Principal Pushes for Coginchaug 2.0

Coginchaug Regional High School Principal Andre Hauser wants his school to be a trendsetter, not a follower, or worse yet, a place where technology is confiscated, never to be seen or heard from again (or at least until the bell signals the end of the school day).

So, on May 11, Hauser convinced the Board of Education to temporarily suspend part of Regional School District 13's "Technology Acceptible Use" policy, effectively giving students the okay to use personal electronic devices - like iPhones or iPads - in class.

There is a catch, of course.

Students will not be allowed to use devices for personal reasons. Rather, the policy change will give teachers the freedom to allow students to use their own personal devices for "educational purposes."

"There are school systems around the state that are highlighting a lot of really interesting and innovative and ultimately, I think, cost saving uses of personal electronic devices," Hauser told the board.

Hauser described a classroom assignment in which some students had hand written a copy of a document, made additional copies of it using a school copier machine, and then distributed them among their peers so that each student had a copy of the document. Another group took a photograph of the document using a smartphone and then uploaded the photo to Facebook.

Hasuer explained that some schools in the state had already begun purchasing iPads for students to use in the classroom.

He said the challenging part for administrators is to find all of the educational uses possible. "Whether it's downloading text, or open source educational materials, or even the fact that you can download a TI-84 (Texas Instruments) calculator, which is a $110 purchase for every single one of our students, onto any droid or iPhone for free.

"There's so many, and they're increasing every day, uses for them. A lot of what we currently spend money on we can replicate for free online through internet accessible hand-held devices."

Hauser said the current policy was written when very few students had cell phones or other electronic devices. But now, he said, nearly all of them do.

"I think over the next couple of years all schools are going to basically fall into one of three camps. There's going to be the trendsetters. The ones who have policies and practices in place that would allow them to encourage teachers to try to look for innovate uses of technology."

Hauser said other schools will follow or refuse to adapt. 

"I would like us to be the vanguard. We have a lot of really creative, really tech savvy teachers. We have a lot of really tech savvy students. I think if we give them the opportunity to start testing their abilities, testing the technology, we're going to see a huge growth in what we can do, how relevant it's gonna be, how much it's going to look like the work world, the personal  life world kids are going to grow up into. And I don't think it's going to cost us much."

Board member Kerrie Flanagan asked if there was concern that some students did not have their own personal technology devices, and therefore would not be able to participate.

Hauser said he felt it was a valid question and was part of the ongoing discussion, while adding that any instruction involving personal technology would not be mandated.

With that, the board unanimously voted to suspended the policy until June 30, 2011. Hauser indicated that the month long suspension of the policy should give school staff a "snapshot" of the potential of allowing use of personal devices in the classroom.

"We'll get some feedback hopefully in August or September, and we'll see where we go from there," board member and Policy Committee chair Norm Hicks said.

"There are teachers who are just waiting for the opportunity" Hauser added.