Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic

Technology — The school district makes strides in several areas

When district instructional tech coordinator Luke Neff made periodic updates to the Newberg School District board of directors during the 2014-2015 school year, it was often to share what the district needed to do and how far it needed to go in order to complete a successful digital conversion.

This year, Neff’s updates are about what has been done, how far the district has come and what it will be doing this year to ensure teachers have the training and technology to foster 21st century learning for Newberg students.

Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza said she has been impressed with how quickly Neff has achieved progress, saying he has created a synergy among various teachers, departments and administrators, especially director of teaching and learning Stafford Boyd.

“It is incredibly fun to watch it all come together,” LeBlanc-Esparza said following Neff and Boyd’s presentation on “Vision 2020” at the Oct. 13 board meeting. “What you saw there was Luke being able to articulate for the board how all these pieces are coming together. We truly are a system and it’s all fitting together nicely, all working toward the same goal.”

Neff characterized digital conversion as “a shift for curriculum, for teachers, and for students to an education that is collaborative, connected, customizable and dynamic, in which every student has access to 1:1 technology,’ and laid out the various ways the district will upgrade teaching and learning this school year.

Foremost among those are the 15 Innovation Teams that are piloting various instructional technology programs and systems that will later be scaled up district wide if proven to be successful after a two-year trial process.

Just as important as the infusion of 1,600 new student devices that were added over the summer, including nearly 1,300 going to the Innovation Teams, is taking the proper approach to using them, which Neff stressed must never be to simply add new technology for its own sake.

“We have all these devices, but they don’t just automatically make education better,” Neff said to the board. “We need to use them in the best way we can, so we have a formula.”

That formula include three main strategies — Understanding by Design, Universal Design for Learning and SAMR — that will guide the district’s work in developing instructional technology.

SAMR, which stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redfinition, is a test to which staff can subject instructional technology to see if it is truly transformative.

For example, if an app installed on student devices simply substitutes another educational tool, but doesn’t functionally change it or merely augments it, it is considered an “enhancement” and fails the SAMR test.

If the technology modifies a task in a way that allows it to be significantly redesigned or allows for the creation of new tasks that were previously inconceivable, it is considered a “transformational” and passes.

Neff also updated the board on progress the district tech department has made on its top-nine priorities, from restructuring the department, which has included the addition of new staff, to creating and funding emerging technology pilots, which is exactly what the Innovation Teams are.

The influx of devices has helped improve the ratio of student devices at district schools nearer to, and in some cases above, the 1:1 ratio, but figuring out how to budget for future pushes and establish a sustainable cycle for devices will be a major focus moving forward.

“We’re by no means where we want to be yet,” LeBlanc-Esparza said. “We can see it. We’ve got the clear vision for it. It’s just a matter of being able to sustain it.”