How Plano schools teach with tech

Almost 40 years ago, the biggest technology news to come out of the Plano Independent School District (PISD) was the arrival of 334 personal computers for students and teachers to use. This magazine (then called Plano Profile) wrote in its November 1982 issue that the new machines would be nothing short of a revolution in the way Plano students – at all grade levels – learned.

“Arcade mania is joining academia by introducing computers to all schools. Video game fun and electronic education are merging into a new field some experts call ‘arcademia.’

PISD in 2010 In 1992, the district predicted it would have about 1,300 computers, and Plano Profile developed a glossary to help parents prepare for a techno-centric future. It includes foreign terms such as “software: general computer programming” and “drive: computer component used to read and write data to storage devices such as disks or tape.”

How times change.

In the half-century since the first PCs arrived at PISD, computers have become an integral part of all of our lives, and the school district in Plano has been on a mission to help its students gain access to cutting-edge devices.

“First and foremost, all of our students have access to an Internet-connected device and a wide selection of what I would classify as premium educational applications,” said Matt Frey, executive director of instructional technology at PISD. “We have a graduate photo, and it includes some forward-looking tendencies that aren’t inherently academic: adaptability, creative thinking, curiosity, empathy, and we want our students to be effective communicators. My refrain has always been: our children will always have access to the Internet and it will expand the opportunities to develop those skills.

Campus technology has become even more critical to the district as students and teachers adapt to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have 50,000-plus Chromebooks as of 2018, but we don’t start shipping them to homes until March 2020,” Frey said. “A lot of our instructional design is based on things that aren’t digital, so when we were forced into that situation and tested our flexibility and adaptability, we had to translate some static instructional practices into equally engaging—if not. More – digital experience. That alone helped us. Our toolbox is now deeper.

He added that the school district supports students who have limited internet access at home by setting up personal communication spaces. Plano students seem to agree that the new technology will help make their education more flexible and accessible.

“They continue to lend Chromebooks to anyone who needs them at no cost, which has been great,” said Audrey Cox, a senior at Plano West Senior High School. “We put them out in class and a lot of teachers put the slides on Google Classroom so you can follow along.”

Cox students are allowed to bring their own technology from home and use it in class.

“In many of my courses, if I feel inadequate with pen and paper, I can turn on my computer or use the iPad without any special permission,” she says. “I’m in anatomy and physiology, and if you look at a black and white picture, you can’t see what’s inside the heart. But a digital diagram is easier to examine and understand.

PISD’s technology landscape is not limited to laptops. From time to time, the district offers specialized courses that give students access to professional-quality tools and programs.

“The 2022 Plano course catalog includes several offerings for STEM-related fields: aerospace engineering, architecture, automotive engineering, agricultural technology,
And those are the few that start with the letter A,” says Frey. “For example, we have 3D printers, digital microscopes and science probes with sensors. The technology in our schools reflects the technology available in industry;
Whatever it is.”

It was published in November 1982 in the Plano Profile (now the Local Profile).

Matt Hage, another senior at Plano West Senior High School, is taking an architecture class this year, which he says is helping him feel more prepared for life in college and beyond.

“We use a program called AutoCAD. We can design and create layouts for potential homes or whatever we decide to build there. “We can take the data we’re working on on the computer and send it to a 3D printer or a laser engraver on campus,” he said. “I’m going to Texas Tech in the fall and while I was there I was able to visit their engineering lab and it was great, and it was great.”

He said some of the machinery he saw during the campus tour was already familiar to PSD’s technology offerings.

“It’s nice to be able to learn how to use some tools,” says Huge.

Rosemary Gladden, assistant director of communications, public relations and social media at PISD, says the district has relationships with major corporations like Boeing to support students entering STEM fields. At an event in April, Boeing announced that it would offer these students an alternative teaching job during their first year of college.

Cox agrees that campus technology has contributed to her education and helped prepare her for life after high school, adding that using school resources isn’t just limited to what she does in the classroom.

“I’m in student congress, so we use technology that uses graphic design to make prom tickets or something like that,” she said.

In some cases, current Plano students may begin using some technology in the classroom even before they graduate.

“My older brother is an engineer at A&M,” Cox says. “I told him I was using my mom’s iPad, so he went out and bought his own.” Now he’s following his sister’s lead, taking notes digitally and annotating his teacher’s presentations.

While Frey says PISD is doing a lot to make new technologies accessible to today’s students, he acknowledges there are always new developments that could further change the district’s technology landscape.

“We don’t have a fully qualified, for example, drone pilot program. “I guess that’s one of the next tasks,” he said. “Kids in other districts are graduating with drone pilot licenses and can get good jobs right away with those skills.”

In the year To Plano profile readers in 1982, it might be a drone pilot program or a laser engraver on campus that describes computers as “complex machines without control … like cars or refrigerators that can shave and break.” As cool as the teleportation machine will make us in 2022. But isn’t that the point? School, after all, is about preparing students for the real world.

Whatever novel tools the future brings, Frey says, “We’re going to build the right environments and experiences for that to happen.”