It’s likely that by now, everyone is aware of the FCSD Digital Learning Initiative. For most, it simply means that all of our students in grades 3-12 will have access to a Chromebook. Although that’s correct, the Digital Learning Initiative (DLI) is actually a comprehensive program to provide technology for all within the FCSD learning community. For many, this will serve as a catalyst for fundamental change in both instruction and learning culture. As a result, this shift in digital access will challenge all stakeholders to learn, teach and function in different yet engaging ways. The DLI is grounded in foundational 21st century learning skills that include collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity.

In addition to providing equitable access for the FCSD learning community, the DLI was developed while maximizing both federal and state aid, grants and other educational resources in order to fund the program. In order to maintain the initiative it was recognized that cost, sustainability, support and professional development would be imperative and continue to be at the forefront of the initiative’s framework, recognizing that the infusion of thousands of new devices is simply one part of this comprehensive undertaking.

So what is the DLI, and what can we, as a learning community expect over the next three years?

1. All students in grades 3-12 will have access to Chromebooks. Grades 3-6 will have full class sets. Grades 7-8 will have 1:1 devices that will travel with students throughout the day. Grades 9-12 will start with classroom sets and will transition to full 1:1 Chromebooks once policies, logistics and student cyber-ethics and safety/responsibility instruction occurs. This will be a phased approach to full 1:1.
2. Building infrastructure will see tremendous changes during the 2018-19 school year. FCSD will be adding close to 200 wireless access points in all buildings to accommodate the addition of Chromebooks. New switches, servers and related hardware will also be renewed during this period.
3. We will begin transitioning to digital displays accompanied by new teacher-tablets. Digital displays will replace interactive whiteboards in order to maximize instructional time, provide better classroom visibility, longer life-span, and ease of support. The new displays are installed with Google Chrome technology allowing teachers ability to cast from their new laptops/tablets from anywhere in the classroom.
4. FCSD will also be at the forefront of utilization of Digital Collaboration Stations. Several classrooms throughout the district will be outfitted with multiple digital displays allowing smaller groups of students to digitally collaborate, problem solve and share ideas by individually or simultaneously casting to small-group displays.
5. Printing/Copying - During the summer we will be transitioning to new Toshiba copiers. These are high-efficiency all-color devices that will help us lower costs and speed-up the printing process. Classroom networked printers will remain during the 2018-2019 school year and will be maintained through a new Toshiba printer support service. Toshiba support will now handle all toner replacements and printer repair. The FCSD Help Desk will still serve as the primary point-of-contact for support requests. Classroom printers will remain until they are deemed unserviceable.Several new print policies / procedures will be enacted in order to maintain efficiency, cut costs and foster environmental consciousness. Classroom printers will be set to print in grayscale unless purposely changed by the user. Limited color copies will be available through classroom printers, and large print-jobs will be sent to the new copiers. The cost of printing to the new Toshiba copiers is substantially lower than classroom printers so it is imperative that we consider this moving forward.
6. Professional Development - Since the Fall 2017 Google Summit, FCSD continues to provide instructional technology and professional development resources to help our learning community to prepare for the digital culture shift. Dan Sherman continues to meet with teachers, staff, PLC’s, Logistics teams and all who request his presence in order to facilitate 21st century learning. Our Instructional Technology website continues to develop and offers resources in all areas of training and professional development. We’re also very excited to introduce the Technology Integration Matrix and associated instructional exemplars during this summers’ professional development series.
7. Our UPK-2 students will also see a change in available technologies. Each K-2 classroom will be provided with a station of 4-5 Chrome based touch-screen desktop computers. In addition to Chrome desktop stations, 2-3 Chromebook carts will also be made available for their use.
8. Other notable changes:
   • Classroom desktops (PC’s) will be removed in anticipation of Chrome devices.
   • School computer labs - Most will be removed unless they are serving a specific purpose that cannot be fulfilled using Chromebooks.
   • As interactive whiteboards/projectors become unserviceable, they will be replaced with digital displays and new teacher laptops/tablets with mobile casting abilities.
   • Software applications. All software in-district is being reviewed for its effectiveness, cost and use. This review will likely result in the reduction of high-cost, low-use applications.
   • Current large and costly document cameras will be replaced with smaller, high efficiency, low-cost mobile doc cams.

The Future:

The next part of the Vision 21 article will focus on other exciting, new learning technologies that FCSD will pilot in the upcoming school year. Think Virtual Reality...