Inclusive Technology Decision Making

On March 2, representatives from District 109 presented at the ICE Conference on the topic of Inclusive Technology Decision Making. In District 109, we proudly include our teachers and students in our decision-making process to ensure that all stakeholder voices are heard.

This year, we were tasked to make some decisions about student, teacher and classroom technology. Our process began by gathering two committees: a teacher/administrator committee known as the Technology Review Committee as well as a student committee known as STAT (Student Technology Advisory Team). These two teams met on three separate occasions to work with leaders in District 109 to establish a shared vision about technology, collect data on technology usage, and ultimately make decisions that would be best for the learners in our classrooms. All of the notes from our meetings can be found here.

Through the work of the committees, we quickly determined that teachers desired a technology solution that no longer kept them tethered to the front of the classroom, and students desired more flexibility in their environment. In order to collect data on technology usage, we structured Technology Walkthroughs with groups of teachers and students throughout the entire district. Our analysis of the data collected on our Technology Walkthroughs led to the realization that technology is used differently now that our students use 1:1 devices in their classrooms. Nearly a decade ago, Promethean Boards were the only pieces of technology in our classrooms. Today, those boards serve as a static display while students work interactively with their own screens.

In the coming weeks, we will share the final decision about our next classroom technology solution as well as some of the other exciting things happening throughout District 109. In the meantime, please take a look at the presentation below that was presented at the ICE Conference to better understand our decision-making process.

 

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