South Putnam schools continue technology integration process

Friday, May 22, 2015

South Putnam Community School Corporation continues to work toward each student having digital access during the school day and eventually at home, too.

Technology Director Steve Ricketts recently updated the board on the future of technology at the school, and what still needs to be done before the school can reach the one-to-one status. The goal is to have students in grades 3 to 12 have a computer to use during their school career.

The school will need to continue its wireless coverage throughout the school. Recently, the school had to bump up from the 25 mbps coverage to the 50 mpbs plan.

"This is something that is going to be continuous as we move through this process ... With more devices means more bandwidth needed," Ricketts explained.

The school has yet to reach the one-to-one status and there are already 180 devices utilizing the schools wireless services, including the Chromebooks, iPads and tablets.

Recently the school approved the purchase of six additional wireless access points, which are being implemented throughout the school.

"In 2016, we are really going to focus on wireless," Ricketts noted.

He said the schools still utilize the computer labs, and that is not something he sees going away any time soon.

"With moving to one-to-one, some places are getting away from the computer labs. I, personally, think you still need somewhere to sit down and take tests," Ricketts said.

Currently, all of the computers in the labs are in good shape, and with spare computers available he does not see a need to start replacing those computers. If that were to be the case, the school would be looking at a large expense.

Ricketts did suggest replacing the remaining staff work stations, including 58 work stations and monitors in the middle and high schools.

The school board voted to approve the purchase of the replacement stations at the cost of $49,500 through Global Government.

Last year, the school replaced 70 monitors and work stations in the elementary school and in the school offices. Ricketts said the last time the school did a major replacement of staff work stations and monitors was in 2007.

Tona Gardner updated the board on steps being taken to integrate technology into the classrooms. Part of this process is focusing on student-centered learning.

"Student-centered learning involves them more in the process, instead of just the teaching conveying the information to the students," Gardner explained. "Teachers are equipping them with the skills to find the information they need and evaluate that information.

"Employers are telling us they need students that can go into a situation and problem solve," Gardner said, noting these projects allow the students to apply the skills needed for the future.

She stressed student-centered learning puts an emphasis on the processes used to solve issues and think critically.

In order to convey these newer forms of learning, teachers are participating in training of their own. "We've been working on increasing teacher and student understanding in the digital learning environment," Gardner said. "Some of that is just building the vocabulary and some of the terminology and some of the concepts and basic ideas behind it."

She explained some of that training includes curriculum mapping, which aligns the projects across the curriculum. The teachers are participating in off-site training in order to better understand the use of the tools and devices being used in the classroom.

Gardner said Monday morning she was working with fifth-graders with the Google Classroom program. She helped the students to understand the program and how it can help them.

"As you can see, there are a lot of different things that go along with our plan, and we are walking our way through each of those areas. We are getting the help of a Five Star Consultant that is being paid through our Innovation Planning Grant. The benefit of having an outsider come in and help us through this process is to make sure we are addressing all the needs within these areas and that we have a well articulated plan as we are moving forward," Gardner explained.

Looking forward, the priorities of technology integration is to meet the needs of the students.

"We come back to the question, how does this help us prepare our students?" Gardner said.

She noted the importance of utilizing tools that can be used across various platforms, whether the student is using a Chromebook, an iPad or an Android powered device.

Students have been working with Google Apps for Education, which is an office suite of Docs, Sheets, Slides and more.

"One of the challenges of living in the world that we do is we all have different tools that we are using. Even through the corporation, as it evolves we have computers in the computer lab, we have desktops in the classrooms and we have devices that we bring to the students," Gardner said.

By working with tools that can be more widely used, it helps ease the transition by not having to abandon one program and completely start over on another.

"We also want to maximize our current investment. As we have equipped our buildings in the last few years and we continue to make upgrades, we want to make sure that money we've spent in the last few years is money well spent and that is moving us closer to our goals. Not being abandoned for a new goal," Gardner stressed.

Board member Wesley Hacker asked Gardner what kind of life span she foresees as the students move toward the one-to-one program.

Gardner explained the textbook rental fees, at least in part, are being switched out to fund the use of devices.

By following that formula, students would have the device on a six-year rotation. She noted while the students would eventually have the device to use on a regular basis in the classroom or at home, it would still belong to the school corporation.

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