Overview
Instructional Technology
The instructional technology department provides leadership, instruction, and guidance to the Milwaukee Public Schools community in using technology efficiently and effectively to achieve district goals. Instructional technology refers to the technologies implemented by educators to maximize student learning in the classroom. For students to use technology for learning and for them to graduate digitally literate, teachers must have the knowledge and skills to integrate technology into the classroom. Teachers must also be able to utilize technology in ways that require students to use it for higher-level tasks, such as sorting information, conducting research, communicating through reading and writing, and creating real-world products.
The instructional technology department implements and supports instructional technology that engages students and transforms their learning experiences with opportunities to learn, create, and collaborate in online environments. This department promotes technology literacy through professional learning for district staff, administrators, and teachers who can maximize student learning through the use of technology.
The instructional technology department leverages its technology resources to provide sustained opportunities for professional development that (1) models multiple methods of delivery, (2) includes the support of teacher leaders who are highly literate in integrating technology across the curriculum, and (3) allows ongoing support for teachers based on needs. If immediate technical support is not available, many teachers will not attempt to use new technology skills in the classroom, so it is necessary to have site-based support through the role of an instructional technology champion. Instructional technology champions serve as the conduit for information about technology tools and resources and are expected to share information with appropriate school-based colleagues.
Personalized Learning
A personalized learning environment enables students to choose their own learning path based on their individualized learner profile, which is reflective of their current academic performance and their unique gifts, skills, passions, and attributes. Students are empowered to monitor and assess their own progress based on standards and use the various technological tools to engage in purposeful learning. Milwaukee Public Schools has a personalized learning initiative to create opportunity zones within the district and address the achievement and instruction gap. Selected schools participate in a personalized learning project that includes redesigning the learning environment and creating individual learning profiles, with learners engaging in greater levels of self-directed learning.
Currently the following schools are involved in the personalized learning initiative:
- Audubon Technology and Communication High School
- Bay View High School
- Eighty-First Street School
- Goodrich Elementary School
- Hi-Mount Community School
- James Madison Academic Campus
- Lincoln Center of the Arts
- Milwaukee High School of the Arts
- Riverside University High School
- Ronald Reagan High School
- Rufus King International High School
Telepresence
The telepresence program in Milwaukee Public Schools allows students to take courses through daily video conference with schools within the district. Telepresence technology allows students to connect with teachers and classmates who are not physically in the same school. This program expands Advanced Placement and high-interest course offerings across the district to meet students' needs and interests. Through telepresence, students enroll in courses not currently offered at their school. The program is immensely beneficial, for example, to students at Milwaukee School of Languages who now have access to an AP Calculus AB course offered by Golda Meir School.
These schools are participating in the telepresence program:
- Alexander Hamilton High School
- Alliance School of Milwaukee
- Audubon Technology and Communication School
- Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education
- Bay View High School
- Casimir Pulaski High School
- Golda Meir School
- Harold S. Vincent High School
- James Madison Academic Campus
- Milwaukee Marshall High School
- Milwaukee School of Languages
- North Division High School
- Riverside University High School
- Washington High School of Information Technology