I have spent close to 40 years in a variety of education roles. During my career, I’ve served as a second-grade teacher, an elementary school principal, an assistant superintendent, and for the past decade, as the senior vice president of partner success at Discovery Education. But recently, I’ve taken on perhaps my most challenging role yet—that is, a new role as a member of my local public school system’s board of directors.
I am excited about the possibilities and the challenges that this role brings. Setting policy, working closely with our district’s outstanding superintendent, making informed and thoughtful budgetary decisions and approving curriculum (my true passion) are all parts of the role that have great impact on the education of our children. I also believe that my background, and in particular, my former positions as a school and district administrator, bring a unique perspective to the role. One area I believe I am uniquely suited to support my school district and its administrators is by helping my fellow school board members understand the natural changes in the education landscape and the innovative ideas and tools driving these changes.
Consider the integration of technology into everyday instruction. This is a new concept for most parents, and certainly for grandparents and many community members. After all, many of us have had tremendous experiences in education and we want to give the children of our communities the same, and an even better, experience. However, just as technology has changed our everyday lives, it’s changed education.
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So, we have some work to do in helping our school boards, our parents and our communities understand how the education landscape has changed, the value of the edtech infrastructure that was built during the COVID-era of education, and how this infrastructure can now be utilized to support the success of all learners and improve achievement.
Here are three key things I’ve learned through my experience that school administrators can do to help school board members understand and support education technology:
1. Understand the why: It’s common for school board members to be asked by community members why certain decisions are made. When it comes to technology, it’s important to clearly articulate the why. Technology can support accessibility to different kinds of resources, provide equitable learning opportunities for students, and ensure differentiation of instruction. School administrators should help school board members understand why different technologies are an integral part of student learning by creating a compelling picture of what the district hopes to achieve through edtech innovations.
2. What’s the purpose? Remember that for the majority of school board members, the use of technology in schools is not an experience they are familiar with. While a variety of digital resources and tools are being incorporated into learning, many technologies are used for different purposes: hall passes, learning management systems, cafeteria lunch payments, etc.
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Ensure that school board members know the purpose of each technology as well as the specifics of it, i.e. Will students be tracked? Will parents be notified? These are often the types of issues that raise concerns with parents and the public. School administrators should provide a clear purpose for each of the different technologies.
A particularly useful way to do this is to have members of your board of directors shadow a student for the day to see how they use the technologies in your school before providing them a primer on each technology’s use. Seeing students using edtech is often very helpful.
3. It’s all about the research: There is clear research on the impact that technology has on different aspects of learning for students. Whether it’s the effects of digital gamification on students’ math fact fluency or the ability of digital resources to bring multimodal learning to the classroom, the research can provide important third-party validation of the use of educational technology in your district.
In addition, be prepared to answer school board members’ questions about the use of specific technologies with data that shows a comprehensive understanding of how the resource substantiates measurable student success specifically aligned with standards-based objectives. A compelling alignment to outcomes and robust evidence of learning should drive a positive decision to continue tech-driven innovations.
In my new role as a member of the board of directors, I anticipate that the integration of technology will be a current and future topic. It’s an important one for many reasons. But, as technology continues to change and innovate, we need to draw on something that’s been around for quite a while: collaboration. School administrators and school boards need to collaborate to make the best technology decisions for students and their learning.
