WE are Empowered

One of the commitments of our last tax levy was to digitally enhance our student learning experience to better prepare our students for life after Lakota.  Providing a device to each student or increasing a students ability to access a device further supports this commitment and dramatically increases access to instructional resources and content, collaborative opportunities and ways to demonstrate learning both inside and outside of the classroom.  

Through a digitally enhanced more personalized approach to instruction and learning, we will ensure our students have the experiences necessary to develop the skills needed to compete and succeed in a technical and global world.  

As a district, we have recognized the importance of not only providing innovative and transformative learning experiences for students, but also ensuring that we have provided the building blocks necessary for our students to thrive in a digital world.  These building blocks include digital citizenship, organization, access, and collaboration.

Our ultimate goal is to provide a more personalized and relevant learning experience for our students. We are excited for the innovative and transformative opportunities that this initiative brings through an increase in problem based learning and real world experiences, however, we also recognize the need to provide students with the strong foundation and building blocks necessary to thrive in a digital world. It is for that reason, we will focus not only on the transformative and innovative opportunities but also on opportunities related to everyday use of technology and aligned with state and national standards:
 

The Curriculum and Technology departments have and will continue a collaborative effort in preparing teachers for the implementation of a more personalized learning environment.  

While building administrators continue to drive the vision and implementation of the initiative, our team of district instructional coaches along with teacher leaders in each building have and will continue to support staff, meeting each teacher where he/she is, modeling and promoting more personalized learning experiences.  Professional development opportunities for teachers are aligned with this initiative and supported through district, building and individualized, job-embedded professional development.

Pilots have also been and will continue to be utilized to support our teachers as we try new and more innovative strategies, resources, tools and technology in our classrooms.  These pilots allow us to identify needs and be proactive in making sure both teachers and students have the training needed to get the most out of the learning experience.  

In Lakota, we continue to work hard to ensure that our students, your children, are prepared to learn and live in digital world.  The opportunities your child will experience related to digital learning are aligned with state and national standards and the Lakota building blocks for becoming a good digital citizen begin in Kindergarten and continue to be built upon and applied throughout their Lakota career and beyond!  We believe strongly that it is our responsibility to develop your child’s foundational skills and knowledge around digital citizenship, organization, access and collaboration, developing overall good digital citizens throughout this journey. 

Lakota students will experience Elementary Technology as part of their Unified Arts schedule in grades K-6.  This course provides the foundation of digital citizenship while also teaching students how to utilize district supported tools to enhance and transform their learning.  Once students begin Jr. High and take part in the 1:1 initiative, they will be enrolled in Sailing the Cs of Lakota Learning, a Canvas course, designed to educate and support students with the use of the Chromebook to enhance and transform their learning experience.  

The timeline for starting the process of providing students the actual Chromebook device began on Sept. 12th of the 18-19 SY for our Jr. High schools.  We will begin the process at our Freshman and High School buildings in January 2019.  In an effort to be proactive, students will begin learning how to appropriately interact with their device along with how to use the device to improve their learning experience prior to receiving their Chromebook through interaction with the Canvas course titled Sailing the Cs of Lakota Learning as well as other classroom experiences.  Sailing the Cs of Lakota Learning will continue to be on each student’s Canvas dashboard as a resource to use throughout the school year.
 

Lakota will be using Permanent Improvement funds already allocated for our next technology replacement cycle to fund this initiative. These funds require at least a five year return on investment. Once this program is established and matures, we anticipate moving the eighth grade devices to our K-6 schools at the end of the school year. Each freshman student will receive a device for their entire high school career. These devices will then be repurposed throughout the district at the end of their senior year. We do not anticipate a family purchase option.

No fee increase is anticipated at this time as part of this pilot program. Each device will be covered by a warranty and all repairs will be completed only by Lakota Schools. In the event a device is lost or stolen, the cost of the device will be assessed as a fine and will be collected from the parent/guardian by the district.

All student Chromebooks are expected to be charged when they arrive at school. However, we do understand this will not always be the case. Fast charging stations will be available in the Innovation Hub. This may expand to other locations if necessary. There is also a process in place for students to receive loaners for one bell while their device charges if this is necessary to avoid an interruption in instruction and or learning. 

If a student forgets their Chromebook, a process will be in place to check out a loaner device for the day from the Innovation Hub. 

It is critical each student have access to these devices to ensure they can connect to their school work, their peers and their teachers to support their instructional journey. While some digital resources will be available through other family or personally owned devices, some will only be accessible from these Chromebooks. 

While this program will promote student responsibility, we do understand that accidents happen and equipment fails. Each school will have a process and Innovation Hub staff in place to coordinate support and help ensure each student has a device to participate in all instructional activities requiring a Chromebook. 

District networks are being expanded and Internet access will be filtered both at school and outside of school. All Lakota student-issued Chromebooks utilize next gen, cloud base web filtering. This smart filtering is “always on” regardless of the device’s internet connection or location. Each student will access their device and their online tools with their Lakota credentials. (We always encourage password resets often to further support data security.)

For directions and resources related to Canvas, please visit our digital resources page and scroll to Canvas in the digital resources table.  Here you will find how to videos along with other resources explaining the parent use of Canvas.