Four critical questions to ask ourselves when examining technology for our schools…..

Look before you jump to new technology

The vision for our technology use at Fairport Schools has been articulated via the work of the TVT team.  The capital projects are underway to bring us the infrastructure required to realize this vision.  To assist our teachers and administrators with determining what is contemporary technology  versus out-dated technology, we have identified a litmus test that can be applied to technology being considered for Fairport Schools.

1. Is the technology personal to the user?

2. Is the technology accessible over the Internet?

3.  Does it have an easy interface?

4. Can the technology be supported with current IT support services?

If the answer is yes to all four questions, than chances are favorable for this technology to work favorably in our new paradigm.  Let me explore these questions further….

1. Is the technology personal to the user?

20th century technology required a person to start from scratch whenever the person interacted with it.  For example, I would go to the library, search on a computer for a book called “Rifles for Watie”.  The next time I would go to the library the computer would not recognize me and I would start from scratch.  Today, I walk into the library, log on to a computer, and it would recognize me as having borrowed “Rifles for Waite” and recommend other books I might like. For students, everytime they interact with technology it should recognize them, their history, preferences, etc… Mrs. Bantle, FCSD Teacher Center Director is leading a book talk on  Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age by David Rose and Anne Meyer….one aspect of this book is how important it is for us educators to recognize how distinctively different our brains are and to alter our pedagogy to reflect this recognition…well this is at the heart of why we consider “good technology” technology that explicitly recognizes each student individually.

2. Is the technology accessible over the Internet?

Up until now students formal interactions with district owned software were very limiting….For example, in the elementary schools students access such software as Reader Rabbit once every 10-15 days which is when they are able to go to a computer lab AND because the software will only run from a specific machine (s).  Today, the vast majority of educational software is web based because schools today demand that this software be accessible to any student with Internet access.  By considering software that is web based we dramatically increase the potential impact that it might have on students.

3.  Does it have an easy interface?

Steve Jobs, when he introduced the iPhone in 2007 he spoke to why “smartphones” are really “dumb phones” because they are too complicated for the average person. …their interfaces are non-intuitive….well so too does this hold for technology to be used by our students and staff.  When considering new hardware and software we must pilot these systems with a variety  of folks to ensure that the interface is indeed intuitive….because if is not the technology will not be used!

4. Can the technology be supported?

Cutting edge technology is often called bleeding edge technology because of the many quarks and technical problems that new technology always presents….similar technology that has not been update or improved as technology has advanced poses just as many if not more problems.  At Fairport we have an extremely sharp group of professional technicians who excel at providing quality support on contemporary technologies, but we only have 7 technicians for approximately 9000 users…that is more than 1000 users per technician.  All it takes is one bad piece of software or hardware…..be it new or old….to bog down our whole support network.   This is why we are very sensitive about carefully screening all software and hardware to be purchased.