Connected Superintendents' Summit
At the beginning of the school year I was invited by the US Department of Education to apply to join other superintendents from across the nation in Washington, D.C. to collaborate on how our districts are implementing digital learning and how we are preparing students to be future ready.
For more information about the Connected Superintendent Summit please click here.
For information about the Future Ready District Pledge please click here.
In this blog, I wanted to share how Palisades School District is implementing digital learning and where you can learn more about our district's technology infrastructure and programming on the district's website.
The Palisades School District is implementing Digital Learning for our students, staff and community in the following ways:
1. Expand mass customized learning with blended and online learning options built from within and led by Palisades teachers and building administrators
2. Expand Palisades Cyber Academy with a hybrid and blended campus for all secondary learners
3. Enhance credit recovery options with online learning
4. Continue to build capacity and efforts to get a device to every student with thin clients, Chromebooks, (Bring Your Own Device) BYOD, and existing infrastructure as our "1 to World" endeavor - The district remains platform agnostic - the only goal is connecting all learners.
5. Partner with other districts to offer diverse and streamlined on-line offerings
6. Develop flexible scheduling options where students can earn credit in non-traditional time periods like summer and evenings - We are also planning an open learning spaces initiative to open our libraries and cyber centers to the Palisades community in the evenings with special events, classes, and other programs
7. Develop “Open-Educational Resource (OER) Elective” opportunities where students can participate in the online learning revolution by enrolling in MOOCs, open courses, and more
8. Build, maintain, and innovate cyber centers in our buildings to offer the entire learning community blended support and learning spaces
9. Build elementary “Immersive Literacy Rooms” with tablets and apps for immersive reading, augmented reality, and virtual reality to make close reading and literacy relevant and multimodal within a comfortable, differentiated environment - Our building technology leaders will be major contributors to how these spaces serve students
10. Provide increased opportunities for community members to learn through our Community Evening School, both in person and online
11. Increase teacher readiness and global competence by promoting and providing professional development for Google certification, national board certification, and other achievements of excellence
12. Provide non-traditional professional development channels that promote blended professional development and choice in learning
13. The district has provided the opportunity for four teachers - two technology education teachers, one math teacher, and one computer and information sciences teacher - to participate either in-person or virtually in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. These teachers shared details of their experience with the entire staff at opening day in August and will begin creating a STEM Academy at Palisades Middle School.
14. Providing extensive support to a small group of teacher leaders who are incorporating flipped class/blended learning and opportunities into their classroom. These teachers are also encouraged to share experiences/best practices with colleagues both in and outside the district, as well as Board and community members.
15. Delivering a series of parent information nights led by district administrators on internet safety, college and career readiness, BYOD, and other pertinent educational topics.
The following websites will assist you in learning more about our district’s digital infrastructure and programming:
Palisades School District - Superintendent’s Webpage
Palisades School District - Director of Technology Webpage
Palisades School District - BYOD
Palisades School District - Palisades Cyber Academy
Palisades School District - Cybersonics Technology Team 103
