Technology Expectations

Medford Public Schools is committed to thoughtfully integrating digital tools in age-appropriate ways across our school district. We strive to be purposeful in our incorporation, utilizing digital tools to support, extend, and personalize student learning. Through thoughtful incorporation, students will develop digital literacy skills in alignment with their academic, social and emotional learning goals.

All students are provided a district device and school email that is used for accessing curriculum and resources in various content areas.

The district continues to actively review the intentional use of technology in classrooms K-12 and will update this page with district-approved apps and platforms in November.

Technology Use by School Level

Elementary

In our elementary schools, technology serves as a supplemental tool to enhance core instruction. All students are provided a school email account (closed to any communication outside of the Medford Public Schools domain).

Chrome tablets and chromebooks are provided for every student but are stored in the classroom. Devices do not go home with students.

In classrooms, devices can be used for personalized literacy and math support during independent practice centers.
District endorsed programs that are most used in the elementary grades include
- Lexia and ST Math for targeted support;;
- NewsELA for access to primary resources, and;
- Gizmos for virtual modeling in Science.

Devices are also used by students in grades 1-5 for district benchmark assessments
Students participate in technology instruction in desktop computer labs
See Here for the the elementary digital literacy curriculum

Elementary students do not use Generative AI (Gemini) as they are building independent reasoning, research, and problem solving skills.

Middle School

At the middle school level, all students are provided a school email account (closed to any communication outside of the Medford Public Schools domain).

Chromebooks are provided to every student. Students are assigned a device when they enter 6th grade (or other grades for new students) and Chromebooks are brought home every night and brought to school each morning. Chromebooks are returned to the schools for the summer and returned to students at the start of the new school year.

Students participate in technology instruction in desktop computer labs
See Here for the the Middle School digital literacy curriculum

Middle School students begin to ethically use Generative AI (Gemini) with teacher instruction & supervision as they are learning to prioritize their own reasoning, research, and problem solving skills.

High School

At the high school level, all students are provided a school email account that can be used to send & receive email inside and outside the school domain. The goal of this expanded access is to provide a communication tool for students as they pursue college & career opportunities.

Chromebooks are provided to every student upon entering 9th grade(or other grades for new students) and Chromebooks are brought home every night and brought to school each morning. Students keep the device throughout their high school experience, including the summers.

Students participate in technology instruction in desktop computer labs
See Here for the the High School digital literacy curriculum

High School students refine their ethical use of Generative AI (Gemini) as a supplementary tool to their own reasoning, research, and problem solving skills.

Resources & Tools for Responsible Use

Medford Public Schools uses technology tools and platforms to support safe & responsible digital learning. Please see below for district-approved resources.

Google Education Suite

This is a collection of tools for communication, collaboration, organization, creation and classroom management. Productivity tools include word processing, spreadsheets, presentation slides and forms. Class management includes Google Classroom and Google Drive.

Qustodio- Parent App (Coming Soon)

The Qustodio Parent App provides caregivers tools for monitoring and managing their children's school-issued devices outside of school hours. Caregivers can:

View web activity timelines
Pause the internet
Set custom home filtering rules
Extend tool use to personal devices

Linewize

Linewize is a classroom management tool that enables educators to monitor student screens in real-time at their discretion during the school day. The platform allows teachers to pause the student activity, block distractions, and force-open specific pages, all while messaging students directly.

Behind the scenes, automated filters block inappropriate content, platforms that distract from educational delivery (Netflix, YouTube, Spotify) blur harmful images, stop tricky workarounds like proxy sites, and provide overall usage data to building and district leaders

Medford Public Schools Student Data Privacy Agreements

The Medford Public School District is a member of the Massachusetts Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC), a collaborative addressing solutions to data privacy concerns. This link provides a list of student data privacy agreements that have been signed by technology resource vendors with the Medford Public Schools.

TalkingPoints

Medford Public Schools uses the TalkingPoints platform to enable two-way, translated text communication between teachers, schools, and families. Families are encouraged to download the TalkingPoints mobile app for increased communication access with MPS staff members.

SchoolBrains

SchoolBrains is Medford Public School District's Internet-based student information system. The platform is available to be viewed for families with students in Grades 4-12.

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