New Canaan Public Schools’ New Tech Vision

Technology inside the classroom is changing at a rapid pace nationwide—and New Canaan won’t be left behind.

In a presentation to the board of education Monday evening, Robert Miller, director of technology for the district, presented the district’s proposal for a new technology plan to be rolled out over the next three years.

The plan comes on the heels of state guidelines, which were a response to the federal National Technology Plan, released by the U.S. Department of Education in the fall of 2010. According to Miller, response from the board was positive and the board will vote on the plan at their June 4 meeting. Pending approval, the plan will be sent to the state for the June 15 deadline.

“One of the first main goals is enriching learning experiences and making sure students are actively engaged in 21st century learning,” said Miller.

New Canaan schools will begin exploring blended learning, which combines traditional classroom experiences with technology. According to Miller, the district will also look at 1:1 learning approaches, which means each student has their own technology device, whether it be providing every student with a laptop or tablet computer or creating a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) environment.

“The district needs to decide what the appropriate level would be for this technology plan, whether it’s just high school students, middle school, or—they may surprise us—and say elementary students as well,” said Miller.

There are sweeping changes on the horizon across the nation in terms of how students are assessed. The Common Core State Standards, a nationally aligned mathematics and language arts curriculum which currently 48 states including Connecticut have signed on to, are set to reach schools by 2014 and the assessments that correspond with them will change as well.

One state led group, the SMARTER Balanced Consortium, has laid out the framework so in the coming years students will be taking these revised assessments, such as the Connecticut Mastery Tests, online. Even further down the road, by the 2016-2017 school year, 25 percent of assessments will be required to be done on a tablet computer.  Eventually, the writing portion of exams will be evaluated through artificial intelligence as well.

“Students need to be prepared to be assessed on the same tools that they’re learning on,” said Miller.

Another component of the plan is updating the district’s technology infrastructure to support all the changes being found inside the classroom. One of the first items on the district’s agenda for tackling this plan is implementing a high capacity wireless network this summer, said Miller. The district will also begin a migration to the cloud, including email, and not solely through server based data.

STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—is another huge focal point the district hopes to focus on, according to Miller. The district hopes to focus on STEM subjects through technology in an effort to further enrich learning experiences for students.

“There is a major focus on STEM across the nation, and we want to do our part here in New Canaan,” said Miller.

The plan will be voted on by the board of education on June 4 and any changes or recommendations the board has will be made prior to submitting the district’s proposal to the state for June 15.