Baltimore County Public Schools: Case Study

Introduction

Last academic year (2013-2014), Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) announced that over the next 3 years a system wide digital conversion would begin. The purpose of the digital conversion is to provide a blueprint for transforming the technology and methods utilized in creating and delivering instruction throughout the system. BCPS is the 25th largest school system in the U.S. and the 3rd largest in Maryland. With an annual budget of approximately 1.6 billion dollars BCPS serves over 100,000 students. As an institutional mission BCPS seeks to provide every student with a 21st century education in a safe and secure environment that is conducive to high levels of student engagement in order to produce students who are globally

In this regard, this technology may also be met with resistance from parents who have yet to experience the educational benefits of Web 2.0 technologies. Parents have a loud and powerful voice throughout the school system. School administrators will have to be prepared to support teachers in their use of the Edmodo platform. It would probably also be beneficial to the school system if a demonstration of Edmodo, similar to the one provided to teachers, be shared with parents during back to school night. This would help to alleviate parental

A majority of the research regarding the effectiveness of blended learning environments has taken place at the post-secondary level, usually in a graduate setting. This implies that the research is mostly dealing with experienced and motivated adult learners. A study conducted by the Department of Education, found that very little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of blended learning environments in a K-12 environment (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia & Jones, 2010). The lack of research and support behind these radical changes may cause many stakeholders within the BCPS system to lose faith in the positive effects of educational technology on student achievement.

Edmodo is a platform designed to make a profit. Thus, the platform frequently encourages teachers to purchase add-ons to enhance their educational environment. These applications appear to have some educational value; however, teachers are unable trial run the applications, and the costs of many of the applications are rather high. Since Edmodo is an independent company, BCPS would have to continually lease access on a year-to-year basis, which could also prove to be costly in the long run. If BCPS is unable to justify additional costs without documented educational benefit, additional concern may be