Localization Story About Columbia Public School District’s Use of Technology
Journalism 2100: News Writing
Submitted for grade on: 12/10/12
In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center in conjunction with the College Board and the National Writing Project, roughly 75 percent of 2,462 teachers surveyed said that the Internet and search engines had a mostly positive impact on student research skills and said such tools had made students more self-sufficient researchers, according to a recent New York Times article.
And because of the prevalence of the Internet and technology in student’s lives, schools are trying to integrate technology more into education so that they can teach more innovatively and effectively. In the Columbia Public School District, they are trying to do just that.
“I lead our efforts with a cohesive vision in line with the district’s mission,” Director of Technology Services for CPS Chris Diggs said, who oversees all areas of technology in the district.
Diggs said the Technology Services Department offers a wide variety of services for the CPS, such as: instructional technology with teachers and training them to work with SMART Boards (an interactive whiteboard), along with teaching effective ways to use technology, effective use of iPads in schools and other skills.
In an effort to continue providing new technology to their schools, Diggs said the CPS has a district-wide technology plan that’s implemented for three years. The Technology Services Department works to implement the plan and the schools dictate what services they want from the Technology Services Department.
One of the many programs that the district and the Technology Services Department is working on is a Bring Your Own Device Policy which requires school board approval and will ultimately have schools decide how students will be allowed to use their devices while at school. The personal devices students can bring in are any type of mobile devices.
Diggs said one area that the Technology Services Department works with and supports is the school’s media centers.
At Rockbridge Elementary School, Media Specialist Amy McKinzie teaches students technology and library skills that build up with each grade.
“It starts with the basics,” McKinzie said. “I teach them to log into the computer first. In third grade they learn keyboarding and how to make PowerPoint’s. In fourth grade they make research brochures and in fifth grade all of the skills they’ve learned is combined along with learning Internet safety.”
McKinzie said one of the technological and educational programs they use at Rock Bridge is FASTT Math. The FASTT Math program is for all elementary grade levels and students can use it before school on their own or with their class. McKinzie said that she also uses various educational websites listed on Rock Bridge’s own website.
“These are great tool for kids, parents and teachers,” McKinzie said. “They break down activities that are tailored to each grade.”
McKinzie said at Rock Bridge, they are able to give their students access to reliable and effective resources due to the 120 laptops the school has along with one computer lab of 30 computers. She said that using computers and laptops is the majority of the technology used at Rock Bridge, although some teachers have iPads.
McKinzie said teachers would use iPads depending on certain educational apps, which is a type of downloadable program. Besides laptops and computers, teachers use SMART Boards and Senteos, which take polls and assessments from a handheld remote.
Diggs said departments started buying iPads because they were popular with the students and because they saw apps within their subject areas that would be relevant with education. The iPads used in CPS schools right now are district owned.
“The iPads started coming into the schools, and as a technology department, we needed to be responsive,” Diggs said. “We saw them coming and facilitated that with installing district-wide Wi-Fi in every schools, which opens use to iPads.”
West Junior High School Media Specialist Dena Rice said the school is able to give their students’ access to reliable and effective resources due to 90 laptops available for usage along with 28 computers in 2 computer labs. Also like Rock Bridge, West Junior High teachers use the Senteos clickers and have SMART Boards.
Rice said she teaches her students how to evaluate online resources and how to use those resources effectively, along with e-mail etiquette, password safety, cyber bulling and how to cite sources.
Like Rock Bridge elementary, teachers at West Junior have access to iPads for teaching. Rice said it’s her job to show teachers certain apps that will help teachers integrate technology education into classrooms.
According to a recent New York Times article, the survey put out by the Pew Research Center, of the 2,462 teachers surveyed nearly 90 percent said that digital technologies were creating “an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.”
“That’s a problem,” Hickman High School Junior Adam Ziervogel said. “We have a media center but kids are on YouTube and listening to music and not working and playing games instead of working. It’s distracting to other people who need to find a computer. It’s the student’s mainly, and the teachers do a pretty good job of keeping kids on task.”
Ziervogel said despite those problems, he thinks his school does a good job of technology education, especially in his Psychology class where he uses technology the most due to research projects.
McKinzie said she thinks it’s society that has become dependent on technology.
“I think it’s important to teach kids to keep up because we live a technology integrated culture,” McKinzie said. “Students at this age are distracted by everything and it needs to be exciting when they’re learning and every kid learns different.”
Rice said she thinks technology and education is both good and bad.
“Technology gives immediacy,” Rice said. “So, I have to train the students how to evaluate how they’re learning. Everyone needs balance and everything in moderation. Technology is good and downtime is good but kids still like reading books and someday we’ll be all technology, kind of like Wall-e. But while we teach technology, we also encourage getting up and going outside.”
Debbie Ziervogel, mother of Adam Ziervogel said she thinks that the schools do the best they can when it comes to technological education.
“They have SMART Boards and they have computers in the lab but there are always some restrictions with technology,” Debbie said. “Just because the school has 10 more computers, doesn’t mean they will all use them for educational uses. Doesn’t matter if they have more, people use them to do what they want.”
Debbie said that she thinks kids are taught to find answer on Google instead of think about it and be logical.
“See what Google says,” Debbie said. “I know growing up, if I had a paper to write I had to look up a word in the dictionary. Kids that have computers and have accessible technology they utilize the technology instead of coming up with answer on their own. They go for the quick fix and instead of using their brain to full capacity.”
Diggs said the district is looking at what the next step is for their vision.
“My hope is that the technology can just be there. It works,” Diggs said. “The focus is not on the technology; the focus is on the teaching. Hopefully the technology is helping the teachers teach better. It’s a really exciting time. Here we are talking about what’s the best device. If you listen to commercials there are new devices coming out all the time. Who can even say what’s coming next?”
