Technology in the School

As technology continues to change our lives, one place where it has had arguably the greatest changes is in the education system. Anything a teacher says can be instantly reinforced or disproven with a quick Google search. Not only has the location of information changed, but the way teachers communicate with their students has also been updated. Projectors have replaced blackboards, and tools such as turnitin.com can automatically check for plagiarism. Even the standard textbook has become obsolete. A hardcover textbook might be outdated a couple years after publishing, while a virtual textbook can always be current.
    I spoke to three different IT directors of local school districts about how technology is changing. This includes Rich Fielding from Durham-Middlefield, John Crovo from Clinton, and Michael Terry from Old Saybrook.
     One question I asked was "How has technology impacted the classroom?" Recently, a number of influential tech leaders, including Mark Zuckerburg, co-founder of Facebook, and celebries such as NBA player Chris Bosh, launched a campagain through code.org to push for schools to offer computer programming courses, starting as early as elemenatry school. As Bill Gates notes in the video, "Learning how to write a program...creates a way of thinking...." All three men interviewed agreed that there is a world of information at a students fingertips. Mr. Terry talked about the importance of teaching students’ how to efficiently harness that information. In the Old Saybrook, there has been a BYOD(Bring Your Own Device) device policy added, with an open Wi-Fi network for students and teachers across the school. Some teachers have embraced the policy, while others have been a little more conservative.
     As we have covered here before, Coginchaug High School is launching a pilot program with 60 Nexus 7's for use in a World History class. Mr. Fielding noted that many students are finding uses for the tablets in other classes besides World History. Although they have run into some issues with Flash content in some websites, they have manage to come up with solutions. Clinton has a mobile cart of iPads in its library, purchased with grant money. The tablets are available for students’ use. Old Saybrook has been dabbling with a tablet program, with select math teachers incorporating them into their curriculum, especially with the 3D graphing units.
     All of the directors mentioned their rise in responsibilities from when they first started their jobs. They all have seen the need for an increase in bandwidth rise dramatically, as more and more services depend on the internet. For example, Mr. Fielding noted that the increase in speed was "...crucial for the ability of the schools to connect back to our servers for email and data, and … to remotely access and troubleshoot..."  This would not be able to be accomplished without higher internet speeds. The rise in using streaming video and tools such as Skype for communicating with people outside of the school have also increased the need for bandwidth.
     In conclusion, the world of IT in school districts is constantly evolving, through the ways students are reaching their content, the content the students are getting, and the way teachers show it.