Mountain trustee prevails in bid to police student iPad use
School-issued tech to be ‘primarily for educational purposes’
The third time proved to be the charm for Mountain public school trustee Dawn Danko’s push to tighten the rules around the use of school-issued mini iPads and classroom technology like smart boards.
After more than an hour of debate at their final meeting for the 2014-18 term, trustees agreed to amend a 21st century learning policy to include a goal of ensuring computer devices are used “primarily for educational purposes.”
They also directed senior administrators to incorporate two of her other suggested changes into the policy and a related staff directive to try to provide teacher oversight and supervision of students’ iPad use where possible, including during lunch and recess.
Danko, who had twice sought similar changes without success in the past year, won over most trustees by agreeing to water down a proposal to limit use of technology at school “for educational purposes only.”
Revising the wording to “primarily” addressed concerns that iPads and personal devices can have legitimate noneducational purposes at school, like calling home or helping students with high anxiety cope by listening to music.
Danko said the amended policy responds to parental complaints students are watching too many movies and YouTube videos on board technology for entertainment, especially in elementary schools.
She said it will also teach responsible use and help make students better “digital citizens.”
“It provides flexibility so that there might be a fun day where — I know Halloween is a writeoff anyways — you could show a movie, but we wouldn’t expect to see it as a regular practice in a classroom,” Danko said.
“We wouldn’t expect to see free rein on devices as a regular practice, and we wouldn’t expect them to be used as toys and not tools on a nutrition break, but there’s this flexibility there to allow students to work on something if they get permission.”
Departing board chair Todd White pushed trustees to reach a consensus on the spirit of the changes and let staff draft the final text for review by the new board of trustees.
Only trustees Jeff Beattie and Greg Van Geffen — also leaving office — opposed the changes, as they had at the policy committee level.
Beattie said he doesn’t believe the board will be able to enforce the rules, especially on personal devices, and a student Code of Conduct already forbids inappropriate uses.