Technology Magazine November 2021 | Page 397

NORTH CLACKAMAS SCHOOL DISTRICT

NCSD distributed approximately 12,000 Chromebooks while the remaining approximately 5,000 students used a personal device while learning from home . The district is now awaiting approval from the Federal Communications Commission ’ s ( FCC ) Emergency Connectivity Fund for approval of 9,200 additional Chromebooks to replace the last of the ageing student devices .

“ The pandemic accelerated the need to seamlessly access digital curriculum and instructional resources when it came to implementing technology within education ,” he said . “ The tools of technology should be ubiquitously accessible by all students including having access to the internet at home which includes WiFi so they can continue their learning .

“ If we had talked two years ago about teachers teaching from home and students learning from home , it would have sounded absurd for K-12 . I dreamt of this happening because it ’ s successful in higher education , but did not see it happening in my lifetime in K-12 . But here we are navigating our way through the pandemic with parents teaching at home as well as working remotely in many cases . We did it - we can do challenging things . What we have to look at moving forward is to identify lessons

DERRICK BROWN

TITLE : EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY : EDUCATION LOCATION : VANCOUVER , WASHINGTON

Derrick Brown is currently the

Executive Director of Technology and Information Services for North Clackamas School District . He is a leader of digital transformation . With more than 26 years of experience , Brown has served in technology leadership roles and leads with compassion , democracy , and equity .

Brown has served in a few school districts with the largest being more than 100,000 students and 16,000 employees , healthcare organisations , global telecommunications providers , and government agencies .

Brown earned his MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management . “ With greater access to technology comes the shared responsibility of digital literacy and working together for the greater good .”