Technology survey shows DCSD on the right track
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Results from a technology survey given to teachers and students in the Darlington County School District show that 83 percent of teachers use technology in their classrooms on a regular basis, according to DCSD Technology Director Diane Sigmon.
The survey was given out in December to students and teachers at all of the high schools in the district. Around 60 percent of all student surveys were returned, with Hartsville High School having the highest number of returns with 70 percent. One hundred and seventy-five teachers returned the survey; Darlington High School had the highest return with 73.
Last year, DCSD high schools went one-to-one, meaning that each student has their own district-provided laptop to use for their textbooks, classwork and homework.
The goal of the Technology Needs Assessment Survey, was to see what the strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to technology and technology use in the district.
The student survey included questions like ‘Does your laptop stay charged throughout the day’, ‘Do you know what to do to get technology help at your school’, ‘Does your laptop stay connected to the wifi’ and ‘Have you taken and passed the YouTube course?’
For many of the questions, students were given the choice of answering always, never or sometimes.
Sigmon presented the results to the DCSD Board of Education during their February meeting. One area of specific interest to the district’s technology department was the question of whether students had internet access at home.
More than eighty percent of the students who responded from each school said that they did have internet at home. On that question, Lamar High School and Mayo High School for Math, Science and Technology had the lowest and highest percentages of yes, respectively, at 76.71 percent and 96.34.
“I thought it was very interesting that, district-wide, 86 percent our children have access to the internet at home,” Sigmon said. “As rural as we are, that was a little higher than I expected. (The number breakdown) certainly follows demographics.”
“There are some online options that are available now, some federal funding, so we are looking to try and see if some of our students can qualify for that resource so they can have internet at home.”
Another focus point was the question, ‘Have you ever been penalized for technology not working correctly in the classroom?’
Board member Charles Govan asked Sigmon about the penalty question. “Why would a student be penalized for technology not working correctly in the classroom,” Govan asked.
Sigmon said that the question was added to the survey because of specific comments district staff had been made aware of.
“They shouldn’t be (penalized); that’s the point. That is why we put that question in there,” Sigmon said. “We had heard that the student may have completed the assignment but because they didn’t put it in the right place or upload it properly, they didn’t get credit for it. What we are doing is making sure teachers know that is not an acceptable practice.”
The data from teachers show that more than 80 percent of them say they use technology regularly in their classroom instruction; only 11 percent say that they rarely use it.
“I was pleased to see that if you combine (answers) a few times per week and daily, that is 83 percent of our teachers who are using it several times a week or more,” Sigmon said. “Fifty percent of them are using it every day.”
Asked by a board member if she and her staff were happy with the progress the district is making, Sigmon said yes.
“I am satisfied overall with the progress we are making; I don’t think we will ever be satisfied with where we are because we always want to make it better,” she said. “We want to make sure we are doing high quality lessons, really taking advantage of the technology and taking the learning to the next level.”
Increasing devices by such a large number at once was going to bring some hiccups, Sigmon said but nothing that they are not equipped to handle.
“I don’t think that anything we’ve experienced so far this year has been unexpected; we knew that we would have growing pains with the network,” Sigmon said. “We know that (students) spend all day, every day trying to get around the filter to watch a movie or something like that. Hopefully we have the tools in place to stop that.”
The survey results will help the technology department staff moving forward to make evaluations and changes that will hopefully improve the experience of students in the future.
“One thing we will definitely do differently next year with incoming ninth graders, our training when we hand them the devices will look different,” Sigmon said. “We are hoping to have about two or three hours with the children so we can do Mac basics, make sure they can log in to Schoology and to Google before they leave. We feel like that will alleviate a lot of the issues that have come up in the classrooms.”