Ivy Nelson is the Technology Integration Coordinator at Belton School District. In this New Leadership discussion, Nelson stresses the importance of digital citizenship in the school district. According to Nelson, “We're trying to get a handle on everything. So that, number one, we feel like we have done a good job to prepare our staff to teach in a one-to-one environment, to prepare our students for that. And then when we get to the point where we're sending all of these devices home in a true one-to-one environment, we want our families to feel confident as well. So this was all part of some digital literacy that we're working on, but the big part of that is digital citizenship. So that's where we're starting, our focus for our tech PD. And this is from teacher feedback in our district from last year. So we're focusing on digital citizenship. We are focusing on classroom management in a one-to-one classroom and then specific district-provided tech resources.
“We had taken on revamping all of our curriculum several years ago and it's a continual process always, right? So that was a big thing. And when we shut down, it was a scramble to have good resources and being, being consistent with online resources. And the thing that we found most helpful, we were really consistent about, ‘Okay, if you've been using Seesaw, if you've been using Google classroom, if you've been using Canvas in our secondaries, just stick with that and communicate with parents through that resource, we don't want people to overwhelm themselves by finding all these new things to try and new resources to try, like we're going to be consistent with what we're doing.’
“So we're substituting, we're augmenting. Um, but that was what we needed to do in that moment. Now we can be more proactive and we can grow on that and get better and do more innovative things once we have the basics, which was where our one-to-one buildings were, they transitioned very easily. It was our other buildings who weren't familiar with the technology. And then it made it harder too, because they didn't have the consistent devices for every student, it was just whatever the kid had at home.”
Don’t miss this fascinating discussion on the importance of digital leadership throughout the district strata. You’ll enjoy the straight-forward way Nelson and her team traversed the digital stream to ensure her district’s learners always got the most from their resources – and there are a lot of lessons here for your own district to use.
