Page 31 - THE Journal, March/April 2018

and a little bit of money to test it. We had some trailblazers, and they wrote a grant for the Institute for Innovation and it was accepted. They created our first STEAM Room at that school. I worked hand-in- hand with that group of teachers, looking at the tools that were needed, the design of the room, the furniture, the wiring, trying to create that model environment.
THE Journal: What is the role of the CTO in securing funding for any of these STEM or STEAM initiatives?
Hintz: Part of it was looking for technology partners that might want to showcase their products in our space and by doing that, maybe give us a discount for some of their products. An example would be a company, BenQ, they make
an 84-inch, 4K touchscreen display that we put in the library. We put it in an area that we originally called the presentation area. But the presentation area has turned into not only a teaching area, but also what the kids now call their “TED Talk” area. The kids can do presentations and utilize the 84-inch touchscreen for their presentations.
Normally for an 84-inch screen, you’re looking at upwards of $10,000. I was able to get it for $4,200 because they had a sale where, if you buy your first one, like a seed program, you could get it for half price. That was a really good find and anybody can find that. And it worked so well, we were able to show off how we were using it. BenQ came out and saw how we are using it and was able to capitalize on that for themselves, taking some pictures and doing some marketing.
Williamson: I work with them [teachers and staff] on looking at prices. I’ve just spent three days researching, for example,
all the coding tools that are out there
for elementary schools because four of my elementary schools received some money from the district curriculum department to buy those tools. I go out and look at all the vendors. I make price comparisons. My team looks at it and goes, ‘Hey, this tool is not going to be manufactured anymore after July, so you might not want to buy it because you’re not going to get any support on it.’
THE Journal: What challenges have you faced implementing any of these STEM or STEAM initiatives, and how did you overcome any of those challenges? Doersch: Innovation versus policy is definitely one — student data privacy
and security. That continually is an issue because, No. 1, we want to keep our
kids safe, but there are so many things out there now. When we talk about personalized learning, we have to know about our students for personalization
to take place, and so data needs to be shared. Because of that, we have to have agreements in place, and we have to make sure that the companies that we work with are trustworthy and will uphold our expectations of student data privacy.
Hintz: Getting teachers on board with the change in mindset of the use of a library [as a makerspace and STEAM lab] and also the change of mindset of, ‘I can take my class outside my four walls of my classroom now.’ That was a little bit of a challenge. But we marketed the library to the teachers and said, ‘Look, here’s what you can do if you bring your class down here.’ Once we got them to try it, they were signing up left and right, and the librarian had to come up with a pretty elaborate everyday schedule for the use of the different spaces within the library.
Phyall: One of the things is just keeping everyone on the same page, and thinking through the plan. People see something
at a conference and want to come back and implement it. It’s like, ‘OK, that’s great, but that’s not part of the plan.’ Because there are always new products out there. So, trying to keep all parties within the district focused on the initiative that you are focusing on and not hopping to what they just saw here
or there.
The next thing is really understanding
that our curriculum and instruction depart- ment need to be in charge as it relates to 1-to-1 initiatives. A lot of times technology gets ahead and gets the devices and does the setup, but if the curriculum and the teaching and learning is not there, then you’ve wasted a lot of money. It never should be a technol- ogy initiative. The need for the technology should be driven by the instruction.
VerDuin: Sometimes it can be hard
for us to carry through on what our teachers would ideally like. In one of our high schools where we’re bringing a new STEM program online, they really would like to do some pretty fantastic things when it comes to display technology
and having kids working in small collaborative spaces. But sometimes
we just don’t have the physical size of the room or sometimes the technology just doesn’t quite work that easily. So, there are times when we aren’t able to quite meet people’s expectations, but we generally come pretty close.
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.
“Technology has become so pervasive across the entire district.... You name it, technology is in everything we do in a school district.”
—Phil Hintz, director of technology, Gurnee School District in Gurnee, IL
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