Factors to Consider When Implementing Ed Tech

 

I was asked to identify factors that could impact the success of a technology improvement or initiative.

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Response:

 

While there is no Gold in Texas, we have our fair share of oil and business to bring people to our area. There are plenty of areas in and around Houston where on one side of the tracks, or fence as it may be, are multi-million dollar homes and the other side is low income apartments or rundown neighborhoods. Under any just about any freeway, you can find the poorest area residents. According to a 2018 Forbes Magazine, we had the same number of billionaires as Silicon Valley at the time of the textbook- thirteen. Plenty of money runs through Houston and out into its surrounding communities, but similar to Silicon Valley, it is not equally distributed.

My district is one of the highest ranking in the state, but my high school is one of the lower rated in the district. While there is tremendous support from parents for the district as a whole, I believe there may be pockets of parents that are more hands-off.

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Technology has been established as an important part of our curriculum. The district has gone so far as to apply and earn the distinction as a District of Innovation to pursue avenues of greater student gains. Because of that, I think generally parents would support an option for computers at school beyond the personal 1:1 device. However, I think convincing school personnel would be difficult for the same reason. Students already have the opportunity to check out a device that is theirs to keep for the duration of their high school career. There should be no need for additional devices. Unfortunately, the 1:1 system is not foolproof or 100% and there are students who don’t have personal devices checked out to them at all and then there are times when a student accidentally leaves their device at home (or at their grandmother’s over the weekend), or their device becomes damaged and they must suffer for not having it. I’d have to show the number of students on any given day who can’t participate in class because of the lack of a device to get any attention at all. Hopefully, it would be enough to show that the additional devices would have a positive effect o the campus as a whole, but not so many that the cost would outweigh the benefits.