Equity+of+Distribution+of+Devices

Distribution of Devices
A common question for educators is: how is distribution of devices decided and by whom? The answer to that question is not a simple one. In fact, many schools, school districts, and individual schools within school districts often follow a protocol that they deem appropriate. This means that many different possibilities exist and have been both effective and less-effective.

First, one school surveyed, a small school with about 300 students all in one building decided to distribute technology tools to teachers that the principal felt would use them. The principal sat down with a technology team comprised of teachers from within the building and they brainstormed a list of teachers that they felt were comfortable using the current technology and who would be open to trying iPad implementation. They then provided one-to-one iPads to those teachers. These teachers are meant to be a "pilot," and the teachers who have success with implementing the technology are charged with developing professional development for the faculty whose classes did not receive ipads. Then, when more funding becomes available, ipads will be purchased for those classes/teachers as well. This model is just one of many ways to start handing out technology, it may be more productive in a smaller setting because of less issue with politics and other concerns that may arise due to "fairness."

Another school surveyed was a school district of about 30,000 students. This district has 25 elementary schools, 8 middle schools, 3 high schools, and five alternative education centers. The district has a technology department comprise of many technology specialists, technicians, and administrators. In this case only 10,000 ipads were purchased and the plan of action is to find the classrooms with the least about of technological resources, in schools with the lowest income and poorest achieving students per the ISAT/ACT/PSAE and provide both the hardware and the professional development for teachers, staff, parents, and students. The idea is that the increased use of technology will foster more independent learning and thus, improve test scores.

A school in Austin, Texas had another idea similar to the "pilot" idea in the smaller school listed above. It had to be modifyed to meet the needs of a much larger district. To participate in the pilot, teachers had to complete a Google form application, describing how they anticipated using iPads in the classroom (Foote, 15). In this case most of the teachers who filled out the Google form were upperclassmen instructors so the decision was made to implement usages in 11th and 12th grade with a few additional students being included. "To prepare for the implementation, all teachers were issued iPads during the summer and attended in-service sessions to become more familiar with the tool’s functionality. A trial rollout was done with a few students in the late summer to smooth out any kinks before actually “rolling out” the devices to the general student body as a whole. Also during the summer, a team of mentor teachers organized and planned fall in-service sessions around using various features of the iPad. And on Day 3 of school, in English classrooms across the building, iPads were issued to all of the students in the pilot. (Many of the details chronicling the common apps used, the method of distribution, and other technical details can be found on the blog for the pilot at http://eanes wifi.blogspot.com.) (Foote, 16).

One school district, in Las Vegas, Nevada purchased one-to-one ipads for four high schools in their district which includes 1,150 students and cost nearly $800,000. This is one of the largest purchases and implementation of iPads in the country. They've purchased the ipads with an interactive, innovative math textbook and is aiming at high school algebra as the subject to be targeted for improvement. They've been highly criticized for their spending on technology in the past. In the past five years the district has spent $33 million on technology and thus far have not impacted scores on standardized tests. Jhone Ebert, the Chief Technology Officer for Clark County School District was quoted as saying, "We're not focused on having the latest and greatest. We're focused on "is this a tool that will help our students achieve? There's always a fear of something new. We need to get over that fear (Takahashi, 10)." This district may not be a model of how to implement all technology but they're trying new technology and have a clearly articulated approach. The math scores are low, what can we do to improve them? This may be a plausible plan for your school/district as well.

Please view this video for more resources.

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[|http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/04/school-administrators-as-leaders-of-ipa...]

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