The photo would lead you to believe the focus of the research is K-5, but in fact it is K-12. The research results are quite interesting - at the very least thought provoking and good reason to thoughtfully examine the real goals of each technology initiative.  From Pearson Schools:

Teaching in a Digital Age

How are your fellow teachers using technology in the classroom? School districts have more access to technology than ever before. Many have made major investments in education technology to engage, motivate, and personalize learning for students. Games and mobile apps have the potential to transform learning in ways unreachable with pencil and paper. But, as teachers know, incorporating technology isn't easy or simple. We asked teachers in some of the most innovative schools how they currently use technology; and what the gaps are in making the most of technology. Teachers in some of the most innovative schools share how they currently use technology and the tricks to making the most of it. https://medium.com/@ashley.petersondeluca/no-magic-pill-missing-pieces-in-education-technology-innovation-8befe759b9#.dsgm9w7qk

Meeting Minutes for 2 December

Minutes of the Technology Committee for 2 December 2015

<submitted 3 December - M Hauck>

Attending: Marc Caouette, Sean Crowley, Karen Newburg, Doris Parker, Tammy Quinn, Jo Smith, Michael Hauck

• Old Business (short items)
• Redeployment of PCs for teachers - Status update (Doris)
  Doris has begun to deploy machines; math office, library, Avery. Will continue this week and next. Exact number of available machines not certain, so we may not end up with 6 in the library. Jo Smith commented on how welcome the change is for the math office to have a desktop PC to replace the tablet.
  
• Faculty Tech Training feedback/results (Michael)
  General roundtable discussion; everyone felt the training went well and was well received. Sean commented on the number of positive remarks he has received, unsolicited, from academic faculty.  Tammy want to know the seminar attendance split between academic and vocational. The un-analyzed perception was about 50-50. Michael shared the results from the feedback survey (16 responses) which was primarily positive.  Among the key negatives were: the skill mix of attendees was a challenge; wanted more time to practice the skill and delve deeper into the details; slow computers hampered work; too much focus on the basics.
  
  This led to a discussion of future training approaches. One possibility is to have a single afternoon session of greater length; Offer the training as an “un-conference”; organize more on-line, self-paced training There was also some discussion about the accessibility by teachers to YouTube. There continues to be problems. Marc will investigate for a solution to provide teachers with unfettered access.
• Plant Sciences app request (Doris)
  The issue here was to investigate DynaScape. Marc will follow up to determine system requirements and cost. Question of what is budgeted for s/w?
  
• SIS Vendor evaluation and selection process - Status update (Michael)
  We hosted a meeting with SchoolBrains on 12/1 (the first of six such initial meetings). Tammy, Sean, and Michael attended. General opinion was highly positive. Sean was impressed with the easy of use and features a classroom teacher would see. Tammy liked the level of support and was particularly impressed with the fact SchoolBrains had people on staff who know iPass and can support the migration. Also, the SchoolBrains rep was our iPass rep years ago and so has a good knowledge of our school and environment. Good training tools as well. Some concerns were the lack of an open API, the inability to directly interface to 3rd party systems such as Google Apps or E-Sped.
  
• Online training tools & options (Michael)
  Looked at a couple of options - Synergyze, Atomic Learning, and Grovo.  Synergize is primarily a Google Apps training tool while Atomic Learning and Grovo cover many additional topics. Synergyze integrates into the Google domain and can offer context specific help on various tasks; Atomic Learning and Grovo are more “traditional” training tools offering short, focused video tutorials in course-like sequence and format. Advantage of Synergyze is cost and its contextual format. Advantage of Atomic Learning is its breadth of topics. We decided to explore Synergyze as a first step to building an online, self-help tech support structure.
  
  Michael will pursue the offer from Synergyze of a free trial account and have feedback for next meeting.
  
• New Business
  We did not have time to adequately discuss new business topics. Next meeting.
• Tactical 3 year plan (Michael's draft)
  Michael will circulate this draft for discussion next meeting. Intention is to take the next step to define a concrete action plan, now that we have re-approved our strategic plan.
  
• Building common Forms library (templates, processes)
  Emphasis here is support the transition/migration for the old world of pencil and paper to the digital world. We felt that if we began by digitizing (with templates, forms, etc) some of the key administrative processes that this will create strong examples and incentives for people to make the change.  Initial projects will be: the field trip request process (including reserving buses, permissions, etc.); Professional Staff leave requests; Professional Development Activity Pre-Approval process.
  
• Digital Civics & Digital Citizenship curriculum
  This is a key step in the migration to a digital environment and a more open, accessible environment (blocking everything). Since prohibition doesn’t work, the strategy must be to teach responsible behavior.  Check out the work the Tech Committee did in 2013; we’ll discuss at next meeting.

Next Technology Committee Meeting is:

Wednesday 16 December @ 2:30 in the Library