Welcome to the Digital Age! None of us received an official memo when this new era began, but there is no denying that we’re in it. There’s also no denying that our students deserve to have the knowledge and competence to thrive in an increasingly technology-driven global economy and culture. According to a District-wide sample of students surveyed in the Spring of 2006, approximately 86% of our students could go online from home computers on a daily basis, with another 9% having easy access nearby. But do most students naturally use technologies in a “digitally literate” manner for personal edification and education? Realistically, student access to school technologies is a necessary ingredient to ensure digital literacy, to enhance the quality of a Grossmont education, and to provide real continuity between school-site education and the daily lives of our students. As the National Education Technology Plan asserts, “Educational technology ignites opportunities for learning, engages students as active learners and participants in decision-making on their own futures and prepares our nation for the demands of a global society.” For these reasons, the District has embarked on an innovative long-term approach to guaranteeing student technology access at all of our schools, which is dubbed the “Student Technology Refresh Assistance” (STRA) program.

Because State and federal funding sources for school technologies have historically been short-sighted (i.e., one-time funds to purchase equipment, but no long-term plans for support costs or replacement), most public schools are subject to “rare feasts but frequent famines” regarding educational technology budgets. As of May of 2006, 92% of student-accessible computers district-wide were at least 6 years old. The STRA program was therefore developed to provide Grossmont school sites with supplemental assistance in providing student access to technologies on a long-term basis. For schools meeting the requirement to annually analyze and distribute student technologies according to prioritized needs and effective usage, the STRA program guarantees that a significant level of student computers (or any other appropriate technologies) will be refreshed every three years. These computers must be geared toward student access and use for educational viable resources, projects, interventions, and other activities.

For the 2006-2007 school year, a total of 797 computers and servers were provided district-wide by this new educational technology assistance program, which is made possibly through innovative financing strategies funded primarily by a District fund commitment and to a lesser extent from some Microsoft Settlement long-term funds. Comprehensive school sites received between 63 and 90 new STRA student computers, with a proportionate quantity of equipment due to be provided again during the 2009-2010 school year.

Students in the Home Choice Program benefit from increased access to technology at the new Home Choice Computer Lab.

Special Education and Alternative Education programs also received over 40 student-use computers to enrich their educational potential and options. School technology specialists and staff from the Technical Services and the Educational Technology Resources departments have been busily setting up and imaging this equipment, as well as following through on redistributions and retirements of older equipment, to help make the best possible use of the technology resources available in our schools. Our innovative teachers across the District are already engaging their students to exploit the power and potential of these new stations for everything from digital literacy curriculum in Technology Foundations classes, to research projects in our libraries and labs, to individualized instructional and intervention programs for core academic skills, and much more.

Faced with the continual need for the most effective current educational tools but a counter-intuitive public school funding system, the Grossmont Union High School District has committed to a model for providing a sustainable and far-sighted program that truly reflects a priority on optimizing opportunities for student success. While this issue of “access” to educational technologies is by no means the only piece to the student success puzzle, the successful implementation of this program can exemplify how organizational reflection and realignment can overcome many obstacles that we face daily in public education.