Technology utilization reviewed during USD 489 BOE meeting

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

The Hays USD 489 Board of Education heard a review of district technology implementation at Monday’s night meeting, finding progress is proceeding through the summer — but much more still needs done.

The data presented at the meeting began with a survey from the spring 2015 semester, which evaluated categories of integration and use of technology in classrooms. The results began to highlight some of the areas needing addressed through the district, including increased training and upgraded systems.

“You’ll see a lot of our teachers are at a very foundational level,” said Marie Henderson, instructional tech specialist. Despite that low level of technological integration through the district, interest in better integration in the district does not appear to be a hard sell to teachers, staff told board members.

The teachers are “chomping at the bit” to get training, said Shanna Dinkel, director of curriculum. The initial goal was to train a small group at each school, but interest and participation has pushed training ahead of schedule.

While instructing teachers how to better use technology in the classroom is important, it is only a part of the larger implementation.

“We are still developing that professional learning plan,” Dinkel said. The plan will be molded to feedback from current training sessions.

There is an evaluation tied to every training session, “so that feedback is huge,” she said.

While the survey helps evaluate where the district can begin with implementation strategy, the type of survey used will limit its effectiveness.

“It’s basically to let them express where they are at with technology integration with technology in their classrooms,” Henderson said.

While the survey gave the board an overview of where the district is in terms of technology, it did not break down specific areas of implementation based on questions asked.

“Each question is informing the data on more than one category,” Henderson said. “I think we’re going to be able to show growth, but I don’t think we’ll have as much specificity as we wanted to have with this tool.”

In response to that, she is looking for other tools to help evaluate technology implementation in the district.

Overall, she noted teachers seemed excited to see what they can do with new technology as it becomes available as dated systems get replaced through the district.