Survey says: MSAD 71 is No. 1 tech savvy school board (Printed Oct. 26, 2007)
By Stowell P. Watters
Staff Writer
Every kindergarten through fifth grade teacher in Maine School Administrative District 71 is required to maintain an ongoing Web blog on the district’s Web site. If you are not up to speed on the tech-savvy lingo or you get offended when someone tells you to “Google” something, a blog is a public journal in which the author can bring their personal bits of information to anyone who is connected to the Internet.
These teachers use their blogs to do wide variety of things and publish information regarding anything from homework assignments to field trip itineraries to diaries of classroom activities. Parents can subscribe to the blogs and keep track of their child’s education through emails, which appear in their inbox as soon as the teacher writes the blog.
“It really allows parents to see what is happening in their child’s classroom,” said Jason Saltmarsh, the director of informational and instructional technologies at MSAD 71. “Long gone are the days when a note from the teacher could get lost in a backpack and never make it to the kitchen table.”
Currently about 45 percent of all parents subscribe to these blogs and Saltmarsh predicts that number to increase to 50 percent by the end of the school year.
“From what I have heard parents are very happy to have an easy way to stay in contact with classroom teacher,” he said.
In the past two and a half years Saltmarsh has been working to bring information technology into the district so that it will better engage the community in the education of the students. This includes the maintenance and upgrade of the district’s Web site along with the utilization of “Smart Boards.”
Smart Boards are essentially large screens the teacher can use in a variety of ways to bring information to the students. They currently exist in a handful of MSAD 71 classrooms. The students can post and download information on the boards directly to and from their laptops, right in the middle of class. Many teachers use the boards to take polls on pertinent issues and use this raw data to develop test questions and lesson plans. The boards can also display websites and their subsequent multimedia, Saltmarsh said.
“The Smart Boards allow teachers to connect the students to the world and bring multimedia on any subject to them immediately,” said Nick Shuman, the district technology integrator. Shuman has extensive experience with the boards and is therefore the districts go-to guy for any maintenance or operational questions.
“The smart boards are an extension of what Jason (Saltmarsh) is doing on the district Web site, it’s all about bringing information to teachers and students and becoming connected,” Shuman said.
The district’s Web site (www.msad71.net) is Saltmarsh’s brainchild; a sleek page containing news, pod-casts of school board meetings, links to the teacher blogs and, among other things, downloadable video of Superintendent Tom Farrell’s news show, School Gnus.
“Every other week I interview four kids from any grade in the district, and we show it on public access in addition to making it available on the Internet,” Farrell said.
The Web site is so savvy that this year it won first place in the digital school board survey, taken by the Center for Digital Education, trumping its ranking of third during last year’s survey. Their mission statement claims that they are a “premier resource for technology policy and utilization in K-12 and higher education.”
“We have been trying to build a reputation as a tech-savvy district, and this award really brings it all home, our hard work has paid off,” Saltmarsh said.
The award recognizes MSAD 71 as the first place winner in the “less than 2,500 students in a district” category, and is granted to them based on the Web site and the technology the district has employed, through the work of Saltmarsh and Shuman, to bring the community closer to the students and the education process.
“The award is really just a way to recognize and encourage school boards to utilize their tech-people and their technology in ways that will help the public and the students have a better school district,” said Maureen King, school board chairman for the past nine years. “We worked really hard in the district, (Saltmarsh) has done an amazing job, and the award is just a recognition of all of that.”
Staff Writer
Every kindergarten through fifth grade teacher in Maine School Administrative District 71 is required to maintain an ongoing Web blog on the district’s Web site. If you are not up to speed on the tech-savvy lingo or you get offended when someone tells you to “Google” something, a blog is a public journal in which the author can bring their personal bits of information to anyone who is connected to the Internet.
These teachers use their blogs to do wide variety of things and publish information regarding anything from homework assignments to field trip itineraries to diaries of classroom activities. Parents can subscribe to the blogs and keep track of their child’s education through emails, which appear in their inbox as soon as the teacher writes the blog.
“It really allows parents to see what is happening in their child’s classroom,” said Jason Saltmarsh, the director of informational and instructional technologies at MSAD 71. “Long gone are the days when a note from the teacher could get lost in a backpack and never make it to the kitchen table.”
Currently about 45 percent of all parents subscribe to these blogs and Saltmarsh predicts that number to increase to 50 percent by the end of the school year.
“From what I have heard parents are very happy to have an easy way to stay in contact with classroom teacher,” he said.
In the past two and a half years Saltmarsh has been working to bring information technology into the district so that it will better engage the community in the education of the students. This includes the maintenance and upgrade of the district’s Web site along with the utilization of “Smart Boards.”
Smart Boards are essentially large screens the teacher can use in a variety of ways to bring information to the students. They currently exist in a handful of MSAD 71 classrooms. The students can post and download information on the boards directly to and from their laptops, right in the middle of class. Many teachers use the boards to take polls on pertinent issues and use this raw data to develop test questions and lesson plans. The boards can also display websites and their subsequent multimedia, Saltmarsh said.
“The Smart Boards allow teachers to connect the students to the world and bring multimedia on any subject to them immediately,” said Nick Shuman, the district technology integrator. Shuman has extensive experience with the boards and is therefore the districts go-to guy for any maintenance or operational questions.
“The smart boards are an extension of what Jason (Saltmarsh) is doing on the district Web site, it’s all about bringing information to teachers and students and becoming connected,” Shuman said.
The district’s Web site (www.msad71.net) is Saltmarsh’s brainchild; a sleek page containing news, pod-casts of school board meetings, links to the teacher blogs and, among other things, downloadable video of Superintendent Tom Farrell’s news show, School Gnus.
“Every other week I interview four kids from any grade in the district, and we show it on public access in addition to making it available on the Internet,” Farrell said.
The Web site is so savvy that this year it won first place in the digital school board survey, taken by the Center for Digital Education, trumping its ranking of third during last year’s survey. Their mission statement claims that they are a “premier resource for technology policy and utilization in K-12 and higher education.”
“We have been trying to build a reputation as a tech-savvy district, and this award really brings it all home, our hard work has paid off,” Saltmarsh said.
The award recognizes MSAD 71 as the first place winner in the “less than 2,500 students in a district” category, and is granted to them based on the Web site and the technology the district has employed, through the work of Saltmarsh and Shuman, to bring the community closer to the students and the education process.
“The award is really just a way to recognize and encourage school boards to utilize their tech-people and their technology in ways that will help the public and the students have a better school district,” said Maureen King, school board chairman for the past nine years. “We worked really hard in the district, (Saltmarsh) has done an amazing job, and the award is just a recognition of all of that.”
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