In devising a plan for the technology overhaul, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District must consider cost-effective options that will give teachers and students effective and interactive tools while working seamlessly with the coming campus renovation and maximizing lifespan.
MBUSD has already taken a step in the right direction by convening a comprehensive technology committee made up of teachers, parents, administrators, classified staff and other stakeholders broken into six subcommittees.
Each of these groups is each tasked with individual responsibilities, like assessing new products and software platforms, evaluating installation and developing a comprehensive five-year plan for overhauling the school district’s technology.
In order to be able to develop an effective plan for the district, the committee must accurately diagnose the wide-ranging problems with the current state of technology.
If the five-year plan is going to feature Internet-based cloud computing, Mira Costa’s campus will need faster and more accessible internet connections. Currently, the internet connection is sluggish on the few directly connected computers available to students.
Not only is connectivity a problem, but there are still teachers and students who do not use the few resources that Costa has available. Some teachers don’t maintain a class website at all, while others still don’t use Grade Book Wizard, despite the fact that they are required to do so.
Likewise, some students fail to take advantage of many useful electronic study tools at their disposal, such as online textbook activities and study questions.
In order to solve these problems, the committee’s plan must include strategies that teachers can use in order to more easily incorporate helpful tools into their current teaching procedures. Doing so could require extensive polling of teachers to learn what technologies would augment their teaching styles.
Additionally, the committee needs to prioritize strategies that are cost-effective and that will last for years to come.
For example, the existing email infrastructure could be replaced by a more advanced system like the free Google Apps for Education suite, which consists of email through the GMail interface, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and other online applications.
This would provide students with their own school email addresses, as well as a uniform system in which students and teachers alike can view and share documents, class calendars, and other important information.
The committee must also heavily consider the future relationship between mobile computing and education. Colleges and universities across the country have successfully brought mobile computing into education, and Costa should too.
Many members of the committee have acknowledged that mobile devices will become a significant part of K-12 education as well. The district must develop a plan that allows for mobile devices to be incorporated into the learning environment.
Incorporating these devices will offer students easier and more compact learning methods like e-textbooks, multimedia note-taking and interactive study tools.
Implementing mobile computing in the classroom will require creating a reliable Wi-Fi network that provides access to the internet from any corner of the campus.
Principal Ben Dale, Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews and MBUSD are laudably committed to tackling the technology problem. In order to maximize the benefits of enhanced technology, the committee needs to consider changes that give teachers and students innovative and interactive tools which will vastly improve Costa.
It’s good MBUSD is looking at these issues. But none of this will ever show up on your transcripts for college. The only items that will are bonefide technology courses like AP Computer Science. This school can do whatever it likes, it still has below average admission rates to UC Berkeley and UCLA because there is no technology curriculum.