Leadership & Technology Blog

When you hear mention of the digital divide, you probably think of the people who don't have access to computers or broadband, either at home or at school. You probably think of the scramble that took place in an attempt to give children access to their education when the pandemic hit and our world went virtual.  You probably think of the discrepancy between those schools that are loaded with all the latest technology and those with very limited resources.  Though these differences in resources are a large part of the digital divide, it is only the first part of the inequity. You could provide equal technology to all schools and make sure that everyone has reliable broadband and you still would not solve the problem.  We also need to ensure that we are providing equal education around the use of technology, by providing all students with a solid digital citizenship curriculum. Giving students the technology and not providing them with instruction around how to use it safe...

Digital equity is and should continue to be a concern in education. We are fortunate to be in Vermont where the per pupil spending ranks second highest in the nation, as of last year.  Report Outlines How Vt Education Spending Stacks Up . However, even within Vermont you can see dramatic differences in school budgets. Tax payers vote on their school budgets annually and some towns have had their budgets voted down many times over the years, while others pass easily. Over time, this has created a large gap in resources between schools. My group spent time learning about the Metaverse over the last few weeks. It is easy to get excited about the educational possibilities that the Metaverse offers as seen in the commercial below.  The Metaverse will be able to offer virtual experiences like traveling back in time during history classes, completing a dissection without killing a frog, practicing a foreign language on a virtual trip to another country, and even traveling through spa...

 I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a Meta Quest 2 headset from the tech integrationist at our high school. He gave me a quick introductory lesson on how to use it. He walked me through the menus and showed me how to exit out of the different apps. He explained to me that I was getting the full menu of what is available, while a student would only see the space that he had assigned them to be. He explained that the accounts he has are generic school accounts and not linked to any student's personal information. I was reassured to know that privacy and security for students does not need to be a concern.  This morning, I set aside a couple hours to "play". Since I forgot the charger at school, a couple hours was all that I could do. I had the chance to try out quite a few of the apps. I was looking for the apps that would be most useful to me in a classroom. I explored one travel app, thinking that a virtual field trip would be fun. I was not as impressed as I expecte...

                                                  photo credit: Brian A Jackson When I looked at the Technology Adoption Curve, I knew immediately that I am neither an innovator nor an early adopter. I approach every change with what I like to consider a healthy dose of skepticism. I have never been one to wait in line for the newest technology if I had something that was meeting my needs perfectly fine. I even had a hard time making the transition from MySpace to Facebook back in the day. Why would I want to give up the wonderful feature of having my favorite song play when someone opened my page? I could list many other examples of change being hard for me, but it would just make everyone question what I am doing working on an EdTech endorsement. The change that I am going to focus on right now though is whe...

  I used Word Art to create this visual for my blog post about a leader that I admire. I like it. This was my first time using word art and I found it to be very easy to navigate. I think it can be a great way to get input from large groups about what they value or what they need, and then share the results with them. It is a simple way to display what the group feels, needs or values. It could help contribute to a culture of open communication.

I am having trouble picking just one bright spot as I have been given some great opportunities over the last few years to observe numerous bright spots in technology.  A few years ago, we had an assistant principal who knew that I was pursuing an EdTech endorsement and also knew that our school was a bit behind the times with technology. He formed a committee to bring a MakerSpace to our school. After securing the funding and bringing some great technology to our school, we were still struggling to get people to use the new technology since we have no tech integrationist at our school and, as we know,"change is hard".  After offering a bunch of after school workshops on how to use the new technology with little to no attendance, he came up with a new plan. This plan was to make me the "bright spot" in our school. He knew that I was open to using new technology but definitely not confident with my skills in technology. He also knew that I see every class in the schoo...