Barrington 220 Tech & Innovation Sessions at IDEAcon

February is the time of year for the IDEAcon! IDEAcon (formerly known as the Illinois Computing Educators "ICE" Conference) is an annual education conference for passionate educators looking for innovative practices and who wish to find creative best practices to integrate into their district, building, or classroom. According to their website, IDEAcon is “a 3-day national conference that draws in presenters, thought leaders, exhibitors, and partners from all over the world.”

Barrington 220 will be represented at IDEAcon by members of our Technology & Innovation team. We will present three sessions in two formats:

Leading Out of Crisis: Lessons Learned and Improvements Made as a Result of the Pandemic

February 13, 2023 - 11:30 AM-1:30 PM

In-Person, Poster Session - Schaumburg East/West Ballroom - Table 4

During the 2021–22 school year, Barrington 220’s district leadership team asked staff in each of our 12 buildings (PK–12) to reflect on their experiences during the pandemic and provide feedback on what was learned throughout the pandemic. Over 1,500 responses were collected and analyzed. Although no technology-specific questions were posed, the aspects of technology instruction, services, and tools emerged as the top area of discussion. This presentation will explain the process and analysis we used, report the important lessons we learned from our staff, and outline some of the steps we are taking as a district to make improvements in the areas that emerged from this experience, including: instructional technology, flexibility/adaptability, relationships, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and home/school connections.

Presented by Matt Fuller, Assistant Superintendent for Technology & Innovation, and Ty Gorman, Director of Instructional Technology

Building a Blended Learning Program

February 14, 2023 - 2:15 PM-3:15 PM

In-Person - Utopia A

Remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced that many students thrive when given agency over their learning process. Blended learning is a model in which students learn online and face-to-face and have some control over the time, pace, path, and place of their learning. Our school district has had a formal K-12 blended learning program since 2015 that touches 8,000 students. Elementary and Middle school students experience rotation, flipped, and flexible grouping models, while high school students add flexible attendance models. Participants in this session will learn practical blended strategies for any classroom and examine the process our district used to build a K–12 Blended learning program. Topics will include blended strategies suitable for any level, building a professional development cohort model, and lessons learned about leadership and implementation.

Presented by Ty Gorman, Director of Instructional Technology, and Matt Fuller, Assistant Superintendent for Technology & Innovation

Are You Using the “Right” Device? Conducting a Device Study in an Established 1:1 Program

February 15, 2023 - 3:30 PM-4:30 PM

In-Person - Utopia B

Barrington 220's One to World 1:1 learning initiative begins its tenth year during the 2022–23 school year. As the worlds of learning, teaching, and educational technology have greatly changed over the past decade—and with a major new device lease on the horizon—Barrington 220 engaged in a comprehensive device study to assess currently available 1:1 devices to decide if a change was warranted. Throughout the course of our One to World program, the district has remained informed about other devices used in other digital learning programs, but we had not engaged in a formal research study on this topic. Our device study consisted of research, data gathering, site visits, interviews with educators, and other sources. We considered devices running Chrome OS, Windows, and Apple’s operating systems (iPadOS and macOS). This presentation will share outcomes, conclusions, and other information we learned during this valuable experience, along with the process we used to conduct the study. Because we are aware that each school or district has its own unique education and program goals, this presentation will not advocate for any particular device outcome. We present our framework in hopes that other organizations will adapt it to fit their own specific needs.

Presented by Matt Fuller, Assistant Superintendent for Technology & Innovation, and Ty Gorman, Director of Instructional Technology

The IDEAcon conference will be held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel from Monday, February 13, until Wednesday, February 15, 2023. Hundreds of sessions will be offered—both in-person and virtually.