District 204 looking toward technological future

Indian Prairie Unit District 204 recently began using Twitter just as it gears up to plan what technology will best serve the district in the future.

Starting in January, the district will begin a comprehensive strategic planning process involving committees of district and building administrators, teachers, parents, community members and students.

The groups will look five years into the future and describe a typical classroom while determining what types of technology will best help teachers to teach and students to learn.

“Where do we want to be in five years and what will the program look like? What kind of technology will we have in our schools and how will it impact instruction, which is really exciting to think about,” said Jay Strang, assistant superintendent of instructional services.

Discussions will include four core areas including what kinds of technology is best in the classroom, how students and staff will have access to hardware devices such as computers, potential changes in data systems like those that track student information, and infrastructure needs such as what kind of servers and wireless capability will be required to support those services.

A goal will be to get the most bang for the buck. That means not going for all of the latest gadgets, but purchasing what teachers and students find is most valuable in enhancing instruction.

“The kids are motivated by whatever we do with technology. But if it's not getting them to the end target that we want then … what are the learning targets we want to get to and how can technology support that instead of just purchasing something that is the latest, the newest or the fastest,” said Joan Peterson, principal at Graham Elementary School.

Even students will be included in discussions. Focus groups will talk about how to bridge the gap between the technology they use in the classroom and their own lives.

“I think the hardest part is incorporating what the kids have access to that we just got done banning,” board member Cathy Piehl said.

An important infrastructure involves where people will be able to connect into district technological services and how many will be able to use them. Planning committees also will talk about how to make various data systems work together to provide valuable information that will enable the district to track students and then do a cost analysis, for instance.

In addition, committees will tackle practical issues like determining what to do with old technology as it becomes obsolete. Should it be discarded or repurposed?

Committees will meet from January through March, when the information will be compiled and presented to the school board in May or June.

“There are some very strong feelings about how kids should have access to content and so many other issues that come up with other kinds of devices. So we decided to take a path to this planning that may be more challenging and will demand more consensus building across many constituent groups,” said Stan Gorbatkin, director of technology services.

Right now, about 38 percent of classrooms in the district have interactive whiteboards while 85 percent have data projectors that allow for anything from textbooks to objects to be projected onto a large screen that can be viewed by an entire class. The district has about 9,800 computers with 21 percent of them laptops. In many cases, parent groups have helped pay for those devices.

The district just began using Twitter as another way to communicate with the public. Officials anticipate using it for things like recruiting volunteers for events.