No more papers, pencils and pens in Harford County Public Schools? Smartphones taking over in the classroom?
That day may not be as far off as you might think, as HCPS employees have spent the past year developing initiatives to help students and faculty make the transition from a learning environment based on paper and pencil to a full digital environment.
Those efforts were honored last Thursday at an event called DigitalHarford.Go at Edgewood High School.
"My phone is not just something I use to text," Edgewood High junior Natasha Roland said of her school's Bring Your Own Technology initiative. "It is a great tool at my fingertips."
School system employees formed the DigitalHarford Think Tank to develop initiatives to bring the latest technology to local classrooms, HCPS Manager of Communications Jillian Lader said Monday.
Lader described some initiatives that sprung from their work: Itslearning, designed to support teachers and students as they implement a digital curriculum and classrooms; the 2014 Digital Learning Innovation Fund, supported by the Maryland State Department of Education so digital materials and a curriculum can be incorporated into 10th-grade English classrooms; and Bring Your Own Technology, a pilot program at Edgewood High that allows students to use their personal communication devices, such as smartphones, for classroom learning.
The school system will also be able to adopt Microsoft's Office 365, a "full Microsoft Office suite with online tools and file storage," according to Lader, who said HCPS also is working toward completing construction of its wi-fi network, so each school can connect to the Internet wirelessly.
They are also working on getting schools connected to Harford County's new fiber-optic Harford Metro Area Network, or HMAN, Lader said.
"We are so excited for this opportunity and for the work that's going to go on here with DigitalHarford, not just here at Edgewood High School, but across our entire system," Board of Education member Allyson Krchnavy said during her introductory speech for the DigitalHarford.Go event.
HCPS Superintendent Barbara Canavan and County Executive Barry Glassman also attended.
Members of the audience also heard from Edgewood High teachers and students, school system officials and students, teachers and administrators from Homestead-Wakefield Elementary School in Bel Air, Magnolia Middle School and Joppatowne High School.
A video of the event can be viewed on the HPCS website, http://www.hcps.org/boe/livestream.