About DLES

In an increasingly technology-driven world, technology is pervasive and is creating changes on a global level in communications, economics, business enterprise, and everyday living. New technologies raise great expectations. Education cannot afford to take a back seat to the rest of society. The exponential rate of technological advances demands that school districts prepare students for the future with the 21st century skills to access and evaluate information from a variety of digital sources. Our job as educators is to prepare students to take the lead in the future. Marc Prensky warns us, “Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.” They are the “digital natives” and we are the “immigrants.” The vision for Broward’s digital natives and its digital immigrantsstudents lies within the bounds of this very core belief.

The Digital Learning Environment Study (DLES) was initiated to assist Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) to implement its vision of empowering students to become lifelong learners capable of using technology for critical thinking, problem solving, virtual learning, and increased student achievement. DLES seeks to find the synergy between the District Instructional Technology Plan and instructional practices that transform teaching and learning in Broward County Public Schools. The study has been established at four test school sites, Broward Estates Elementary, Attucks Middle, Miramar High, and Monarch High, with the intent of implementing as many components of the instructional technology plan as possible, including redesigned classrooms, electronic textbooks, and one-to-one digital learning devices. Data from the implementation will reveal the issues and impact of other key implementation factors such as community involvement, school leadership, on-going professional development, digital curriculum, change management, learning environment creation, and school/district technology support.