly told the audience that, 10 years ago, no-one would have believed the internet was coming, least of all him. "What I’m here to say today is that education is being transformed by technology. The future is here, but educators and deans, the ones who hold the gauntlet, are choosing not to believe it."

St. Peter School in Quincy, Ill. has been making technological strides with financial help from an electronics recycling program. Under the program, the school collects cellphones, ink cartridges, laptops and small electronics and sends them to FundingFactory. In return, the school receives points, which can be converted to cash or used to buy new electronics from the FundingFactory's catalog.

Porter High School (Texas) was host to the Regional Technology Student Association competition held March 1-2 between school districts in the region, including Bryan, College Station, and Conroe. Several students won at the regional level, and will now compete at TSA State Competition April 11-13 in Waco, Texas.

The Dansville (N.Y.) Central School, southeast of Buffalo, is eligible for nearly $32,000 in grant money to purchase new technology and software to improve their readiness for computer-based testing and a technology-rich learning environment, according to the state Education Department. The funding is part of a $225 million settlement agreement reached between Microsoft and New York State consumers, of which schools will get $87 million.

This week, Collier County (Fla.) Public School District Superintendent Kamela Patton will lead a team of 38 district officials heading to Georgia to learn more about bring your own technology, or BYOT, through a conference held by the Forsyth County school district, which oversees Kelly Mill Elementary in Cumming, Ga. The 39,000-student district north of Atlanta has a BYOT policy at all 36 of its schools.

Carthage (Mo.) R-9 School District students went to work on Feb. 28th as part of Hacemos' National High School Technology Day. They spent the day job shadowing at the AT&T Call Center to get a first hand look at different careers in technology.

State policies, budgets and regulations have a significant impact on school implementation of educational technology. Since the beginning of the New Year, governors across the country have been delivering their State of the State speeches and presenting their budget proposals for the next fiscal year. As outlined in a new SIIA members-only report, education including technology was a key theme for many governors.

Many school administrators classify teacher technology users into two categories: those who use technology and those who don’t. While this school of thought is logical, after having worked with and trained hundreds of teachers and administrators on integrating technology into instruction, I have found that there are generally three categories of technology teachers. I refer to them as, Digital Rock Stars, Digital Groupies, and Digital Phobes.

A survey of teachers who instruct American middle and secondary school students finds that digital technologies have become central to their teaching and professionalization. At the same time, the internet, mobile phones, and social media have brought new challenges to teachers, and they report striking differences in access to the latest digital technologies between lower and higher income students and school districts.