Monthly Administrative Updates
January 2024 Administrative Update
by Christie Maisano
Director of lnstructional & Informational Technology
The East Aurora Union Free School District Technology Department is focused on providing students with the necessary tools to enrich their learning through collaboration, exploration, problem-solving, data analysis, and making connections to the world around them. By providing students with opportunities to learn 21st-century skills, we give them the resources to prepare, empower, and inspire them to become lifelong learners and leaders in their community.
East Aurora students continue to utilize the myriad of technology tools that they have come to rely on for both personalized learning and digital instruction in their classrooms and extracurricular activities. With each student carrying a district-assigned Chromebook, these technology tools have begun to both replace and complement textbooks. The Chromebooks offer almost unlimited access to primary sources; they help our students to remain organized and to communicate and collaborate with others all over the world. Our staff hold virtual field trips, blend classrooms, create interactive experiences, offer online assessments, host visiting authors virtually, and work with tools that did not exist even 3 years ago.
We believe technology can be used to bridge a gap and help students enhance their learning in a personalized manner. Our staff and students use Google Classroom as their Learning Management System where staff can post announcements, important dates, and class updates; they can create and distribute assignments, readings, or study materials; and students can complete and submit their work digitally. The tool allows for mobile accessibility, organized classwork, and feedback, so classes travel with the students and they can work at their own pace. Universally, our staff rely on their digital tools for home-school communications, student feedback, and differentiation of learning activities, increasing student engagement, and daily organizational tasks.
Effective communication is a core value at the District; it fosters a collaborative and supportive environment, ensuring effective information sharing. The District will begin using one unified communication tool in September 2024 called Rooms for all teachers, coaches, and advisors to use to communicate with students and families in ways they were not able to before. The Rooms tool will be built into the East Aurora School District app, and can be downloaded for free to any mobile device through the App Store or Google Play store. We hope Rooms will allow parents and students to utilize one form of communication (PreK – 12) for consistency and clarity, streamlining information dissemination, reducing confusion, and fostering a unified messaging platform.
The District recognizes the importance of highly trained educators who know and can teach these skills to students and staff as we implement more of today’s technology. Annually, our staff work with our Technology Integrator to participate in countless in-person, virtual, and self-paced trainings to increase their skills and knowledge base of the technology we have on site and to investigate those that we are looking to integrate.
We continue to expand our infrastructure and capabilities to meet the needs of not only our students and staff, but the families of the district we serve as well. We are in the process of contracting and instituting a second, redundant Internet service provider as well as additional lines of dark leased fiber to close the network ring between our three buildings. Having these in place will ensure our ability to communicate and offer continuous service for phones, network, internet, and online content will remain available in the event one of our providers were to have an outage.
Looking ahead, the Technology Department continues to explore emerging technologies, adapt to evolving educational needs, and maintain a proactive stance in the ever-evolving landscape of educational technology. We work every day in our mission to ensure students have the tools and training to be as competitive as possible in any endeavor they choose to pursue.