James Batson just lately obtained the Modern Know-how Director Award at Tech & Studying’s latest at Tech & Studying’s Innovative Leader awards in Illinois for his work selling accessible know-how in Fenton Group Excessive College District 100 in Illinois.
Batson, is an Ed.D and the director of know-how for the Illinois district in Bensenville, a suburb of Chicago. For Batson, being modern isn’t about discovering a silver bullet. “It’s not trying to find that new shiny gadget and deploying it and hoping it does one thing,” he says. ”It is the way you thoughtfully and creatively use issues which are accessible to the fullest extent.”
Edtech Fairness: Supporting Inclusivity with Tech
Fenton Group Excessive College District 100 is a majority minority and Title 1 district with greater than 50{86f3ad974201bdb311508fdd4671aabc74fd756eb8e7d55b8d3d305161073e87} of scholars qualifying for the Nationwide College Lunch Program. Nevertheless, the college affords a variety of superior placement programs and was named the 2019 Nationwide AP District of the Yr by the School Board.
Fairness is on the core of each initiative the district implements, Batson says. Nevertheless, the district isn’t reinventing the wheel in the way in which it helps all college students’ success. Packages embody supplying each pupil with a 2-in-1 Chromebook (a tool that may act as a pill or laptop computer), offering scorching spots and tech restore, giving useful tech to lecturers and employees, and ensuring this tech is used successfully.
“Typically I believe, ‘Are we actually doing something totally different from different colleges/districts?’” Batson says. “I preserve coming again to it is not essentially ‘what’ we’re doing however the ‘how’ and ‘why’ we’re doing what we do. For instance, many colleges have Chromebooks, however are they actually supporting the scholars to make use of these creatively, recording their music efficiency, making a podcast, modifying a video for a category undertaking, and many others.? Are these different colleges supporting the lecturers in a manner that they’ll creatively leverage new instruments to reinforce the educational?”
Measuring Extra Than Take a look at Scores
The district additionally has a lot of dashboards that present actionable information on pupil efficiency and different metrics. As soon as once more, Batson stresses the usage of know-how is not only a gimmick. “It’s essential to not simply give lip service,” he says. “Lots of people speak about, ‘We put up a dashboard,’ however if you happen to’re not utilizing these instruments, it does not matter.”
Batson and different leaders within the district consider pupil development is crucial metric. “We’re wanting on the greater image, placing all these items collectively to essentially tackle the wants of the person pupil to make it possible for they get the alternatives they should enhance,” he says. “It is all about pupil development. We’re much less involved about having an ideal rating in your SAT as a junior, and extra involved that that child that takes that SAT has grown.”
Management Recommendation
Batson studied laptop science as an undergraduate and spent the primary half of his profession working in IT within the business. His spouse is a trainer, and he would volunteer at her faculty to assist arrange tech. He realized he had a ardour for making know-how extra accessible to college students and finally made his manner into the world of schooling, first part-time as an adjunct professor and later full-time in Ok-12. Alongside the way in which, he studied enterprise management for his grasp’s and earned a doctorate in schooling.
“It is essential to by no means cease studying,” Batson says. “It is also essential as a pacesetter to essentially determine a approach to step again and have a look at the large image, and the way what you do suits into that.”
Along with his work at Fenton Excessive College District 100, Batson serves on the college board for Group Excessive College District 128 in Lake County, Illinois. Whereas this district is much less numerous on the floor, he says being concerned with it has taught him how fairness is essential in each district. “You stroll in a number of the buildings the place I am on the board, and you do not see that range. It is not apparent in your face, but it surely’s there, and it is essential,” he says. “Whether or not it is a particular wants pupil, or it is anyone that is struggling financially, or it is anyone that is struggling emotionally, or it is anyone that is struggling due to their gender id.”
Batson is captivated with serving to these college students obtain. “No matter I can do from a know-how perspective to assist break down these boundaries and assist give all these college students the assist they should maximize their potential, that is what I’ll do,” he says.
