North Cook News

The Prospect Heights School District 23 Board of Education held an evening meeting that discussed enhancing its use of technology in classrooms.

“So our mission has been to increase and enhance, our technology mission that is, has been to increase and enhance the use of technology as a tool to improve engagement, elevate rigor, and transform instructional practices in the classroom and at home,” Maria Stavropoulos, director of Technology for the district, said during the meeting. “As we continue with this in mind, we have seen the pandemic hit and the transitions and the on the fly decisions, the generous funding that has become available to continue supporting the tools and the instructional needs along the way as we transition. With that, we've had to learn to be very flexible and continue on to this new plan now, with some more stability in what, you know, the learning environments kind of look like — are we at home or at school?”

The Education Technology Use in School reported teachers saw great value in using digital learning tools.

Prospect Heights students with technology | https://www.facebook.com/PHSD23/photos/a.2276801985874657/2585889594965893/?__tn__=%2CO*F

The district’s technology program began as an idea in 2014 to have students interact with individual technology. A slow roll out started in 2016 and by 2019 all students were a part of a 1-1 technology program with Apple iPads. Since the roll out and the recovery from pandemic transitions and remote learning, the district’s technology focus is starting to shift to cybersecurity.

The Illinois State Board of Education offers support towards educational technology through grants.

The structure that the district has implemented for cybersecurity has four main components. The first is sanitization, which includes filtering malware, email spam, and malicious documents. The second is safeguarding, protecting students from online content and monitoring their consumption.

The third is the identity protection of both teachers and students, which will soon involve multi-factor identification. Lastly is performing regular maintenance, security and program updates, and managing sensitive data.

There’s one organization in Illinois who’s working towards teachers having technology. The Illinois Digital Educators Alliance gives a workshop that offer ideas to integrate technology.

The district has implemented a set of hardware for each classroom in the district that involves a laptop and iPad for the teacher, a projector and apple TV, a telephone, Wi-Fi access, and 1-1 ratio of students and their individual iPads. The district now has 1700 iOS devices, 150 network access points, 280 MacBook laptops, and lots more technology hardware.