In the last few decades, the education system in the United States has taken a stance

towards technology integration within the classrooms. While many schools are making great

advances with technology by becoming 1:1 or 1:30 with chromebooks, laptops or ipads, they are

forgetting the vital infrastructure to implementing technology. The deficit of our schools/district

are that the technology needs of our teachers are not being met and having the funds to replace

technology when it no longer works.

Several schools have taken different approaches to tackling the budget costs to repair or

upgrade technology when needed. Many schools across our nation have looked at various

options to save within their budget to replace or replace technology. Several schools have looked

inside their district for help in repairs. “Students were charged with installing equipment in the

conference rooms; this saved around $20,000 when compared to quotes from professional

installers.” (Van Roekel, 2012, pg.14). Tusch (2012) states, “ We revisited our financial plan,

dropped the coverage with the insurance company and moved maintenance and repairs in-house.

Our staff received the required training to become certified to perform the repairs, and we

removed the additional overhead involved with a third-party provider. As a result, we sharply

reduced our costs and experienced a more efficient turnaround with laptop repairs.”(pg.42-43).

Teachers across the nation are not given the support to integrate technology into their

classrooms. Many teachers do not want a once in a while training with technology. They prefer

to have someone on sight to help as soon as the need arises. The following study found “

Lowther, Inan, Strahl, and Ross (2008) found that including full-time, on-site technology

coaches at a school significantly increased teachers’ confidence in integrating new technologies,

as well as enhanced teachers’ technology skills.” (Sugar, W. s., & Tryon, P., 2014, pg.55). The

article states, “Teacher attitudes toward the teaching and learning of technology and the school’s
infrastructure were significantly higher in schools that employed a full-time technology

facilitator over those that had reduced or eliminated the position (Stanhope & Corn, 2014).”

(Lewis, 2016, pg.17).

I propose that our district takes a very close look at our budget to find the financial

support needed to put a technology coach at each school. I propose that they also find the

financial support to train and certify more staff to be able to repair our technology tools in our

schools. I think these solutions will have a greater positive effect on integrating technology.

Teachers will have the one on one support they need immediately at their schools. We would be

able to repair our tools quicker and more efficiently if more staff was trained instead of putting in

a ticket and waiting on the IT department to come and solve the problem.

The District is actually trying regular large screen TV's because they have have become

more reasonably priced as they become more common. So far, they've put a 65" and a 70" in

two classrooms that are close in proximity at Brewer. It is working for the history teacher after

they solved the glare problem. The one in the math classroom is not working so well because

there is so much writing and explaining and demonstrating in math. The district realizes that:

(1) the projectors' and interactive boards' life expectancy is coming to an end all about the same

time because we built new schools and remodeled old ones around the same time. (2)

projecting in the classroom is no longer "one size fits all" (3) devices cannot be teacher specific

or room specific because teachers move rooms, change grades and leave the district and/or

retire (4) boards with built in computers are amazing, but they are cost prohibitive to use all

across the district and really offer more technology than we would actually use in a classroom.

District 50 is piloting different technology in 6 elementary rooms, as well as some middle

and high school classrooms.

 References

Lewis, M. m. (2016). Professional Learning Facilitators in 1:1 Program Implementation:

Technology Coaches or School Librarians?. School Libraries Worldwide, 22(2), 13-23.

Sugar, W. s., & Tryon, P. (2014). Development of a Virtual Technology Coach to Support

Technology Integration for K-12 Educators. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To

Improve Learning, 58(3), 54-62.

TUSCH, E. e. (2012). Expect Surprises with 1-to-1 Laptops. Education Digest, 78(3), 41-45.

Van Roekel, J. (2012). BEYOND DAILY SET-UP: PROFESSIONAL AND STUDENT

STAFF COLLABORATE ON TECHNOLOGY UPGRADE. Bulletin Of The

Association Of College Unions International, 80(4), 12-15.