District CIO

June 23-26, 2013
San Antonio, Texas

Haas School of Business
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, Calif.

River Trails School District 26
Mount Prospect, Ill.

There are new numbers today about just how deep the technology gap is when you compare richer and poorer school districts in America. A new study by Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project finds that 8 out of 10 teachers think technology is leading to wider disparities between the haves and have-nots.

In Arizona’s rural Cottonwood Oak Creek School District, 70 percent of students receive a free or reduced-price lunch. Because many students do not have the resources at home to learn about and interact with technology, the team at Cottonwood wanted to foster improved technology skills, while also promoting student engagement in class.

In the move to 1:1 computing, school district leaders are increasingly looking for alternatives to traditional PCs and laptops, and for many districts, the go-to device is the iPad. But now, for a growing roster of Apple competitors, the time has come to give the iPad a run for its money.

Khadijah Niazi overcame several barriers to finish her introductory physics exam online. Pakistan recently blocked access to YouTube, the site Udacity used to host its lessons. She posted a plea for help on a Udacity message board and several classmates from Malaysia, Portugal, and England attempted to find a workaround. The next day she took the final exam. Even more amazing than the technology know-how is the fact that Kadijah was 11 years old and aced the class with the highest distinction. 

Looking at the wide set of new learning opportunities from the point of view of the professionals, the speed of change and the increased demand of flexibility in being able to build knowledge and to adapt themselves to new forms of collaboration and work, the capability of successfully exploiting the increasing variety and accessibility of learning occasions and resources, becomes a crucial issue.

When educators hear the terms flipped classroom and flipped learning, typically the first thing they think of is a teacher-created video that students watch at home, as though that were the essential ingredient. It's not. It's about how to best use in-class time with students.

Rock Hill (S.C.) schools’ goal of putting a computer in the hands of every student would be a life changer – not only for students, but for businesses and the community at large, says Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville (N.C.) Graded School District and the national school superintendent of the year.