The Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation school board received technology reports at its Feb. 18 meeting as the RBBCSC administration announced its plans to move to a curriculum that would see students use technology at least 60% of the time. All board members were present.
During a presentation, RBBCSC Assistant Superintendent Carol Gardiner announced the school corporation’s technology integration goals for the 2013-14 school year. Students will use technology to plan their academic activities, they will select and modify technology to solve problems based on real-world issues, they will use technology to complete 51% of classroom assignments, and technology will be used at least 60% of the time.
“No more paper agendas or paper notebooks, but we will be using technology to do all of their recording of their learning experiences, evaluating their results in comparison with their peers, as well as self-evaluation and self-reflection,” Gardiner said.
The move toward technology will enable schools to better serve special needs students, offer students alternative opportunities for learning, make communication easier, and allow for better organization. At the same time, however, it will make things take more time, will require changing the entire medium of teaching, students can cheat more easily, and games are likely to be a problem.
The Indiana University Kelley School of Business did a study for the school corporation to see what was needed to implement the new technology smoothly. In doing so, it recommended several steps be taken: take ownership of the change, map it out, go in stages, and get everybody involved.
To follow those steps, Gardiner said, RBBCSC will revise its mission statement to reflect its new technological goals, vocalize its mission and reach out to teachers.
Administrative Assistant Tom Norris said that the mission statement committee had recommended changes to the mission statement. The old statement and the new one are on the website so that those interested can compare and give feedback.
Jimmie Durnil, vice president of the school board, asked what the school was doing to combat students playing games during class and how they could prevent cheating.
“Classroom management has to be different now. It used to be that you could stand in front of the classroom and see what was going on. Now you can’t, because they can be behind the iPad or their laptop and they can’t see what’s going on. So there’s a lot more moving around in the room,” Gardiner said.
She added that the capacity for gaming would be removed from the iPads for the next school year.
Board Secretary Debra Walcott asked if students had received any training to use the iPads properly for schoolwork.
“This has happened so quickly that we, as adults, have learned more slowly on the ethical and response use of technology. Kids have not and, suddenly, they’re having to make some decisions that we’ve not maybe given them training as well as we should have, so we need to step that up and we have plans on doing that,” Gardiner told her.
Larry Thrasher asked how Twitter and Facebook fit into the picture. Gardiner was ambivalent about Twitter, noting that it had great potential as learning tool, but, unlike adults, students tended to use it to communicate with each other, so it is also a distraction. Facebook is blocked.
“Teachers have been stepping out of their comfort zones and allowing students to learn in different ways. It’s not what we call ‘sit and get’ education anymore. Teachers are allowing students to be participants in the knowledge search and in the learning,” Linda May, Edgewood High School digital learning coach, told the board.
School Board President Dana Kerr asked how the assignments were different from what students were doing before, as it seemed like his daughter was still doing worksheets.
“Some of (the teachers) still need the training to turn the iPads into tools for learning,” May answered. Teachers first received the iPads at the same time as the students.
“If I could go back and redo anything, it would be to give the teachers a year with the iPads first,” EHS Principal Dick Ackerman said.
Board member Randy Wright expressed some concern that the school corporation was moving ahead with the technology plan too quickly, though he was supportive of the use of technology overall.
“We need to slow down. Even in the (IU) program, they’re saying ‘take your time and slow down.,” he said.
“It’s really not about a particular app of a particular piece of technology. It’s that they can find answers to what they’re looking for using a piece of technology,” May summed it up.
Over the course of the discussion, Kerr asked several times to see an ideal integrated technology lesson. Gardiner asked the corporation’s digital learning coaches to give a presentation on the subject before the end of the school year.
Chair of the Anti-Bullying Task Force Jerry Pittsford updated the school board on his task force’s progress. They have conducted a thorough study of the situation, though they have not yet done a deep assessment of their data.
The group has determined the date of their public forum. It will be held on March 26 at 7 p.m. in the EHS auditorium. Judge Frances Hill has committed to moderate the discussion.
RBBCSC Superintendent Steven Kain announced a refinancing deal that would save taxpayers $40,000 every year for seven years.
“I think as good stewards, we ought to do this sort of thing when we can,” Kain said.
Other business at the Feb. 18 school board meeting included the approval of the EHS volleyball team’s field trip to the University of Michigan for volleyball camp in July, Jeff Farmer’s inquiry about starting a “hardwood club” for K-12 basketball players, and an addendum to pay Randy Arms’ bus driver contracts more slowly as bus drivers can no longer claim unemployment during the summer.
It was announced that EHS Social Studies Teacher Robert Dodson and Edgewood Junior High School Sixth Grade Teacher Michael Reagan would be retiring effective at the end of the academic year. Alex Burns was appointed to the position of EJHS diving coach.
The next meeting of the RBBCSC school board will be held at the school service center on March 18 at 7 p.m.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2013. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.