Education is changing, both as a result of technology and changes like those in the BC Education plan that put a greater emphasis on personalized education to provide students with teaching matched to the different ways children learn.
Technology is not essential to personalized learning but it does enable it in many ways and makes it more possible for teachers to incorporate more ways of learning and more flexibility into their interactions with students.
In general the school approach to IT has been very ad hoc. Teachers, schools, students and parents have taken it upon themselves to invest in and explore the use of technology to different degrees. This is generally good but has led to a fragmented set of tools, practices and experience throughout the district. As the needs for investments have increased from PACs in terms of tools, from teachers in learning from the District in infrastructure and training there is a need to put a framework around these investments so we can have a constructive conversation about them, figure out best practices and tie the investments to the results we want to achieve.
A recognition of this need has lead to the introduction this year of a request for school IT plans that are tied to the educational needs of students, the professional development needs of teachers and the necessary tools via the school plans
At our October general meeting we had a presentation from Monty Bell, Director of Learning Services and David Jennings, Director of Information and Communications Technology on the District's efforts to raise the level of technology usage in schools through the newly introduced school tech plans which intend to help schools match their technology needs to the educational goals in the school plans.
PACs are being asked to play a role here by participating in the discussion to connect the IT equipment support we often provide to the IT needs of the school by ensuring they are matched to educational goals. This is the start of a process across the district. We have a lot to learn from each other about how this could work and it was clear from the discussion that ensued that it is the start of a lot of interesting discussions.
At NorthVanPAC we will be working with the District IT committee to help carry this message to PACs and help us as parents share best practices about the use of technology in schools and how to effectively develop these school IT plans.
We look forward to discussing this effort with PACs and your feedback on how to make IT investments successful for students.
The discussion was very interesting. I would like to see the energy and momentum from that discussion carried forward into some kind of community forum on the topic of IT in the classroom. Is it possible for DPAC to take on organizing some sort of "coffee house" or forum on the topic?
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