Educational Technology
Preparing students for careers, college, and life in the 21st century demands careful consideration of the role technology plays in education. Mt. Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) believes that students deserve regular opportunities to learn in technology-rich learning environments that reflect the technological world outside the classroom. We can only expect that our students will thrive as productive citizens beyond high school if they have regular, embedded opportunities to learn through technology during their TK-12 experiences.
Our common understanding of the skills that will help students graduate college and/or career ready can be seen in our district technology documents below:
MDUSD Profile of a Graduate
MDUSD Strategic Technology Plan 2021-2031
MDUSD K - 12 Technology Scope & Sequence
MDUSD Digital Citizenship Lessons
ISTE Standards
Why Technology?
Technology provides a powerful set of tools that enable teachers to engage today's students in unique, innovative, and equitable ways. But technology is not the starting point in education. Solid pedagogy and excellent education practices remain the cornerstones of learning, with technology providing one alternate, enhanced, or unimagined way to reach a teacher's educational goal. Educational technology helps today’s teachers integrate new learning strategies and lessons into their classroom, or provides opportunity to present important material to students in a different way. Through technology, teachers are also able to expand their own professional network and connect with other teachers and educators nationally and globally to improve their practice.
For students, technology provides opportunities to lead their own learning - it puts them in the driver's seat to create, communicate, and collaborate both inside and outside of the classroom. As "digital natives", students have equitable and consistent access to technology in order to learn, develop, and practice the 21st Century Skills that will serve them well into the future. Age-appropriate educational technology applications and exposure to a digital citizenship curriculum ensure opportunities for students to develop a positive connection to technology.