moving in the right direction

yesterday we had our district technology meeting.  usually these meetings are a little frustrating for me because we are often TOLD what the district is doing with the monies that have been earmarked for technology.  at my last teaching gig, the individual technology committees at the schools made those decisions.  i still think that it makes sense for the schools themselves to have a pot of money and to make their own decisions about the technology purchases that they make.  but that’s a different story and a different post.

yesterday, after listening to how those monies would be spent this year, something different happened.  yesterday the principal of the school in which i teach was able to present to the group an idea that we have been working on here at the school for a while.  yesterday we brought up the idea of opening up the school wi-fi to the personal computers of students and teachers.  the committee as a whole had a good conversation about the pros and cons of the idea and it was decided that we should draw up a policy concerning the idea.  our school would then pilot the program as we begin to look at how this would work for everyone in practice. 

yesterday was different because common sense prevailed over fear.  a group of educators, tech types, central office people, and our superintendent had a conversation about the future.  and we decided that we were going to own it.  we were going to be proactive instead of reactive.  in education this so rarely happens. and it was so simple.

and it reaffirmed my belief that schools can change and can embrace the future.

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