As we aim to empower students and teachers with instant access to their digital learning resources and productivity tools, we are given the incredible opportunity to work with passionate partners to help us support you in raising student achievement and progress. We are keen to introduce you to our wonderful partners through our regular Partner Spotlight series.
In the School District of Pickens County, our goal is to be “Digital on Day One” so our students and teachers have access on the very first day of school to the devices and content they need. We have been working toward this goal for five years now and have made some key decisions around software, professional development, and network infrastructure to help us reach this goal.
In 2013, under the direction of a new Superintendent, Mr. Tom Wilson, Anderson School District Five had one middle school take a giant leap to provide a Chromebook for each student to use in the classroom for “e-Instruction.” Teachers and students were responsible and eager to “shake up” and “challenge up” to indeed change traditional instruction, so in October 2013, the District supported students to take home the devices.
Sometimes education CIOs have to prioritize very technical problems that non-technical peers might think are a lesser priority, principally because they are not well understood. But when a teacher can’t access her accounts, or a student isn’t finding his work inside a learning application, those problems become all too real, and the priority becomes very clear.
During the past year, I have interacted with many school districts, as well as held numerous meetings with publishers and technology leadership groups such as Microsoft, SEDTA, COSN, IMS Global, EdFi, and ISTE. I must say that I am encouraged by the direction the industry seems to be headed.
ClassLink is committed to providing secure access, privacy, and interoperability in our products while empowering customers, educators, and families to achieve an enhanced level of engagement in their students’ education. With a shared mission to leverage data to create better outcomes for students, save time for teachers, and increase efficiencies for schools, several organizations have come together to create Project Unicorn, an uncommon alliance dedicated to furthering interoperability within the K-12 education space.
In 1988, a friend and mentor, Dr. William Bozeman, Professor Emeritus from the University of Central Florida penned an article for THE Journal that concluded two things that are still valid 30 years later: implementation processes must be taken more seriously by administrators than in the past. Resources without appropriate faculty development will be of little value.
