Election 2011: District 61 Candidates on Technology

Do you think the district’s schools are staying competitive when it comes to technology? What role do you think technology should play in schools?

Our school district has stayed competitive in providing technology in the classroom. Technology is an important tool for our children to have access to and will become critical to their future when they become young adults competing in a global economy. The use of technology needs to be carefully balanced; the side affect of technology is that it tends to become obsolete very quickly and becomes costly to maintain. Technology cannot be a replacement for quality instruction and should serve as an enhancement to instruction. 

We are staying competitive. In fact, I think we are ahead of the curve. The board, upon recommendation of the superintendent and the technology staff, just approved funds to update the technology infrastructure in our district, which will improve upon our system and assure that the district will have the ability to stay current for a number of years to come. We have been fortunate that our PTOs and other groups have raised funds to provide smart boards for most of the classrooms in our district. Teachers use technology in many ways to enhance the curriculum and to stimulate learning in the classroom. I think technology should be a support tool that should be used in various ways to enhance the learning of essential material in all disciplines. Besides giving almost unlimited access to information, technology is a tool that kids know and are comfortable with, and allows them to work (with supervision) in a medium that is exciting to them no matter what the subject is.

The current school board just approved $500,000 for capital improvements that the technology team recommended. Technology has become one of the most important components to the success of a child's education. It has been proven to help students achieve in reading, writing and math. It has helped special needs students to achieve in areas they couldn't before. Technology has given teachers so many opportunities to learn and acquire new skills over the Internet.