Upper Dublin Schools to Move to ‘21st Century’
The school district is looking to enact a 3-part plan … to move to the cloud.
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Upper Dublin School District’s Director of Technology Stephanie Hultquist showed a video to the school board and to the audience at the meeting Monday night. The video, from a school district in Canada, had no dialogue, just words flashing on the screen. It asked the audience to remember the last time they: used a payphone, adjusted the tracking on a VCR or used liquid corrective fluid. It also suggested that textbooks, desks and report cards are soon to be heading the way of the LaserDisc and the Walkman.
The presentation then got localized.
Hultquist laid out a technology plan for the school district for the next couple of years — “A Vision for 21st Century Learning Environments.” In it, the school district would essentially phase out things like textbooks and standard computer labs in favor of cloud-based learning.
The project would happen in three steps. First, the school district would build a K through 12 wireless infrastructure; it would include beefing up existing network security and allowing for seamless access for guests, students and faculty.
Phase two includes developing a digital curriculum — using cloud-based software like “Curriculum Loft,” which would allow teachers to distribute assignments, or “push” assignments to students’ portable devices. In turn, students would be able to submit assignments through the network. Ultimately the teachers' grading process would be incorporated into the the system.
The last part of the program would be a BYOD (bring your own device) or tablet rollout for students.
“Students are in a changing learning environment and we have to adjust and adapt to that,” Hultquist said.
Building the infrastructure for the K-8 buildings, including access points (APs) and power over Ethernet switches (PoE) — will cost about $166,000 with about $5,500 in recurring support costs. Obtaining the “Curriculum Loft” software will cost about $22,000 with about $3,000 in recurring support costs. And each tablet would cost about $650 to $675.
The Upper Dublin Educational Foundation has donated $60,000 to the project, and the remainder of the money will come from the district’s capital and educational technology operations budget.
“It’s a proposal, but it’s more of a vision, a direction, especially in an area that changes so rapidly,” Superintendent Michael Pladus said. “This is not possible without funding support from the educational foundation and various parent groups.”
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Todd Packer
9:32 am on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
I've got an idea: Let's give everyone a tablet, stop teaching the basics, and the answer to every question for every subject can be "Google it". This generation's going to be in trouble..
Curmudgeon
12:20 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
I have an idea, why not let the teacher TEXT the lesson and have the students, TEXT their answers back, then there would be no need for any personal interaction. More real ZONBIES!!!
justme
12:36 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
I am sorry....am I delusional....we are talking about cutting programs and teachers at school because we have a 2 million dollar deficit, and in the same breath we are talking about spending all of this money for WHAT????? Oh and it will need to be funded by parent groups?????? There is not a need for any of this, it is a nicety..on the other hand there is a need for some of these programs that are being cut and some great teachers that may be cut along with them....do not think we should be talking about anything that is going to cost more money....just things that can be revenue producing instead of always thinking it is OK to tax the community to make up for the deficit....it is not OK with this community member.
qdogPa
12:41 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Why do you need a car, why not a horse!!! Why go to the grocery store for food, why not grow your iwn food and hunt your own meat...unbelievable how narrow minded some people are...if you want to argue costs,fine, but to say why have a smartboard as opposed to a chalk board is comical, if it weren't so sad
Don M
12:44 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
More technology snake oil... this is a great example of a solution looking for a problem. Remember hearing about the "house of the future" that would connect your coffee maker to the Internet so you could activate it on your way home? Sounded great, but what problem did it really attempt to solve?
Smart boards: show me how education has improved against the costs to acquire, maintain and instruct on their usage. I bet most teachers have absolutely no practical use for them.
Same thing here... people who don't know what they are doing, working without a clear plan and simply throwing money at a new toy.
Back in my engineering days we'd actually need to provide project justification including long-term budget, quantifiable and non-quantifiable goals. What's the justification here? I'd rather see that $60,000 go towards saving something that may be on the chopping block, like an art teacher.
This UDEF sounds like it's as big of a boondoggle as the district it supports.
Bill
1:12 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
How many teachers will it eliminate and their exorbitant benefit package?
qdogPa
1:55 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Dresher mom, you are right, there is no place for computers screens,tablets,etc in the real world,lol....the REAL world, whether you choose to ackknowledge it, is TECHNOLOGY....and Don M, perhaps we should revert back to a slide rule, as they worked fine back in the day!! And who needs a calculator, an abacus does the same job,nithing but technology snake oil. ;)
Don M
9:30 am on Thursday, March 7, 2013
This is a lazy argument. No one has claimed that technology isn't important or useful in the real world. The claim is that it's expensive and this plan has no stated expectations of its benefits to education. (This, by the way, is precisely the problem that got the district into its current situation: lack of prudent planning, but I digress).
Remember the dot-com bubble? Lots of crazy ideas and solutions that never solved any real problems and as a result most went under costing billions of dollars. Education technology investments MUST be preceded with a strategic plan of how it will be used, how instructional methods will be changed to support it, and a clear list of expected benefits. Otherwise we'll have huge fields of unused wireless bandwidth and a bunch of aging tablets to maintain without any real practical use.
I'm not a luddite, I'm an engineer who believes in investing wisely into thoroughly considered programs. Keep in mind, ongoing maintenance costs of this stuff are very high: IT support personnel, equipment upgrades every 4-5 years, utility costs, instruction support, new software, and beyond. This is not a one-time investment.
Donna
2:22 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Where's Board member Robinson. Haven't seen him the past three meetings. Is he Henry Higgins??
justme
2:44 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Actually..i heard he is harold hill in a synogogue show....i had heard he has rehearsals on mondays...wonder how he can be absent from so many boatd meetings for that...isnt the school board the priority?
justme
2:48 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Nobody is saying technology is not thecway ofcthe future..but when programs and teachers are at risk of being eliminated...we can do without the high tech stuff for now..the new school is high tech enough for now..every time a new i phone comes out does not mean you have to buy it..the older version still wor. Better than fine.
Donna
3:39 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
My bad: Harold Hill, the con man??
qdogPa
4:32 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
The real culprit in this whole debacle is NOT new tech,or such but pension obligations to UDSD staff and to a lesser extent salary and benefits also...i have no problem with contributing to an activity fee,but it won't solve the problem,but is a step in right direction...i think staying current with tech is important also,but there needs to be a cost effective way of paying for it...
JB
8:17 am on Sunday, March 10, 2013
UDEF cannot fund a teacher by its charter. If the UDSD does not use the funds they will lose the funds. We are supposed to be an A class district but we are not keeping up with technology. Some books are old. Common core is going to require a curriculum adjustment. So technology based learning is probably the way to go. Unfortunately I feel there will still need to be a back up plan. What happens if the server crashes and cannot be brought back for a week? No school. Hope not?! There is a lot that needs to still be considered.