Mike Dronen - Director of Technology for Dist. 276

Our Program  on January 7th was a presentation by Mike Dronen, the Minnetonka School District Director of Technology. Mike is relatively new at the district, joining from the Stillwater District.

For the past ten years, an independent group has been surveying the four groups involved in schools and their use of technology. This national survey has shown wide variances in the four group’s acceptance of more complete reliance on technology in education. The four groups, teachers, administrators, parents, and students, all have differing attitudes toward the elements of change that are occurring; at least, all seem to agree that technology is the most important new tool in education.

Mike ended his talk with 10 predictions involving technology in the classroom. Gamification will continue and accelerate. Speech to text software will take a bigger place in the classroom. Touch interfaces will shift; tablets will continue to grow in use. Learning spaces will change considerably, and leveraged peer instruction will take place. Construction will take into account blended learning, and there will be more one on one instruction.