Local school officials present eCitizen plan

The Monroe County Community School Corporation Information Services team is working to increase the number of iPads at schools, as well as the amount of time students spend engaging with technology.

IS officials presented updates and general information about the eCitizen curriculum that will be implemented this coming school year.

Schools in the corporation currently have more than 6,500 computers, 4,500 iPads and 150 white boards.

Terry Daugherty, coordinator for Instructional Technology, said the corporation is working to help students interpret their roles in a technological world.

“We want to make sure they understand their responsibility,” he said.

The IS team designated a website, help.mccsc.edu, to help teachers and other administrators with technology in classrooms. Each school building has its own technicians to troubleshoot problems.

The Digital Learning Team was created last year to support teachers in the classroom. The team consists of five individuals, two involved with elementary schools, one with middle schools and two with high schools.

The team is aiding teachers and students in utilizing instructional tools such as My Big Campus, Google Apps for Education, Google Drive, Splashtop Interactive Whiteboard and AirServer/AppleTV.

Jason Taylor, director of IS, said the team is working to provide students the opportunity to bring their own electronic devices to school as well as “MCCSC-on-the-go,” which would enable students and staff to access MCCSC resources from any device.

The corporation wants to implement the Digital Citizen Curriculum throughout the school year and work using feedback from schools.

“eCitizen is a digital literacy and citizenship curriculum to help educators empower their students and their school communities to be safe, responsible, and savvy as they navigate with 21st century skills in this fast-paced digital world” was stated in the presentation.

“It makes sense that we really start putting digital citizenship in place as a norm,” Daugherty said.

There are four standards the team wants to achieve: digital citizenship, media literacy, cyber ethics and personal safety. Daugherty said each of these standards can be broken down to be more age-specific. Some of the board members expressed concerns and asked questions.

Sue Wanzer expressed the problem that parents might think students are only spending time on computers and iPads. Daugherty said although technology will always be important in today’s world no-one is going to convince science teachers to give up test tubes.

Board President Keith Klein asked how the corporation would be able to convince people of the need of technology in classrooms. Taylor said it is necessary to find employment keep employment, for no matter what profession one is in, they will interact with technology.

Taylor was congratulated by the board for the progress his team has made during his two and a half years on the job.