Tech-savvy

To meet students where they are in a modern classroom setting and better optimize their learning, educators and school districts have adapted to kids’ natural technological prowesses.

As schools continue to develop their use of technology, it pays dividends to have someone tech-savvy on board to speed things along. Someone like Shane Wheeler, the soon-to-be technology supervisor of the Newton Community School District.

“(Technology) is the world we live in,” Wheeler said. “Even small children can pick up an iPad or a phone or whatever and they know how to operate it. Even my 7-year-old son understands how to get ahold of an iPhone, turn on the hotspot so he can access the internet to look at videos.”

Kids, he added, shouldn’t have to shut down when they come to school.

“No one would ever expect an employee to do less with technology once they’re on the job, and the same can be said for kids,” Wheeler said.

With master’s degrees in educational technology and educational administration, Wheeler worked the Lynnville-Sully School District as its technology director for the past 7 years, as well as its 9-12 principal for the past 2 years. Those positions, he said, have very little crossover and two completely different knowledge sets.

“I was looking for a position that I could just focus on one thing,” Wheeler said. “I’ve always been tech heavy. I like tech and I like helping people figure out how to use tech in their classroom. So when this position came up, I wanted get back into being more of just a tech director and working with technology.”

Wheeler said he is looking forward to the change of working at a significantly larger district. By comparison, the Lynnville Sully school district, he said, is comprised of 550 students preK-12, which is roughly about half the size of Berg Middle School in Newton.

“Everything is unique because you have, technically, seven campuses, and I’m used to dealing with just one,” Wheeler said. “And so those are all exciting things to learn. I’m a big believer in learning and I get excited about trying to figure things out. I’ll have plenty of opportunity to do that in the coming months.”

NCSD Superintendent Bob Callaghan said the tech supervisor position was eliminated from the school district years ago when it was receiving uncharacteristically low supplemental state aid and simultaneously losing students — what Callaghan described as a “double whammy.”

“Our goal was to get ourselves back to solvent,” Callaghan said. “We tried to share with everybody that we felt we had turned the corner in 2018-19 and we made ourselves financially solvent again. Now, we are trying to reimplement those positions that are extremely valuable to the district.”

The school district, Callaghan added, can now financially afford the tech supervisor position.

Utilizing technology in the classroom, Wheeler said, helps students be creative, collaborative, think critically and make real world products. For teachers, technology allows better organizational tools to collect data and understand what kids are learning and not learning and “make that much more manageable and accessible.”

“Technology is a huge tool for that,” he said.

Wheeler begins work July 1.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com