Always a fan favorite, the Guest Administrator Panel features some of our nation’s smartest education administrators weighing in on some of our nation’s most challenging questions. Everything is on the table, and everything is considered. Only the good of the learner matters.

This Guest Administrator Panel features Dr. Ellen Perconti, Superintendent at the Goldendale School District, Steve Langford, Chief Information Officer at Beaverton School District, and Derrick Brown, Executive Director of Technology at North Clackamas School District.

According to Derrick Brown, “Right now it's about stability and reliability. And how do we make sure that we have the infrastructure in place on concrete versus sand, um, moving forward for everything that we have, and then there's an operational budget around it. Most CFOs didn't realize the significance and importance; the CIO always has. And that's what we've always demanded it in our budget, but now it has come to the forefront because it is connected and integrated to everything.”

Steve Langford agreed and said, “Time and space started to flex. When we put a learning management system in and we started looking at when are students active online with devices and, and systems, our students were active almost 24 hours a day. There's usually that 4:00 AM to 5:30 AM window where apparently everyone sleeps, but barring that short period of time, our students are online and were using their devices that we had given them for learning. And so, this idea that learning happens inside walls and at certain times of day, maybe we all knew that well, that's really outdated thinking, but COVID completely rewrote that landscape and re rewrote that reality for us.”

Dr. Ellen Perconti added, “I heard recently an example of a school that is allowing kids at the high school to do one credit at a time. Their time and space has changed. The student knows which teachers are teaching which classes they have to get within that semester, but they're free to go in and out, as they need and as it works for them. I think we're seeing more and more of that flexibility, the work environment around us. So it really is how are we going to adapt? And technology is the backbone, if not the whole body of what we're going to have to be dealing with.”

Speaking of the role shift in Technology, Derrick Brown said, “We wanted to make sure that now parents have access there at home, their teachers too, assisting and supporting those students. So, we created two platforms, for the teacher, for training as well as for parents to bring them up to what we're doing, why we're doing it and how they can support their students? So, the shift is still happening. It isn't going away. This is the beginning. Higher Ed has been doing this for years, so we're just catching up to the rest of the world. Its really interesting and fascinates me because this has been going on for many years. And now K12 is trying to catch up to the rest of the world. And if we don't, we're going to find ourselves obsolete. I think that's why our numbers are down.”

According to Dr. Perconti, “A lot of what we have valued across the years is control in the classroom. When you think about classroom management, when you think about how I was evaluated, it was whether or not your kids were in control, how quiet was your classroom. And I think we've shifted out of that quite a bit. Not going completely off of that rail, but we need boundaries and control, but it's a different type. As we're shifting into this hybrid kind of a situation, I am not going to have that control of where that child is every moment. But I still have that influence on their learning. And so how do we blend those across as we're moving? As we have more and more digital resources, we are much more a facilitator of that learning. So, it really allows the student to have that agency in their learning.”

This is only the beginning of the very cerebral, very relevant administrators panel discussion. The ideas move quickly, and real solutions are offered for a very real shift in the structure of education. You’ll want to watch every minute, and feel free to share!