School Board Policies Regarding 21st Century Tools and learning

      Since December of 2012, the Halton District School Board has taken greater initiative to incorporate 21st Century learning tools into the classroom.  They created a four year plan to make technology more accessible to students, and to increase funding to extend WiFi connections, purchase hardware, and provide inservices for software use.  Through the collaborative efforts of the Chief Information Officer, the Superintendent of Education, the Director of Education, and the Information and Technology department, the Halton District School board has created a vision for its I.T. expansion.  I have found that it is very specific within its plan to expand, and how to enable students to use these tools safely and effectively.  However, I have found that the vision is lacking in one area, and that is the safe modeling and use by educators in the classroom.

      The Halton District School Board recognizes the need and benefits for the growth of technology use in the classroom.  The 2012 Vision Report states:

"Technology is a tool to support research-based instructional strategies in literacy, numeracy and interdisciplinary learning. We must leverage technology to engage students and ensure student success. Instructional strategies are evolving to reflect the needs of 21st century learners. Problem solving and inquiry, with teacher-facilitated differentiation, is reflected in a learning environment that is changing from a focus on providing facts to a focus on higher order thinking skills.

The numerous content and process expectations referenced in the Ontario Curriculum and the learning skills identified in the provincial Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting Guides for Parents and Educators, identify/utilize many 21st Century Skills. "  

http://www.hdsb.ca/aboutus/IT/IT%20Documents/ITVisionBoardReport.pdf

      In response to this new wave in education, the Halton Board created a multi-year plan to address the need for greater technology in the classroom, and to provide the appropriate funding to ensure that the students in our schools are developing the skills of the 21st century learner.  They have indicated areas, both at the board, school, and classroom levels, where responsibilities lie, and policies must be developed to ensure safe and effective student use of technology.  At the classroom level, teacher instruction needs to include how to access resources and connect with others to create "E-communities", as well as learning about the ethical/legal issues surrounding technology use.  At the school level, it is the duty of the administrator and school council to create policies for the safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology.

      At the board level, Halton District has provided a policy, outlining acceptable use of information and communication technologies (revised in March of this year).  The policy clearly outlines user responsibilities, ranging from adhering to copyright laws, protecting passwords and information (Creative Commons would be an asset here), and complying with privacy legislation.  The board even provides numerous links, as well as a safe list of resources and sites that Halton users can access.   http://www.hdsb.ca/Policy/Acceptable%20Use%20Procedure.pdf
      While the board has made it very clear as to the responsibilities it maintains to support technology use, ranging from providing resources, to hardware use, and to provide tech support, there is one overwhelming area that the Halton Board has yet to address.  That is the issue of safe Social Media use, especially for educators.

      It is the responsibility of the teacher, to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.  Educators must strive to promote a proper digital etiquette and social interactions when using information technology.  I find however, that these expectations, while good in context, are very vague when interacting with different platforms of social media.  There are no board level policies as to how educators can safely access these technologies, so they can model them with their students, and use them to communicate regularly.  This is an expectation placed upon each individual school, probably due to the inequities that exist among schools that are currently utilizing social media platforms.  I ask though, is this a wise decision?  Shouldn't the school board implement board wide policies for safely accessing social media platforms, so both teachers and students can do so safely?  This area remains vague among board documents regarding information technology, and should be addressed, as more and more educators and students alike, are using these communication platforms.